Flying Electricians and Other Oddities of the Theater

The photo is a scene from yesterday's level session. In order to fix some scrollers, an electrician was vaulted into the air and got to float around the flies as John Goss, the assistant lighting designer, watched from the ground. The lights look great! The snow in act II . . . not so much. It looked okay while I was at the afternoon session, but everything fell apart during orchestra dress: the snow was falling in huge clumps. It was too heavy sometimes and not heavy enough other times. I know it all frustrates the hell out of Sherrie Dee. It must if it frustrates me, sitting in the audience, at all.

Last night was our first orchestra dress rehearsal (and our last time on stage without an audience). The day was a little off as Lillian was very ill with food poisoning. I didn't think she would even show up but at 7pm, there she was wandering aimlessly, looking a little like death warmed over. Everyone was getting her gingerale and asking how she was doing and generally freaking out whenever she stood up from her seat in front of the tech table. I kept asking her if she wanted to go home and she, hard-headed woman that she is, said that she had to be there for her "kids," and wanted to be able to give notes at the production meeting. I will call her this afternoon to make sure that she is indeed on the mend.

The dress rehearsal ran as exactly that. I always hope for an off run during the dress because it often times means a better opening. Last night there were guns misfiring, sugar glass bottles breaking before they were supposed to, bandoliers sliding up around people's necks during the fights, ladders not working, chairs falling over, you name it... The rehearsal ended and all of us (the singers tired from an off night and myself tired from taking care of business with a very under-the-weather director) retired to Fritz and Franz' (which I think is actually called Fritz' Bierhaus but has somehow adopted the former name by Florida Grand employees) in Coral Gables for some beer and brats.

I was particularly worn out after trying to set bows with the black out curtain in so that Stewart could continue orchestra notes. I'm whispering to 26 chorus members and trying to set them up in lines on a downstage area that doesn't exist behind the curtain. Lillian finally comes staggering back and sets them further upstage and I am infinitely relieved when Stewart finishes up and I can climb down to the front of the pit and open up my voice full throttle. I don't know why bows always stress me out. They should be the easiest thing to stage but I hate the logistics of getting all of these people to their proper places in their proper order...

So, we eat brats and I have a Chivas on the rocks and we talk a lot of shit and have a general good time. Sherrie Dee and our two ASMs, Chelsea and Jodi, were finally out with us as well, so it was a full house and a great way to blow off some steam. Chuck Hudson, who I am assisting on "Rigoletto" just happened to be there since he was down teaching movement classes to the young artists, so I got to meet and chat with him a bit as well. Otherwise, it boiled down to a lot of bitching about the opening night gala, which has many of us outraged.

We recognize that the gala is for donors, but we were all hoping to get to spend a little time together at the function until we found out that stage management and the assistant director were not invited. At first we thought we found a quick fix by having us go as guests of the singers who do not have their significant others in town, but when all of the singers got their invitations, it specifically stated that they could ONLY bring a guest if it was their significant other. It's a frustrating situation because it splits up the group of people who actually worked on the show. Seeing class lines being drawn by an organization (regardless if it's for financial reasons or not) is disheartening and the singers were also angry that they couldn't bring their best friend if that's who they had with them. Dean Anthony, who I was originally going to go with, said that he would still try to walk in the door with me, but I have no idea how it's going to turn out. I don't want to make a big deal out of it but I can't help feeling insulted, and it makes me feel good to know that the rest of the cast and crew are having similar feelings.

So, off my soap box, we are ready to open and I am ready for this to get into run mode so my workload slows down and I can clean up my paperwork without having three thousand things on my plate. I found out yesterday that I got a job at Opera Theatre St. Louis in May, so it's nice to finally have a moment to be able to look into the future. As my college friend, Tracee Westmoreland, once said, "we are continually coming together and falling apart." This is very much the case in my line of work, in my consistency of travel. It is for that reason that we must make the most of the times we have together.