Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the Berlioz Requiem, conducted, of course, by Eugene Ormandy – lovely recording, lovely piece. Earlier, I began watching several things but kept dozing off, due to not getting quite enough sleep – seven hours – and texts pouring in – obnoxious ones, texts about the set, the lighting, about this, about that, then telephonic conversations about all of the above. In other words, a busier than busy morning and by the time all of that took a break, it was one o’clock. I rustled up a batch of Wacky Noodles and ate those – very good. Then lots of e-mail volleys, mostly about the lighting – craziest lighting stuff I’ve ever been a party to, but apparently, we’re having two lighting designers working in tandem, with a third on standby should there be any issues. I’d decided early on in the day that I wasn’t going to worry about any of it because I’ve got a show to get on, performances to hone, a new actress to put in, things to adjust, smooth out, the whole kit and caboodle, the entire rigamarole, the entire enchilada, the full monty, the complete works of Shakespeare. That was basically the day. I know, it’s boring and short and sweet but I cannot manufacture amusing and pithy things just to make these here notes of a certain length. That, of course, reminds me of The Randy Vicar and the Certain Length. That one’s randy AND a corker, not necessarily in that order. I had no other food, but it was a lot of Wacky and a lot of Noodles. I almost got something sweet but I thought better of it, which is funny because it never thinks better of me. I believe what they call this is vamping or, in musical theater terminology – vamp till ready. I’m not ready, so I’m vamping. As soon as I’m ready I’ll stop vamping. Until then, I’m vamping. This is what vamping looks like. This Requiem is long. They really were stretching LP capabilities back then in the classical recording world. Anyway, that’s quite enough vamping.
Today, I’ll be up by seven-thirty and then I’ll take the motor car to the nearby Mercedes place and have them check out the sensors to see why I’m getting the error message. Apparently, according to those in the know, the warning usually just means the sensors need cleaning or their alignment adjusted, that sort of thing. I’ve told them that I must have the car ready by four-fifteen, because I have to go right to the theater and work with our musical director, who is finally back with us. We have to work out the new routine for the act two ballet, which really shouldn’t take that long, then our new actress will work with him on her song, then at six-thirty I’ll do the act two scene shifts, run the ballet with the new music, clean up a few things and then we’ll begin the run-through at eight for the two lighting designers. I’ll eat something light at some point, before picking up the car, and I’m going through the scenes and marking things I have notes on that we have to adjust and tighten. After the run-through, I’ll come right home. I’m going to start taking notes tonight.
Tomorrow is more of the same, as is Thursday. Friday, I dry tech, Friday night is a run with a light-over, Saturday at ten we clean stuff, then run the show with lighting and costumes, then an hour meal break, then a cue-to-cue. Sunday we run-through, break, and then sitzprobe. Off Monday, Tuesday is an invited dress, Wednesday is first preview, Thursday is second preview, and Friday – we open. Yikes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by seven-thirty, bring the motor car in at eight, go through scenes and take notes on what needs to be cleaned, eat, pick up the motor car, mosey on over to the theater, work with the musical director, run act two scene shifts and clean stuff, and then we do a run-through, after which, home I go. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite instruments to listen to? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall vamp till ready.