I asked as I left the theatre tonight, “For a show that’s going pretty well, why is it that we keep being here until 1AM?” In truth, it has nothing to do with how well the show is going, it’s been a different reason every night. Tonight part of the reason may have been that while looking at light cues at the tail end of our production meeting, somebody actually looked at what was on stage and realized how absurd it was, and that it would make a great art installation.
I wish I had a better camera, it would have been a great piece of art for a real photographer. Without using a flash my camera is always blurry, so I added some Gaussian blur in the hopes that it would look more intentionally blurry, and suitable for use as a desktop, which is what everyone seems to want. So I’ve made it 1440×900 for our Mac-using production team.
The completely rational explanation for all this is that we had flown in this sky drop to make some changes to a series of sunset cues. The 30-odd umbrellas were put out to dry overnight after having been used in the finale, and the buckets are there to catch remaining drips from the rain nozzles.
Anyway, I’m fried, but the run went pretty well. I’m still shaky on the second half of the second act, but a lot of the cues in the ballet would have given an observer the impression that I knew how to call them. I think we’ll be fine. This was the first run that actually felt to me like a performance rather than an experiment in technical theatre. Well it really was the first run without stops, and I think we’re in good shape. No rehearsal except the final dress tomorrow, and the dancers are coming in a half hour early because they wanted to go over the lifts in the ballet. I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel.
