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May 8, 2016:

SO IT IS WRITTEN, SO IT SHALL BE DONE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I wish I could tell you that yesterday was a drama-free wonderful run-through with lighting day, but alas, I cannot tell you that, even though there was certainly some lovely work being done. The actor who was in danger of being let go was dismissed after act one, for reasons I really don’t want to go into publicly – it was not a good situation but I actually didn’t have to deal with it at all. It was dealt with swiftly by the faculty and our stage manager – it didn’t, by the way, involve any of the student actors. I assigned that actor’s act two stuff to others so that we could run that act. There were the usual tech mishaps and slow or too quick light cues, and I had notes about some stuff that really needed to be adjusted. We’re having a problem with a few actors not being able to deal with the brightness of the lights in this theater, mostly due to the angle the stage is on and where the spotlight has to be along with our four moving lights – much closer and at a much more severe angle than is usual, so we have to adjust all that stuff because if an actor is uncomfortable and is being blinded they’re not going to give much of a performance.

In act two, we were going to give our assistant stage manager the chance to do Doug Haverty’s wonderful monologue about LA and neon – this guy really gave it a good try but it’s just too late in the game for him to properly learn it and then to do it at the pace it needs with the kind of performance it needs – so as hard as it was for me, I had to cut it from the show, knowing that if we move or do a sit-down production it will go back in. But once it was cut, it caused all kinds of other problems in terms of the act’s structure and who does what where and when. So, I spent my evening hours dealing with that – I did many variations, all of which were problematic because of who does what where and when, but I finally hit on an order that I think will work, and perhaps in terms of song structure, work even better. Having to move the song about The Black Dahlia earlier in the act is radical but I think the song will work better in the earlier slot and it will lighten up the last third of the act not having it where it originally was. Once I got that, I sent the new order to our stage manager and our lighting guy, as they’ll have to swap three or four cues to get the new order – shouldn’t be too too hard.

Robert Yacko, who was on the mend, got sicker – hopefully after a day-and-a-half off he’ll be back to rights, and hopefully so will our other under the weather cast members. This all came about because the shared actors were around a bunch of sick actors in their other show. I brought Sambucol for everyone, but you really have to take it religiously along with Airborne to have it work. I’m really hoping the day off will do everyone a world of good.

So, besides the occasional tech gaffes and some low energy, many of the numbers worked well, and as soon as we get the projections right, that’s going to look really great. After the run, we did address some of the blinding lights situation. It only seems to affect a few of the actors – Yacko, for example, has no problems nor did I when I stood in the light. Anyway, it will all get worked out. So, next step – costumes and all the props.

I did get about nine hours of sleep, so that was nice, and the little soreness in my throat was thankfully gone. After rehearsal, I went and had some chicken soup, a turkey sandwich, and a few sweet potato fries. I then came home and spent hours figuring out the new order, sending it to those that needed it, and reconfiguring the script.

Today, I shan’t do a damn thing but relax and zone out. I’ll see if any packages have come in, and I’ll probably get some food to either make or that’s ready from Gelson’s, rather than go anywhere. I’m sure I’ll watch a movie or three, but mostly I’ll relax.

Tomorrow I’ll also relax until it’s time to go to LACC – I may go in a couple of hours early, around three, just to get the projections right, in terms of timing and when I want them and when I don’t want them. Then we’ll do our first dress rehearsal. Tuesday is our second dress, Wednesday is final dress with some invited folks, Thursday is a preview, and Friday we open this thing finally.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do not much of anything but relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that all the unnecessary drama is now at an end and that it will be smooth sailing from here on in. So it is written, so it shall be done.

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