Tech week

Have you missed me boys and girls? I've been busy this past week in tech hell with Oklahoma! I can't believe the damn thing finally opens tonight. Having participated in numerous tech weeks throughout my career, I didn't think I'd be learn anything new with this one. Well, color me surprised. I have learned one new thing. Never move to New Jersey. Before you Jersey freaks start burning effigies and boycotting my show, I have nothing against Jersey personally. It's just that the commute sucks. Well, I guess the commute itself doesn't suck as much as having to do it on very little sleep. Since rehearsals were scheduled late into the evening and I had to be at work early in the morning, it seemed only reasonable to pack up some clothes and just stay in Jersey- thus, the commute. So I've spent the last couple of days getting on a 7:00am train to Penn, jumping on the subway to work, sitting at my desk for eight hours, running to Port Authority to catch a bus to Jersey, going straight to a five hour rehearsal, going to bed at Juan and Val's, hitting the sack for a couple of hours and then starting again from the top. Glamorous? Hardly.

The show itself is shaping up to be quite good. But It's sometimes a challenge working with non-professionals, not because they are less talented, but because they consider this their hobby. Certain things that I expect from an equity cast, i.e. learning your lines, writing down blocking, knowing upstage from downstage, are considered "optional" in community theatre. At least the one I'm working at. The stage manager actually set a date by which the cast had to have their lines memorized. A date that was over a month after rehearsals had started. Really? Um, I was always under the odd assumption that after a scene was blocked, it should be memorized. I guess I'm just crazy that way. Oh, and forget requiring actors to memorize the lines as written. God forbid you say what Oscar Hammerstein actually wrote. I don't want to name names, but there were actually actors who showed up to rehearsal without ever having read the scene they were about to rehearse. And yes, the scripts were distributed before rehearsals began, so don't even try to defend them.

It's also odd that the cast seems surprised that we have so many notes for them after each run-through. It's as if they just want us to say, "That was perfect." I don't think I've been in any production, even one that received stellar reviews, where the director didn't have notes for us all the time. There is always something that can be tweaked, made clearer or improved. Anyone who thinks their performance is perfect is seriously deluded. Anway, enough ranting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, knowing my cast will come through for opening night. We're actually nearly sold out. That's some crazy sh*t. Stay tuned for details about my big opening tonight (hehe, that sounds dirty - at least to me.)

Below is a crazy pic of our Ado, Laurey, Curly and Asian Will (more on that scandal another time. God forbid we cast the most talented person for the role - regardless of their skin color) in a "lost" number from Oklahoma!, "The Farmer and the Cowman - Just Friends?"