Looking Back on the Nov. 27th Chapter Meeting
Lots of great news coming from the Harmonizers this week. The SOLD
OUT Holiday shows for starters!! Maybe our first ever sell out.
(YeEd thinks it is pretty neat that Steve Lingo stepped up to the plate and is managing a wait list for
holiday show tickets. If you need to unload or acquire some, send him an email
with the details and he’ll attempt to connect the dots with a reciprocal party.
Include: which show, number of tickets, and the class of each ticket. And if
you're trying to unload, let him know if you personally have possession of them
or if they are Will Call.)
Assistant director Will Cox
did warm ups and he kept us guessing as to what clapping routine he was gonna
follow. When he turned the chorus over
to director Joe Cerutti, Joe stepped to the front with more exciting
news about the 100+ guys signed up for the International chorus
contest in Toronto in 2012, and 90+ singers signed up to make the 2014 trip to
Normandy, France. (Joe was pleased to introduce a friend and guest tonite who sings
barbershop and is from France.)
Joe was also fired up about the post-show schedule
for December – the caroling around Old Town on Dec. 4th; another fun
Put-Together-Quartet Contest on Dec. 11th on the stage in Durant;
and then a show at the Masonic Temple for kids and families sponsored by the
George Washington National Memorial and Federal Lodge No. 1. (It will be mostly
our holiday show.) And all these events
with 85-90 guys on the risers.
After working a couple of the
big numbers for the show like our new “Sleigh Bells” piece and then a
drill with the “monks” for Hallelujah chorus, we embarked on a sing-thru of the
show with the speaking parts and comedy.
Thanks loads to the character actors and soloists and others who have
been working to learn their parts.
Mark Klostermeyer conducted the chapter meeting. There had
already been a lot of “business” at the admin tables between 6-7 pm. But he reminded us all to take care of things
you need like scrip cards for holiday spending, entertainment books and White
House Ornaments for gifts.
Calvin Schnure reminded guys to get a quartet ready to sing in
the chapter contest on Dec. 11th.
There are trophies for the top three comedy quartet, trophies for the
top regular quartet and trophies to the top overall quartet. Lew
Klinge is preparing material for his usual emcee job that nite. There is
also a trophy for the guy who sings in the most quartets that nite – it is
named after George Azzam who sang in
many each year and one year had pictures of himself as he tried to sing all
four parts!!!
If any of the new guys wanna give it a shot (and they should), let Calvin
or Joe know you are interested and
want ideas of other guys to sing with.
Chapter secretary Chris
Buechler presented membership renewal cards to Gerry Fuller for two years and Dave
Hood for 15 years.
Membership vp Phil Ashford
welcomed the guests for the evening.
Show announcements included reminders to bring wrapped boxes on
Thrus nite for the dress rehearsal that starts at 6:30. Decorating crew is needed Fri at 10 am to
work with Roger Day. Bob
Blair asked for helpers 5 pm Wed. nite to load and unload the huge amount
of decorations we have in storage and will use to convert the church hall into
Santa’s workshop.
Also there was a reminder each guy to bring 4 doz. good cookies
for the dessert part of the meal. Bring
them on Friday (or Thursday if you wish) and give them to Jack Pitzer.
Josh Roots announced the tech nite session on Wed. He
pledged an email would come to all members about staging for the show.
He announced times for things:
·
Thrus dress rehearsal
(tho not really wearing our costumes or uniforms) – 6:30 pm
·
Fri eve show – chorus
call is 6 pm (plan for traffic, get rides from the Metro, etc.)
·
Sat matinee show –
chorus call is 11 am
·
Sat nite show – chorus
call is 4:30 pm
Nick Leiserson will lead us in tear down after the show. Don’t destroy the wrapped boxes as they will
be hauled away by Potomac Harmony Sweet Adelines to use for their show.
Brad Jones reported solid sales so far in the online
auction. That phase of the auction will
end at 9 pm Thrs. nite. Show patrons will have an auction catalog on their
table to place orders for items.
After break for refreshments, we heard from package show producer GregTepe about the Dec. events
mentioned earlier.
Then it was back to work on the risers singing and polishing and
giving soloists a shot at doing their work with the chorus.
We actually got done before 10 pm and a good crowd went over to
the Hilton for a quick afterglow. YeEd
expects we will all go someplace next week after singing in Old Town. Wear scarf
and gloves – check the weather as we walk from restaurant to restaurant and
sing for their patrons. Meet at Durant
at the usual time and we will go from there.
Joe promises that one nite in December we will get
a sneak preview of our contest songs for Toronoto!!
Risers were put away and some guys started working on quartets for
the Dec. 11th contest!
For the many new guys in the chapter, note that there will be no
rehearsal on Dec. 25th nor Jan. 1st. However there will be the annual barbershop
gathering in MD for guys and family members to enjoy some quartet singing and
food/drink/and/fellowship. It is hosted by the Dundalk Chapter and held Thurs.
Dec. 27th at 7:30-11:59 pm, at Michael’s 8th Avenue, 7220
Grayburn Dr., Glen Burnie, MD $15 fee.
Last year there were a lot of Harmonizers there and many of them sang in
quartets in the impromptu quartet contest.
Maybe some of our chapter put-together quartets will go enter.
Until
next time – editorjack!
(This message is prepared for your review if
you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical
record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer
Chapter meeting. —YeEd.)