Day 8

Day 8 was exhausting.

Sure, I wasn't mining gold, performing surgery, or even playing pro sports....but getting over 20 measurements for over 70 hyper kids takes a lot of patience, and a loud indoor voice. 

After getting a donation of about 200 outfits earlier in the day, we had our work cut out for us. We got to the shop and there were about 8 large boxes filled to the brim with dance clothes---spandex, fake velvet, crepe back satin, big tule skirts, and sequined leotards. It was horrible. We hardly needed anything, except for the unopened packages of tights, so we sorted through everything and eventually made the decision to either throw it away or put it in a pile for a later "yard sale." I was covered in glitter by the time we were done.

We spent hours going through boxes and trying to find reasons why we should keep bright yellow tutus and sequined American flag- colored hot pants. It was actually pretty funny. 

Then at around 2:45 we had to go downstairs into the rehearsal space. There were three of us writing and three of us taking measurements. I won't go into all of the different measurements, but they were as specific as: center back front to waist, neck to end of shoulder, waist to outer knee, apex to apex (boob to boob), etc. It was sad/funny that all of the guys were quick to tell us the measurements they knew by heart, but the girls were hesitant to give us their correct bra sizes and waist measurements. A lot of them lied about their weight, and some lied about their bra size--we measured their chests right after. One girl weighed way over 200 pounds and the first time she told me I couldn't hear so I asked her to repeat (i forgot to mention that we took measurements in an assembly line- fashion in front of other kids). I felt bad for putting her on the spot like that, but also concerned that she was less than 15 years old and pushing 300. She kept tugging on the end of her shirt and whispering her answers and I just felt horrible. but she needs to lose some damn weight if she wants to do musical theatre.

It took a few hours to do measurements, and it made it even harder that we had to do it in the same room as some of the other kids who were practicing their auditions. The kids all seem pretty cool. I figured they wouldn't be bad...they are spending their summer performing in a repertory theatre when they could be outside being kids.

We were exhausted after measuring the kids and unpacking, so we spent the rest of the day talking and drinking lots of water. it.was.so.hot.  

With the measurements, the next step is to start pulling things that could potentially work for certain numbers. The cast list won't come until Wednesday, and that's when things get crazy.