March 4

Salad for lunch at the desk and a quick update on what's going on. Harriet is in dress rehearsals. Tech was Sunday and it was a struggle to work through all of the moving platforms, lighting and sound cues. The actors are doing a great job. They also have to be the technical crew changing the sets and that means they can't just walk offstage and relax. They then have to change the sets. April has added about 50 sound cues to the show. The lights have about 70 cues and the there are several follow spot and slide cues. Put those all together and you have some moments which have dozens of different technical elements all happening at the same time. This requires a stage manager who follows the script and gives warnings, standbys and go cues for each person on the technical crew. Retired Pathologist Jim Roush is in the back stage manager booth with a lap top computer using PowerPoint to change out the images on the back screen. He also has two power switches to cue the platforms. Platform A and Platform B. When he turns the switch on a light comes on offstage next the appropriate platform. That means standby. When he turns the switch off it means move the platform either on or off. When the platform is off it is stripped of set pieces and others are put on it. Sometimes both platforms are moving at the same time. In 3 different moments in the show we move and change platforms 5 times in the span of 3 minutes. The stage manager cues Jim when to change slides and when to put the platforms in standby and go mode. Jim's son Ted is on the follow spot. This is his first show on follow spot and he is doing a great job. The stage manager cues Ted. Tess Shelby is running the light board. It is all computerized so she has to push the right buttons on cue. The stage manager cues Tess. Finally there is the sound. April the director is running the sound because of the voice overs and the underscoring of music. She spent hours online looking for different music that we could use for the show. We buy rights to use the music with a blanket license from ASCAP and BMI. (you can't just use recorded music without rights or you get into trouble)

As the Scenic Designer and Lighting Designer I'm constantly trying to work with Jim Keeney, technical director, to create and refine the scenic changes. We took a wardrobe and turned it around backwords and created a chest of drawers out of it because it took too long to carry it on and off the moving platforms in a short time. I'm still creating the painting scheme and the slides for the show. I have some thumbnail sketches I made but as I put a color on the wall I'm thinking what goes with this and how am I going to do that next wall?

April was originally going to stage manage the show but with the sound cues so complicated she can no longer do that. So.... I'm now stage managing the show. Unfortunately that has created a real time crunch in my prepartion time to choreograph songs for the follies so I'm really burning the midnight oil. We open Harriet Thursday morning for a school matinee.

Next week we have the preview party on Tuesday to announce our next season to the community. We have the footlights peformances on Saturday March 15. Follies goes into dress rehearsals March 24. I keep wondering what normal life would be like....

My salad is done and so is my break.