Sunday, July 16, 2006
Kicking the Wheels One Last Time: Rehearsal Number Twenty-Five
Saturday night was our last sneak preview before our opening weekend next week when we'll play in the higher profile 8:00pm slot for the Thursday "Skooled and Served" show, Friday's opening gala (with champagne toast reception), and Saturday's headliner spot. (If you're an early nighter and want to see the show, that's the week to do it, as we'll be moving to the 10:00pm slot after that for the remainder of the run.) We had another good house, both in terms of size and reception, and tonight marked the debut of the remaining company members with the exception of Jay, whose Constant Wife conflicts will keep him from our stage for another couple of weeks. We have a brush-up rehearsal on Wednesday (number twenty-six), to refocus us as we go into the opening weekend, but the show is essentially "set" for lack of a better term, and my days as the director as numbered...
Charles led the pack tonight in the first position as a young man unloading frozen Thanksgiving turkeys who fell in love with his co-worker's homeless sister who lived in a box beside the loading dock. We then met Robyn as a young mother trying to help her college-bound daughter (who wanted to study clownology at Harvard), and had to picture life without her other half. Ron attacked the stage as a young man with wavering career aspirations, trying to balance his overbearing father's desires for a military son with his own dreams to be a hollywood star. Finally, the audience met me as a third-time repeating high-school senior trying to find his way around newly introduced standards testing with the help of his less-than-scrupulous teacher. Lots of goofy characters tonight!! Act one felt like it meandered a little in places, but we got in into the harbor with good audience responses by the end. Charles took on the role of the star for act two, and we worked well together complicating and advancing his story. I felt a little off, personally, in terms of making strong relationship connections, although my fellow company members stepped up to the plate, and Gina noted after all was said and done that this was one of her favorite performances. One of our former company members from last season, Lisa, also offered some kind words and noted that she could see where the form had been strengthened.
My ongoing sparring with mike (mic) sadly continued this evening. We nearly had to have Charles play the second act as the star without a mic at all, and we had a lot of static issues throughout the first act. Dana, our ridiculously hard-working stage manager/technical director/sound mixer is improvising admirably as these issues emerge, but it's becoming increasingly clear that we're in for trouble if we can't find a more permanent and less makeshift approach to resolving the issue.
I was a little more in my head tonight. Perhaps, in part, due to these technical issues that reappeared unwantedly (in addition to the mic issues, we lost the slide show for the latter portion of act two). I also found myself inadvertently heading into similar water in terms of prior stories last night, that is, a potential Mrs. Robinson dynamic. I had to redirect my efforts to avoid that, but in doing so, replicated some old traps that I'd discovered from last year. Overall, some of the scenic work was a little tentative in act two, but the songs pulled us back into the zone of higher energy and there was a fun playful energy that circled around Charles and Robyn's relationship in particular. They also created a great duet as brother and sister, which was one of the evening's musical highlights.
I almost have a day off tomorrow (if you don't count mowing my lawn and catching up with bills and the like...) I've nearly forgotten what that is like!!
Your in-need-of-recharging Director, David C.
Saturday night was our last sneak preview before our opening weekend next week when we'll play in the higher profile 8:00pm slot for the Thursday "Skooled and Served" show, Friday's opening gala (with champagne toast reception), and Saturday's headliner spot. (If you're an early nighter and want to see the show, that's the week to do it, as we'll be moving to the 10:00pm slot after that for the remainder of the run.) We had another good house, both in terms of size and reception, and tonight marked the debut of the remaining company members with the exception of Jay, whose Constant Wife conflicts will keep him from our stage for another couple of weeks. We have a brush-up rehearsal on Wednesday (number twenty-six), to refocus us as we go into the opening weekend, but the show is essentially "set" for lack of a better term, and my days as the director as numbered...
Charles led the pack tonight in the first position as a young man unloading frozen Thanksgiving turkeys who fell in love with his co-worker's homeless sister who lived in a box beside the loading dock. We then met Robyn as a young mother trying to help her college-bound daughter (who wanted to study clownology at Harvard), and had to picture life without her other half. Ron attacked the stage as a young man with wavering career aspirations, trying to balance his overbearing father's desires for a military son with his own dreams to be a hollywood star. Finally, the audience met me as a third-time repeating high-school senior trying to find his way around newly introduced standards testing with the help of his less-than-scrupulous teacher. Lots of goofy characters tonight!! Act one felt like it meandered a little in places, but we got in into the harbor with good audience responses by the end. Charles took on the role of the star for act two, and we worked well together complicating and advancing his story. I felt a little off, personally, in terms of making strong relationship connections, although my fellow company members stepped up to the plate, and Gina noted after all was said and done that this was one of her favorite performances. One of our former company members from last season, Lisa, also offered some kind words and noted that she could see where the form had been strengthened.My ongoing sparring with mike (mic) sadly continued this evening. We nearly had to have Charles play the second act as the star without a mic at all, and we had a lot of static issues throughout the first act. Dana, our ridiculously hard-working stage manager/technical director/sound mixer is improvising admirably as these issues emerge, but it's becoming increasingly clear that we're in for trouble if we can't find a more permanent and less makeshift approach to resolving the issue.
I was a little more in my head tonight. Perhaps, in part, due to these technical issues that reappeared unwantedly (in addition to the mic issues, we lost the slide show for the latter portion of act two). I also found myself inadvertently heading into similar water in terms of prior stories last night, that is, a potential Mrs. Robinson dynamic. I had to redirect my efforts to avoid that, but in doing so, replicated some old traps that I'd discovered from last year. Overall, some of the scenic work was a little tentative in act two, but the songs pulled us back into the zone of higher energy and there was a fun playful energy that circled around Charles and Robyn's relationship in particular. They also created a great duet as brother and sister, which was one of the evening's musical highlights.
I almost have a day off tomorrow (if you don't count mowing my lawn and catching up with bills and the like...) I've nearly forgotten what that is like!!
Your in-need-of-recharging Director, David C.
