Well, dear readers, I am once again home quite late. I was prepared to start writing these here notes immediately, but I kept hearing a beeping sound. I realized it was the smoke detector, which meant the battery was dead. I got a screwdriver and undid the plate, but no battery was in sight. I then removed this black circular thing and all hell broke loose. Yes, Virginia, all hell broke loose – my security system, which I didn’t think was connected, began an obnoxious continuous beep and a loud voice told me that there was a problem with fire station three. No amount of button pushing could stop it. I tried to hook up the black thing I’d taken off, finally got it back on and it made no difference. I went into the closet and found the main security system and pulled the wires out of the battery. No help. The beeping and voice continued unabated. I thought this way madness lies and I finally got so angry that I took a screw driver to the control center panel – I got that face plate off and a bunch of wires were revealed. I then got out a lovely pair of scissors and cut the wires and the consarned beeping and voice finally stopped and I had blessed silence. I’ll have the handyman come out and fix it all up, but it wasted about twenty-five minutes all told. I simply don’t know why they can’t make these things so that replacing a battery is simple and effortless. To have to basically dismantle an entire security system seems to me ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, yesterday was a busy, busy day filled with busy, busy things from start to finish. For example, I woke up at seven, which wasn’t busy, only annoying. I went back to bed at seven-thirty and fell right back asleep and got up at nine-thirty. That, of course, put me behind, and then it was busy busy from that moment on. I had to answer a bunch of e-mails, I had to make several long and involved telephonic calls and I had to deal with several Brain matters. I finally got over to Staples and purchased many packages of shipping envelopes, but I was so behind at that point that I didn’t get any of them addressed. I finally had to toddle off to LACC and rehearsal. One of our guest actors wasn’t there at all yesterday, which was a surprise to me and which didn’t please me one bit. I thought we had said person for at least part of the day – the fact is no one told me otherwise. I have made it clear that that is the last time that’s happening from here until the end of the run and woe to the person who tries to pull a fast one on me. We spent the afternoon working on scenes and numbers, basically cleaning them up, adding stuff, and tightening. Some really good things happened and everyone seemed in good spirits. We then had our evening run-through, which was the best we’ve had – maybe not the funniest, but the smoothest and most show-like, with the cast really beginning to play the play and feel the pace and energy that’s going to be needed. I think they felt it when it was right and I think they felt it when it wasn’t, which is an important step. A couple of performances really began to come alive and that made me very happy. After rehearsal, I got a bite to eat and then came home where I really wanted to sit on my couch like so much fish, but instead had to rip apart my non-working working security system, which I now need to have fixed.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m exhausted and I must attempt to get my beauty sleep so I may look fetching and enticing for those who may or may not care about such things as fetching and enticing.
Today, I must be at LACC at noon to paper tech our show – I know it’s going to be energy-draining, but the more prep work I do with our lighting designer, the better it’s going to be, since the whole lighting thing is about three days behind schedule. At three-thirty we’ll continue our scene and song work, doing additional fixing and restaging and tightening and in the evening we’ll have a full-cast run-through.
The Skip E. Lowe show I was going to do on Friday has been cancelled, but hopefully it will be rescheduled for next week. I still need to hear from people who think they’ve made reservations because some of them have been lost – for instance, there is no MusicGuy and Kerry reservation, so I need to know if they’re only coming to the Saturday evening show and, if so, how many tickets they need. Opening night is shaping up nicely – I’ve personally got fifty people coming, and my grand pal Miss Cindy Williams just confirmed her attendance.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, get a security system re-wired, paper tech, rehearse, and run-through, as well as do a bunch of errands prior to noon. Tomorrow, perhaps I’ll actually be able to write notes with some flair and élan and pith instead of these perfunctory notes that just plod on like a gazelle in a too-tight girdle. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers, shall we, as I act as my own personal smoke detector until said smoke detector is fixed. In fact, just call me BK – Smoke Detector.