Well, dear readers, we resumed performances this evening and despite a smallish audience, it was a very good performance overall. Our leading lady is back with us and she was at her best, maybe the best she’s ever been. And Peyton Kirkner’s act two was the best she’s ever been. We had two reviewers tonight, so it’s a shame we couldn’t have a bigger house, although it actually was a really good audience who, I think, really enjoyed the play. As the lights dimmed and the first sound cue, which plays in darkness, came up, I knew someone had once again been screwing around with the soundboard and as if that wasn’t unacceptable enough, changing our sound levels and not putting them back. It wasn’t enough to kill the sound in act one, but when the levels are way too low, nothing has an impact. So, at intermission, I went in the booth and had the stage manager raise the level a bit, and so act two played better, sound-wise. Act two would actually have been kind of a disaster had I not had the levels raised. And now our sound designer has to come back for the second time and fix whatever they actually did. This on top of someone screwing with the light board and in so doing corrupting our show lighting file so that that had to be reloaded from a back-up. There were many emails sent about all this, riot acts were read, and it seems to have made no difference to whoever is doing this, and we pretty much know what’s what in that regard. So, methinks Doug is going to have to be even stronger about it.
And before I go any further, may I just point out that the month I like to call February is done, what with being a short month and all. And then tomorrow we march into March, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that March will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.
The rest of yesterday was perfectly okay. I was up at eight-thirty, she of the Evil Eye came and I beat a hasty retreat to Jerry’s Deli for some matzoh brei and a bagel. I killed some good time there, then went to the mail place, where thankfully an important envelope was waiting for me, along with a package. I then did some banking, then came home. Grant and I spoke, and he said to come over at two, so he could have a head start on getting images into the book. At two, I moseyed next door, looked at what he’d done, which was great, and he then finished all but two pages of photos. We took a food break and went to Marie Callender’s – I just had the salad bar and didn’t overdo anything.
Then we came back, he finished those pages, entered one errant and truant fix we couldn’t find the other day due to all the page numbers being askew, and then he made a PDF and sent to me for a final once-over. I came home, opened the file and, as these things go, instantly found a typo that no one had caught on the dedication page – that’s something that I added, a new line, that Grant typed, and he just misspelled lyricists, leaving out the second “i”, which is a very hard thing to catch, actually. But really glad I caught it and he’ll fix that before it goes to the publisher. And hopefully I won’t find anything else.
So, that was my afternoon. I’d only gotten four hours of sleep because my brain was on overdrive and I ended up getting up and writing some fun lyrics for Bosom Buddies, just to personalize it for Jason Graae and me. It actually came out really funny, I sent it to him and asked if he wanted to wing it and that we could have the lyrics on a music stand, and he loved it and said sure, so we’ll be doing that on Sunday, with only a brief rehearsal prior to it at sound check. Then I cleaned up and went to the theater and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll have to be up by nine, I think, or maybe I’ll try for nine-thirty, then two of our singers arrive at ten-thirty to have their second rehearsal, and then at noon o’clock we do our stumble-through, which should probably run to around one-thirty with whatever notes I have to give. Then I’ll get something to eat, hopefully pick up another important envelope, then I’ll relax and rest my voice and be available in case Grant needs me for anything. He’s leaving town on Tuesday for a week-and-a-half, so I really need this finished before that time so off it can go to the publisher.
Tomorrow, I can sleep in as late as noon, then I’ll relax until it’s time to mosey on over to Vitello’s for sound check and then we do our show. I’m sure some of us will have a proper meal downstairs afterwards. Monday, we must wrap up the book stuff. Then the rest of the week is meetings and meals and going and doing and getting the book galley and cover proofs and all that stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine or nine-thirty, have a stumble-through, eat, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What do you think of the Facebook habit of people, and usually smart people, falling for the endless hoaxes and also posting fake or old stuff as if was new, without taking any time at all to actually fact check? I’ll start. It drives me batty. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have resumed performances and hoping there are no further issues with people messing with the sound and light boards.