First night in the theater

I am unfortunately coming down with something. I have a pretty nasty sore throat, and it's a little tough to talk. Tech week is not a great week for having no voice, but I'm not letting it get me down. Things went too well last night for that.

Last night was our first night in the theater. We acquired the necessary desk and chair, and spiked the places for the stage blocks. There's always a shift in energy when you get into your actual performance space for the first time, but for me, it feels different when I do it as the director than as an actor. I remember noting it for the first time during Hamlet. For me, it's like I become hyper-aware, tightly energized to get things put together, to make things happen.

It shocked me how little work that required. Theater is by nature a train wreck, as I often say; it has so many moving parts to keep together that it is inevitable that things malfunction at least a little. But as I mentioned, I'd never felt a show was in such a good place across the board before going into tech week. Sure, we had a number of jobs left to do, but we had a plan for all of them, and in relatively short order with shockingly little fuss, one by one they got done.

The Graces finally look the way they're supposed to in their chitons, which pleases me to no end. I cannot praise, adore, and thank blendedchaitea* enough for her expertise and her help. She had come onboard to do makeup and hair, but she was enormous help getting the chitons just right. With some safety pins and extra pieces of gold cord I was making progress getting the proper shape to them, but Rachel saw what I was trying to achieve with the Graces and stepped in with exactly the right idea to polish and refine their look. With her help, they were transformed from girls wrapped in muslin to the elegant, magesterial figures from myth I hoped they'd be. She has a remarkably discerning eye; I was impressed with her ability to try something with makeup, evaluate it, and keep on with it if it worked, or try something else if it didn't. I can't thank her enough for all her help.

The technical setup in there is a bit primitive, but Bernie manned it capably as always. The lighting in the show was restricted by the fact that we weren't allowed to rehang or refocus anything in the Merrick Theater, but given those limitations he put together a reasonable facsimile of our original lighting plan. It is a pretty simple plot, with only twenty cues over an hour, but I think it conveys what we needed from it. We need to add in the music tonight, which may or may not be challenging, but it's the only major job left to do at this point.

Finally, the most shocking thing of all was how calm I was. Maybe it's having gained some experience, maybe it's because things genuinely felt so good to me. But I felt totally at ease and fully prepared to deal with anything that might arise. This stands in sharp contrast to Hamlet, as Bernie teasingly reminded me, when I was CONVINCED that everything was a mess teetering on the edge of theatrical disaster and a nervous wreck because of it. I fortunately get the kind of nervousness that makes me really quick-thinking and productive in a crisis situation, but it is incredibly draining and I crash immediately after the adrenaline wears off. This is so much better-- for my stress level, and the state of the show.

Tonight we want to get through two full runs with all the technical aspects in place. I am psyched to do it and have complete confidence in everyone involved. In the meantime I am pounding tea and trying not to talk, in hopes that I might have some voice tonight. At least I'm not IN the show, eh? Still, it makes it tough to yell at your puppet-people when you can't speak. And God knows that's the best part of directing. ;-)