Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle eating unleavened bread. Yesterday was one of those really long days where you’re just ready to collapse by the end of it. However, I did not collapse, nor did I eat unleavened bread. I did have a productive but slow work session with our musical director of the Kritzerland show – there are several put-togethers in this show, so we had to do those, figure out arrangements for others and we only got halfway through, so we’ll do the rest on Wednesday or Thursday.
That took up most of the morning and by the time we were through, I just have enough time to shave and shower before having to mosey on over to LACC and our Abner rehearsal. I knew we have about five or six scenes to do, and my plan was to get through them quickly so I could restage the opening of Typical Day. But alas, these were not ordinary scenes – Li’l Abner has some of the longest book scenes ever written – they sometimes go on for ten to twelve pages and one has to negotiate thirty-five people in these scenes. I began with a relatively short scene and got through that in about twenty minutes, then moved on to another scene, this one a bit longer, and got through that. But then we had two humungous scenes of twelve pages each and that just fried my brain. I came up with a clever way of doing it but boy – that many pages in one day just is a little overwhelming, at least in four hours. I did one thing that I found baffling but came up with a fun and pretty good solution to it. And I did several small things to get them out of the way, but that still left me two really long scenes and those have to push to another day. However, since five of our cast members are opening in another play this week, I won’t even get them until next Monday, which means they’ll be playing catch up, but they’ve been told they have to come in knowing their blocking (we’ve been videoing everything and also all of it is written down). Because of that, we had the designer run-through, which was supposed to be on Friday, moved to the following Thursday. We’ll definitely be able to run the entire show by then.
I did save twenty minutes to restage the opening of It’s a Typical Day, which I did – I had an idea for a cute visual gag, and it indeed worked very well, and I just made everything more general and to the audience, which is really what the song is about – introducing the world of Dogpatch and its denizens. By seven, I was ready to drop.
Then a few of us went to House of Pies. I had a small salad with ranch dressing, a BLT-A and a short stack of two pancakes, my first food of the day. It was nice to unwind with nice people. Then I came home, answered a plethora of e-mails, and then continued writing the Kritzerland show commentary. I got most of the way through it – just four things left and I can finish those this evening for sure.
Today, I have a work session with Sandy and Lanny, our final one for at least a month, so we have to lock down all the arrangements so Lanny can begin orchestrating. Then it’s directly to rehearsal – it’s another choreography day for four hours. We have to do Rag Offen the Bush, which will take most of the day. If we have time left over, we’ll review stuff, and maybe finish the little bit of It’s a Typical Day that still needs to be restaged. The final half of the number is fine as is.
Tomorrow, more long scenes to do and my goal is to finish them all. On Thursday, I think we’ll have five or six to do, but they’ll be the shorter ones. Then on Friday, we convene at eleven to do the Sadie Hawkins’ Day ballet, which will probably take at least half the day. Then we’ll finish off whatever scenes we haven’t done and hopefully when we begin on Monday, we’ll start assembling the show and working in the five missing cast members. I’d like to begin run-throughs on Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. That leaves us three solid weeks of run-throughs, which is great.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Twist, because today is the birthday of dear reader Sandra, who used to hang around these here parts where she delighted everyone. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Sandra, who used to hang around these here parts where she delighted everyone. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER SANDRA, WHO USED TO HANG AROUND THESE HERE PARTS WHERE SHE DELIGHTED EVERYONE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a Sandy and Lanny work session, have a choreography rehearsal, eat, and finish the commentary. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies seen in a movie theater had the loudest and longest laughter you’ve ever heard? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall gird my loins for yet more long book scenes.