Thursday, April 22, 2010

Glee *Spoiler Alert*

I love Glee.

Many of you know that.

I don't care who knows it.

I. LOVE. GLEE.

I am a fan of Glee on Facebook. So on Monday when they posted this:


Attn: LA area GLEE Fans! We have a limited # of audience seats available for the season finale taping this WED, 4/21, in L.A. Be one of the first people (18 years or older) to email your 1st & last name/date of birth/email address to FBCPUBLICITYEVENTS@fox.com we'll hook you up w/ 2 tickets! If you're confirmed to rece...ive tickets you will receive an email reply from FOX w/ more info. Thanks & Good Luck!


I did just that. (even though I'm not technically an LA area fan) I figured it couldn't hurt and I never win anything anyways. I sent my email off and forgot about it.


Well on Tuesday afternoon, Edna was leaving my house and I was waiting for my next piano student to show up when my phone alerted me of a new email. Being the OCD person that I am, I opened up my email to find:
FINALE TAPING

WHAT: You and a guest are confirmed to be in the balcony audience during the filming of the spring finale performance of GLEE.
If you can not come, please respond to this ASAP.

DATE: TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21

TIME: APPROX 2:30 PM

AGE: 18 & OVER. Please bring ID; we will be checking age at the door

LOCATION: SABAN THEATER (8440 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA). Please look for signs labeled “INVITED AUDIENCE” when you arrive; you will be entering the theater off of Hamilton Drive.

PARKING: Parking NOT provided. If possible, please carpool or take public transportation – as parking is limited in the area. There is some metered parking. DO NOT PARK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD BEHIND THE THEATER; all neighborhood streets are restricted “permit only” parking.

ATTIRE: No Shorts, No T-shirts or tank-tops, No Clothing with logos, No Bright Colors

IMPORTANT: Do NOT bring any cell phones, cameras, camera-phones, flip-cams, laptops, or recording devices of any kind. Any cameras or recording devices (including cell phones) will be confiscated at the door and returned to you when you leave at the end of the day.

NOTE: You will be asked to sign a photo release form before you enter the theater. We cannot guarantee that you will be on camera, but it is a possibility. Also note that we cannot guarantee which actors will be present during the time you are there.



I ran back outside to Edna who was still putting her girls in the car. And I told her what happened. We both started jumping and screaming like little girls! So we quickly made arrangements to go to LA the following day.



We left Yuma around 6:30am. We left with plenty of time to be able to get there eat and be on time and no rushing.


We got to the theatre and found a parking spot and had some lunch and went and got in line. We were only about 20 people back. This was about 1:00pm. Someone came by shortly there after to tell us that we would be let into the theatre around 2:30 - 3:00pm. That's a long time to wait. It was only a sign of things to come.





We were let into the theatre around 3:00, after our cell phones and cameras had been confiscated. Right as they were taking our phones away Sue Sylvester walked out of the theatre in a red track suit.


And then we waited and waited and waited. Did I mention we waited?!


We were given programs to the "2010 Midwest Regional Show Choir Championship." Here is what they looked like. Or some of it anyway...

Apparently Brittany has no last name and Tina is just C.


There was a high school choral group sitting behind us, and apparently they had connections with some guy named Dave, and Dave brought up the Vocal Contractor, Tim Davis, for Glee and he did a little Q&A with them, but we of course got to hear. I told him I wanted his job. He does the arrangments for Glee, all requests by creator Ryan Murphy. He told us that Vocal Adrenaline is comprised of session singers, and the actors on the show are all dancers that Lip Sync. His job is to make sure that the dancers are each assigned a part to lip sync and then he makes sure that they do it when taping. Session singers are singers that can sight sing on demand. He said that basically they come in to record. They go thru it once or twice. Then all of the women will sing the alto part, then soprano and so forth. He said that "Bohemian Rhapsody" took about 10 hours to record. It was really interesting to hear him talk about the Glee Cast - which he said NONE of them know how to read music, not even Lea Michelle. They record their parts and send them to the actors for them to learn by ear. He also said that sometimes they only get an hour to lay down their solos. He did say that Amber Riley (Mercedes) is really that good.


Next came Vocal Adrenaline. They were taping their song for Regionals which as you saw on the program was "Bohemian Rhapsody." First off...COOL costumes. Sure beats your everyday show choir cumberbund and bow tie (they were hot pink and black.) Secondly...the choreography was AWESOME! Speaking of Choreography, Zach Woodlee, was on set. He also did the choreography for Hairspray, which was also AWESOME!) I got chills several times with their routine. SO COOL! And also Jesse St. James (as you saw on the program) is back with Vocal Adrenaline. He was nice and waved to all of us as we WAITED! We, as the audience, were instructed to jump up at the end of the song and cheer like crazy...which we did. Vocal Adrenaline was on stage until about 7:00pm it was LONG! Just did the same thing over and over until they had used every camera and gotten every angle. They also filled in the bottom of the auditorium and everyone had glow sticks and we "rocked out" to Bohemian Rhapsody.

In the meantime between takes, we WAITED. BUT, while we waited, we got to meet:
*Matthew Morrison (Mr. Shuester) - who gave me a high five! He was litterally two feet away from me and only one foot away from Edna. She told him that she remembers him from "As the world turns" and he replied with "oh i'm sorry!" He forgot his glasses and Edna gave them back to the assitant person. She now wishes she'd have kept his glasses. Edna also pretended to grab his booty when he turned around! He was really nice. Super cute. yay!
*Amber Riley (Mercedes) - who by the way had an iPad and she says she loves it - I know that because I asked her!
*Kevin McHale (Artie) - who said he was jealous that he didn't get to dance for about two episodes, and then realized he was lucky he didn't have to do all the work!

*Ian Brennan - co-creator of Glee

*Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) - she gave me a high five. I asked her a question....she doesn't know if she will be doing any Christopher Guest movies, but that she loved working on those movies.
*Cory Monteith (Finn) - I touched him!

*Dianna Agron (Quinn) - She is very nice and apparently likes photography
*Heather Morris (Brittany) - is a dancer. She was a back up dancer for Beyonce.

*Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina C) - told us that she will be getting more solos and a story line.

*Chris Colfer (Kurt) - apparently he gets a boyfriend coming up!

*Naya Rivera (Santana)
*Dijon Talton (Matt Rutherford) - strictly a dancer
*Harry Shum Jr (Mike Chang) - strictly a dancer and apparently he is going to be doing some show coming up and helped direct some of it.

*Lea Michele (Rachel) - was the only one that was a little stuck-up. (true to character, I guess). She was all over Jonathan Groff, very awkward for us watching them, but I guess that's odd because supposedly Jonathan is gay (according to other sources). They did a Q&A together and I wonder if they even knew we were there.

*Jonathan Groff (Jesse St. James) - again he was a little strange, but is cute and acted his part very well on the tapings of Bohemian Rhapsody with Vocal Adrenaline.

They were all very kind and took questions from the Audience. It was fun to hear them talk and learn a little bit about them. *I'm sure you can google glee finale taping and read other people's account of the Q&A*
At about 8:30pm, we taped a couple of ending of "Regionals." We taped an ending with New Directions winning and a taping with them losing. We did a taping of cheering for the judges, which are Josh Groban, Olivia Newton-John, and Sue Sylvester.
By this time, Edna and I were concerned with time because we were still going to drive the 5 hours home! So we only got to watch "New Directions" do the walk thru of their performance of a medley of Journey songs, ending with "Don't Stop Believing" and we left at 9:15pm. I read on someone elses's blog that New Directions didn't even begin taping their part until well after 10:00pm.
We quickly got some Chipotle (yum!) and drove home. We made it safely at 2:30am.
It was SUPER SUPER fun! It will be fun to see the end product. And if maybe, maybe, they show a shot of the balcony audience, Edna and I were in the front row off to the left (looking at the screen) right next to the aisle! So there is a CHANCE we might get to be on the Finale Episode!
Did I mention we waited around A LOT?
Did I mention I LOVE GLEE!!!!








10 comments:

Tia said...

i read through that whole post - because i wanted to hear all of it - that is soooo cool - you guys are sooooo cool! Seriously im huge gleek too - love it! Interesting to hear Lea Michelle was kinda snotty.

A Piece of the Puzzel...Journey Through Life (Stacie) said...

You are a lil obsessed....but i love it. You are a crazy woman but I love you for that!You are an awesome chick! Love ya

Chredna said...

thanks for telling everyone that I used to watch "as the world turns" and that i tried to grab Mr. Shu's booty! that was so fun!!!! let's win tickets to something else!

Gabriela Hull said...

How did I miss this post?! I'm glad you guys had fun. Can't wait for the 22nd!!

Anonymous said...

man i love glee so much almost as much as twilight

Brittany said...

I also read through the whole post because I can't believe you got to go! How awesome. Next time take me instead...just kidding Edna! Sounds like you two had so much fun. Thanks for being such a great piano teacher for Gracie. She really likes you. I just need to push her more at home...my fault!

Rob and Katie said...

Good thing about Glee: they use Journey songs.
Bad thing about Glee: there will be an entire generation that think "Don't Stop Believing" should sound like a pop song from a musical instead of a rock ballad from the '80s.
Is nothing sacred in this world?

Linsey F said...

It has been 2 months since you have updated your blog. Whats the deal woman?

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