February surprises

Feb. 13

It has been a wild and crazy couple of weeks and not just with The Underpants. Underpants did well. The weather on the second thursday didn't hurt too badly because everyone was able to exchange their tickets for the next couple of performances. The following Tuesday I trekked to Frankfort to receive a check from the Kentucky Arts Council. It was a photo opportunity with our regional legislators and a chance to do a little arts advocacy. I decided to spend the night in Frankfort and a severe thunderstorm came through about 1 a.m. and the hotel moved everyone on the second and third floors to the lobby. Maybe I should have seen that as an omen! Since that day weather has played havoc with the theatre rehearsals.

With the ice this past Monday and Tuesday we ended up cancelling rehearsals for Harriet the Spy, the Charity league Follies, and Crowns. All three rehearsals have really put us behind in our prepartations. Especially Crowns. Tonight is the final dress rehearsal before opening and the cast hasn't rehearsed since last week. This show only runs for 1 week end so there isn't the option to move people's tickets to another performance. We have never cancelled a performance in theatre history. But we've also never been in this situation before. I'm going to the final dress rehearsal tonight with my fingers crossed that everything will be ready to open tomorrow. The show is almost sold out for the weekend.

The follies rehearsals have now lost 3 days. One day of music and 2 days of staging. It generally takes about 1 1/2 hours to stage a song for the first time. That means we are now four songs behind in our staging. That may not seem like a lot but when you are working around everyone's conflicts it is very difficult to pick that time back up.

Tuesdays with Morrie is cast and Tom Dolan and Don Maley were selected to perform the parts. They will do a great job! Fortunately they don't start rehearsals until March. We are working behind the scenes with Diane Byrd the director of Anything Goes and Emily Chapman who will help choreograph on a series of Pre-Audition workshops for Anything Goes. The first three Saturdays in March will have a dance workshop to learn the routine that will be used for auditions. More information about these workshops will be on the website auditions page. We are moving the Anything Goes auditions back a week to March 31 and April 1 in the Second Stage Classroom.

There are still tickets available for the Spamalot trip this Saturday to Nashville. It's supposed to be good weather on Saturday last I heard.

The old saying - The show must go on is sometimes a lot tougher than the audience ever realizes.