All You Have to Do

We moved into the theatre yesterday and it was a relatively painless load-in (other than the fact that the previous show left a gigantic mess for us, thanks guys!). About half the cast showed up to help, and our set guys David and Jeff seem to have everything under control. They both seem to be very easy-going, Zen-like dudes... as is Steve our lighting designer. Thank God. That always helps.

Now is one of two times during the process when I have a ton to do and it feels very overwhelming. Today, I need to mail the band parts and the recording off to the musicians (I should've already done this, but last week was crazy busy). That not may not seem like a big deal, but after I prepare the packages, I have to actually drive to the Post Office and wait behind a bunch of knuckle-draggers because of the post-9/11 rules that you can't mail a package over one pound without taking it to a Post Office. There's your government at work!

I have to deliver our postcards to the mailing house (Mailworks out in Westport), so they can go out late this week or early next week.

I have to finish work on the program, so I can take it to the printer next week.

I have to gather info for the High Fidelity posters and postcards to give to our graphic artist, so we can have postcards in the lobby during Assassins.

Today, I also have to pick up a bucket of KFC to use in our PR pics, which we're taking tonight before rehearsal. Cindy's getting her own Tab.

Tonight, we finally start running the whole show. We've run the two halves of it, but not the whole thing together yet.

We've received the guns we rented for the show, from a company called Weapons of Choice that rents to film and theatre productions. We'll start using the guns in the show tonight, but we probably won't start firing them till next week. We were planning to shoot directly at the audience in the show, but some of these guns are real guns with blank shells, so I've made an executive decision that we will not fire at the audience -- it just seems needlessly dangerous to me. (Can you tell I'm not a gun person?)

I finally got the prop list to Vicki, so she can get to work. It's not a super long list, but it's got some weird stuff on it this time... You'd think Assassins is this very minimalist show, but it requires a bunch of furniture (park bench, couch, car seat, electric chair, bar, etc.), a bunch of props (from a whole bunch of different periods and including guns and food, which sucks!), and costumes from many periods. Not so minimal. And really, folks, there's nothing more of a pain in the ass than using food in a show, just ask Vicki if you doubt me. For the record, can I just say that I Hate Sets and I Hate Props. I always try to minimize both with every show I do, but sometimes, you can only minimize so much... You gotta tell the story, after all...

In a few days, the immediate stress will subside for the moment, and then it will return on March 1 (when we do the lighting cue-to-cue rehearsal), March 2 (the first time the band plays with us), and then what we lovingly call Hell Week. For a few days early in the week we open, I'll be all stressed out again as I pull all the last minue details together and stomp out the various last minute fires. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Then we open March 6 and (I hope) I get to just have fun for four weeks of the run. Without the Archdiocese this time, knock on wood...!

Long Live the Musical!
Scott