Brava!

So I did my Do Re Mi/The Sound of Music play. We travelled to another school about half an hour away, in front of an audience of about 350 parents. It went fantastically well. Without a hitch.

I can't remember if I mentioned that I got out of having to sing the actual song. But I did. Yay me. I repeatedly insisted - with a great deal of gesticulation - and threw little temper tantrums everytime someone mentioned me actually singing. Instead, we compromised that I would sing out loud to the soundtrack that would pretty much drown out my voice. They mostly just wanted to fool the audience into thinking that it was actually me singing. That I could actually sing like Julie Andrews. Bah ha.

But the Chinese like to be cunning. Or like to think they are cunning.

Right before the play they gave me a clip-on mic, said they would turn it off and that it was just basically a prop to further fool the audience.

I'd like to think I'm relatively intelligent, so I put on my best naïve "I'm a dumb foreigner" look (I have perfected this look. It's magnificent) and agreed to wear the mic "so long as it's turned off, it's for the safety of everyone in this building." They nodded and reminded me to sing loudly.

They obviously didn't think I would know how to turn off the mic.

I'm proud to say I sang loudly and remarkably like Julie Andrews. I mean, you really couldn't tell the difference. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd almost believe I was just lip synching.

They filmed the whole thing. I asked for a copy, so as soon as I get it I'll seriously debate posting it on this here blog.

And it turns out I didn't have to wear the prom dress! It was too cold, I was visibly shivering during the dress rehearsal so they took pity; and either I had shrunk or the dress grew as it didn't fit like it did when we first got it; on top of which, it looked bizarre: this random foreigner in a prom dress teaching kids - in outfits made out of curtains - how to sing.

I've been in the theatre industry for years (high school theatre counts) so I know a thing or two about stage makeup. But this is a new look, even for me:

There's about three layers of makeup on my face: foundation, whitening (which, by the way, is pretty much the only kind of lotion you can get out here) and the blush, eye shadow etc.