Kitchen Sink Faucet

From Shiangtai, still a member in the chorus, he hopes:

Didn't I tell you I was to fix my kitchen sink faucet but put off because of the Carmen rehearsals. It would only take a couple of hours but it is not the time. It is the mind set. When we wanted to do something in addition to what is really necessary like our day time job or school work, we would have the feeling that we should spend the time working on Carmen. Because of that, I almost decided to put off fixing the sink till after the show. Well, I was also worried about the towel I put under the sink getting too wet. So I decided to work on it during the break in rehearsal these couple of days. I thought, "Well, I can work on Carmen while fixing the sink the way I prepare my breakfast." Alright, I have to explain that.

Every morning, I would pick a section of our chorus parts to work on while cooking in the kitchen. Say, while making porridge for breakfast, it is the opening number when we lazy bums lounging around the plaza singing: "Sul la place, chacum passe" (at the town square, everyone passes by). You know, we are like people in Chapel Hill. Every body sits on the little stone wall on Franklin Street watching people to go by. Now, it is better to use milk than water to make porridge. The reaching for milk from the fridge music is the second line: "Chacum vient, chacum va" (someone comes, someone goes). That's right. Milk vient, water va. Then, "Droles de gens que ces gens-la!" (those, there, the drolly people), I am sure I would be drooling thinking about my porridge while I sing those lines on stage. No, I am supposed to be thinking about the cigarette factory honeys who are due coming out. How lovely. Oh, yes, honey. A little honey would help in my porridge. Well, I am afraid I get carried away describing how to make breakfast with music, no, with oats, while I should be talking about how to combine kitchen sink with chorus work. Voila. Here it is.

Even after removing everything from under the sink, it was still pretty bad in the little closet. In fact, I did wish some cigarette factory workers would come blow cigarette smoke in there. It would be better than or, at least, would mask, the smell of those cleaners. In any case, I chose a more uplifting section of the chorus part for this work, the part when we greet Carmen: "Carmen, sur tes pas nous nous pressons tous" (Carmen, on your steps we hasten to follow). It was pretty crowded under there. It was not anyone's steps but my own arm that was pressed on my face when I sang "Carmen, sul tes pas don't you press on my tooth".

"No, don't do that." I said to myself: "you may get into the habit and slip on stage. You are blocked* to sit on a bench DL**, pretty much DS**. If you slipped and sang that on stage, even no one in the audience might hear it, the conductor would definitely hear it and probably kick you out. Then, you would not be able to do the next three acts!"

*To bLock: As Eric explained in one of the earlier postings in this Blog, blocking is the positioning or the movement of the actors on stage given by the director.
** DL (or DSL) = Down stage Left, DS = Down Stage. Following Eric's precedent, I will say something about stage terms as they come. When you stand CS (Center Stage, at the very middle of the stage) facing the audience, to your left is stage left (SL), to your right is stage right (SR). DS means the half of the stage in front of you or movement towards that direction. US (Up Stage) means the direction behind you. So someone might enter UR, go to CS, deliver a line, and then go DL to join a group of friends ... etc.