Our third preview of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol went very well. The cast was great, tech good, and a very responsive audience. Held a talkback with the audience after the show, as is common after previews. Asked a bunch of the basics: Were there any moments we got slow and you dropped out, and started thinking about the grocery list or how late you were going to get the babysitter home? Were there moments we confused you, or that the story was unclear? Any moments you couldn’t hear the actors? What’d you hate, what’d you love? Then opened it up for general comments and got a lot of positive feedback. It was a good show tonight, smallish house but they were very caught up in the performance – it’s nice to see the cast really taking hold of it now, and audiences really enjoying it.

So, that’s coming nicely. Another preview tomorrow (Sunday), then Monday off. Then Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll rehearse, Thursday we’ll have our final preview and Friday we open! Of course, Tuesday and Wednesday will be unique rehearsals; for this show, we have an understudy going on the day after we open (and the following 4 performances). SO while I’m in previews I have to rehearse him, so he’s ready! So in essence, I’ve gotta be pretty much done tweaking and polishing the cast by Sunday night (tomorrow!), so I can really work the understudy next week. I’ll still be able to do small moments and notes with the other guys, but I’m going to have to focus a lot on Charlie (the understudy) and help him get ready. He’ll be great, though, so I’m not worried. It’s a weird situation, but worth it – Paul (playing Marley) is so good that I willingly accepted the extra hassle of his being gone those days. (Incidentally, he had a long-scheduled previous engagement that we knew about, but I really wanted him for the role so we cast him anyway, and did the understudy thing!)

By the way, here’s an interesting article about the show from the Ann Arbor News, if you’re interested. I think I managed to avoid sounding like too much of an idiot in the interview!
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In other news: it’s leaf burning weekend!

We have a yard that’s an acre big. Our house sits right in the middle of it. We have over 40 trees; big, old, leafy maples and other beautiful colorful trees. I love the way our yard looks in early Fall, with the trees full of color. I also love the way it looks in late Fall, with the whole acre covered with the red, yellow, and orange leaves that have fallen from the tree.

Then, of course, we have to clean the leaves out of the yard, so the grass isn’t destroyed over the Winter and Spring.

Wheeeeeeee.

So, a couple of days have to be spent raking leaves into big piles. Onto tarps. Dragging them to a corner of the yard. Lighting them on fire. Making sure the fire doesn’t burn the yard down. Singing the hairs on your hands as you rake pile after pile of leaves into the molten lava of leafy embers. Muscles aching after 6 hours of non-stop raking and burning, burning and raking. All so that you can eventually fall down and look at the rest of the leaves left to do tomorrow.

Yep, I’m sore.

And as much as I hate the raking/burning process, I love the leaves and the trees and the yard! So, I guess it’s nice to be reminded every year that if you want nice things, sometimes ya gotta bust your butt a bit.

But Man, I’m sore.