Amazing year so far!

Hey friends,

I can't believe that it has been so long since I have written in my blog. It seems as if this year has been so intense that I have been running from on thing to another. So I realized that I need to get back to updating this on a regular basis, for my own sake.

Well, right now I am involved concurrently in 3 theatrical productions. I just finished The Bawdy Five, for which I was doing the music and also all the promotional materials, as well as supporting the directors. It was much more difficult for me to do the music for this show, because it was medieval music, and I am just not as familiar with that era. I like to listen to medieval songs, but I don't have them at the tips of my fingers, in my memory, and know all the sources like I do with the 16th and 17th century stuff. So it took a lot more time than I thought. I was pretty happy with the final result, however because we only had 3 weeks to put the show together, I really didn't get everything done till the second running weekend of the show. It was pretty stressful, but ended up being a fun experience over all since the last weekend of the show was fabulous.

I'm also working on the music for an original practice Taming of the Shrew which will be playing in April and May in Austin. Original practice means that they will be using men as the women's parts, and will be keeping everything as close to what we know that they did in Shakespeare's time as they can. I'm really having fun with the music for his one so far. It is looking like I'll have a good quartet to play with. I'm also going to be choreographing at least one dance, which is a new thing I have started getting in to. Interestingly, I also taught a movement class to the actors for this production, to teach them how to move in costume. The director asked me. I was a bit flabbergasted, but sat down and thought about it, and put together some good information from the dance and baroque gesture training that I have had and it seemed to work well.

My third show, is of course my Midsummer Night's Dream which will be running September 24-October 15th. I am in the middle of two weekends of auditions, as well as a ton of planning and other preparatory work. I am so excited about the way people are reacting to me and to my show. There is so much excitement and enthusiasm. I hope it continues through the whole process.

My mask business is continuing to grow. I am still selling several masks a week, and so the money continues to gently flow in, which is really nice. I have almost a hundred sales on Etsy, and I continue to have opportunities to sell in person come up as well.

So things are absolutely going as well as they could possibly be. For the most part I have been really happy, and I am enjoying living my life even though it is busy and complex. Anyway, I hope that I can get back to updating a little more regularly with all the wonderful things I am learning and creating.

Hope all is well in your worlds,

Jen