Voca People [Theater Review]

When I went this summer to see Voca People.

Musica is Life. Life is Musica.

True?

If you are the Voca People, then this is literally true. You see, the Voca People are a group of "people" from a far, far away place called Voca who have crash landed in New York City on Off-Broadway. Lucky us! In order to get their ship's energia back up so they can fly home, they need music. They use ours, purely acapella, and they are amazing.

Halloween weekend I had the pleasure of seeing the Voca People in the Westside Theater for the second time this year (yes, I liked them that much!). The first time I went to this show I had no idea what I was going to see, but I figured for $5 per ticket, I really couldn't lose (more about those $5 tickets? See my Broadway for Next to Nothing post).

Weird or Wonderful?
 
When the show started I was perplexed - a stark stage, eight "people" dressed head to toe in white with white faces and white bald caps, making weird noises and looking more confused than me! I thought, "Maybe I should have actually checked what this show was about before I came! What's my deal with spoilers, anyway?" Then, by connecting with one of the audience members (placing hand on head), one of the Voca People learned our language, told us their story and declared:

Life is musica. Musica is life.

For the rest of the show, I lived it. These eight talent people brought us all to life with their music, with no instruments but their voices and IT WAS AMAZING! While I am not too much into spoilers myself, I know tons of people are, so if you would like a small sampling of what the Voca People are about, then you should check out this video:

If you watched the video, I have to warn you, it only gives you a piece of what the show is all about! One incredible piece missing is the audience interaction. The Westside Theater is such a great venue because it is small enough that every seat in the house is a GREAT one (the whole place is smaller than many orchestra seating sections of other venues!) and the Voca People come out, into the audience numerous times to interact with everyone there!

Go See It!! 

It's an incredibly fun, fun show! I recently read that someone called the Voca People "Blue Man Group meets Glee" and I'd have to say that's a pretty good tag line. I recommend going to see this show to everyone who loves music, laughs and having a good time.

If you are not in New York, or not visiting us any time soon - no worries! It seems the Voca People have been crash landing all over the planet! Check out their International Site to check out where you can find them!

Have you seen Voca People?

Do you have any shows you'd like to recommend that are fun, entertaining and great to share with a group?

What one show Broadway, or Off-Broadway have you been dying to see?

How to Enjoy Broadway for Next to Nothing

It may come as no surprise to you that I am currently strapped for cash. However, it is November 2011 and I know I am far from alone in that situation.

And, yet, last weekend I went to go see an Off-Broadway show. On Saturday night I was living the high life again, enjoying one of the finer things in life.

How did she do it?!! She has no money for that kind of thing!!

I hear you asking that question from here. If I were in your shoes, I'd be saying the same thing, but I have a secret. Today I want to share that secret with you.

My Secret 

The secret is StudentRush.org and their Will-Call Club. I found out about this gem the same way you are right now - I read a blog post from someone else (thank you New York Cliche!!!) who had enjoyed it. She claimed she was seeing Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for nothing.

I couldn't believe it.

I had to check it out for myself.

So I did. And guess what? When I get my StudentRush tickets, they actually say $0 on them! It's kind of amazing. All I have to pay is a reservation fee. The highest I have paid for that was $18 and that was for the last weekend of Bengal Tiger with Robin Williams! This weekend, I paid $5 per ticket. I don't know about you, but I can't get into a movie for that - scratch that - I can't even pay for the gas to get me to a movie for that!

How Does It Work?

When I made my first reservations with StudentRush this summer, I have to be honest, I was a little nervous. I was skeptical. As a native New Yorker I am not bred to believe in the "too good to be true" deals of a lifetime. My husband and I didn't tell anyone what we were up to just in case the plan came crashing down and we were made fools of.

In order to gt my tickets I had to meet some guy outside of a Starbucks a couple of hours before the show to pick up my tickets. Really? This had "shady" written all over it for me, but I embraced my sense of adventure and my seemingly insatiable for a a night out in these desperate financial times and went for it.

You already know what happened. I wouldn't be writing to you about this if it didn't - IT WAS A SUCCESS!! It was AWESOME!!

If you live near NYC, if you are planning to visit NYC, or you have family out here, then you need to check this site out and see all that it offers! I found this great video made by Frugal-Nomics describing the whole (FREE) process so you can come and enjoy the savings too!


StudentRush.org: A way for you to Stop and Enjoy the Culture from Frugal-nomics on Vimeo.

So now that you know my secret, perhaps we can meet up at a show!!

Which show would you love to see show up in the StudentRush Will-Call club?

Has the increasing price of theater tickets kept you away from the theater?

Check out tomorrow's post where I review this weekend's Off-Broadway show: Voca People!

Disgusting Delights [NaNoWriMo]

This post is here in response to this week's RemembeRED writing prompt from the Write On Edge blog. Here's the prompt:

This week, we’ve asked you to share with us a special recipe. But, we’ve asked you to do more than just list out ingredients.
We challenged you to take us back…to take us into your memory, in 500 words or less.

Although this is a fiction piece (a fun snippet from my unedited NaNoWriMo), it is largely inspired by any number of memories of my Mom and those really delicious (albeit disgusting) hot dogs we used to indulge in!

As much as Rachel didn’t want to admit it, her mom was right about just about everything. Not only was this kind of spending unreasonable for her, but both Becky and Zara realized it too. Becky said that her Mom gave her a similar lecture after she dropped Rachel and Zara off saying something along the lines of, “You barely have a college fund, don’t start dreaming that we’ll be funding these kinds of high school shinanigans for the next four years!” Zara said that she hadn’t bothered talking to her parents about it because she was still using her birthday money for everything, but that was running out fast.
 

When it came time for the Disgustingly Delicious Dogs, Becky looked as though she was struck dumb. “Wait a second, Mrs. A, what are these?” Her eyes gleamed with excitement.
 

Rachel’s mom relished every moment of it. This was exactly the type of reaction she deemed appropriate for such disgustingly delicious treats, “Well Becky, you see,” Rachel rolled her eyes as her mother played it up for her willing audience, “it all begins with a hot dog.”
 

“OK, I can see that, but what else?”
 

“Well then each dog is wrapped in a piece of bacon -“
 

“Ohmygosh,” Becky whispered all in one breath. Rachel and Zara laughed.
 

“Then I put them in the buns, in the oven and place some cheese slices on top! It’s disgusting. It’s delicious. And I must warn you - you can not eat these very often! But when you do, take time with them and enjoy…” Mrs. A, with her performance complete, stepped out of the dining room leaving her audience in olfactory awe.
 

“Rachel, for real, your mom is like my hero. I haven’t even bitten into this thing and it smells delicious.”
 

Zara, just swallowing her second bite, “Becky, she’s not kidding, take it slow. This is like the heaviest thing I’ve ever eaten in my life.”
 

Rachel laughed, “At the rate the three of us are going to gain 100 pounds in our first year of high school!”
 

Zara laughed, Becky couldn’t, she had just fallen back into her seat in some kind of food euphoria the likes of which Rachel had never seen before which just made her laugh even harder.

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

The following post is taken directly from my hand-printed Reader's Journal. I will be sharing these reflections each week on the Rivera Runs Through It blog. The date at the end of each post is the date of the original writing, which is typically the date I completed the book. The reflections are short, but represent my initial reactions to a book, a brief summary of the book or the questions it raised for me at the time. I hope you enjoy this segment in my blog and feel free to comment on what you read here.




Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom


OK, so I am still crying. What a great book about all the things we carelessly pass by in life. Morrie Schwartz, through Mitch Albom, educates each reader on how to live a truly rich life. "Once you learn to die, you learn to live" is one of the sayings from Mitch. However, once we have read this book and taken this advice, it is no longer necessary to wait for our deathbeds to have a revelation.

Dated: 07/08/02

What kinds of books/stories bring you to tears?

What if #14 [Writing Prompt]

Each week the Rivera Runs Through It blog presents a different "What If...?" question for you to explore.
 At the bottom of this post is a place for you to link up your own post about this week's question. If you have arrived at this post and the inlinkz tool is closed, or you don't have a blog, then please leave your response (or link) in the comment section below using DISQUS.

Happy pondering to everyone...

What IF #14:

What if you became your Halloween costume?

For the truly astute followers and readers, or long term friends and family that count themselves as readers, it will come as no surprise to you that I am a huge fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. (My beagle's name is Buffy.) However, I have not written about it all that much, so I felt the need to preface it here because this week's What if question is 100% inspired by an episode of this fantastic series.

Here's what I wore all day Halloween this year! :)

Here's a synopsis of the episode straight from IMDB:

It turns out that Halloween is the one night of the year when vampires actually lay low, so everybody is getting their costumes from the new store in town, Ethan's Costume Shop. Buffy wears a noble woman's dress from the time when Angel was human, Xander dresses up like a soldier, and Willow chickens out on dressing like a hooker and goes as a ghost. But Ethan Rayne, the shop owner, has invoked the Roman god Janus so everybody becomes their costume. That means all the kids in the neighborhood are now monsters and Buffy thinks she is an 18th-century maiden who faints at the sight of demons and vampires.

This episode happened early on in the series (Season 2) which led to some of the recurring characters being quite thoughtful about costume choices year after year. Well, I guess they got into my head, too! Now, whenever I get dressed up or am selecting a costume I start pondering what my life would be like if I woke up November 1st as that.

This year, I am getting my costume a little bit late (our annual Halloween party is scheduled for November 5th!), so I'm not even sure what fate I could possibly be dooming myself to, but in previous years there was

• Waldo from the Where's Waldo books (does this mean NO ONE would be able to find me again?!), 
• a Ghostbuster (would I be haunted and slimed for all of my remaining days?), 
• a ghost (would I have to die?!),
• Albert Einstein (would this lead to extreme intelligence, or, the cold-harsh reality: Albert Einstein is dead!). 

 As a child I had some other options, I dressed up as

• a Smurf (this seems like a disaster scenario!), 
• an old woman (how heartbreaking!), 
• a chef (perhaps the best possibility in this case... although I don't know if I was a good chef - I carried around a rubber chicken!), 
• a clown (I don't know how entertaining I find this idea...)
• a scarecrow (boooorrrrriiiinnnnngggg - Do I just have stand around all day??)
• a cat (would I be a stray, left on the streets, or be adopted into a loving home?)

and this would be really scary

• the Virgin Mary (I don't think I can handle the responsibility!!!)

There are so many more. I'm sure after I publish this post, some really fantastic ones will come to mind, but what about you? Did you dress up this year? If not, go ahead and use a costume of your past. Even better - do you have kids? Well, what if your cute little monsters turned into real little monsters, super heroes, princesses, pieces of fruit, fanciful insects, or whatever else they dressed up as this year?

Think about it.

It could be scary.

It might be funny.

In some cases, it might be just what you need (maybe I should dress up as an independently wealthy woman!).

Whatever it is - write a story about it and then link up below!

For a list of all of the What if questions asked so far, 

see The What If Prompts