The above picture is from the previously mentioned Boji Olympics. This was my team: The Assorted Meats!
It's been so crazy I haven't found the time to update. We've been working hard in the Bantam Theatre to get the show up and running. I finished up carving, painting, shading, snowifying, and hanging the icicles finally!
Laura, our Production Stage Manager of the Boji Bantam Children's Theatre is pictured above, doing a marvelous job of painting the stage--for the 2nd time. The second picture of icicles is on the 'castle arch' used for the Ice Witch scenes. We quickly discovered that, while the adhesive used to put 'snow' on the icicles is incredibly strong, it will continue to snow on stage. So I did some touch ups, to re-snowify things before we opened on Wednesday.
Our rehearsals went really well. We spent a lot of time going over the first and last scenes. The first scene is hard for me because I have to dress one of my castmates, and we'd been practicing so long without the costumes that by the time we had them it started tripping up our lines. The last scene is so long and so many of the lines are similar that the cast was having a hard time memorizing it. I hardly have any lines in that scene, so it was easy enough for me.
Director A decided the Bantam theatre would be referred to as 'Her Majesty's Secret Service' and we have to complete missions to get 00 status. Meanwhile, she's also created the hat of shame to be worn if someone does/says something she doesn't like or that's incredibly stupid. Such as me, forgetting my first line of the show in our first run-through:
We definitely changed some things in the last couple days of rehearsal. I worked on finding a new 'hag dance', which has become a mixture of gestalts and performance art that I do when chanting a song in the show. We also created tunes for the song I have to sing: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I know, we're incredibly creative.
We worked on speaking Trollese, picking up the pace to get the time down, and we even spent a couple nights installing lights. Of course, we didn't actually get to use them until opening night.
We had one last rehearsal Tuesday morning and then we were required to go to shop to help set up everything for the opening night of the mainstage show The Fantasticks. I went to shop and built a flat to be used at the Press Party held every year on opening night after the show. After building everything, we majorly cleaned up the show, and then decorated it, because that's where we have the party. We built a stage for the band that comes and we put up stage lighting, a bar, and put some color in the room. Then we had company clean up where everyone helped clean up the inside and outside of the main theatre for the show that night. Then we had a little time to eat and then play musical showers to get ready to crew the show.
Everyone not in the show is required to work a crew. Each actor will get one week off the whole summer, so most of us were working this week's show. I worked concessions, as I will for the duration of this show. I can eventually work as an usher, box office person, House Manager, Concessions Manager, or as a run crew person doing lights, sound, or backstage work. We all dressed accordingly and put on our awesome new name tags and marched out to the awning to greet the patrons.
I had a great first night at concessions. It took a little long to clean up after intermission because it was the first night. Then we raced back in to really dress up for the press party. By the time I made it to the shop everything was in full swing. The patrons sat in chairs and at tables and watched us dance. The band was really great and we were having tons of fun. Unfortunately the weather got so bad that Professor B had to come tell the band and the patrons that they had to pack it up for their safety. It was about 4 hours earlier than it normally would have ended, I think. But they had a great last song in honor of Professor L, who directed The Fantasticks. It was obviously an age old tradition, because all of the guys came out and danced with her, which was hilarious.
It started pouring after we cleaned everything up so we all ran to hang out under the awning. I danced in the rain a bit and then went inside to change. Tyler, our resident lawn mower, ran into a clothes line (yes, we're old fashioned here) and ended up giving himself a really bad cut on his forehead and a black eye that ended up keeping us busy for a couple hours to round off the excitement of the night.
I woke up Wednesday morning ready to perform. Of course, I had to watch as much of the US World Cup game as I could. The show went well, all things considering. We covered up any mishaps, not that there were many. We had a good sized audience of about 50 kids. The lights were the only major flaw. There were some random dark spots, and scenes where there were only back lights. Those were definitely fixed by today, and we had a great show! We had 12 people show up, so it was a slow day, but it was interesting to play to such a different audience. Definitely a challenge.
I've been in prop shop in the afternoons building things, finding things, and tearing things apart. It's been fun and really relaxing. We work the show at night.
I watched the show tonight and it was absolutely phenomenal.
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