Mary Poppins Flies Away . . .

I have only written one new blog post since March began. My excuse is summed up in two words: Spring Concerts.

But lucky for all of you, I forced myself to sit down at my computer this weekend. I have several blog post topics rattling around in my head, from surviving Treefort after forty to my husband, Dan, shaving his beard for his birthday after I bought him a beard grooming kit. (O. Henry couldn't have written it better.)

This week, however, I am going to tell you all about the 5th and 6th grade spring musical shenanigans. Here. It. Goes . . .

REHEARSAL SHENANIGANS:
This year, the 5th and 6th graders performed Mary Poppins. I began to realize how attached the students were becoming during one lunch time rehearsal. I was demonstrating how to evoke emotion on stage, trying to pull some more poignancy out of a scene between Mary an the children. The room fell silent. All eyes were glued to what was happening on stage. When the scene was over, my actors started saying things like, "That just made me tear up," and "I'm going to cry."

One 6th grade girl said, "Well, this whole thing is making me cry anyway because next week will be the end of it."

We also had rehearsal on April Fools' Day. I was just waiting for the kids to prank me. I thought for sure one of my lead characters would tell me they were moving away or something.

Here is what really happened . . .

We were rehearsing. It was the first time all day I had seen any of the kids, and the boy playing Mr. Banks started to say his first line. He croaked it out, sounding like he had laryngitis. The other actors and I looked at him incredulously.

"Did you lose your voice?" I asked, trying not to panic.

He was quiet for a second. Then he grinned real big.

"I'm fine. April Fools'!"

TECH WEEK SHENANIGANS:
First of all, let me just say I love that my students know and use the term, "tech week," among other important theater vocab. It's pretty rad if you ask the theater nerd in me.

My students also get very excited about tech week. Such as . . .

Student #1: What time will we start setting up chairs?
Me: 8:00 in the morning.
Student #1: Okay, I’ll be there at 7:25.
Me: Wait!
Student #2: What time do we move into the gym tomorrow?
Me: 7:30 a.m.
Student #2: Okay, see you at 7:00!
Me: Wait!

If you haven't guessed already, I kind of enjoy the mania of the theater. People always ask me if I am relieved when the spring musical is over, and usually, I am sad when it is over . . . at least for a few days. Then I'm glad to have my life back.

I think tech week is so fun for me because that's when the kids take over the show. It becomes theirs, and they evolve into the "professionals" I keep telling them to be. Plus, my stage managers and crew—man! I can't say enough wonderful things about those kids.

I often say the teachers and parents do more work than I do. I don't have to worry about costumes or sets. Teachers help out with hair and make-up. Most of the staff members wear show shirts the day of the program.

I always finish tech week feeling like a valued part of my school. This year, during one of the first tech rehearsals, someone left a Milky Way (which became my lunch) with an anonymous note on my music stand. I also received the most beautiful flowers from the parent volunteers and staff.

The teachers help keep kids away from me at the necessary times too. I tried implementing a "no-talking-to-Mrs.-Duggan" rule 30 minutes before rehearsals and performances. I stole the idea from another music teacher friend of mine. The kids occasionally tracked me down, but the teachers were really good about not letting kids "go ask Mrs. Duggan something" (which the kids insisted dramatically and with several exclamation points at the end).

BACKSTAGE SHENANIGANS:
After the show was over, I heard about all kinds of crazy backstage goings on. Yep, my 5th and 6th graders had also become total theater nerds. Even we adult actors have our backstage rituals throughout the run of a production. Here are some of the silly things my elementary students were doing backstage:

• They did the Macarena during "Step in Time."
• The boy playing the old man, Dawes, Sr., pretended his cane was a kite and waved it aroundduring "Let's Go Fly a Kite."
• Apparently, there was ballroom dancing happening during "Chim Chim Cheree."
• Dawes, Sr., (again), made up a rap with one of his lines of dialogue, "Fiddlesticks, boy! Feed the birds and what have you got? Fat birds!" Now that I've heard it as a rap, I can't un-hear it as a rap.

The week after the play, I was told that the 5th grade boys were singing, "Sister Suffragette" on their way to recess.

   

Needless to say, I had show withdrawals the weekend after it was over. One of my teacher friends told me she was also nostalgic for the program.

"Does it mean I'm having withdrawals too if I woke up singing 'Feed the Birds?'" she asked.

"Yes, yes it does!" I said.

The week after the program, I made kids write letters of advice to next year's 5th and 6th graders. We called our advice letters, "How to Survive the Spring Musical."

Every year, I come away from those letters thinking, "Huh! They really did listen to me."

Here are some examples of Mrs. Duggan's Theater Life Lessons that showed up in the letters:

• "Practice makes permanent."
• "Don't talk to her during rehearsals or when she is trying to set up. You will just stress her out."
• "Always listen to the director, meaning Mrs. Duggan. She knows what she's talking about."
• "Don't whine or complain, especially about costumes."
• "It's fun, even if you don't get the part you want."

And then, just like that, Mary Poppins was over. It felt as though Mary Poppins had left us, like when she flies away at the end of the story because her job is done, because the family has learned the lessons they needed to learn.

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

The Hamilton Experience (RE-POST from 4/22/18)

Around this time last year, I had just seen Hamilton . . . twice! This week, it was announced that Hamilton will be coming to Boise on tour in the 2020-21 season. My husband, Dan, and I are already gearing up to renew our season ticket subscription. Enjoy this Hamilton experience recap from 2018. 

My most faithful readers may remember that my husband, Dan, and I had tickets to see Hamilton over spring break.

So . . . we began our road-trip-of-a-lifetime to Portland the last week of March. I sat on the passenger side and read the libretto annotations to my husband, Dan, from Hamilton: The Revolution while we listened to the soundtrack.

I chuckled at the music theory and theater allusions; Dan liked the old school hip-hop Lin-Manual Miranda referenced in the book. He put together a playlist of all of the original music quoted in Hamilton . . . for educational purposes.

Dan's Hamilton References Playlist:

1. Pharaoh Monch - Simon Says
2. The Notorious BIG - Juicy
3. The Notorious BIG - Ten Crack Commandments
4. A Tribe Called Quest - Everything Is Fair
5. DMX - Party Up
6. Mobb Deep - Shook Ones Part II

"It should be a good one," Dan said, as the Hamilton album came to a close.

"Whoa, you sound more excited than usual!"
We checked into our hotel, and the clerk asked us the reason for our visit to Portland.

"We're going to see Hamilton."

"That's still going on?" the clerk asked. "It sounded like a lot of guests were here to see it last weekend. I didn't know it was still happening."

How could she not know? It just felt wrong that the whole city hadn't stopped for the show.

Between our arrival in Portland and the night of, I opened the hotel safe about fifty times to make sure the tickets were still there.

"Is it weird that I am kind of nervous?" I asked Dan before we headed to the theater. "What if my expectations are dashed?"

I took the tickets out of safe and gave them to Dan. He shoved them into his pocket.

"Can't you put those somewhere more secure, like zip them in your coat pocket?" I asked him.

"I like to put my hands in my coat pockets while I walk," he said.

"Can't you not do that for a couple of blocks?"

We didn't lose our tickets. They also scanned without any problem (another neurotic Hamilton fear of mine).

The theater was packed. The merch table was blocked by a mob of people. It was impossible to get to the bathroom, and the line for it extended across the entire lobby. I found a second restroom with a shorter line. I heard a girl in the stall next to mine say that she was still processing this whole experience. She still couldn't believe she was at Hamilton.

I could relate.

Our seats were on the third row to the right of the orchestra. We thought we might be on the outer edge, but when we sat down, we glanced at each other, wide-eyed.

"These seats are really good," Dan said.

"Holy shit!" I responded.


Around 7:30, I turned to Dan and said, "What time is it? SHOW TIME!"

Dan rolled his eyes, "You've been waiting until 7:30 to say that, haven't you?"

The show began and . . . Aaron Burr’s mic was dead.

If you know anything about Hamilton, you know that Aaron Burr is kind of important. He is the nemesis, the narrator. He sings some of the best songs. He starts the entire show. Think Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Fun fact: My school sound system also broke down the week before during our elementary school production of The Lion King. I don't feel so bad now.

The theater stopped the show midway through the first scene, and the cast was called offstage. About ten minutes later, the show restarted from the beginning. I ❤ live theater!

We were so close to the stage, we could see the actors spit, a sign of good diction by the way.

"I'm a little nervous I might notice when the actors make a mistake," I whispered to Dan. "I mean, we can see EVERYTHING!"

Of course, the show went off without another hitch.

Audience members audibly responded exactly as expected: “Immigrants, we get the job done!” or "And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, I'm 'a compel him to include women in the sequel!" (Oh wait, that was me hooting and hollering.)

Even Dan surreptitiously rapped along with, “Every action has an equal, opposite reaction . . .” ,

"I did expect more ooh's during the Cabinet Battles," Dan said in the hotel room that night.

"Not everyone's a rap connoisseur, Dan." 

The Sequel 

The second week of April, Dan received an email from the theater in Salt Lake about Hamilton tickets opening up.


That Saturday, I texted my brother and sister-in-law:

"Dan got an email from the theater about tickets to Hamilton opening up in SLC, so . . .

#spontaneous"

"It’s got to be good if Dan is willing to see it twice in less than a month," I added.

"Haha!! That’s honestly what I was thinking!!!" my sister-in-law texted back.

"Don’t tell anyone," I told her, "but he totally sings along during this show."

We saw the same cast, but Jefferson’s understudy took over about halfway through the first act. Why? I don’t know . . . live theater strikes again.

That night, Dan made me list all of the parts I cried at. (He also laughs at me when we listen to the soundtrack in the car, and I full out bawl during the finale.)

Then he admitted he teared up a little when Eliza took Hamilton's hand and forgave him at the end of "It's Quiet Uptown."

Dan shrugged, "Hey, I'm a sensitive guy."

Hamilton Take Two

 For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

Weezer Is Coming! (RE-POST from 11/4/17)

I was so excited when Dan and I got tickets to see Weezer and The Pixies last summer. Little did I know they would come to Boise a year later! While I recover from these last couple of crazy weeks (tune in for more on that in a week or so), here is the original blog post from when I found out about last summer's concert.

Guys, Weezer is coming to Salt Lake!

Wait! It gets better.

Weezer AND The Pixies are coming to Salt Lake! Now is the point where my Millennial friends say, "Who are The Pixies?" It's okay. I'll teach you.

Last summer, I saw Green Day.

This summer, I am going to see Weezer (AND The Pixies). It doesn't matter when it is. (It's in the summer. Thank you, God!) This is one of those take-a-sick-day, sleep-in-my-car-if-I-have-to, stay-out-all-night-on-a-weeknight kind of concerts.

The beginning of my sophomore year in college, I rushed out to buy Pinkerton on cassette because that is all that would play in my '95 Hyundai Excel back then. (I also copied the Blue Album onto cassette, so I could listen to it in my car. The struggle was real, kids.)

Pinkerton remains my favorite Weezer album to this day, probably due to the opera references. (Yes, I own the CD now.)

When my husband, Dan, and I were dating, he would burn entire CDs of music he deemed necessary relationship barometers. I'm not talking about a puny High Fidelty-esque playlist. I mean, I would receive hours and hours of MP3s compiled from his favorite indie bands.

One of these MP3-filled discs consisted of a bunch of obscure, unreleased Weezer songs downloaded from some website. He was a Weezer fan too. I decided to keep him.

During our dating years, Dan and I saw Weezer in concert. It was our first road trip and our first concert together. By the end of the show, even reserved and quiet Dan (who was even more reserved and quiet that early in our relationship) was cheering and making a "W" with his hands.

"They are such a good live band!" he exclaimed as we left the arena.

Weezer basically cemented our relationship.

Nowadays, I have a Green Album poster, given to me by my brother when I moved into one of my apartments, hanging in our music room right above a bag that is filled with Handel, Mozart, and Puccini arias.

We also own the Blue and Green Album guitar books, although I doubt we have any hope of ever playing like them. Well, maybe Dan has some hope. I gave up a long time ago.

I have stuck it out with Weezer through every album, EP, B-side, a Rivers Cuomo rarities CD Dan gave me for Christmas one year, even while they have been panned by critics and fans for expanding their sound, going "pop," and trying new things. People just need to chill and not take everything so seriously.

When the Weezer AND The Pixies tour was announced, Dan immediately texted me, "What are you doing August 1st?"

Five minutes later, my brother mentioned me on the tour's Facebook post, "Becky Turner Duggan, I know where you will be August 1st!"

My response to both: "WEEZER AND THE PIXIES? WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

The next morning, a friend of mine had commented on one of my Facebook posts, "Weezer is coming to SLC!"

"I have been freaking out for, like, the last 24 hours," I replied.

Then I proceeded to listen to every Weezer album ever recorded, something Dan and I call a Weezer Fest. We do this whenever we are preparing to attend a concert (or, less happily, when a band member dies).

A former choir student of mine, now in his twenties, posted this video on my Facebook wall one day.

My elementary choir does an aerobic warm-up to Weezer's "Buddy Holly" at least once a month.

"This brings back memories, doesn't it, Mrs. Duggan?" he said.

Oh . . . you have NO idea!

Ready to rock, friends!

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.