The New Gig

So I have a new gig. I am vocal and music director for Children's Musical Theatre of San Jose's production of Once Upon a Mattress. This show is really cute, especially for the age group I'm conducting 8-14. We just finished auditions. I am working with a director that was best friend's with my first pain-in-the-ass student at Leland back in 2003. The choreographer I coached in the Landmark SELP 2 summers ago (its a small world).

Auditions were fun and exhausting. We listened to 192 kids in 3 days. Some of my favorites were the 8 year-olds who sang Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. Some kids of note was a boy who sang death cab for cutie, a girl who sang "Green Finch and Linnet Bird," and two girls did "I'm not afraid of Anything" from Songs from a New World.

I am a bit apprehensive about teaching 8-14 year olds. My experience with 14 year-olds in teaching high school is that they are intimidated by me and sometimes they feel I'm too abrasive. One parent complained this year saying that I "create a hostile learning environment." The truth is that I have high expectations and I demand the students meet them. Anyways, the only thing I am going to do with these kids is demand an even more professional attitude from them in rehearsal. Since these kids all want to be here, there is no reason why they won't take this seriously. I noticed that when I spoke to them at auditions, they listened very intently, probably cause I threatened to cut them if they didn't behave themselves.

So far, I have been enjoying this gig alot. Time flies really fast even when listening to 8-year-olds sing Miley Cyrus.