Turandot music rehearsals have been going by so fast! It seems like just yesterday I walked in without knowing many people, but now I know almost everyone. Last Thursday was the very last youth chorus rehearsal until July!

The reason we start rehearsing so early considering that the actual shows are in August is because the music is in Italian and we can never have too much time to learn another language. So what we do is we come in two days a week for six to eight weeks and learn the music so that we know it very well. Then we take a break so we don’t have to be rehearsing all summer, because many people have vacation plans or just want to relax. We will then come back when it is a closer to the time we do the shows so we can brush up on the music with the Chorus Master and get it down perfectly again to be ready for the Stage Director and Music Director to hear us and rehearse the show with the whole cast in late July.

A lot of you are probably wondering why we spread the process out so much and it’s because we really want to be perfect and ready to give the audience the best show that we possibly can! One thing that I forgot to tell you about this particular youth chorus is that it is an ‘offstage’ chorus.

This means that the group of about 30 kids that is singing will not be seen onstage. We might come out and bow at the end but other than that we are never seen by the audience! At first I thought I would be disappointed not to be on stage, but now I’m not! We still get to learn all of the music and get an amazing experience!

Backstage in the “opera house” known as McCaw Hall, it is a whole new experience. There are countless sets, props, people, instruments, risers, and music stands. I remember in Carmen when we would come offstage we would have to trudge through the dark crowded place silently and make our way back to the Green Room.

The Green Room is known in theater as a room where they have snacks, tea, and chairs so that performers can wait until they hear their cue to be on waiting onstage.

If the Carmen youth choristers weren’t in the Green Room making too much noise we were down stairs in our very own dressing room playing ‘apples to apples’ in our costumes until we were told to go onstage for bows to end the night. I had the best times playing charades in the dressing room with all of my fellow Carmen castmates — we were all laughing on the floor!

Plays are a place to work and get a job done, but they are also a place to make new friends and enjoy what you are doing! If it wasn’t fun and all of us didn’t love performing than nobody would be there!

I know I have enjoyed Turandot every second so far and can’t wait until July when rehearsals continue to tell you more about getting closer to the actual Turandot performances!

Morgan Roberts is a 13-year-old from Maple Valley preparing to sing in her second production with Seattle Opera. She will be writing about her experiences as part of Puccini’s “Turandot” which will be performed at McCaw Hall this August.

She was profiled in the Maple Valley Reporter in fall of 2010 when she was cast in her first professional show, A Christmas Carol at ACT Theater in Seattle.

Morgan is a familiar face within Tahoma School District’s musical theater after-school program, performing the roles of Pinocchio, Violet Beauregard and Mary Poppins. She also appeared with the Hi-Liners in Burien as Young Cosette in Les Miserables.