Gear Change!

Things are happening quickly now. Last night we had a power-combo rehearsal: costume fittings and fight work, with some line runs to fill in the cracks. Melissa's costume horde is shaping up; I particularly like the red coats she's created for Edgar and Edmund, and I'm looking forward to seeing the other bits she's planning to build. She was in need of black fabric for Regan & Goneril's dresses, so I convinced our Technical Director to part with a few of our old black drapes. Very nice fabric.

So that's under way, although M. and I both admit there's a long way to go. Fights are also in fairly good shape. We didn't get a chance to work through all of them, on account of several absent actors. Although some absences have been more than justified, it seems as though there is a strain of truancy at the moment which has forced me to revise our schedule for the next couple of weeks. Maybe my mistake was in starting up so quickly after New Year's.

Well, there's nothing to be done about it now. This is the stage of rehearsals I enjoy the least. In a week or so, we will all be in high gear, and things will be moving quickly and (I hope) efficiently towards our tech and opening. But right now, we're in the gear shift; the machinery is straining to push ahead, and everyone is adjusting differently to the swifter pace and the multi-tasking which this sort of show demands. I expect we will have at least a few more cases of whiplash before the weekend is out.

At least one "good" thing has come out of the chaos. Fixating on an off-hand joke at last night's rehearsal, our fight director has announced his intention to create and produce a musical stage version of Disney's classic CGI anthopomorphic masterpiece, Tron. I expect we'll run for 1 1/2 nights, before the Disney lawyers shut us down. Everyone's invited.