Well, dear readers, I’m just home at midnight from a very long day, and I still have stuff to pack up, so I’ll try not to be too long-winded, on this, the last night at the old house. Doing all this stuff at one time has been an experience, I’ll say that.
I did get eight hours of sleep, so that was good. Once up, I did the morning stuff, found out the phone was now working in the new hours, so that was good, then had to get cleaned up and on my way to LACC for our band rehearsal. We got a late start because it took a while to get everyone miked and set up, but it went pretty smoothly after that. Lanny’s orchestrations are absolutely stellar and I really only had one note and it wasn’t about what he wrote but about a synth sound he had for one song. Then the cast arrived and we began the sitzprobe – it, too, went pretty smoothly and I know the cast had a great time hearing the charts. But we were behind going into that and so we finished later than we should have and then had to give an hour meal break. So, we didn’t really start our run-through until almost eight, a full forty-five minutes later than planned. The lighting was still in rough shape but got better as we went along. Cues were also rough because our stage manager couldn’t get people to hear them because too many people were talking on the headset at once. The pace of the show was fine, but some rough singing, and once again actors either not understanding notes we gave or simply forgetting to do them. I did get irritated going into act two because the curtain going up cue was so wrong and annoying that I actually stopped them and made them do it until it was right – three times in all.
We were also seeing costumes for the first time – not quite finished yet, but they’re really nice and actors were having to get used to some very fast changes. Kay and I took lots of detailed notes, many of mine specifically about lighting. We gave them all after the run, which took quite a bit of time but it needed to be done. I came straight home and here I am writing the last notes at the old house. But I have at least an hour of packing up to do once I post these already thirty-minute late notes.
Today, I’ll be up by seven-thirty, pack up the computer, the printer, the modem, the speakers, the router and all that stuff and I have to be at the new house by eight for the arrival of the Spectrum Man. Hoping that happens earlier than later but it’s a two-hour window, I think. Once everything is up and running properly, then I’ll probably make one quick run back here to do a walk-through of the house to make sure we got everything. The helper and the helpers get here around nine, I think, and it really should only be one trip. I do have to get all the bedding packed, too, but that can’t be till morning, obviously. I have another helper coming to the new house at noon to help get the garage in order and maybe help unpack some of the inside the house boxes so we can get that stuff put away. I originally wasn’t going to have to be at LACC before six, but we really have to run every note that Kay and I gave because we give them but they’re not sticking. So, we’ll have ninety minutes for that, an hour meal break, and then we do our final dress rehearsal with hopefully good lighting. And we have our band, too. And then I will spend my first night at the new house.
Tomorrow we have our invited dress but we won’t have more than twenty or thirty people, if that. But it will be good to see what that small reaction is and good for the cast to hear it. So I don’t have to be to LACC until about six or six-thirty, so I’ll have all day to fix up stuff at the new house. Thursday is the same and then we have our first preview. Then Friday is our gala (or semi-gala) opening night. We play two shows on Saturday, and then I will have a solid week to myself and getting the new house in order.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up early, pack up the computer and all accouterments, and go to the new house, get the Internet up and running and everything set up there, then we do the big move part two, which is basically just the bedroom stuff and whatever odds and ends are left, I’ll unpack stuff a bit, pick up mail if I have time, and then we have a little rehearsal and then our final dress rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: You’re on your own as I must post and get packed. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I bid a fond farewell to the old house that I’ve lived in for the past fourteen years, and start a new adventure in the new house.