Monday, March 14, 2005

Theatre

If you find yourself thinking you have too much time on your hands, or think you are bored and there's nothing to do.... Get involved with your local theatre company. Once you get wrapped up in the kind of rehearsal schedule that a musical requires.... you'll never think you have too much time on your hands again. Not that I'm complaining mind you, I knew exactly what I was getting into when I auditioned. I knew back in December that if I accepted a part (or parts as it turns out) in Evita, every free minute of my time would be spent in one kind of rehearsal or another, and the ones that weren't would be spent practicing all the stuff we'd just rehearsed on my own.
Thankfully we are in the home stretch, the entire company has finally taken possession of the Imperial theatre and moved out of the wretchedly cold rehearsal area we were using above the pool hall. Thursday is opening night, so if anyone on the cast thought their time was at premium up until now they haven't seen anything yet.
Tonight is the dreaded Cue to cue rehearsal, I say Dreaded because it is when all the technical people who will be working on the show learn their cues, which means.... the actors are basically bags of flesh that stand here and there while they set up lights, and reset lights, and spike entrances, and props, and set pieces, and we enter a couple hundred times, and exit a couple hundred more, then sit(close at hand in case we're needed suddenly) for an eternity. The Cue to Cue will more than likely start at 6 and go until about midnight, and then it's back to work tomorrow morning bright and early....... the scariest thing about all that is that I actually am smiling while I type this, and in a weirdly sadistic way am looking forward to it, if for no other reason we will get a feel for what the stage is really going to look like for the show. Plus There's just something about backstage at the Imperial Theatre that I find comforting... it's a little like visiting a great-grandparent... it isn't quite home, but it sure is comfy.
That being said it is now Quarter to six and I must get my butt in gear to get to said Cue to Cue.