Home Again, Home Again Lickety-Split

Finally, I am in the sunny clutches of Southern California. I get three whole weeks here to bask in the loving gazes of my sweet John, pet my cats (who haven't missed me in the least), at long last take in some dance class, and generally hang around getting mundane things accomplished.

"Fille du Regiment" actually closed well. We moved up to the far superior theater in Broward County and had a grand old time with our final two shows. The attached photo shows the rush before curtain in the wig and makeup room on closing night. On the last night I watched the sticky sequences from the wings. I never sit in the house on closing night. I don't think there's anything that can be done at that point. Weird things happen during a closing performance and I, personally, don't want to know about them. I can't fix anything about the show once it closes.

I tortured myself for this show, however, by planting myself next to the stage manager's console to watch the overture and the marching sequences. This was partly due to the fact that one of our super soldier's was lying in bed with the flu that night and I spent the final half an hour before curtain rearranging several of the entrances and exits for the difficult overture sequence. I had one soldier coming in earlier than usual and another jumping on a different count so that we could cover the fact that we were missing one of our men. Had a different super been sick (one with more intricate movements) I may very well have put on his costume, asked wigs to slap a moustache on my face, and gone out there myself, but this guy's part was small enough that a little rearranging rendered an overture that nearly measured up to what was normally performed.

Despite, I still stood backstage with my arms crossed and watched the action. They did fine, and each successful change was accompanied by a miniscule pump of my fists and a nearly inaudible, "yes!" The one snafu of the evening, actually, involved this poor errant mug that Marie tosses behind her during the song of the regiment. It's been a problem from the get go. The action is supposed to be that she sings her high note then blindly tosses the mug (to a predetermined mark) and a chorus member standing in the cart catches it quite spontaneously. It never happened that way, with the mug sometimes flying over everyone's head and landing in the back drop, many times it simply missing its mark and landing in the hands of another chorus gentleman standing by, and once flying up beautifully and landing in between a bevy of chorus boys who just didn't have the energy or gumption to reach out and catch it. It's most definitely a head-in-my-hands moment and the final night I walked into the men's dressing room and beseeched them to catch the mug at all costs. On watching, the mug flew up a little too high, I see all of the chorus men look at its trajectory and move across the stage accordingly, then I watch in a bit of horror and a lot of amusement as it gleans itself off of the cabin roof and ricochets back into the crowd of soldier boys. One of them reaches up to grab it, and falls into a spontaneous Mary Katherine Gallagher pose as it lands safely in his palm. Disaster averted.

So, the show closed well and with great admiration from the audience. I received many well wishes and gave back an equal amount, then retired to my little home to pack with relief playing across my face.

I actually really like watching a show from the wings. I find the backstage action fascinating, especially when it involves quick changes and handing off of props left and right. I love watching singers and actors in their final moment of repose before jumping into character and propelling themselves on stage. I love seeing the final adjustment of hats, baldrics, shoe laces, a wig person running to someone as they exit to adjust a moustache, a side burn. There's something magical about the energy that sits in the wings that one never gets from the audience. It's a totally different energy that is projected past the orchestra pit. I forget how much I miss the adrenalin of back stage until I spend an evening amongst it.

And now I'm back home, and a whole new energy of calm and family surrounds me. I went with John to the Meet-and-Greet for "Lucia di Lammermoor," which begins rehearsals today at San Diego Opera. It was nice to see old friends and be in the SDO space again. It was nice to be at a company function without having to "turn it on." I just stood at John's side and chit-chatted with people I hadn't seen in months. These three weeks will be healing for me before I run back to Miami to put together a "Rigoletto" that is already proving to be a challenge to my sanity.

More on that later...