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Log, Story Time

Child Magnet

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Children are drawn to me…

I don’t know why…it may have to do with the fact I have purple hair….that’s probably the exact reason.

Anyways, I can’t remember if I’ve ever mentioned this but I don’t like children…okay, I don’t dislike children, I just…am not 100% comfortable with them. I can communicate with them for short periods of time. I can keep them entertained (if it doesn’t require chasing them around a room…I’m not a runner) and I know enough references on recent children shows to keep up when they talk about them. But I sort of short circuit a little bit when left in a room alone with children. I think it’s because they just understand things in such a different way than adults and sometimes they say things so profound yet they don’t understand that what they said was profound. They’re just so innocent…and I don’t want to ruin that innocence. I remember those adults in my life who ruined it for me.

ANYBUT, I wanted to add this to my rehearsal posts but I didn’t know how to fit them in.

But there are children in our show and they’re very nice, professional, and well-behaved children. BUT boy howdy they ask me questions more than they ask the Stage Manager….who actually has the answers.

There’s also a husband and wife in the show who’s son is in the show and their other son visits rehearsals at times.

Today was one of those times. During my dinner break I was eating alone in the rehearsal hall (sorry, actors, y’all are too loud during dinner) and he was in the room, too. There’s a green drum set in the show and he fell in love with it. It started conversations. And I mean I couldn’t just ignore him.

That’s rude.

So I answered his questions and he began to follow me around as I finished setting up for the Designer Run Through.

I never told him to leave me alone, but I did find little creative ways to keep his hands away from the props or set pieces (such as: the rats need to sleep before the show, the tower isn’t ready for people to stand on it yet…okay not that creative, but it worked, and so on).

Now I do need to mention, I’ve known this particular child for almost 5 years. And by know, I mean seen around the company. He’d always been very quiet. The only words I ever heard him say was “Hi” and “Bye-Bye”. THAT WAS IT!!

Now I was having full conversations about a dragon with him. Times sure change.

I lost track of what I really wanted this post to be about…but yeah. Kids always find a way to cling to me on shows and in life. My friends have always found it funny. They say it’s ironic since I’m the one in our friend group least likely to have children.

I could do without the irony, thanks.

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 16

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Three Days until Tech Week…

Today was the Designer Run. All the Designers were there to see all the work we’ve been doing the past 15 Days.

First half of the day was cleaning some last minute things, then an hour dinner break (which was actually a half hour lunch for me since I had to set for top of show).

Then we ran the show for the Designers with no stops. It went very well. Everything made it onstage when it needed to and there were few fumbles. It wasn’t perfect, but it got laughs, some tears, and cheers.

HOWEVER!! During one of the most emotional parts of the show…..I accidentally leaned against a light switch and half the lights shutoff, but I quickly fixed it. But I was the only one on that side of the rehearsal hall. All the actors were either onstage or on the other side of the rehearsal hall about to enter the scene…Needless to say, it was very obvious I did it….

Anybut, rehearsal Saturday is going to be first half notes from the Designer Run and second half cleaning/another run-through. The need to do run-throughs as much as possible before tech week is important. For one, the actors build the stamina for the show before needing to build stamina with costume changes and other factors. For another, our Director is actually not going to be attending tech week. We have the Assistant and Associate Directors who will be filling in, but our Director wants to do as much as he can before he leaves.

Sunday is going to be….no, I’ll leave that to be a surprise.

But FIRST, I get a day off! Hooray!

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 15

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Four Days until Tech Week…

We did a run through today. It went well….especially for not actually practicing a few transitions between scenes. Though it’s still hard to gauge the timing of things without the full crew and shift move pieces.

Tomorrow though…is the Designer Run Through (yeah, I capitalized that shizz). This is where we do a full run through for, you guessed it, the designers. They get a chance to see the show and ask questions before we get into tech week.

I love/hate Designer Run Throughs. On the one hand, we tend to get out early. On the other, I’m running around like mad trying to make sure the run through goes as smoothly as possible…it always does, but I get stressed about it anyways.

Anybut, fingers cross it goes well!!

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 14

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Five Days until tech week…

Excitement today.

Recording happened for a tap dance to add a little more sound where needed.

Finished props were brought in.

Apparently an actor was offered a dog by a homeless person at Chipotle….I don’t know the full story only what I could glean from passing conversation.

Personally, I fixed props that needed some updating to help out the prop designers.

…I also had a little bit of struggle today. It’s hard sometimes to be in rehearsals when it’s a struggle day. Sometimes it’s hard to watch people singing, dancing, and performing while I do legitimate work for the show, but nothing physically demanding. It makes the Imposter Syndrome grow stronger…kind of like the Dark side…except not as fun.

But I power through the struggle. I power through the thoughts trying to bring me down.

It doesn’t hurt that there are a few actors who go out of their way to make everyone laugh. And a few who always ask me how I’m doing. Sometimes that’s all I need. Just an acknowledgement that someone is happy I’m there.

Anybut, enough of that. Going to be doing something special tomorrow! Well, the actors…not me. But I get to write about it.

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 13

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Six Days until tech week…

We’re going to begin doing stumble throughs and run throughs today. Time to put this behemoth together and see how much actual time there is between scenes. See who has to do what…at least in the rehearsal hall.

We’ll also see if there will indeed be enough crew backstage…we can kind of tell in rehearsal, but until we actually have all the moving pieces it’s still a guessing game.

Anybut, that’s all I got for today.

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 12

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Like I said yesterday…

Today we only had 3 actors in rehearsal. And rehearsal was only 6 hours instead of 8 so it was a shorter day. Holes were filled in my paperwork (except for one but I think we’re finally going to get to it next rehearsal) and a lot of work got done.

BUT! There’s still so much to do and quite frankly…I don’t know how smoothly this week will go. There are still props needing to be worked on, set pieces still needing to be painted, puppets still MIA, and costume quick change rehearsals still needing to be scheduled.

Tech week is one week away…[insert squeal of stress].

Anybut, fingers crossed next rehearsal goes well…

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 11

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Quick….but sloooooooow.

That’s how I would describe rehearsal today. It went by quickly but also soooooooooo slowly.

I can’t even really remember what we did…I mean, I CAN, but I’d have to stop and think about it. But I know we did a lot. Every rehearsal we do a lot.

Tomorrow, though…..we’re going to do A LOT. But with less people. Only 3 actors are called tomorrow and instead of the 8 hour rehearsal, it’s only going to be a 6 hour rehearsal. Which is fair. Only 3 actors and really only working their scenes and a few of the songs….yeah, don’t need 8 hours for that…plus, 2 of the 3 have already done this show before.

BUT, I’ll be able to fill in the holes in my paperwork so hooray!

Anybut, on to the grind.

It Just Got Personal, Log

College Love…Nah.

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I thought about somebody I haven’t thought about in over 6 years.

My college career was average. Normal. But one odd thing kept happening.

Now, there were a few GE programs I was required to fulfill. This meant a short list of classes to choose from to fulfill these requirements.

Almost every single class I chose to take…there was another student (I’ll call him Jack though that is obviously not his name) who took them, too. And I mean, every single class except for 2 (yes, I know that means not ACTUALLY every single class, but cut me some slack here. I’m being dramatic for storytelling sake).

Anybut, Jack noticed this pattern, too….I think….I mean he always went out of his way to sit next to me because he recognized me from the other numerous classes we took together.

Now I was a Theater Major. Jack was a Business Major. We should never have crossed paths. But we kept picking the same GE classes, as in we kept picking classes that we wanted to take, had interests in taking.

I hope you see where this is going.

Needless to say….I got a crush on this guy, Jack.

He was sweet. He was funny. He liked hearing about my theater classes. And he ACTIVELY sat next to me in these classes. If you read any of my other posts I hope you’ve been able to grasp the fact that I am the most awkward, shy, weirdo ever to be allowed to grow to an adult age. I don’t actively do anything. My preference is to sit in the back so nobody will talk to me….but he always found me and sat next to me.

“You’re reading too much into it. Of course he sat next to you if he remembered you from other classes. Humans are attracted (not in the romantic way) to familiarity. You were familiar therefore he felt more comfortable sitting next to you.”

Okay. Maybe.

BUT! Does that explain this thing that happened:

Context: I was a theater major. Duh. But there was also the student group within the theater department and my senior year the group wanted to do more across the campus activities to promote the theater department or promote other things.

One of these things was a campaign against smoking…cliche I know. Anybut, we created large cigarettes that we would carry around to our classes and if people asked us about the eye sores we had scritps to recite back to them in an attempt to educate on cancer, life expectancy, and other smoking facts. Then we would ask them to sign the cigarette with a kind of declaration of dedication to not start smoking or cut down on their smoking.

I carried that stupid cigarette all day. The only person who ever asked about it was Jack. I did the stupid little spiel. I asked if he wanted to sign his intention to never smoke. He to my surprise, agreed. When I got my cigarette back…he’d also written his phone number.

Yes. His phone number.

Here comes the heartbreaker. This happened my senior year. It was also this year in the very class this incident happened in…..that I found out he was married. He’d been married for almost 2 years…his wife was still back where he was from, planning to move out here to California at the end of the year.

This may be needless to say, but I’m going to say this twice. After finding out this information: I immediately turned off. ONCE I FOUND OUT HE WAS MARRIED I IMMEDIATELY TURNED OFF. What does that mean? It means any feelings I felt for him were shoved down beneath so many layers of reality there was no more flirting and there was very little casual talk outside of those required for class.

Is this an overreaction? Maybe. But quite frankly, there was no way I was going to continue anything with a married man who actively gave me his phone number and not in a “we’re in a group project” way. Maybe we could’ve been friends. Maybe we could’ve been friendly without any inference of romantic feelings…but there was also the possibility we couldn’t do any of those things.

Though I did keep that cigarette in the back of my closet for several years. I mean he was really cute….but I’m not going to be that girl.

I threw that cigarette away two years after that event. I never put the number in my phone. I never wrote it down anywhere else. I never considered calling it.

I kept it as a reminder of that guy in college I had a class with every semester. And that I let him go.

And though I’ve been calling him Jack to protect his anonymity….it’s honestly because I don’t remember his name anymore. I don’t even know what triggered the sudden memory of him. I haven’t thought about him since I threw away that cigarette 6 years ago.

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 10

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Week 2 is almost done!

After this week, we’ll have one more week of rehearsals and then on to Tech Week.

We’ve gotten a lot of the show done, but this weekend will be finishing the last few scenes that haven’t been blocked yet.

Time is ticking away! Opening night is rushing towards us!

Log, That's My Job

Rehearsal Day 9

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Today was a tiffy day…

What does that mean? It means it was a day that just tiffed me. It got under my skin and just kept prodding me.

One of my pet peeves is poor communication. I’m someone that will ask for clarification to an almost annoying degree. I want to make sure I understand what someone is asking me so I can do it correctly.

So when I see people not communicate effectively and then turn their anger at me….that’s a tiffy day. When I get blamed for other people’s lack of communication…I get a tiffy day.

I also don’t enjoy not having all the information before being thrown into a situation. As mentioned in my post Rehearsal Day 3, I was elected to be the go-between communicator between the hired puppet maker and Production Staff. I did the best to my ability not actually knowing every puppet the maker was updating or what exactly the director, artistic director, or stage management wanted me to get on record.

So already two pet peeves on my radar: poor communication and being thrown into a situation without the full rundown.

Not only was this the case, but (found this out later) the AD didn’t want to come in and meet with the guy and now it somehow has become MY FAULT the puppets are late to be delivered, the puppet maker guy isn’t responding to messages, and that the props are not all in the rehearsal hall (props by the way that needed repair and some needed specialists to repair).

To be fair to the puppet maker….the company already paid him in full so there’s no incentive to get the puppets to rehearsal faster. And I hear some of you in the back saying “What about his reputation?” What about it? He’s been in the business 20+ years so who’s reputation could be hurt by this? The veteran or the company that paid up front instead of in increments or at the end?

Also, Debbie Downer from my other rehearsal post (I don’t remember which one exactly, but it doesn’t really matter) was in full force today. Trying to solve problems are near impossible when you got somebody saying your suggestion won’t work….only to then suggest it themselves as a possibility and get praise for it…

Anybut, enough complaining over things I have no control over. I’ll keep working hard and doing what’s expected.