Hope gained

Today went... surprisingly well.

I needed to be in the city for a video conference at noon, and also to meet with the new project manager at work. I got a call at 9am from Kinkos, saying that the Sweetie Tanya glossy posters were ready two hours early.

Nice.

I leave early for SF, pick up the posters and do my supervisor meeting early. The video conference also ends an hour early and was actually quite productive. I am supposed to be at the Exit by 3:30 to move our flats, because another group needs the dressing room our flat are stored in. I get a call at the end of my meeting saying that the rehearsal was cancelled and I don't need to make an early trip.

Nice.

I pick up the truck at 5th and Mission. I love City Car Share, I really do. I get to Hal and Cynthia's about 4:15pm and we load everything into the truck and their car. We tie it all down and drive very slowly back to the Exit, arriving at 5:02pm. We're exactly on schedule.

Nice.

We unload, then Hal and I go to the rehearsal room to get props, table, chair and bar. We get everything loaded, unloaded at the Exit and get the car back to City Car share a full hour and a half before it was due.

Nice.

Steve shows up and starts to figure out the band setup after the Exit manager gives Peggy and Rhiannon the lowdown on the space, the lights and the sound board. We've all worked here before, so this is mostly review. I've been terribly worried about how to plug the band into the sound board, but Steve has a perfect low-tech solution: we'll use the band's monitor amps and point them towards the back wall. The sound will then bounce to the audience and not overwhelm the singers. Brilliant, and eliminates the host of tech problems I was expecting to deal with.

Nice.

The group before us, Medea Knows Best, had a light plot that fulfilled 85% of our needs, so they just left it up for us. We only have to refocus three or four lights and re-gel four or five others. The lighting plot isn't much more complex that what we did at the Darkroom, but the difference between the light on our lovely cream colored set walls versus the black curtains of the darkroom is night and day. It looks infinitely better.

Nice.

Cynthia and Hal put up all the flats, adjust the bar size to something that looks better and gives the performers more space. The Odwalla cabinet looks awesome. We still need to tape and paint scenes, add the door and do more general dressing, but it already looks like a coffee shop. Tomorrow we'll do most of that work before 7pm. Wednesday will bring minor additions. We'll easily be done before the preview on Thursday.

Nice.

We finish load in at 10pm and go home. We didn't have to stay late at all. I made a list of props we need, and things I seem to have left back at the rehearsal space. I'll get most of those resolved between 5-6 tomorrow. Our tech will involve starting and stopping for light cue building, but since all but one song is being done live, sound shouldn't be much of an issue.

It's all been a little too smooth. A lot of work, to be sure, but no fiascos, no huge setbacks, no problems we weren't expecting. Quite the opposite. Problems I expected to happen never materialized.

Niiiiiceee

Richer for Poorer

"Riches" closed last night. As I think I've mentioned here, it was an artistically successful show, but a horrible failure in terms of audience draw. It's just hard to get folks to want to come see a play about divorce. I even had one acquaintance do box office for us, but left before the show started because she wasn't in an emotional place where she could handle the subject matter.

Discouraging.

We are using all the flats for Sweetie Tanya, so the Riches set guy left them all lined up for us in the Phoenix Theatre. We got them in Bahati's truck and drove them the five blocks to the Exit. I'm really pleased that these are all wood flats, using thin, thin wood for the surfaces as opposed to canvas. Canvas flats tend to wobble and sag in unconvincing ways. These babies felt sturdy, and were still extremely light. I haven't actually used flats for a show in quite some time, so I'm really glad that we had access to them.

I've been obsessively worrying about the set, and the lights and the sound system. Most of the reason for my worry is that I wouldn't get to really see or work with any of them until Monday night. To be a few days away from opening and to be pretty in the dark about how things actually look is normal for theatre, but it doesn't get less stressful for me. More and more, I have excellent people handing these parts of the productions, so I'm not as hands on as I once was. That is a great boon for me and I'll probably live longer, but it's still a bit unsettling to not be exercising direct control.

But, today a large portion of our set got moved into the theatre. We had to store it in the "Stage Left" dressing area, because "Medea Knows Best" was in the midst of an enormous strike. I was just glad we didn't have to move it to the rehearsal room and then move it again tomorrow. Having those flats moved over has eased my nerves quite a bit. I know how many we have, I know how heavy they are, and therefore how hard it will be to assemble them as needed. I saw Cynthia and Hal the other night, and Hal said that the cabinets are looking great, which is the first real feedback I've gotten on them, and that calmed me a great deal as well.

It's all going to work out.

I closed a show last night. I open a show in four days (five, if you don't count the preview).

Sparta? This is madness!

an unexpected break

I'm sitting in Union Square, working on the fourth hospital show (end of the mini-series), but my battery is waning so I'll be forced to relocate to the rehearsal studio soon.

No show today, as we only had two people show up for the matinee. Frustrating, to say the least, but it is sadly something I consider to be a normal part of small theatre life. It no longer even has the power to throw me into despair. It's happened too many times. Good shows that for one reason or another don't get the buzz they deserve. I've had a few people say that it's my best work yet as a performer, but very few people will see it, it seems.

A shame.

Emotionally, I've been feeling too washed out lately to get riled about it, though. The typical highs and lows of Tanya eat up what little energy I have left after increasingly grueling days at work.

More and more I just look forward to May, and especially to June.

Still, today I sit in the square, enjoying the gorgeous weather, and it's just too nice to feel emo, even if I can't help but feel numb.

A refuge

Dave sent this out, but for all his malice... it's good to know that there's a place I can go.

psychic

years ago, when I deeply feel for someone and we had been going out for almost a year, she began corresponding with someone on the east coast. It was someone she had admired professionally who had also become aware of her work. I knew almost immediately that it was going to be the end for us. She didn't really know it for another month, interestingly enough.

It's a trick I've managed a few times, always involving people I've dropped my walls with. I know who they are going to fall for before they do.

It's not a terribly useful psychic gift.

Sunday morning recap

Sunday morning. I'm chilling out and loving it.

"Riches" went well this weekend. I'm not word perfect, but that's to be expected with this much text. Every now and then a tiny line that doesn't actually impact anything gets dropped, but the audience is none the wiser. This isn't shakespeare, after all, and no one is following along with their own text on their lap. The important thing is that people are laughing at all the right spots, and some of them are leaving with tears in their eyes. It's a powerful bit of theatre, and I hope more people make it.

Audiences so far have been small, but pleased.

As for me, I'm doing well. I was able to go to Brian's birthday gathering yesterday, and that was lovely. I did the afternoon early-bird set (basically, me and the Austin-Groens) and then came back for an hour after the show closed. I got to see Zack and a bunch of animators from the SF Academy of Art.

I'm not feeling too freaked out at the moment. We start rehearsing again for Tanya on Thursday, but many of the technical details are pretty much worked out, or are being worked out by people who are more than qualified to handle them. I am again reminded what a blessing it is to be working with a qualified and committed TEAM. I do far too much myself, and I'm glad to be a little more balanced nowadays.

That said, that last few weeks have been particularly hairy. I missed Radiostar updates for TWO WEEKS. The reason was a good one, however. Between TBA, Tanya, and Riches, I've had no time in the evenings, and I've also been editing our first pass at a Radiostar serial format. I.e. a storyline/persistent universe that lasts for a full four episodes. That's over two hours of raw audio, broken down into 25 scenes. I think it'll be well over an hour of audio when it's all done. The first week is now done and ready for posting on Wednesday. The next two episodes will be cake, since I've already done a lot of the hard lifting over the last two weeks.

I hope to get one of them done today, actually.

but for now? Sunday morning, I'm going to goof off on the X-Box for an hour or two before tackling more Radiostar goodness.