Well, dear readers, we had our first dress rehearsal and we are here to tell the tale. Technically we did the show without stopping, but the pace was off because the light cues are still not quite being timed properly, which is imperative with this show. But it’s kind of a tech heavy show for the stage manager, who is not only calling the light cues but the projection cues, as well, and there are a lot of those. But timing a blackout properly is as important in terms of getting a laugh as a “take” or a line reading – it has to be done at just the right time. She’ll get it, I’m sure, and hopefully tonight’s dress will be smoother in that regard. We will run some of the harder ones prior to the full dress.
Whenever you add yet another element to the mix it can throw folks off, and that happened a few times with the costumes. I liked many of them, and wasn’t so happy with others, but I gave my notes and that will all hopefully be fixed by tonight’s dress. It’s basic stuff, really – having costumes that move and aren’t tight for the dance numbers, having a little more color every now and then, making some quick changes easier on the actors, and getting a couple more flattering looks for our ladies. But the basics are all there and I don’t think any of it will be that hard to fix.
Even with the roughness, the first act came in right at fifty-five minutes, and now act two finally is also coming in at fifty-five, but that also includes the entr’acte and bows music, so really the act proper is running around fifty-two minutes. But both acts will tighten up as the tech elements tighten up. Our sound designer and engineer were in attendance and taking lots and lots of notes. There were many parts of the show that played really well, so that was heartening – we just need to have joy, energy, and fun, my three words that everyone must adhere to. The new running order of act two seemed to work really well, although I had to change the person doing one of the announcement shticks because the new order made it impossible for the actor who was doing it.
Prior to all that, I’d slept nine-and-a-half hours. Once up, the helper came by, and then I did computer stuff, then went and had an omelet and a bagel. After that, I picked up a package and an Amazon package from the UK that had been sliced open and had its contents removed. Nice to know that there are still little thieves working for the USPS. I wrote Amazon UK and they’re dispatching a replacement package.
Once I was at LACC, I sat with our set designer and we went through all the projections – talking about timing, swapping out images, and smoothing all of that out, and during the dress they worked really well – they’re a huge asset to the show, I must say. We also adjusted a couple of light cues. After I gave notes, I came right home. I had a snack of salami slices and cheese slices whilst catching up on everything.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after another good night’s beauty sleep. I’ll probably go do my early lunch, and then I’ll pick Lanny up around three and we’ll go to LACC. Once there, I’ll hopefully see the newly painted stuff on the set (all the facing stuff on the steps and sides of the set are getting painted in different shades of blue), and at four I’ll spend thirty minutes running some light cues and blackouts as well as a couple of sketches for rhythm purposes. At five-thirty or thereabouts someone is coming in to film the opening number for publicity purposes. The band will be set up and we’ll also do sound check around then – busy time and I suspect we’ll actually start the dress rehearsal closer to six-thirty, which is fine.
Tomorrow is more of the same and our final dress. Thursday I do a radio interview at one, then I’ll mosey on over to LACC for our preview. Any loose ends we’ll take care of pre show, and Sami’s mom, Karen, an excellent photographer, is coming in to shoot the show and I’ll finally be able to post some damn stills for you dear readers. Then Friday night, we open.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, pick up Lanny and go to LACC, work on a few things, film the opening number, and then add sound and musicians to the mix and do our second dress rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: What dried fruits and what nutmeats are your favorites? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy we got through our first dress rehearsals with no real disasters.