Tech Week.

Tuesday of this week was our first day on our stage. The past few weeks we'd been rehearsing in an alternate space while they hosted an event on our stage and started/finished building our set. This show has been a crazy process. Most of my time has been spent on book - as I explained before, I think, this is when a person reads the script as the actors are working so if they miss a line or call for a line you can feed it to them. I was on book for what seemed like an eternity. Until Tuesday. Tuesday Deb (the assistant stage manager) and I moved onto the deck of our stage. The deck is basically another term for the back stage area of our set. We are in charge of making sure everything is in its place on and off stage before the show starts and sweeping/mopping the sets and then during the run of the show we hand and catch props to and from actors, assist with quick changes, if there were set pieces to move we would move them. This is all relatively easy because you've been studying the show for some time but with OUR show things kept changing. Props kept moving, entrances got switched around - it was a bit chaotic trying to keep track of everything for the first few days. There was also a rumor going around that I was going to be moved into the booth to run sound - don't get me wrong that would have been fine, I would have done it - but I didn't not move all the way to California to run a sound board. I want to learn about managing a deck and stage management. I am happy to report that as of tonight I am NOT moving into the booth. I am maintaining my position as second in command on deck. Tech week is LONG - we call them 10 out of 12 days because we rehearse for 10 hours and get a two hour dinner break except that as crew part of dinner break is spent accounting for notes we've received, re-setting the stage for where ever rehearsal will pick back up so for the crew it is sometimes more like a 1 and a half hour dinner break. They are long days but it is so fun to see the show finally come together. Everything makes sense now and the last pieces of the puzzle are being put into place. Besides our actors we have a dresser back stage, her name is Alma and she is quite wonderful; she too lives in Long Beach and we have talked about occasionally sharing a ride to the theatre. Tomorrow we have a invited dress rehearsal then Sunday at 2:00pm we officially start with our first Preview or our first show with a paying audience - they are not paying full price yet so we have some room to tweak things and make adjustments. How the World Began opens Friday, September 30th - that is a week from today or yesterday as it is now past midnight.

I very much miss the Montana nights, it doesn't cool down quite as much but if I roll my windows down on the drive home it gets close and I desperately miss the stars. They just aren't as bright because of all of the "light pollution" - as if there weren't enough pollution down here already. I'll be sure to report on how our first run with an audience goes - should be interesting. We have invited some group that the writer is affiliated with who happen to be part of some Christian organization so it will be interesting to see their reaction to the play. The websites description of it is as follows: "They have strong beliefs in Plainview, Kansas. And high school biology teacher Susan Pierce knows the score. A transplant from Manhattan, she arrived here with a desire to start a new life and a willingness to help out in the aftermath of a devastating tornado. Susan tries to tread carefully, but sometimes things fall out of her mouth willy nilly, like that offhand comment in her biology class about the origins of life. Folks in Plainview get up in arms about that kind of thing."