And Curse Sir Walter Raleigh, He Was Such A Stupid Git
The killer weekend is finally over: two back-to-back "ten-out-of-twelves" (for the uninitiated, this is a day when the cast, production staff and crew work for ten hours out of a twelve-hour period to add in all the technical elements of the play: lights, sound, costumes, special effects, et al.)
And I have to say, despite my exhaustion (the power on my block went out last evening, and the City crews were out all night cutting tree limbs and restringing lines - right outside my apartment door - until about 4:00 a.m. this morning), that things are looking pretty spectacular. It's going to be very different from what the average theatre-goer tends to imagine when they go to see a play, and I have a lot of people to thank for helping to make that happen.
Right now, I'm just looking forward to a drink, a shower, and a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is a holiday from work, but I have a couple of errands to run, and plan to do some clean-up in the theatre before the evening's rehearsal.
But, the good news is, we're over the hump, things are in excellent shape, and I really feel like we've got a show. It might not be everyone's cup-o', but it's a lot closer to what I originally envisioned than, frankly, I ever thought we'd be able to achieve in six weeks, with volunteer labor, and a $300 (!) production budget.
This is what nerds - er, "new technology professionals" - do for relaxation after 12 straight hours teching a theatrical production - have a light-saber battle with their iPhones.
Yes, decided lack of blogging these past few days. Frankly, things have been kind of slow up here, what with Summer making a hasty rush for the exit, like a diner skipping out on the bill, even as Fall, all wet and cool and gray, slips into the still-warm chair at the now unoccupied table, and sits patiently as the angry waitress clears off the remains of a meal that's coming out of her paycheck.
I suppose I could have written about some of the minutia: the rather uneventful board meeting last Saturday; or, the send-off party for one of the actors who is leaving the show a week early, wherein I discovered one of the other actresses is an alum of my high school, and in fact grew up just a few blocks from where my Grandmother used to live; or, the cleaning frenzy this past weekend that included finally removing the cat accoutrements that I've been reluctant to deal with since Jenny passed a mere two weeks ago.
That was really the hardest thing I've had to deal with recently: cleaning everything out, the water bowls, food dish, litter box, then setting them outside and letting the rain wash away the last of their contents. I vaccuumed and dusted, and swept and mopped, but there's still little vestiges of presence left in the hard-to-reach corners and under the bed, and will be for some time. I admit, I just didn't want to begin the process of removing those bits of hair and fuzz and dander - the last shreds of physical evidence that something other than myself once occupied this space. But, at some point you have to move on, move forward, let it go, sweep it clean. And doing it on a wet, but still relatively warm day seemed fitting.
Little-by-little things change, normalcy returns by incremental degrees.
Things will pick up next week surely, with the start of rehearsals; right now, I'm just waiting for a completed draft of the script so that I can start distributing it to my cast and production crew. It's promised for sometime this week, although I get a little more nervous with each passing day; there's so much I need to do: scheduling rehearsal blocks, solidifying design elements, getting marketing and publicity materials going, etc., etc., that can't really be accomplished without the most basic unit of measure - the script. But, I know it's coming, I just have to trust my playwright to get it turned in, hopefully, with enough lead-time to get it out to everyone who needs it before our first meeting Monday night.
