Tech and stuff

We finished early Thursday morning with our last day of technical rehearsals. Outside, onstage, with lights, sound and in our case costumes. It also happened to rain all four of our tech nights which made for a rather soggy experience. Three of the rehearsals I spent on stage in a little cubby/hole that our play doesn't really use so I could be "on book" for the actors and so that they could hear the line called for over the noisy rain. The fourth night I was promoted and was sent backstage to help wrangle our crew and keep our costumers informed. It was a major upgrade to be able to move around - I didn't even have to add a layer of clothing that night. Speaking of layers, teching a show on the outdoor stage requires exactly that. You never quite know what the weather will bring which leads me to the list of stuff I brought to each evening of tech:
2 umbrellas - one for my head, one for my script
rain coat
1 clear rain poncho - clear so I can see my script through it
1 beach towel - either to soak up water or pad my seat
1 extra absorbent camp towel
1 pair of fingerless gloves - have to be able to turn pages
1 pair of regular gloves
2 stocking caps of different levels of warmth
2 head lamps - in case one dies
my sleeping bag
wool socks
2 long sleeve shirts
1 hooded sweatshirt
1 jacket
scarf
thermos of hot chocolate
baseball cap
belt - to hook my headset pack to

It was quite the down pour we survived and it always seemed to stop at about 1:30 in the morning or an hour and a half after we would end our night with the actors. The positive to teching in the rain is that our cast has now run the show in the rain so it is not an unknown the negative is that it slowed us down a fair bit and we didn't actually get through our entire show (though the weather I'm sure isn't entirely to blame). We have our first dress rehearsal next week and then in two weeks we have our first live audience for Previews. It is hard to believe we are already this far into the process. It doesn't feel like I've been here long enough. I think we've rehearsed for something like 180 hours thus far.