Dress Rehearsal

Tonight, the middle school kids put on their dress rehearsal production of "Beauty and the Beast, Jr.". It was a remarkable improvement from Monday night's rehearsal.

Monday night was full of forgotten blocking, dropped lines, bad acting, technical mishaps, and entirely too much conversation in the wings.

Come to think of it, so was Tuesday night.

Monday, we got all the way through Act One, and it only took two and a half hours.

Tuesday, we got all the way through Act Two, and it only took three hours.

Together, that makes for a five and a half hour play. It's supposed to be an hour and ten minutes, tops. Throw in an intermission, and you've got roughly an hour and a half. Where did all the extra time come from?

Missing props. New stage direction. Wireless mikes that needed adjusting. Figuring out the timing for the costume changes. Repeating scenes that just didn't work.

Tonight was a non-stop run-through. Absolutely no repeats. Deal with the mishaps and mistakes, just keep going. Got it down to about two hours. Not bad.

Tomorrow morning is another "dress rehearsal", except that it will be taking place in front of all the elementary school kids, who are being bussed in to watch the performance. Mr. Hudson said there would be 650 of 'em. Really? That's going to be one loud auditorium! And very unruly, to boot. Can't wait to see how that works out.

I've got to be there at the end of the production so I can grab the tea cart and make a few minor adjustments to it. Still need to paint the wheels. And add some floral patterns. So that by the time we open "for real" tomorrow night, it'll be all prettified and elegant, like a tea cart is supposed to be.

I find myself looking forward to any excuse to go out and work in my shop now that it's all closed off and insulated and cozy. And it's so relaxing! Especially when there's time to do things right, and not be in a rush.

I'm so looking forward to Christmas vacation. There are many ideas floating in my head which involve wood in some way.