Vietnam Day 48 (7/25/09)

We spent the entire afternoon practicing for the performance tonight and frankly our rehearsals didn't instill much confidence. We were frequently offbeat and uncoordinated and we were still making last minute changes to the choreography up until we left. Molly and I left a little early so we could practice with the microphones but when we got to the People's Committee headquarters we got a little distracted by the children who were already waiting outside. By the time we finished playing with them the rest of the group arrived anyway. It's probably bet they did though because the microphones were really echoey like they are in karaoke and we had no idea how to ask the technician to reset them. The whole group did a mini-dress rehearsal, quite a spectacle in our blue work uniforms. Most of the audience consisted of the People's Committee members and lots and lots of children. The performance began about an hour after it was scheduled to because we had to wait for the vice-chair to arrive before we could start (yet another politician making us wait).

The first performance was a song by the school children - it was not nearly as painful to listen to as most children's concerts are and it was really adorable to watch them try (and fail) to sway in unison. That was definitely the highlight of the night and after that followed numerous solos by members of the community taking advantage of an open mic. The gaggle of children had absolutely no patience for such a long show and kept talking and acting up. I felt so bad for the performers who were trying so hard even though none of the kids were paying attention. There were times when, at the beginning of a song, some of the children would run up on stage and hand the singer flowers during the song. Some of the Vietnamese roommates (and the rest of us at times) went up on stage for a couple of songs and just did impromptu dances to the music. The rest of the time when we were in the audience we clapped and waved our hands in the air, trying to support the performer. We were soon in their shoes as we went up on stage for the group Vietnamese song. As predicted, the choreography was pretty disorganized but I think we pulled it off pretty well - I just threw myself into it and kept smiling (not hard since I was laughing half of the time).

Next up were me and Molly singing "For Good" from "Wicked." We started out really well, singing as if we were old hands at performing. The, in the middle of my solo, a slew of kids from the audience suddenly rushed the stage thrusting flowers into our hands. It was as distracting as I had expected (especially when a thorn pricked my finger), but made it even more fun. The grand finale was us singing "Heal the World" which I wouldn't call quality singing, but we did alright - at least we didn't burn the place down with the candles we decided to add to our choreography at the end. It was a long night but I did have a lot of fun. We rode back in the dark again but at least this time I had my super-stylish headlamp to light my way. I'm completely wiped out but tonight I can finally rest without the performance looming over my head.

[Remember how I mentioned the police visiting during the witching hour last week? Well now I've had a chance to see their whole operation in action. I'm writing in the lobby pretty late at night so I was here to watch half a dozen cops come in and sit down at the coffee table going through our passports and take down our information in their notebooks. I don't know what they were writing down but hopefully it won't result in them knocking on my door at an unreasonable hour again.]