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Not content with three sellout shows as well as a preview and a full dress rehearsal (like previous years), the middle school drama powers decided that they needed an extra full performance on Thursday night last. It's a fait accompli that all tickets are sold to every performance, because despite the cavernous depths of the main auditorium, when you have a cast and crew of hundreds, all those relos have to be squeezed in somehow....cue in multiple airings of the extravaganza.
Cass was again embroiled in the "fun" this year as the makeup director, and she efficiently got her crew together some time back. She prepped them and got some design work happening weeks ago, and has had various meetings in the afternoons during the last few weeks. Miraculously, yet again, she seemed to get just enough volunteers, but not so many that she needed to cull and they were a pleasant mix of Grade 6, 7 and 8 kids. This year's production was Peter Pan, so the makeup demands were relatively straight forward with a few rollicking pirates, a glittering Tinkerbell and a dog and alligator being the main challenges. The production design was really stepped up a notch this year with flying harnesses and wires fitted to a coterie of the main stars!
Cass was occupied for endless hours on Monday and Wednesday for dress rehearsals and previews, along with Thursday, Friday and Saturday night shows. She needed to round the dramatic year out with a matinee on Sunday as well. The overall director is a Pommy chick who is pretty relaxed, but there are some others in the main group as wound up as two-bob watches, so the anality levels are set at "extreme". As you can imagine, she was quite exhausted after so much time "up with people", so we just had a really relaxing Sunday evening. I was a play widower for the majority of the weekend and, despite best laid plans, failed to capitalize on the time and do anything worthwhile!
Before the Saturday evening show we managed to do a little bit of this and that, and we had a late breakfast at 1Bite2Go over the Fulin Bridge in Shilin. We were a little taken aback to find it jammed packed at just after opening time of 10.30 in the morning, and realised we probably should book next time. We were seated at one of the shared benches which was fine, but we just sneaked in for a seat. The place, as I've described before, is really big; so its reputation for excellent food at great value is evidently spreading. We lingered over the giant, strong coffees before strolling around the neighbourhood and the park nearby which is stocked with all sorts of eclectic, "Stonehenge" style rock formations and public artworks.
I did manage to go out and do a few "jobs" while Cass was at the play, one of which is that "only in Taiwan" style of thing. Usually never bothering with the car unless we're making a big trip to the coast or elsewhere, public transport of various modes as well as lots of walking is our preferred method of getting around the city. But what to do when you need a run of relatively heavy kitty litter, for example? The trusty scooter is called into play, and ten bags can be stacked quite easily: the tricky part was riding it home through traffic-saturated Chung Shan Nth Road and then a maze of bumpy lanes and alleys. I made it with only one re-adjustment!
Photos: Peter Pan technical wizardry, the makeup crew posing and at work, 1Bite 2Go and scooters transporting all sorts of stuff: tiny terriers, leering loonies and loads of litter!