Little Laura and Big Merry

Continuing on our Pescara Top 10 count down…#7

We are 7 days away from Opening Ceremony and the weather forecast this weekend is for rain beginning tonight and not stopping until Tuesday!! This is enough to dampen anybody’s spirits, especially as today begins the weekend that we call our “put together” rehearsal weekend for the show. This gives all of the important teams who run the show backstage a chance to work on their timings to add order to the chaos, when to get the cast in costume, where to bring them to at which time and what gate to perform and then reverse the entire process. Now, when you have hundreds (if not thousands) of people in each number, you could be moving a couple of thousand of people in just a few minutes time, so this part of the show has to be VERY choreographed and rehearsed, or the show will not Go On.

We put the first half of the show together on Saturday, and the second half on Sunday. Then, Monday night is our first dress rehearsal after we have put together all the train cars (each separate segment) of the entire show. We chose weekends, as most everyone has this time free and can attend without having to get out of school or work. Everything from checking-in, costumes, make-up, time to eat, bathrooms, pre-set, performance and after-performance has to be practiced right down to the minute.

Now we have checked all the weather forecasts and it is 2 ½ days of solid rain.

It is not a matter of if it is going to rain but WHEN!

So, as I sit here this morning at 6A.M. I am trying to think of something funny to take my mind off the impending Water-World we are about to step into. I remember for some time I have been wanting to write about the greatest sound I have ever heard here in Pescara. We have one full-time assistant choreographer, she was our assistant at the Torino Olympics Opening Ceremonies back in 2006 (where I believe she did the entire six months for free as a volunteer assistant) so it is so great to be able to have her on the payroll this time out.

Her name is Laura and it is pronounced like this. Say the word Allow- now take off the A.. llow... and add to that a Rah with a rolled rrrrrrr, and you have Lovely Llowrrrrah.

Well, she is Bryn’s assistant (and his name is like Lynn except with a Br… a very Welsh name for a very international and clever man). They have spent many days in Pescara, here in our living room, creating the many many different styles of dance that will go on all the performers in the show. Hours and hours of steps and ideas to every music imaginable. However,there is one song that stands out in my mind this morning, as I am needing something to focus on that will not dampen my spirits.

You all have this sound in your life and it comes from someone who is sweetly unconscious that they are even doing it. While Bryn and Llowrrrrah have been creating steps and magic in the living room they have also been cracking themselves up having just a ball as they try and work things out.

Now, Laura is just under 5 feet tall, while Bryn is well over 6 foot, and they speak a mixture of Italian and English as they choreograph. Both are fluent in each other’s languages, but the third language they are fluent in is Joy, and they spend a good half of the day laughing. So as I am in my room working on the script or my book or some other thing, I am serenaded by these two laughing together, not being able to here what they are saying just being able to enjoy the Merry Melody exuding from the room.

Laura, it must, be said has one of the truest most honest and infectious laughs I have ever heard. It brings a smile (if not a giggle) every time you hear it. Is not forced or fake, not odd or distracting it is simply the loveliest lilt in the world. It has such a truth and an infectious way about it that when it washes over you it transports you to a place of simple Joy.

And such a place is needed today as we head literally into the storm of this final weekend.

So at number 7 I nominate Lovely Laura and Big Merry, one person infecting the world with Joy, one sweet laugh at a time.