Well, dear readers, when I should have been home and relaxing by four-thirty, and getting ready for the recording session this morning, where, in fact, was I? I wasn’t home relaxing by four-thirty because I was in the parking lot of our theater with a motor car with a dead battery. I finally called AAA and they finally got someone on their way to me and told me they’d be there by six-twenty. Yes, you heard that right. My sound guys stayed. It five-thirty I called AAA and told them there was ash and smoke and I was getting quite sick waiting that long. They said they’d try and expedite, and then I got texts saying he’d be there by six. At six-ten he arrived – apparently his boss neglected to give him the call until 5:45. The battery was indeed completely drained, which led him to believe that something in the car was left on. And I realized exactly what had happened. When I use the fob to lock the car, it gives a little beep. When I got to the theater in the morning, I pressed it and heard it lock, but no beep. That has happened a couple of times when I’ve come home at night. And in checking out I’ve noted that the interior lights never shut off, so I’d have to start the car, stop it, and then use the fob and then I’d get the beep. But at night it’s easy to tell that’s what’s going on because you can see it. It’s obviously what happened but because it was daylight I simply didn’t put two and two together. And the dead battery was the result. So, I lost two hours of my evening, which I found incredibly irritating. I was ornery because I hadn’t eaten, but he warned me I needed to keep the car running for an hour. I finally left the theater around six-twenty and it twenty minutes to get home. I kept the motor running while I went in the house and answered e-mails and did a few things on the Internet. At five after eight I left and drove to a gas station near Jerry’s Deli – by the time I got there and to the pump and paid it was eight-twenty, which was an hour. I filled up the tank, then went to Jerry’s and got some matzoh ball soup, a little thing of chicken salad and a couple of pieces of rye bread. I personally find rye bread wry, don’t you? I came right home and ate up every bit of it, as I was famished.
By that time it was too late to watch anything, so instead I listened to music and just tried to zone out. Prior to all that, I’d gotten seven hours of sleep, then I moseyed on over to the theater for our ten o’clock cue-to-cue, which began at ten-thirty. First I cleaned up a couple of things. Then we began. It took longer than I wanted it, too, but there were cues that had to be cleaned up, especially audio cues and levels – it was important to get it right. At around noon-thirty everyone was in costume and the fun-through began. And the first music cue was wrong, so we had to stop and start over again. Once we got going, it was pretty smooth sailing with only a few flubbed light cues and sound cues – but we didn’t stop. There were two late entrances caused by quick changes that weren’t quick, so we’re addressing how to simplify those so they can get done without the actors being either late or harried. Some of it was quite fun, the pace was pretty good, a little low energy from a couple of folks, and our sick actress was back and feeling much better, so it was a 24-hour thing.
After we finished, I gave whatever notes I had, added a blackout at the end of the finale, as I didn’t like seeing them get into the curtain call formation, plus it just seemed to need the blackout button. I restaged a bit of the first of Kay Cole’s numbers – not the actual staging, but just repositioning the two singers in it to get them in front of mics at the front of the stage. I had to do that a few times for scenes or numbers. The scene changes all went very smoothly. I’d already decided we weren’t going to do a second fun-through because the cue-to-cue had taken too long, and I didn’t want anyone pushing their voices too much before our recording session. After that, you know what happened, and I’m taking my preventatives because I was out in the cold, smoky air for too damn long.
Today, I’ll be up by eight, I’ll shower, and then Doug is coming at nine and will drive us to the session. We’ll hopefully get there by nine-thirty. Our downbeat is at ten, and we start with the group numbers – the opening, a party number, a nightmare sequence, and the finale. And even though I probably won’t use it on the CD, I’ll record the little interlude/scene changes that the kids sing in. Then I’ll move on to the two duets. After that, it’s all solos. I’m hoping we’ll be done by three, four at the latest. Then I’ll come home and REST.
Tomorrow is a holiday and our day off, and I’m sleeping in as late as I can and will do not one iota of anything but relax. Tuesday I have a lunch meeting and then we’re back for our final dress/tech, with a small invited audience. Wednesday and Thursday are previews (I’m hoping we can fill those houses), and then Friday is opening night and the start of our opening weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a recording session, eat, and 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 to have no more dead battery problems and a fun recording session.