It's been over ten years since I was last on a musical stage. [Side note: it turns out I've pretty much never blogged about performing in musicals. So weird! To say I love musicals seems like a bit of an understatement, but not blogging about them seems to contradict this.]
I'd been singing on and off with our local Shed Choir the last couple of years, but they haven't been super active recently. In any case, I had been missing singing with others and being a part of telling a story, so when I saw that another local Community Choir, Cheep Trill, were doing a term production of "Community Choir: The Musical", I thought: why not! I'd considered joining the choir for a term before, but the timing had never really worked out. This was a chance to step up - not just a choir, but also musical theatre! Winning.
The show was written by the founder of Cheep Trill, Emma Dean, about a Community Choir that is invited to participate at the National Choral Competition. It's got good Aussie humour, quirky characters and lots of heart. I was in "the choir" which was essentially the chorus.
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| Advertising for the show at South Bank! |
We did 15 weeks of rehearsals - just one night a week, plus 2 full day Saturdays. I was initially sitting with the altos, but they needed some folks to fill out the bass section, so I shifted down. The whole choir was super friendly. They have been running Cheep Trill for over ten years, and it's expanded to have Northside, Southside, Noosa, Gold Coast and Bayside locations. That's some pretty amazing growth. I was so impressed with how inclusive it was too.
I met a bunch of great people singing in the basses; some long-time choir members and others brand new like me. My choir buddy, Joe, who I was next to for the show, was such great value and a privilege to sing with. Lots of the basses all lived just down the road in Yeronga, so it felt like we had an instant connection coming from our little part of the Southside of Brisbane together. Rehearsals were fun and sooner than we knew it, we were bumping in to La Boite Theatre to perform as part of Brisbane Festival 2026.
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| Checking the lights in this beautiful soprano/alto song that I wasn't in. |
It was different being in a show this time. Not sure if it is because I'm older (probably), or that I've never really played chorus (narrator roles for me), but I did have trouble remembering all of the choreo. It's easier when I have lines and I'm being told what my character is doing. :P Maybe because we were all adults too, and the expectation was there that we would go and practice ourselves, rather than the kids-theatre I've previously been involved with, where we are running things again and again so the kids get it.
I did put in some extra hours revising, all of my bus trips into practice listening to the songs and by the time we got to the opening show, I was feeling pretty confident with the singing and most of the choreo. Whew! The other cool thing about the show was that there were two casts: Northside and Southside. Each cast performed three of the six shows, which meant on an off show - you could actually go see the show.
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| The view from the second back row in the choir rises during tech rehearsal |
Since our characters were all people in the choir, our costume direction was so to come in what we would usually wear to choir. Rehearsing through winter meant that I had regularly attended in my kimono and lots of people asked if I was going to wear one for the performance. Initially I thought no, since I figured it would be distracting, but then I saw how bright and colourful everyone was going with their "choir clothes" (including the nurses who came wearing their very colourful scrubs) and figured why not. Also, I was in the second back row, so it wasn't like many people would see me either.
A last min change at the tech rehearsal left me in charge of part of the Opera House, which might have been the highlight of the show. The week we performed, the girls were away at a Scout/Guide Camp (Agoonaree), which was good because I was so busy out at rehearsals and then performances. They came home on the Friday and had a good night sleep to see the show on Saturday with the rest of the fam (well, those who were available).
The other part of our costumes was to add a "pop of colour" which we put on when the choir arrived in Sydney. I made mine out of some doona cover scraps that might have been left over from Rachel's cape, or from when I used it to make the practice of Sophie's graduation outfit perhaps? It was a quick flower hair clip (similar to these ones I made for Fiona's wedding) with a button from the stash. It tucked in my yukata sleeve and I popped it in my hair half way through the show. Perfect.
When it was all over, lots of people were asking if I was coming back for choir in Term 4. I was on the fence - most people were in the show in Term 3 were there because they wanted to be in the choir. I was mostly there because I like musicals. I was getting the emails reminding me I could sign up, but I was not ready to commit yet.
Anyway, last Monday, I was invited by another Japanese teacher to a Taiko drum group session just down the road. I went along because why not - Japanese drumming is so cool! I was, however, completely unprepared for the three hour full body workout that was waiting for me. I'll admit to not lasting the whole time. There was so much to think about on top of the music, beat & rhythm of everything - stance, arms, hands, bending your legs with each hit. I was exhausted.
And half way through, though I was enjoying it, all I could think was: "I'd rather be at choir". So I signed up. Term 4, here I come!
