Officially into this final weekend…

There’s only 3 more shows before we strike this thing.

Today was fine. A barn flat almost landed on top of the two main characters, but luckily they were paying attention and didn’t move under it.

……And the crew were able to get it to stop before landing. There were also a couple weird small things that happened….though I can’t really remember them….

Except for a strange “ding” that happened towards the end of the show……but I think everyone decided it was somebody in the orchestra who did it…

ANYBUT! Tomorrow is another two show day (or two doh shay).

“DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE…OGRE BEYOND”

Another one down…

Five more performances to go. Including a Thursday performance that starts half an hour earlier than usual. We’ll see how many people forget (or almost forget).

Then Sunday after the matinee we strike this sucker.

The final weekend is always bitter sweet. It’s sad the show is ending, especially when it’s a GOOD show, but (for me at least) it’s about that time I’m ready to move on to the next one.

But enough talk about that….I’ve got some gossip…kind of.

You see one of our crew members is unable to work the final weekend. So a new crew member shadowed him this performance. And let me tell you, the actresses were very excited. Apparently, and I heard this from one of the actors who I trust to tell me the “real tea” (if you will), all of the actresses were falling hard for the new crew member.

Now, I don’t personally see the appeal, but that’s mostly because I tend to put blinders on at work. There’s no point really. I don’t understand showmances. It’s rarely a good idea to date someone you work with (especially in theater). I know for some people they go on and have fantastic relationships and yada yada yada…but it’s just not something I personally have witnessed ending well.

Anybut, I think the main reason this new crew member is getting the once over by all the ladies…is because he wasn’t here during tech week. You see, during tech week, the high stress of trying to get the show fully on its feet tends to cause tension between actors and crew…mostly actors to crew. Crews are usually too stressed from lack of sleep and overwork to really care about holding grudges against actors…but sometimes actors tend to get a bit…testy to crew. Basically it comes down to lack of understanding each other’s tracks (what they do during the show). To be fair, sometimes crew members CAN hold grudges against actors who lean towards the more…diva side.

My point is, it’s a new face amongst the faces they’ve seen for weeks. And for some reason, when actors are doing shows they become more…flirtatious (and this is me censoring myself…mainly because horny is just an awkward word. I mean read it out loud to yourself…it’s awkward).

I guess the upside to this gossip is that next weekend will be interesting.

TWO DOH SHAY!!!

The actual spelling of the statement above is 2 dow shay, but I know if I’d actually written that you would’ve heard the doh as dow…

In case you’re confused: 2 dow shay is Two Show Day…it’s a theater thing…or maybe it’s just a theater thing with the company I work for…whatever.

POINT IS!! We had 2 performances today. A matinee at 2pm and an evening show at 8pm.

Both went well…although between the matinee and evening show apparently a gremlin came in and decided to tweak some of the props. And I check them after and before every show, but SOMEHOW I missed these particular tweaks.

Anybut everything will be fine.

Matinee tomorrow and then some days off. Then next weekend is: STRIKE!!!

But first a matinee tomorrow.

That went better…

Nothing was knocked over so that’s good. Had to repair a few things, but nothing too severe.

There was an opening party in the lobby, but I haven’t had a day off from this show for over a week…..so I chose to just go home and take a nap.

Good choice.

Anybut, I’ll have 4 days off now until our next performance.

Hooray!

Well, that was an interesting performance…

Live theater is a unique beast. It doesn’t matter how many times you rehearse it, something new always seems to happen.

And sometimes…and actor slips and knocks the entire ground row over.

For those not in the know, a ground row is literally a background set piece on the ground up stage (the back of the stage) to simulate a landscape. Think of the hills of Oklahoma! or for those not in theater, a wooden cutout in the shape of hills, mountains, etc.

Anybut, the actor slipped and ran into the ground row, knocking it all over. Luckily, the show we’re doing is a comedy and our lead came right in with some lines to make the audience laugh….

But this wasn’t any old performance. This was our Press Opening. Which means reviewers were in the audience……well, at least we’ll stand out.

One more show tomorrow and then I get four days off.

Tonight was our first audience…

We had a short rehearsal this afternoon. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

And then we suddenly had an audience.

And then we made it through the show! The audience sounded very receptive and were very loud at the moments we expected…and a few we didn’t.

Can’t wait to officially open tomorrow!

Important rule for actors: Check your props before the show…

Yes, it should always be in the same place. Yes, someone else knows the track of your prop (though that also means that person knows the track of ALL actors’ props but whatever).

HOWEVER!! Shit happens. Things happen that may mean something interfered with the usual pre-show checklist. Crew members are at the theater working hard to make sure everything is ready for the performance.

Things happen.

Set pieces need repair, props need repair, props are being created from scratch, set pieces are being created from scratch, the stage needs additional care, and so on.

New things are thrown at us (the crew) on the daily if not hourly.

Yes, an actor has a lot on their plate for a show. However, part of that should be checking your props before  the audience ever enters the building. NOT one minute before you go on.

This issue I speak of was a unique situation where a prop was being repaired by a professional and we had a backup to use in its place. Apparently they returned the prop to the actress and not to me (the one in charge of props).

The actress didn’t tell anybody the prop was returned and though I asked everyone who saw the person hired to repair the prop, none of them saw the prop.

So I put the backup in place (the setup takes a good amount of time) but literally one minute before she goes on, she realizes she never brought the prop from her dressing room.

Now, I need to be clear about something: Props should rarely be in dressing rooms. There are a few exceptions, but those are case by case exceptions.

The actress ran to her dressing room (in the theater, a good distance away) and when she made it back….it was literally the line she was supposed to enter on. I told her there was no time to change out the prop. She argued with me. But I wasn’t about to hold the show for this.

Anybut, she went on with the backup and was upset. Sorry, not sorry. I did let her use the repaired prop later in the show (even though it messed up the continuity, but whatever it was a dress rehearsal runthrough).

But on the plus side: She’ll never do that again.