Well, dear readers, you might recall that last night I ate an imponderable chocolate chip muffin, and all was well with the world. Well, prior to eating it I’d also eaten a chicken tender from the Gelson’s hot food bar and I am here to tell you that at seven in the morning all was NOT well with the world or my tummy. I looked at said tender carefully and it looked okay – mostly at night they look horrible and I would never get them. But okay though it may have looked it was anything but okay and had probably sat there like so much fish all day. In any case, I awoke to a rancid tummy after only three hours of sleep. No, I did not vomit on the ground or any other surface, but I think I was close a couple of times. Instead, I sipped some Diet Coke, sucked a Ricola to get the vile taste out of my mouth, and then chewed about five Pepcids. At around eight-thirty I went back to bed and fell asleep, sleeping until one, so just about eight hours all told.
I was still queasy, so I just proofed more book and relaxed and listened to some excellent music grabbed from the Tube of You, this time a Japanese composer named Kunihiko Hashimoto – wonderfully melodic and not so Japanese-sounding. At about three I had the other chocolate chip muffin and although queasy it was good to eat something. I had several telephonic conversations, got the good news that the wonderful Jason Graae will be doing the March Kritzerland and we’re hoping Karen Morrow will be, too. And our other cast members should be equally stellar. I think this will be a sellout and a quick one at that. But mostly I proofed – about sixty pages and now I’m in the last eighty or so, so that’s a good thing. Then it was time to shave and shower and then mosey on over to the mail place, where I picked up some packages, and then to the theater for our run-through.
But before I go any further, has anyone noticed that this is the last day of January? How did that happen? A mere four weeks ago I began a new book and thirteen days and 622 pages later I finished it. But the month has flown by, like a gazelle influencer on YouTube. And tomorrow is February, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that February will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.
The set is not quite complete yet, but it’s getting there. As we did our run-through, our lighting guy played with the lights, which enabled me to see how certain positions were going to have to shift a bit. We spoke afterwards, and I reiterated that I wanted the lighting to be very poetic and moody and he totally gets it. The run-through itself was excellent and we’ve got the show down to a tight run time that will ensure that we’ll be two hours WITH the intermission. Still cannot say enough about the actors. There were a couple of times they were thrown by the lighting, which wasn’t really the lighting, but it passed quickly. But they’d all addressed my tiny notes from the prior run-through and that was nice to watch. I have never been bored watching a run-through, despite how many I’ve seen and watching the character relationships solidify and bloom is really fun. The balancing act of having two actresses playing the same character at different ages is working beautifully, thanks to Peyton Kirkner as the younger version and Kait Haire as the older version. Even though all the other players are integral to everything, the two ladies really have to carry the play from scene to scene, since it’s seen through their eyes. And they’re both warm, strong, defiant, insecure, funny, and doing a grand job of it. I’d give ‘em both Kritzie Awards even before we’ve opened. I’ll talk more about the other cast members in subsequent notes.
I am totally in love with this music of Kunihiko Hashimoto. But Mr. Hashimoto tragically died young in 1949, at the age of forty-five. Interestingly (or not), Leonard Bernstein had a ten-year affair with a person of exactly the same name.
Today, I can sleep until about ten-thirty as I have a noon o’clock meeting with Adryan Russ, partially about the new book and partially about the new musical we’re writing. I’ll be done with that at one and I’ll go directly to the theater to dry tech the show with our lighting guy and stage manager and hopefully our sound guy will be with us, too. There are a huge number of sound cues in this show, what with pre-recorded dialogue, music, and a few sound effects. At four, I’ll take a brief break and meet with a potential new Kritzerland pianist. Then at seven we’ll begin our run-through. I’d been waffling whether we should run and do a lightover or if we should do a cue-to-cue, but I think the run-through is necessary and will not send us backwards due to all that stopping and starting.
Tomorrow, we do a morning run-through with complete tech, and then we’ll have at least five hours to do any fixes we need to for both lighting and sound. Then we’ll do our second run-through, then photos will be taken, but we’ll still hopefully be out by eight or so. Sunday, we do our morning full tech, then we take an hour break and do our second run-through, this time adding costumes. Then we have Monday off, although we do have the theater reserved if we need to do any technical fixes – no cast, though. Then Tuesday we play an invited dress, and having an audience is exactly what we need at this point. Then on Wednesday and Thursday we play our two previews, and then we open on Friday for our six-week run, and I can get the March Kritzerland show ready to go.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Monkey, for today is the birthday of dear reader Michael Shayne. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Michael Shayne. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER MICHAEL SHAYNE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep until ten-thirty, have a noon o’clock meeting, dry tech, have a pianist meeting, dry tech, and then have a run-through with a lightover. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – Blu-ray, haven’t a clew. CD, Hilding Rosenberg and Gosta Nystroem. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the tummy trouble has seemingly passed.