Palatsi Course, Day 2

I woke up today feeling like I had forgotten at least half of the choreography we learned yesterday. I mean, if I have to wake up at 7.30 (like today) it takes me at least two hours to be even able to walk and think at the same time. Well, luckily we didn't jump to that scary dance routine right away because we warmed up first. We took a look at the basic steps of mambo and salsa for the West Side Story dace routine we'd be doing later on this week and it was really fun, loosened up even my anti-morning body. Brought back memories from a dance course back in high school! (Finns who are reading this, I'm talking about the course for Wanhojen tanssit!)

Vocal warmups were pretty much the same as yesterday, but after that we got to work on some stage rage (is that a real, established term? It should be, it sounds good!) and it was really hysterical! This too was in preparation for the upcoming West Side Story Mambo number where we'll be split into two "teams" who are competing against each other. Basically we just ran around the stage building up RAGE and then we'd shout it all out. The only downside to this awesomeness was that right after that, we started to rehearse Good Morning Baltimore and everyone's voices were hoarse from shouting... But we still managed to sing and dance okay. The teacher decided that some of us, with higher voices, would do harmonizing in this number. I've never sung harmonies before, so this was really great and exciting.

After lunch, we had free time to rehearse independently whatever we wanted while a couple of people worked on a scene with the teachers. So some people worked on the two choreographies we had now learned, others were going through their lines, and I tried to write my monologue... and failed. Total writer's block. Luckily it didn't matter that much, we just worked on the scene without my bit for now. And as I stayed behind when the day's work was officially done, the acting teacher gave me some more ideas about what I could put into the monologue and that really helped. Oh, there was one thing I forgot to mention about yesterday! I sort of stayed behind that day too and got to see the room where they keep all the costumes, which was incredibly cool! There was this one little black top hat that I was really itching to grab with me...

So another day is done now. I'm trying to get that monologue ready for tomorrow and really looking forward to when I get to work with I'm Not That Girl from Wicked. Before the course began we were given a couple of songs to choose from which we'd be doing in smaller groups and I chose that one, we haven't done anything with it today but maybe... tomorrow?

The interior of Palatsi! The stage looks a bit different now than in the picture,  here you can't see the balconies and the stairs. But you can see it's quite a special-looking little theatre!

Palatsi Course, Day 1

It's been a while since my last post! And in the meantime my blog has reached exatly 1111 page views (the last time I checked at least) The baffling reason for that is, once again, the weather which is much too nice for sitting and typing! But now I'll be posting at least five days in a row because there's something interesting going on: I'm attending a course in musical theatre and I'll be keeping a course diary in here.

A little background info first. Five years ago, a small theatre in Tampere was re-opened and named Musiikkiteatteri Palatsi (=music theatre Palace) . While it had been built in the 20s as a place to show silent films with live music, it now produces musical theatre productions in a dinner theatre format. They also run a musical theatre school, and it's a summer course by this school that I'll be attending this week. During the course we're going to rehearse some acting scenes, songs and choreographies and then put together a sort of "demo" performance on the last day.

Okay, so today was the first day. First of course we were introduced to the teachers – there are three of them, for acting, singing and dancing. Then we went to see the actual stage where we'd be rehearsing and performing. I'd never seen a stage like that before, kind of small and cute, with a staircase in the middle and "Juliet" balconies on both sides.

While we were warming up before getting down to actual work, I realized I'd been suffering from severe stage-deprivation during the last couple of years between high school and present day – I never regarded myself as a big spotlight addict, but today it felt really nice to get up on a stage and do things! And during the vocal warm-ups we learned some really interesting stuff about how singing works, including a short discussion on the limitations of under-16-year-old voices which makes the morality of child singer industry very questionable.

After lunch, we got down to real business and started rehearsing one of the songs we'll be performing as a group on the final day: I Wanna Be Like You from Disney's The Jungle Book. You know, the one where the orange monkey wants to be like a human. Seems like my new hobby of memorizing (mostly show tune) song lyrics has paid off because I had the lyrics down pretty quick even though I'd never before taken a look at this song.

But then it all got so much more complicated when we started learning the choreography to go with the song. Okay so I went to a dance school for some years when I was a kid, but I quit ten years ago and dancing was never my thing. Therefore I was expecting the dancing part to be the most challenging for me, which it was, but it was also so much fun! It's funny how just having some background music makes even sweating so much more enjoyable. We'll be using suitcases as props when we dance and there's this one really cool part where I change suitcases with another girl – I slide mine to her and she throws hers at me. Surprisingly, I didn't drop that big scary suitcase once even though I'm usually very untalented at catching stuff. I learned to respect musical actors even more than I already did, because even when you think you know some lyrics by heart, it's damn hard to make them come out when you're supposed to dance at the same time...

The acting part of the course is going to be three scenes from Wicked, one of them being a big group scene with all of us on stage, and then two smaller ones. When the acting teacher announced who was going to play which part, it turned out that... I had somehow been glossed over in the casting process and I didn't have anything to play! However, that was quickly fixed. I'll simply get to write my own monologue in the scene where Galinda is trying to teach Elphaba about popularity! I'll get to try my hand at play-writing, which has always been a huge interest for me and which I'm now aiming to do for a living one day – awesome!

So all in all, a hard-working but also happy and rewarding day. Can't wait for tomorrow. There's still a handful of choreographies to learn and songs to sing...

Cory Monteith is gone

Just a quick post today, and not very well structured I'm afraid. An inspiring, talented man who was much too young to die passed away yesterday and I want to pay him homage.

I have loved the TV show Glee ever since I happened to see the cast's performance of Bill Withers' Lean On Me in the 10th episode of the first season. I found out that the actor playing Finn Hudson was a Canadian guy called Cory Monteith, and that he had gone through some pretty rough times before being cast on Glee. Knowing all this, it was wonderful to see him make tremendous progress as an actor and a singer while the show went on. He created Finn Hudson, one of the most inspiring and truthful characters I have ever seen on TV. I admired him for having fought off a long-lasting drug addiction at the age of 19. The old habit sadly returned to him last spring, but once again he went through rehab successfully.

Yesterday, he was found dead in a hotel room in Vancouver.  He was only 31 years old. I can only imagine what Cory's family and his girlfriend Lea Michele are going through right now, waiting for the autopsy to be done – I hope the media give respect to all of them and let them mourn in peace.

Although nothing can compare to the devastation of the people who were truly close to Cory, for me it's hard to imagine Glee without Finn Hudson and his voice. I've collected some of my favourite Cory solos here, as well as some group numbers with other cast members and a couple of duets with Lea Michele.

I'll Stand By You by The Pretenders

One by U2

Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield

Faithfully by Journey

Losing My Religion by R.E.M

Pretending by Glee

Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Robert Hazard (Greg Laswell's version)

Ben by Michael Jackson

We Are The Champions by Queen

The Scientist by Coldplay

Now it's starting to really hit me what an unchangeable thing has happened. Just unbelievable. Eternal respect to Cory Monteith. I will always admire the things he achieved.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Last week, I found out about the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which is a modern version of Pride and Prejudice in the shape of a web series. This discovery is all thanks to Indigo Montoya, I would never have come across it if I didn't read her blog! And now it's my turn to pass the torch to people who might be interested...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune...

The concept of the series is that Lizzie Bennet is a college student in California who starts videoblogging about her life, assisted by her best friend Charlotte Lu. Lizzie's mother is obsessed with finding husbands for her daughters as in the original novel, but otherwise things have been modified to suit a modern setting. Lizzie has only two sisters, Jane and Lydia – though Mary and Kitty exist too, as an emo cousin and Lydia's cat respectively. Jane's love interest is called Bing Lee and he's a rich medical student, while Darcy is an even richer company owner. Lizzie's traveling is explained by her visiting the enterprises Collins & Collins and Pemberley Digitals (!) as a part of her Master's Thesis. Lydia's involvement with Wickham in the end is changed into something that will shock a modern viewer in a way that the original plot probably shocked Austen's readers.

... must be in want of a wife

"So what's the point of making a modern version of a classic novel in a whole different medium?" someone might ask. "Surely we can't have new generations thinking that watching Youtube videos is enough to be acquainted with Austen and her contribution to literature?" Well, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries seem to have been quite popular since their release in 2012, and have hopefully managed to reach people who weren't previously familiar with Austen's works. But still, I think the web series is best enjoyed by those who have already read Pride and Prejudice, or at least seen a film or TV adaptation. The real fun in watching LBD comes from relating its characters and events to the ones in the novel – from realizing things like how Mr Collins is exactly as hilarious, self-important and annoying as in the novel, and how brilliant it is that Charlotte in the 2010s is looking for independence by means of a job instead of a marriage. Speaking of Charlotte – the moment when she explains to Lizzie how she feels it's her duty to start supporting herself when her family is in financial difficulties is truly striking. Moments like this, which show that our problems aren't much different from the problems of people in the 1800s, are the answer to the "what's the point" question. A good modernization reveals the fact that the original work, in this case Pride and Prejudice, is truly timeless, and has earned its position as an internationally acknowledged classic with good reason.

I can tell you another reason to watch Lizzie Bennet Diaries which is much simpler that the one I just stated: all the actors are good, most of them superb. You should watch it just to see the spot-on portrayals of Jane, Lydia, Mr Collins, Darcy and Caroline. I actually found Lizzie herself a bit annoying at first, I felt that she just talked a lot and didn't get into her character so much. I still don't think Lizzie was perfectly characterized, but her imitations of Mrs Bennet and Darcy are beyond funny! And she does lots of imitations because they are an integral part of her video blog, which means that entertainment is certain!

Lizzie (right) and Lydia re-enact a conversation between Darcy and Bing Lee

As the modern setting for the story worked so well and the actors were excellent, I have only one real cause of disappointment in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries – it doesn't show the "Lizzie vs. Catherine de Bourgh" confrontation which happens near the end of the book and which is by far my favourite Elizabeth Bennet moment ever. I can understand why it had to be so, because Ms de Bourgh is the kind of obscure manager sort who sits high above all the "common people" and doesn't appear at all in Lizzie's videos, but I still missed that moment...

What about you – what, in your opinion, is Elizabeth's most glorious moment, either in the book or in any adaptation?

Emma

So I finished reading Jane Austen's Emma, which means I'm more than halfway through my project of reading all the Austen novels – just Persuasion and Northanger Abbey left unread now!

In Finland at least, Pride and Prejudice is the only Austen novel to have reached the sort of iconic fame where practically everyone knows something about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy and their resentment to romance story. I started off with Emma knowing next to nothing beforehand, except for Austen's famous description of Emma Woodhouse as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."

It's true that Emma Woodhouse isn't a most likeable protagonist at first. She is a very privileged young lady of the "landed gentry" class, whose family is among the richest and finest in the village of Highbury. Consequently, she considers most of the other residents of the village beneath her and spends most of her time in the luxury of her home, the Hartfield estate. However, she is in danger of becoming lonely in the big house: Emma's elder sister has been living a married life with Mr John Knightley in London for several years, and her governess-turned-companion Miss Taylor has just become Mrs Weston of the Randalls house. All that remains is Emma's nervous, hypochondriac father. Then sweet, simple Harriet Smith enters the story, and Emma decides to take the socially inferior girl under her wing and do her the great favour of finding her a husband, as she enjoys matchmaking. That is where the chain of hasty judgements and misunderstandings begins.

The starting point of Emma isn't quite as attention-gripping as in other Austen novels I've read so far. In Sense and Sensibility, Mrs Dashwood and her daughters are forced to leave their home because it legally passes to John Dashwood; in Mansfield Park, Fanny Price leaves her family behind to be adopted by her socially much superior relatives; in Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Bennet goes into such a frenzy about new marriage prospects for her daughters that it's impossible not to follow what comes out of her and her husband's comical discussion. Whereas in Emma, the big starting event is Miss Taylor's marriage (which has actually happened before the novel starts) and it is followed by a rather lengthy and somewhat predictable episode of trying to pair Harriet Smith with Mr Elton the clergyman, which immediately shows all the negative, annoying qualities of Emma's personality. She patronizes Harriet and clearly enjoys her company mainly because Harriet is simple enough to admire every word that falls out of her mouth. She is so obsessively set on her matchmaking plan that she doesn't spot the obvious hints that it's going to fail massively.

However, after plodding through the couple of first tiresome chapters, it became clear that Mr Elton was potentially becoming one of the most hilarious Austen characters to ever exist. When it comes to the pivotal "tipsy Mr Elton in the carriage alone with Emma" scene, if you have the slightest ability of visualizing the scene in your mind you're guaranteed to let out a good laugh. By this time, it has also been established that the conversations between Emma and Mr Knightley (not the John Knightley in London who was mentioned earlier, but his elder brother who owns another rich estate in the area) are going to be the cream of the book. Then Mr Frank Churchill and Miss Jane Fairfax enter the scene, bringing mysteries with them. Why did it take Frank so long to visit his father after his marriage to Miss Taylor? Why isn't Jane in Ireland with her foster family even though she is supposedly very attached to them? At this point, I became completely hooked in the good, familiar Jane Austen way.

Although Emma is principally a comedy of relationships and misunderstandings, it covers some serious themes as well. For one, it explores a certain type of "friendship" (can it be called that even with quotation marks?) which in my opinion is found mostly among women and which absolutely happens nowadays as it did in Regency England. It is heavily implied that Emma could have sought a friendship with Jane Fairfax, them being the same age and intellectually even. Emma, however, feels threatened by Jane's talents which in some areas overshadow hers. She chooses Harriet Smith instead, because she is bound to stay inferior to Emma as a result of her simplicity, gullibility and social background.

I find Emma's deep loyalty to her father very touching, especially as Mr Woodhouse later on irritated me ten times more than Emma did in the beginning! Being beautiful, intelligent and rich, it would be the easiest thing for Emma to land herself in a profitable marriage, but she has decided never to leave her father, who takes any kind of change with great difficulty. It's very easy to compare their situation to the current debate in Finland of the moral treatment of old people.

As you might have guessed, Emma herself goes through some deep character development in the course of the novel. And I'm not using the big word "character development" just for fun here – it is delightful to observe how every significant event in the story gradually leads to her maturing. Her soul-searching moment near the very end really reaches your heart.

I would definitely recommend Emma to anyone who wants to be a bit more Austen-savvy than the average (female) person who only knows how to fangirl about (Colin Firth's) Darcy. It's witty, funny, features some very entertaining characters as well as genuine development for the main protagonists, and it's as irresistibly mysterious as any average detective story out there!