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Dec. 13th, 2021 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darchildreSo, when we started this choir session in September, we were told that there was no expectation that we'd be performing in December. That made a lot of sense - everything has been changing all the time, group singing is definitely not the safest thing you can do, and we were being very cautious. I was fine with that - I like performing, but it's the least important part for me. Just getting to sing with other people was enough.
Then later, the board and the director decided that we would have a small culminating "event", possibly in person and possibly over Zoom. Then definitely in person, but just a small gathering: no ticket sales, just family and friends, by invitation only. Very casual, no need to wear formal choir clothes. This is already a little weird but again, fine.
But as we've gotten closer and closer to the "event" (we're still calling it that, definitely not a concert), it has grown increasingly concert-like. Now there's risers involved, and clothing guidelines (no jeans, not all black, "something festive"), and a call time for the choir an hour and a half before the "event" starts.
So now I have a not-actually-a-concert tonight, on a Monday evening. And what we have now is an "event" that combines the worst part of participating in a concert - scheduling stress*, dress codes, figuring out how to eat around performance times, that terrible thing where we are a group of adults who cannot at all retain or follow instructions about how to walk onto the risers - with a pint-sized audience.
All this, to sing a program 7 songs long. One of which rhymes the words "giving" and "thanksgiving", which ought not be allowed.
I mean, singing in a group is still very good and I'm glad I get to do it but man, tonight I would rather not.
*A 5:30 call time on a Monday night, really? Am I the only one in the reduced choir who isn't retired/working from home?
...honestly, it's entirely possible that I am.
Then later, the board and the director decided that we would have a small culminating "event", possibly in person and possibly over Zoom. Then definitely in person, but just a small gathering: no ticket sales, just family and friends, by invitation only. Very casual, no need to wear formal choir clothes. This is already a little weird but again, fine.
But as we've gotten closer and closer to the "event" (we're still calling it that, definitely not a concert), it has grown increasingly concert-like. Now there's risers involved, and clothing guidelines (no jeans, not all black, "something festive"), and a call time for the choir an hour and a half before the "event" starts.
So now I have a not-actually-a-concert tonight, on a Monday evening. And what we have now is an "event" that combines the worst part of participating in a concert - scheduling stress*, dress codes, figuring out how to eat around performance times, that terrible thing where we are a group of adults who cannot at all retain or follow instructions about how to walk onto the risers - with a pint-sized audience.
All this, to sing a program 7 songs long. One of which rhymes the words "giving" and "thanksgiving", which ought not be allowed.
I mean, singing in a group is still very good and I'm glad I get to do it but man, tonight I would rather not.
*A 5:30 call time on a Monday night, really? Am I the only one in the reduced choir who isn't retired/working from home?
...honestly, it's entirely possible that I am.
