Well, dear readers, the clock is ticking. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, the clock is ticking and time is inexorable and there is no stopping the ticking of the clock. We are down to the wire, Brain-wise, for we only have a run-through this evening, a run-through with some sort of audience tomorrow and then we open. I wish I could say I were feeling completely confident that everything will work wonderfully, and perhaps I’ll feel more so after this evening’s second dress rehearsal. But, for now I feel antsy about certain technical aspects of the show – everyone is working really hard to get things to work the way I feel they should, so hopefully that work will pay off sooner rather than later. It’s always unnerving to work in this sort of pressure cooker atmosphere, but thankfully I did my homework and had the show in run-throughs after the second week of rehearsal – therefore, the cast is doing fine and the show’s pace hasn’t really suffered yet, except for some slow scene shifts, which must get smoother. There are some serious sound issues right now, but I’m hoping those will be smoothed out as well, also sooner than later. It’s daunting, I know, to try and learn the show, mix-wise, and also try to get proper blends on the band, all in a very short period of time. Speaking of a short period of time, that’s all we’ve got left because the clock is ticking. Speaking of ticking, yesterday ticked by pretty darn quickly. For example, I woke up very early, got some more packages addressed, and then had to pick up my helper, who managed to get all but the latest orders out. I’ll take the thirty orders that have come in in the last two days over to the post office this morning, and then I’ll be all caught up and I should be able to keep pace with any further orders. I also had to ship a couple of bigger packages via UPS, plus pick up my mail, plus catch up on any number of things, plus buy more shipping supplies, plus answer a ton of e-mails.
After that, I grabbed a bite to eat, then toddled over to LACC. We ran through all the act one cues and fixed everything that needed to be fixed. Then it was time for our first dress rehearsal with the full band, too. Sound was an issue from the get go, and one of the first important light cues, which had been totally correct in the afternoon was totally wrong – I just don’t get how that could have happened, since I saw it right just an hour before the run. Once we got into the opening number, things improved immediately, light-wise. We have to really clean up some prerecorded sound things – they were really off last night. Some of the scene shifts worked very well, and some of the numbers worked very well. There are about three scene shifts, which are basically disasters, and those we’ll be fixing and running until they’re absolutely correct. The first act ran about an hour and five minutes, which is about five minutes longer than I want. There were some very good performance things, and some very sloppy performance things – people are still getting used to working with lights, and props, and sound, but we’re down to the wire and as I told them in our notes session, they’ve just got to play the show and not worry about the externals around them. After the run, I wanted the band to stay for fifteen minutes to try and get the sound better. A couple of them gave me a very hard time, which I did not appreciate in the least – I am now thinking about replacing one of them after Saturday’s performance. They’re getting paid good money but, you know, as my musical director told me, they’re professional musicians and all they care about is the money and the exact time they were contracted for. Bully for them – only it’s very short-sighted and very ignorant to be hard-nosed over fifteen minutes, when they’re working for someone who could give them a lot of employment. I was especially dispirited by the attitude of one of them, who is unfortunately married to someone I know – I will be having a strong talk with him today, and I’d replace him in a heartbeat if this is what it’s like to work with him. I wasn’t asking these guys to stay for an hour or even a half-hour – we were having sound problems and their attitude was basically, “that’s not our problem.” Not what you want to say to me and I was thoroughly nauseated by it. However, I will not let it bug me and hopefully the attitudes will be better this evening.
After the rehearsal, I had another bite to eat, and then I came home, where I sat in front of my laptop like so much fish. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, as we all know, the clock is ticking and time waits for no man, woman, child, or small animal.
As noted, this morning I’ll try and get out the rest of the packages, including two big International orders. After that, I must really do a plethora of things before going to LACC at four. At four, we will run scene shifts, and then my musical director and I will talk through some incidental music cues (which Larry is scoring with incredible alacrity), and I must also figure out exactly where our second keyboard player will be playing the theremin (yes, Virginia, we have a real theremin in the show). Then between six and seven we begin our run-through, our final dress/tech before our one and only preview. The clock, as some wag said, is ticking, baby.
Have I mentioned that the clock is ticking, like a gazelle doing the Wah-Watusi. The clock is also ticking for my soon-to-be new age.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, ship packages, do errands, drive about in my motor car, work with tech and musical director, work with sound designer, and then watch a dress/tech rehearsal. 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, for the clock is ticking and time waits for no one.