Finally, a Week of Respite

This Monday begins five days of doing my own thing. It's much needed after a very stressful week of performances last week. Grant's triumphant performance was just the beginning. Our Rigoletto cancelled again for the Friday night show, again at the last minute. Grant had a performance elsewhere and had to leave. Fortunately, the company had already flown someone in as a safety net, so I did exactly the same thing as the Tuesday night performance.

The stress on Tuesday was mitigated by an extreme excitement and an amazingly emotional performance by Mr. Youngblood. Friday, however, had all of the stress of throwing someone in at the last minute, but none of the adrenal excitement. It was more frustrating than before, the singer was having vocal issues due to the dryness of the theater, and there wasn't the emotional investment in the performance that was evident before. I left the theater completely worn out and a bit deflated.

The Sunday Matinee was finally back to normal! I was nervous making my performance calls that morning, thinking that our baritone would sound under the weather again, but everyone sounded cheery (some a little groggy . . . those matinees are always hard to get up for). The show went well. I sat in the balcony (you can see from the photo). The set looked spectacular from up there with moody lighting and those buildings hanging at odd angles, as if the entire world was closing in on Rigoletto as the curse gets more and more malevolent. I think this is a lovely production - probably even more so when it's done in a theater in which the entire set fits. We had to modify it to get it into Dade County Auditorium. It lost a little perspective because three arches didn't fit in the back, and two didn't fit along the sides in the ducal palace.

It was great to finally watch the show from the house; something I didn't have time to do when I was prompting baritones and walking them through their blocking during intermissions. I sat on the couch in the production office before the show started and marveled about how little I had to do. I certainly prefer it that way.

We had a cast party after the show. I cannot begin to explain how nice it was to completely let go after a week of constantly being on my toes. It was great to dance, to talk shit, to laugh, to partake in a couple of beers, sit in comfy chairs and laugh at each other, pose for ridiculous photos and bitch about everything we were going through after this show opened. Socializing is good for the soul.