Pefect Now Change

Tech week is over and tonight we open the show and the official start of our 47th season. It must be something in the air as all of the other arts and business people I talked to in the last week talked about crazy things are right now. Getting the first show open is a marathon task. Debra Harned is the graphic artist for the theatre who lays out our program. We were late this year in getting our ad sales and sponsors which then pushed the program up and past the deadline. We print the cover and all the color pages once for the entire year. That’s 10,000 covers and color pages that have to be correct for the entire year. After we dropped off what we thought was the final proof on Friday August 13, we had two more color ads come in from businesses that we had given up on. I literally ran over to our printer and told them to hold the press and had them reset the color pages. We worked almost round the clock on the weekend of August 21 & 22 getting final ad copy and sponsor listing for the 32 black and white pages that we turned in August 23. I was still talking to sponsor and getting and creating ad copy right up to turning in the proof. The good news is that we received the printed programs yesterday and they look great.

At the same time we were in rehearsals for the show and trying to finish the set and lights. Last Saturday it was a 14 hour work day which was to finish the hang and focus of lights which started on the Thursday before. We began setting light cues at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon and ended about 10:30 that night. Setting light cues involves Stage Manager Denise Bristol walking through the different scenes on stage while I sit in the audience with the light board and set the cues. At 10:30 Denise left with a prop list of items that was needed for the tech rehearsal the next day and I went home to work until about 1 AM locating images on the internet and creating title slides for the large rear screen projections during the show. This continued starting about 6 AM the next morning until 11 AM when I programmed them into the computer backstage to display the images. (The majority of the images I found and programmed I changed almost immediately after the technical rehearsal because they didn’t work the way I thought they would and pulled “focus” from the actors in the scene.) From 11 AM to 1PM I focused on finding sound effects for the show and setting up the 8 wireless microphones and receivers. We are using the microphones primarily for a monitor speaker for Patt Lynch who is playing piano to hear the actors because he is seated several feet behind the actors and can’t hear their singing as he plays the music for them. We had the tech rehearsal on Sunday technical rehearsal last Sunday we have been dealing with microphone and sound issues along with scenery issues. The lighting and follow spot crew got their dates mixed up and Jim forgot to confirm the day before so they didn’t show up for the rehearsal. When the mistake was discovered TD Jim Keeney had to make and emergency call to his wife and daughter to fill in for the missing crew along with his running some of the equipment. The technical rehearsal went well and afterwards the cast was treated to a great meal while I gave notes from the rehearsal. Volunteers Don and Renie Barger, Ralph and Stephanie Young, Dick Holland, Valerie Pollard and others have taken on the task of making food for the cast crew and orchestra as a way of showing their appreciation for the hard work that has been done to get the show open.

Sunday evening I spent working with April to design the set for Alice in Wonderland Jr. which April started staging the next day. April has asked to create a set that can grow and shrink with Alice. I had some basic ideas for how to make that work but working through the actual design takes lots discussion and sketches of different ideas and how the actors might move in the different scenes in a space. There are over 30 actors in the show and they all are onstage in a couple of different scenes. We need lots of different height levels so the audience can see everyone and at the same time the choreography and movement needs a flat floor space to work best. We settled on a raked floor that will will elevate those at the back above those in the front and give us a space without steps that would impede the choreography. A rough sketch of the set was completed with very general ideas of how special effects would work to make things grow and shrink. That was enough to get her started.

Monday the focus returned to Perfect Change and the costumes, sets, lights, sound and staging. I had been unhappy with a section of one of the songs in the Wedding scene and decided it needed more choreography. I spent time in the afternoon working through some different possible movements for the “gospel church choir” to do which made them more involved in the scene instead of just standing and singing. When the cast arrived at 6:30 we spent 20 minutes on learning the choreography that would be performed in the song in the first act. Just as we were about to start we had major sound issues with the piano because I had tried to add a hard masking piece in front of the piano for a visual effect. Patt couldn’t hear what he was playing on the piano. We ended up adding monitors for Patt and the percussionist. We started the rehearsal and in the first act a scene with a bed began with a crash. Three actors have to get in a bed that was built to fold in half between the head board and the footboard so it would get through the side masking to get onstage and the head of the bed is elevated so the audience can see the actors when they sit up. That afternoon Tech Director Jim Keeney had decided to redo the casters on the bed to make it easier to roll on and off. The larger casters changed the center of balance on the bed and when the three actors sat down in the dark scene change the bed collapsed into a V shape causing the headboard and the footboard to come together. Al Knudsen who was behind the head board was thrown backwards as the bottom of the headboard kicked out. Audra, Melanie, and Chris hit their heads hard on the head board and everyone came running on to help. We brought up the lights and made sure that everyone was okay. My first thought was “Oh God we just killed 3 actors in bed!” Fortunately everyone was able to continue bruised and a little shaken. Don't let anyone tell you theatre isn't dangerous! We hauled the broken bed offstage and did the scene with the actors sitting on 3 chairs for the rehearsal that night. The rest of the rehearsal went surprisingly well.

Tuesday Jim Keeney rebuilt the bed and readjusted the center of balance. That afternoon Jim and I both jumped up and down on the bed structure with all our combined weight to test the redesign to prevent any future breaking. When the cast showed up that night we opened up the bed and I jumped up and down on it with all my weight to reassure the cast it was now fixed. Audra Hall called in sick right before we began the rehearsal Tuesday night so the other women in the cast had to quickly fill in for her so that we could do the run through. They did a great job not only filling in but also helping us continue to improve the show to get ready for the final dress rehearsal.

Wednesday evening we did the final dress rehearsal. We pay a royalty to the authors to allow a small test audience of performer’s friends and family to see our “preview” of the show. Audra was healthy and back onstage. She had to learn some of the changes that we made on Tuesday night to refine choreography and stage the curtain call with just a very quick walk through before we started. During the second scene of the first act we suddenly had an unknown voice coming through the sound system. After a frantic search it was discovered that the church across the street from the theatre was using a wireless microphone on the same frequency as ours. This created a mad search to track down which wireless receiver was picking up the signal and changing the frequency channels while the first scene was in process. The actors and musicians kept right on going without missing a beat. It was an alert audience member who realized it was the church across the street and he went out during the first scene and asked them to change their frequency. He told me at intermission that the preacher from across the street said that the night before they were hearing us through their sound system. I can only imagine a church service suddenly hearing people sing "If I were a Stud" or "sexually trained attorneys helping you get the satisfaction you want in bed."

With all of the trials and tribulations that go with opening the show and the season, it all comes together tonight as we kick of the 47th Season. One of the family members who was in the audience for the final dress was laughing so hard she was crying at the dating scenes. In another scene Fowler Black’s solo “Shouldn’t I be less in Love with You?” moved the audience to total silence at the end of the scene when the lights went down instead of the standard applause so that you could hear a pin drop. That’s when you know you the audience is really moved by the performance. I hope lots of people will come and be moved to tears and laughter by this great season opener.