Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because it is late and I must be up at seven because we start our tech at nine. I am hoping that traffic will not be too miserable. I am quite overtired as I had another one of “those” nights – I fell asleep at one-fifteen or so and for no reason at all I woke up at three-fifteen and could not get back to sleep until after five-thirty. I then slept until the doorbell rang just before nine – I couldn’t believe it – it was someone from a film crew that is once again disrupting this neighborhood, asking me if he could pay me to let the cast and crew have lunch on my lawn. I told him absolutely not. I went back to bed and just stayed there until about ten. So, not nearly enough sleep.
By that time, I’d already gotten the rest of the music to the singers, and then I wrote a pre-show announcement for Abner that I’m having Mayor Dawgmeat read – it’s pretty funny. Then I had a meatless Cobb salad and a bagel, came home, got ready, and then was on my way to LACC for our paper tech.
That took about ninety minutes – it’s not my favorite thing to do, but it was good for me to be there to clarify many things as we went through each cue. Then it was time for our run-through. Many in the cast had already arrived to do some quick-change rehearsals. I should also point out that the temperature was in the high 90s.
The run-through was actually quite smooth in terms of pacing and energy and getting from one scene to the next. But the floor had been painted and all the tape marks the cast had been used to were gone so many scenes were played off their marks – we put tape down that will stay down for the rest of the time. Some of the lines were still being fumfered, but that’s to be expected and will hopefully abate by tomorrow. The first act ran four minutes longer than before all due to the overture being played. Otherwise, the pace was crackerjack. Act two had a few problems, but nothing major. I did re-block one entrance to make it easier on everyone. We also played the entr’acte and everyone has gotten the sense of the show and how its motor works. The cast gets better and better and my notes are just nitpicky things right now.
As soon as we finished, I blocked the curtain call. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but after about a minute I hit on something I liked and from there it was very easy to decide who bowed when. Kay cleaned some of it up, and I added a couple of character bits to certain people’s bows. Then we ran just a couple of things, I gave notes, Kay gave hers and that was that.
After, some of us went to the local pizza jernt where I had a couple of pieces of pizza. It was like a sauna outside.
Today, we begin cue-to-cue at nine, and we’re hoping we can be done in four hours, but even if we went to five hours we’d still have time for a break and a full run-through, which is my hope. It really depends on how much time we spend on each cue, but this show has very few light cues for a huge show, under 100. I’m sure some of us will go eat afterwards.
Tomorrow we have our first dress rehearsal. I’m sure that will be both interesting and a little crazy, but hopefully we won’t have to stop. After that, I may or may not have a nice meal out. Sunday is a complete day of rest until I go to The Federal to see Terri White. Monday is our final dress rehearsal and I’m also hoping we can announce two titles that morning, Tuesday is our preview, Wednesday we open, Thursday is matinee and evening, Friday is evening, Saturday is matinee and then our closing performance, which I’m told is almost sold out, which apparently is very unusual for LACC.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a cue-to-cue tech, which I’m praying will go smoothly and quickly – if it does, then we’ll be able to do a full-out run-through. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – I have no idea. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which we’re in tech – send some excellent vibes and xylophones for light traffic.