Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I also have to leave early for our sitzprobian stizprobe, during which we will probe our various and sundried sitz’s. Have you ever personally had your sitz probed? I could go on but that would be unseemly, and we must never be unseemly after midnight, even though we’re going to let it all hang out. So, let me tell you a bit about yesterday, but only a bit. To tell you more than a bit would cost you two bits. And if you have enough bits you might be able to get a better sitz. What the HELL am I talking about? Anyway, most of my day yesterday was spent at the theater. Prior to going there, I got seven hours of sleep, answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, then I had to get to the bank to make a deposit, after which I had to get to the mail place to get my very first copy of the Kritzer World hardcover, after which I placed the book order and we should have them within two weeks – I had to order more than usual because we sold more than usual. After that, I went to Tom’s Burgers near the theater and had a great bacon cheeseburger and no fries or onion rings. Then I went to the theater and our lighting guy was finishing up writing the cues for the second act. Then we did our dry tech – he took me through all the cues, we made a couple of adjustments, but mostly I thought the lighting was beautiful. Then people began arriving, they worked on some ography and lines and then our sound man got everyone into mics for testing, although we didn’t do sound last night. He’s great and I’m breathing much easier about that. Then I talked to the cast and told them that no matter what we had to run straight through act one – if they needed a line they’d get it but could not go backwards, just say the line and move on. It was illuminating seeing the entire act without stops. A few of the scene shifts were rough even though we’d already worked them, and more than a few scenes had way too many pauses. But I could finally see the arc of the act and how the plot worked with the numbers interspersed. It flows pretty well, and I think once we tighten it by ten minutes, it won’t feel long. Last night, it ran seventy-five minutes and that has to come down to sixty-five at the most. But from the other night when we ran it, we’d already shaved fifteen minutes off. I feel confident we’ll be okay, time-wise. Then they had a break and then we did the first three scenes of act two and then it was time to wrap the rehearsal. I came right home, ordered a sandwich, which arrived a little while later and which I ate (it was good), and then it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by eight and out the door by eight-forty-five. I have to do a quick ATM run, then we’re going to our musical director’s house for the probing of the sitz. That WAS supposed to be at the theater, followed by a cue to cue, but I had to give it up for the set builders, who needed seven hours to finish everything. In any case, we’ll have a two-hour break after the sitzprobe and we’ll reconvene at the theater so the actors can do a line-though. Then at five we’ll run a few problem moments and set the act two scene shifts, and then at six we do a complete run-through with no stops. Still hoping our total run time won’t be over two hours. We’ll break at ten or eleven and then I’ll come home and relax.
Here’s my very own hand holding my very own first hardcover copy of you-know-what.
Tomorrow, we’re foregoing doing a cue to cue and having two run-throughs, one of them with costumes and maybe even sound. We’ll run any fixes after the two runs. Monday we’re off, although some actors may meet at the theater to run lines. Tuesday is our final dress and I’m not sure I’m going to allow people to watch, Wednesday is our first preview, which I’ll cancel if I think we need the extra night to get things smoother, Thursday is our second preview, and then we open this thing on Friday night.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example be up by eight and out the door forty-five-minutes later, stop by the ATM, have a sitzprobe, reconvene at the theater for line runs, and then we run some scene shifts and problem areas, then we do a full run-through, straight through act one, break, and act two. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies, if any, are you looking forward to seeing? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, looking forward to the probing of the sitz.