Put It In Your Pocket

I saw the biggest meteor I've ever seen tonight as I drove home on the Dixie Highway. I was in the middle of downtown Miami, having just gotten off Interstate 95, so no stars were visible. Right in front of me this thick, white streak of light fell straight down from the top of my vision, burning brightly until it hit the horizon. I was almost ready to see an explosion at the other end, it fell so far and looked so massive.

John says it's good luck. I made a brief wish, so we'll see how that turns out.

I was coming back from observing "Anna Karenina" rehearsals in the echo-y Peacock Room at CCPA. This incredible new work by David Carlson (with a libretto by the late Colin Graham) is having its world premiere here during Opera America in two weeks. I've watched a couple of their rehearsals during this time I have off before remounting here in Miami. I always find it interesting to watch other directors work, especially on new work. I love the old standards, but watching a rehearsal where the composer is actually sitting in the room, where dialogue changes as the show goes up, where singers and conductors are creating roles for the very first time, well...that's just juicy and wonderful. I long to have the opportunity to work on a world premiere myself.

And in a more cynical light, there's something satisfying about sitting in on a rehearsal in which you have no responsibility whatsoever.

That all changes tomorrow morning.

One Tech Down...

...and one to go.

I'm on a bit of a caffeine kick at this moment, mainly because I left the theater in Ft. Lauderdale after midnight tonight and swigged down some cold coffee as I made my way down Highway 1 so that I wouldn't swerve off the road during my 45 minute drive.

They're doing construction on Interstate 95 at night right now, so every time we leave the theater we have to take the extremely long way home. I've never seen a place shut down freeways the way Southern Florida does. It's baffling and frustrating when your entire job revolves around making your way through these massive construction zones. It took me nearly 2 hours to get up to the Broward Center this afternoon because of construction and various stalled vehicles. And I thought I'd be happy to have a car...

So we had our first tech rehearsal tonight. We got through all of Act I which is a LOT of chorus work. There are deaths and huge running exits, supers running down temple steps with huge spears and live torches being handed off during frantic chorus sequences. I was proud of how swiftly we moved through despite the fact that there was no bridge to the stage from the house so I had to run out of the house, down the hall and up onto the stage many, many times to adjust spacing and make sure everyone knew where they were going.

We were going to work a couple of things in Act II, but this was the first time the crew had done the move from Act I to Act II and it took the entire rest of the rehearsal, so our rehearsal ended with a brief conversation with one of the principals about stair useage and spacing, and we released everyone else..

Tomorrow is all Act III all the time. It's a spacing nightmare because of the dance and the dark exits at the end, plus the amount of rail moves, trips, falling statues and rubble drops put it somewhere in the sixth level of tech hell. It's all about remaining calm. Easier said than done.

The picture is a sphinx on the grounds of Vizcaya in Coconut Grove. My stage manager and I took a sight-seeing trip to the lavish mansion on our last day off. Sometimes it's nice to abandon work for a few hours and be a tourist.