THE MORNING AFTER SATURDAY’S TECH: So, our “10 out of 12” tech day was rough. So many light cues in this show, and with dimmers blowing out and some instruments not working, we didn’t quite finish. No one person’s failure, just a whole bunch of things…we’ll finish today and run the show with all the tech and costumes, and I can assess where we are and what to work on next. I’m expecting to clean and polish a bunch of little moments, but also debating a couple of big changes. Still, with days to go before previews start, and another week after that before official opening, we’re in good shape and have plenty of time to do what we need to do!

Miscellaneous Director thoughts; behind the cut to save those of you not interested! 🙂

It’s interesting, watching the lights and hearing the sound at the tech yesterday was useful. Seeing a full run today will help, but I’m still dissatisfied with the blend of storytelling narration -vs- scene work in the show. It’s a mix I will probably play with through previews, although I’ve only got so much ability to change things because of the nature of the script. Still, it’s not right yet and that’s bothering me. Almost a play, almost a storytelling session; and because it’s so in the middle it’s a little flat right now.

First Preview is Thursday, and we’ll get a week of Preview performances so we can see how the audiences respond and tweak things based on that. Anxiously awaiting that, to see if the things that I’m trusting to work actually do.

Cast is doing well, still some moments to work on, and keeping everything honest is always the actor and director’s biggest challenge, but in this show where the actors are forced to drop out of the scene and talk to the audience all the time it’s extra hard. I think the audience will respond well to all of the performances. It’s the style of storytelling, and how I’ve created it, that I’m most worried about.

I’ve had a blast doing the last several shows I’ve done, but I’m really ready for a one-room small cast silly comedy to play with, instead of these “137 locations and actors playing 4 roles each” things. I love doing them, because they push the imagination, and because I think I do them well, but I’m feeling a bit fried right now.

In other news, we lost power at home today about 9:45am. Giant windstorms are blowing everything around (let’s hope they clear my yard of leaves), and so some lines got knocked down somewhere or something. So, we’re hoping the power comes back on soon! When I left to head to the theatre (where I am now), it still wasn’t on, and that was 1:15 and the electric company had no estimate on when it would get fixed! Wheeeee!

Tomorrow mostly relaxing – coffee with beth0319, teaching Producing Theatre, and hanging out with my family! (Boy, Jeanne and I had a blast playing with the kids this morning!)

Enough ramble.