Agujas son divertidos! (Needles are fun!)

today was our first run-through with an audience of people! People who have never seen the show! People who need people! They seemed to really enjoy it, and it was so nice to hear the sound of laughter and applause, as opposed to the scratching of our AD's pen as she jotted down yet another fudged blocking formation, or another "Oh" instead of "Ah". Not to say that these things aren't important, but sometimes we get so bogged down in the mechanics and details of a show that we forget WHY and FOR WHOM we're really doing this, why we do what we do. It was a great feeling, if not the most flawless of shows. Dev (our director)'s godson even came, along with his mother, Andrea Burns, who originated the role of Daniela in IN THE HEIGHTS on Broadway. It was kind of fantastic to perform with someone like that looking on, but to be honest, I completely forgot she was there two minutes into the show, I was just so focused on the job at hand. After the show, she and her son congratulated us, and she made a point to tell me that she was impressed with my performance. Grain of salt or no, that feels good. Muy muy bueno.
During our lunch break, I went to the Chelsea Sports Medicine Clinic to be seen by the doctors there, who would determine exactly what is wrong with my shoulder. After much poking, prodding, twisting, and pushing by the (rather attractive) doctors, they concluded that I haven't done any crazy damage to my rotator cuff, onyl strained it, a condition which should be remedied by anti-inflammatories and PT. They did suggest that some prolotherapy injections could help relieve the pain (after an initial couple of days of more soreness), but that he generally didn't go that route until after PT results had been seen. I stressed to the doc that I would not be physically in NYC consistently enough to follow a PT plan, and we agreed to go ahead and try the prolotherapy now, in addition to going through as much PT as I could while in NYC. I got 17 injections along two major tendon/muscle lines, which HURT and STUNG like crazy. The shock caused me to hyperventilate and convulse, and I had to lie down for a hot minute before dragging my butt up and jelly-legging it back to rehearsal, where I proceeded to do yet another run-through (the one that Ms. Burns attended).

I suffer for my art.

After the run through we had some music brush-ups with our Musical Director, the same who told me to belt the F in my song "Powerless". I belted the D that precedes it, and he seemed pleased, but encouraged me to "push myself" to get to the F. I suggested that that is perhaps not the healthiest choice, considering I only have one more rehearsal day left, and no travelling vocal coach to make sure I'm using a brand-new singing technique correctly and safely. Still not sure what I'm oging to do about that. it turns out  my director assumed that I was merely makring through the song this entire rehearsal process, and that I secrely possesed the ability to belt an F and was simply choosing not to. C'mon, seriously?? I go full-out on everything else, why would I hold back on that if I had it in me? So now I feel bad that with my current skill set, I am disappointing my bosses, but also angry that I am expected to pull this feat off without any help. I may be La Bruja, but I'm no Wizard.
Anyway, later, we broke down the set, and I stumbled back to Queens for some well-deserved chicken curry and wine. We have one more rehearsal tomorrow, then a load-in of the set to the van, then a BLISSFUL day of rest....then our first show on Friday! Here we goooooooooo!