Well, dear readers, as they say in the show business, the best laid plans. Last night we were supposed to have our full company for the first time since last Sunday. And yet, we did not, because one performer who’s been away since Monday e-mailed us and said she hadn’t slept well during the week, the plane was delayed, and was too tired to come. After venting at poor Doug for an hour the previous night about all these things, when I got that news I just laughed it off because at this point it’s a joke and all I can do is get the show as good as I can after having lost a full five days when we should have gotten everything in better shape and I should have been getting the performances where they need to be. So, we were ahead and now we’re not and whether I can get everything I need done is anyone’s guess, although I did announce to the company that after Monday, where one person is gone, we can have no more absences, excuses, conflicts and that I recommended strongly that no one come to me with any of that. It impacts the show, the rest of the company, and especially the folks who have never missed. All that said, we did do a run-through and it wasn’t half bad – the pace was better, some good work was done and there was some growth. When we got to the sequence where the performer was missing, someone read the lines from off-stage. The show ran eighty-nine minutes. I’m going to tighten it by another two minutes if I can get a few actors to pick up their pace, and then I think when audiences are there we’ll end up right around ninety minutes, which is exactly what I want. I took notes and gave them after and then I adjusted the staging of the show’s eleven o’clock number and my adjust it further after I see how the first adjustments work. We wrapped by eight-thirty, thirty minutes early.
Prior to that, I got almost eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, and then went and had some chicken tenders for my main meal o’ the day. They were pretty good. Then I picked up some packages and was dismayed that the pension check wasn’t there – very upsetting because if I don’t get it today and get it in the bank, things are going to be VERY difficult this weekend and I do mean VERY difficult. I did call and there’s nothing they can do at this point but hope it arrives soon. If not, next week they’ll stop payment and issue a new check.
And then I had a run-in with some bully-boy who lives a block and a half south of me. I’ve written about this phenomenon before and others have concurred having seen the exact same thing – this idiocy where people outside their homes eyeball drivers and scream at them to slow down and not speed when said drivers are well within the speed limit and frequently well under it. It’s disgusting and I will admit to getting out of my car to confront these people about it. So, I turn right onto my street and am driving up the block (there’s a stop sign at the end) to get to my house, which is a block north of where I was. Some piece of crap is watering and approaches my car and starts spraying it with water and screaming to slow down and various vile epithets. I always assess who is doing the yelling and decide if I want a confrontation or not, and this guy looked like a real mental case so I kept on driving. When he first sprayed the car I immediately looked at my speedometer – I was going all of twenty miles per hour (the posted speed limit is, of course, thirty-five). He began walking up the street. I pulled into my driveway and went in the house. About a minute later he was pounding on my door and the outer walls of the house, screaming, “I’m going to F-word you up.” I responded not and instead went directly to the phone and called 911. I told them what was happening and the lady suggested I stay in the house and that she’d send officers. The guy eventually left, or I presumed he did since it was silent out there. The officers showed up about twenty-five minutes later. They were really nice and I explained exactly what had happened and they completely commiserated with what happened and said even if I HAD been speeding, it’s not this guy’s place to scream and threaten. They also understood that when turning right onto that block it is literally impossible to get up enough speed to be speeding before you hit the stop sign at the end of the block. They asked if I knew the address, which I didn’t, but I described him as best I could and said it was exactly halfway between that block on my side of the street and that there would probably be a lot of water in front of his house where he’d been watering. They told me to call them if he made another peep.
About twenty minutes later the officers called to tell me they’d found the house but that the idiot was either gone or not answering his door – I suspect the latter. So, they now have his address, which is great, and again they told me to call immediately if there are any further altercations. That drama I didn’t need, let me tell you that.
Then I listened to some music, did some work on the computer, and got ready to mosey on over to the theater for our six o’clock run-through, which began at six-thirty. After that, I came right home, ate a couple of pieces of Halloween candy (since I’d only had the small chicken tenders and was intending not to eat any more food), and relaxed as much as I could.
Today I’ll be up early, she of the Evil Eye will be here, and I have to leave right away for our ten o’clock rehearsal. I’m intending to do a run-through, give notes, work stuff, and be done by one. Then I’ll hopefully pick up the pension check and get it to the bank before they close. Then I have to come back home and get ready for our four o’clock Kritzerland stumble-through. After that, I’m going out for a nice meal because I believe I deserve such a meal. Then I’ll relax and perhaps watch something.
Tomorrow is another ten o’clock rehearsal, which we’ll wrap at one or one-thirty, at which point I’ll come right home and get ready for the Kritzerland show. I’ll mosey on over to Vitello’s for sound check and then we do our show. I would be a basket case with all this stuff going on and these early rehearsals, but thankfully for only the second time in our eight years and ninety-three shows I don’t have to do the running commentary. Then on Monday we begin our week of run-throughs – we are missing someone on Monday but have someone to cover, then we’re off on Tuesday, but as of Wednesday no one will want to miss anything further OR be late because at that point I will drop any niceties and do what I have to do bring this show to the finish line and have it be what I want, which is, after all, my job. Then on Friday I paper tech all day, and then we do a full-on tech without stopping, we’ll note problems, and then do fixes after. Saturday will begin with fixing any problems during a cue to cue, and then it’s another full-out run with costumes and everything (I’m actually hoping we can do costumes on Friday, too). Then on Sunday we record our cast album.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up early, have a run-through and do fixes, hopefully pick up the pension check and get it in the bank so I can actually get through this weekend without having a heart attack, have a stumble-through, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Have you ever had any wild and weird altercations with either idiot drivers, or just plain folks like the one I described? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that today we at long last have our full cast.