Well, dear readers, it was a busy, busy Saturday or as I like to call it, yesterday. I was up at eight after six hours of sleep, shaved and showered and out the door at nine-fifteen, just as planned. We began our cue-to-cue at ten-thirty or thereabouts and got that done in two hours. Then we had a one-hour pizza break, then our sound guy got to us and fixed a few things, the actors got miked, and we finally began our run-through around three-thirty. The strong notes I’d given paid off and fixed any number of problems, the flow of the show was pretty smooth, it ran what it usually runs. Act two fell apart a bit about twenty minutes in when there was too much fumfuring and mangled lines, a few major sound issues with tracks suddenly being hotter than they were, which I’m not understanding, and a few other sound glitches. I gave just a handful of notes afterwards, commended everyone for getting through our major tech day with ease and let them all go an hour early. Then there was a bit of drama about today and tech, but thankfully it got worked out in the end and all is well. After all that, I came directly home, went directly in the house, directly fired up the computer, directly answered e-mails and caught up on things, ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries from Islands directly, and that arrived about twenty minutes later and was really quite tasty and good and it was a very small amount of fries, so I didn’t feel TOO bad about directly consuming them. Then I thought I deserved a little sweet treat, so I had a small cup of ice cream from Coldstone Creamery and that was a lovely, sweet treat. All pills were taken, too. I didn’t futz and finesse but instead wrote a few new pages. Then I needed to just zone out so I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched some irritating YouTube videos and dozed off for a bit. I awoke around ten-thirty, did a few things on the computer, and then it was time to write these here notes, post them, and get to bed.

Today, I’ll be up at eight-thirty and out the door at nine-fifteen. We’ll get the actors in mics and as soon as we’re ready we’ll start the first of two run-throughs. The sound guy won’t be with us until two, so we’ll probably have the same sound issues as yesterday until he fixes them. I’m adding two more quick music cues, which I hope we’ll have by Tuesday for the invited dress – both will help – one for the end of act one leading into the sung act one finale, and one to open act two, which picks up exactly where act one left off. Then we’ll have a food break, then we’re back for the second run-through, which we’ll hopefully start by two-thirty. I’ll give any group notes after, then send any separate actor notes via e-mail. My intention is to get everyone out of there two hours early, by five. Once that’s done, I’ll come home, eat a proper meal, and then futz and finesse, write new pages, and then watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow is a ME day straight down the line. I’ll hopefully get a really good night’s sleep, my goal will be to write a lot of pages, catch up on things, pray for a modern major miracle, eat something fun, but basically just rest and get ready for our opening. Tuesday, we’re back for an invited dress, Wednesday and Thursday are previews, and then we open our show and I’m hoping we have good houses for the first weekend. Sunday is a talkback, and I’m really looking forward to that. Meanwhile, here is a photograph of our set – not fully finished, but close, in the pre-set lighting. That’s my shoe in the lower portion of the photo.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up at eight-thirty and out the door at nine-fifteen, do a run-through, have a food break, then do our final dress/tech before our invited dress on Tuesday, give a few general notes, try to get everyone out two hours early, come home, eat, futz and finesse, write new pages, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have gotten through the cue to cue and a run-through.