Opening night last night rocked, and a sweet review to go with.

Bugsy Malone is finally over. It went pretty well, I guess. But the other class was way better than us. I had a screen test a few days ago, which was basically me talking in front of a camera to see if I could be okay in the commercial. The accelerated biology test was last week, too. I think I did pretty well. Gah. I used pretty well already in this post. Bad word choice! Whatever. Actually, that wasn't very much stuff. I'm about to get my hair cut and I'm pretty nervous. There's that word pretty again. I think I don't like to commit to complete emotions, so I just say I'm pretty blank. Anyway.

State Mathcounts competition tomorrow. To Kill A Mockingbird callbacks Sunday. I haven't posted in a really long time.

Mathcounts: 8th place individual, 1st place team (State in four weeks!). Mr. Nguyen was proud.

And Falsettos ends tonight. Sadness.

It's a good review, except they spell my last name wrong. Grr.

We opened Falsettos on Friday, as you may know. It went okay, and I think as time goes on, it will get better. Come see it! In tonight's Capital Times there was a review which I think is a very good description of the show: all of the actors are talented and perform well, but the show itself can get boring. And as a description of your truly: Eighth-grader Simon Henriques, who played Marvin's son Jason, also gave a strong performance as a good kid who struggles to cope as much with his family troubles as with his changing adolescent world. ( The full review. ) If you just read that entire review (which you shouldn't have, as everyone knows the only part worth reading was "Eighth-grader Simon Henriques, who played Marvin's son Jason, also gave a strong performance") you should know that it slightly exaggerated (I think it did, anyway) how slowly it moved along.

Oooh! That reminds me of something. Homophobic English teacher (if you have no idea what that means, check here). When some girl in our class had an article in the paper about her, the teacher put copies all over the school. I wonder if she'll do the same for the review? Something tells me no . . .

Snow. Snow! (snow) SNOW! Need I say more? Actually, I do. There's snow, which means global warming probably won't kill us for another few years yet. Everybody start walking backwards so creepy stalkers can't follow you!

And I got into the school spelling bee. But would you expect anything less? Don't answer that.

Winter break is here. *happiness*

This is a cool thing.

Foxtrot is going to soon be only on Sundays. SADNESS! The last strip will was today.

Got back a few days ago from four days of dogsitting for my mom's colleague. Awesomely cool dog, as well staying at their house in the wildnerness, watching TV (Miguel, pack your knives), wood burning sauna, heated massage bed, and other cool amenities. Yay!

Considering I pretty much suck at online games, I'd like to point out that I've finally gotten on a top ten list (with a whopping score of 20).

(I'm skumquat because spykumquat wouldn't fit.) Go me! Challenge me here.

Rehearsal for Falsettos is coming along quite nicely (ticket stuff here . . . hint hint . . . ).

Not much else in my world right now. Happy early new year, I guess.

So we found out who was who for our upcoming musical. I didn't get the coveted role of Tallulah the slut. Darn. But I'm understudying Bugsy, who's being played by a girl. So they cast a girl as Bugsy, but they can't cast a boy as Tallulah? Bah. Actually, we might split it, each of us doing one show, and the girl who was cast actually is probably better than me, but . . . eh. Whatever. I have enough acting on calendar as it is right now. And a merry Channukkah to all of you.

I just got back from my first rehearsal of Falsettos. Yes, you heard me. I'm in another play. I play Jason, the son of a gay man trying to cope with his father's sexual orientation and at the same time preparing for his bar mitzvah. And it's set to upbeat music! Yeah! I'm the only child in a cast of seven, and everyone is really nice. This is going to be so much fun! And although we open in January, most rehearsals will be over break, so I won't be having to do homework and learn difficult music.

Other news in the world of both acting and sexual orientation includes my auditions for the school musical, Bugsy Malone. I auditioned for the title role (don't ask me what kind of a name Bugsy is), and one of the female leads, Tallulah. The music teacher had other teachers (actually, the principal, the music teacher turned more important authority figure, and my ever so wonderful English teacher, upon whom this story depends) rate our auditions. So, being acting-like, a script.

enter SIMON through music room door

MUSIC TEACHER: Simon, you're auditioning for Bugsy and Tallulah, right?
SIMON: Yeah - Bugsy and Tallulah.
ENGLISH TEACHER: What?
SIMON: I'm auditioning for Bugsy and Tallulah.
ENGLISH TEACHER: That's what I thought you said. I just wanted to make sure.

blah blah me sucking at my audition and leaving blah blah blah

That may not have seemed like much, but her intonation on her last line really, well . . . at the time of parent-teacher conferences I was reading a book about a transsexual kid, which according to my parents she acted somewhat oddly about, and now this. I think a) she thinks I'm gay or transsexual and b) she's at least mildly homophobic. I noticed she didn't mention my audition in class that day. Let the awkwardness ensue.

Here's today's schedule.

3:15 - Home from school
3:15-4:30 - Homework
4:30 - Dinner
5:00-10:30 - Rehearsal
10:45-12:00 - Homework

And I have to wake up at six tomorrow today to finish even more homework. Yay.

One of the small joys in life is coming inside from the cold snowy rainy out-of-doors to hot chocolate and a fire in the fireplace. Mmmm . . . comfort.

In acting news, A Christmas Carol opens in three weeks! Wow! You can buy tickets here. It would (sniff) really mean a lot to me . . .

Okay, I'm jumping around here because I the radio is on. How many times can they ask for pledges? I know, I know, they really do need the money, but don't they know people know the phone number? Apparently not. Every five minutes, they go, "Remember to call 800.383.9772." I'm not joking. I heard them say that when I started writing this and I just heard it again. That is pathetic.

Thanks to Reuben, I've gotten involved in MacHeist, where you do weird stuff to get free software. I can't exactly tell if it's cool or stupid.

I have photos from my New England trip! Actually, I've had them for a while, but whatever. I also have photos from Les Mis. But do I post them here? No . . . so comment if you care enough to want my photos from either. I'm too lazy to do it unless someone tells me to.

Meh . . . I'm leaving.

Remember that voiceover job I did back in May? It's finally on the internet!!! You can make me eat unhealthy food and receive the consequences. Log in here and log in with the username and password eeTeacher. Then click on Ian's story! Actually, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to have given you that . . . whatever.

You are about to begin the fourth reading section of this test. It will include both multiple choice and short answer questions. Use a number two pencil. No, two and a half is not good enough. On multiple choice questions, completely fill in the bubble next to the correct answer. Do not fill in any other bubbles. Do not write anything down. On short answer questions, you will be asked to write a short answer. Do not fill in any bubbles. I don't even know why they would be there. Do not allow your writing to go outside of the box. Do not write on the pages marked 'Do not write on this page.' You may not talk. You may not get a drink of water or go to the bathroom. You will have forty minutes to complete this section, even though everyone will finish in ten.

So today was the second glorious day of WKCE testing. Hurrah Horrors.

And last Friday was the finale we've all been waiting for: The End! While at Borders, I also got The Tragic Treasury, a collection of songs that relate to the books. Um. The title of this post is a line from a song entitled Freakshow. I think I was going to start off this post talking about the CD, but I must have suddenly remembered WKCE.

Another thing I've suddenly remembered is A Christmas Carol - I got in. As someone who plays the violin. Even though I've never played a violin in my life. So I get a stringless violin and I have to pretend to play it while people dance. Come support me in my false musical endeavors and see me! Performances are in the Capitol Theater from December 1-10.

I got a callback for A Christmas Carol! And Pandora is cool.

I'm about to depart to audition for A Christmas Carol. I've had the monologue I'm doing for about two days. Not good. Wish me a broken leg (and curse you if you have no idea what that means)!

Now some themes that were previously only for S1 are for S2! Like Refried Paper, which totally has the coolest name of all of the themes. I hope you all remember to come see us perform A Midsummer Night's Dream on the 23rd and 24th so you can see me wear a dress and - well, we won't go there. Let's just say that my chest is somewhat larger. Don't worry - I'll still post pictures.

Okay, for better or for worse, I haven't updated in a while. Actually, it's only been four days, but it feels like a really long time. Anyway, I've been somewhat busy lately, in part because for my bar mitzvah, I got a lot of gifts. And lots of gifts means lots of thank you notes. But really, it's because Summer Drama School has started! Huzzah! We're doing A Midsummer Night's Dream. But don't worry - I'm not becoming a Shakespeare obsessed person. We had a weird sort of audition yesterday, and I got a call saying that I was cast as Flute, which was my second choice. (My first choice was Bottom, but that probably went to someone older. Sigh) I'm sorry - I rather assumed you knew the plot of the play. If you don't know it, look no further. Still, Flute is pretty cool because there's a play within the play where he portrays a woman that kills herself. So yeah. You should come see it. we perform on the 23rd and 24th.

"Opening night last Friday could have been produced on Broadway." ( If I didn't know better, I'd say she was a parent! )

Sitz Probe on Saturday: It went pretty well, boring as it may have been. But what can you expect when people are probing your Sitz? If you don't know, a Sitz Probe is just where you sing through the entire show with the orchestra. Long and boring, usually.
Scene change rehearsal on Sunday: Yay! The stairs finally have railings! However, they are moved a lot, and sometimes by me, and are quite heavy, especially when you have to get them to an exact place.
Act 1 in costume on Monday: There from 5-10, we started at 7, and only got through six scenes. Act 1 consists of 18 scenes. In other words, NOT GOOD.
"Act 2" in costume just now: The reason I put "Act 2" in quotes is because we started where we left off last night. Somehow, however, we managed to get through the entire thing. A lot of things were shaky, and we do open Friday night . . .

Still, the show is going to be awesome, which is why you should come. Sorry about the shortness of this post. Truth be told, however, it was really just so that - no, I'll let you be surprised!

Last night we had our first rehearsal in the Mitby Theater! w00t! 'Tis pretty sweet. Our barricade is cool. There are two staircases that, while we rehearsed yesterday, had no railings and were kind of scary because one time the barricade crashed into them . . . but I won't tell you too much about the whole set because that would ruin it if you were to come to the show. Should you have missed it, ticket information is here or here. You know you want to come . . .