Well, dear readers, I am eating Swedish Fish. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence? Nowhere, that’s where. Are Swedish Fish really from Sweden? And, if so, why? Or was it an arbitrary decision to call little red gummy fish-shaped candies Swedish? And, if so, why didn’t they call them Guatemalan Fish or French Fish or Danish Fish? What about these fish is particularly Swedish. Were they invented by Sven Bjorgen, the man who invented the Swedish Meatball? Mr. Bjorgen was quite a prolific inventor, and also invented Swedish Cows and Swedish Pigs, although the latter never really caught on. You know, if anyone has a clew as to what the HELL I’m going on about, please don’t tell anyone, especially me. All I know is that I’m eating Swedish Fish because I need a sugar high right now because yesterday was long and arduous, not necessarily in that order. The day began with me waking up, which was both long and arduous. I had to jog right away, then attend a casting session – we saw really good people today and have narrowed our choices down to four – we’ll make a decision by tomorrow. After that, I had to hie myself to LACC for our cast/band rehearsal, which went very well – the cast was so energized by hearing the orchestrations and the terrific band. We’re still making tiny adjustments, but it’s all coming together quite wonderfully – which is more than I can say for the tech on this show, which continues to be arduous and much too laborious. The first act went okay, with missed cues and such, but basically most of the cues being correct. I could not hear the piano (we’re now using the keyboards), and I could barely hear bass and drums (both bass player and drummer stayed to do the run-through, gratis), and no amount of my saying so got it fixed. The cast had no band in the stage monitors, so they’re singing was ragged. The second act, almost every cue was either incorrectly written or called, and I frankly didn’t understand why? After the run-through, we kept the cast, I bought pizzas for everyone, and we painstakingly went through every cue, rewrote what was wrong, and fixed what needed to be fixed. We then had the cast come in and it all seemed to work okay. Now, if only the light board remembers it, so that we never have to do that again. Our stage manager is still getting used to calling the cues, and she’s a great gal and we adore her. She’s finally understanding that she’s got to be ahead of the curve the entire time – no time to think, to dwell, or to puzzle over something. Cues happen one after another, and frequently it’s just a succession of cues that fly by like a gazelle in a perambulator. So, it was a long, frustrating night for the tech side of things. The sound mixer was very confused about the band sound. I told her that there was no piano sound coming from the house speakers, and she tried to convince me there was but that she just had it low. I said, turn it up then and she couldn’t get it any louder. Then the pianist came down and asked her if she’d actually plugged in his keyboard to her system. Oops (spoo, spelled backwards). I told her that she must never question my ears again. She finally plugged in his keyboard and got louder sound, which she again tried to tell me was coming through the house speakers. I made her come down to where the speakers were and stand with me – there was no piano sound coming from there – she then realized that something had been incorrectly patched – she fixed it and voila, we finally had piano sound. It’s not her job to design and/or do all this patching herself, and I had to write a strong e-mail to our sound designer, telling her (not asking) that she had to show up for tonight’s run-through and fix whatever needs to be fixed. After that, I finally came home, and, as you all know, I immediately ate some Swedish Fish.
My goodness, that was an endless paragraph, wasn’t it? Perhaps we’d all better click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get up early to pick someone up, said someone who will be going to the post office with all the packages (I don’t have time to deal with it).
Today, after depositing helper at the post office, I need to do some errands and whatnot (I haven’t been over to the mail place in days), and catch up on a bunch of stuff before going to LACC at three. Tonight is our first dress rehearsal, and I’m sure that will bring its share of frustrations, too, but hopefully the tech end of the show will run smoother. Then we have a second dress/tech tomorrow night, and then a preview with audience on Thursday night. And then we open. It’s nerve wracking without more than one preview – crazy and insane, really, but that’s the way it is and all we can do is do our best.
I have eaten so many Swedish Fish I feel like I’m Ingmar Bergman or even Ingrid Bergman. I’m definitely on a sugar high right now and may have to do the Jitterbug before toddling off to bed.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, pick up a helper, deposit him at the post office with three huge baggies of packages along with about five larger packages, I must jog, I must do errands and whatnot, and then I must attend a dress rehearsal of The Brain From Planet X. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite non-chocolate candies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I polish off the last of the Swedish Fish.