when ze cat's away, ze mice will play

OH MY WORD! It really has been ages since I updated this thing.

My apologies to any adoring fans who have been waiting anxiously for the last three weeks. Things have been very busy. As you may have noticed, the last time I posted was right before our season opened, and today has been my first fully free day since then.

The count as it stands today:
Time spent in Ohio: six weeks, five days.
Our season opened: three weeks ago.
Show #5 opened: today.
Show #6 opens: one week, two days.
Show #7 opens: three weeks yesterday.
Back to North Carolina: five weeks, four days.
Back to Wingate: six weeks, four days.

So, that's what's going on here. The 'hump party' was last Thursday, to celebrate the opening of show #4, our semi-halfway point in the season. I was talking about scenery for Fiddler and Sing but it only gets better as we go on. Venice, one of my shows off, has two major platforms and walls with columns forming archways angling the stage into a trapezoid... very intense, as well as a gondola up stage that gets pulled on and off by crew members. HMS Pinafore takes place on a ship, and we've got as much of a ship as you can get on stage, full with two doors on the main deck, a poop deck and mast and wheel. Both of those are an intense load in for the crew, but awesome sets indeed, I can't wait to see our last two shows. Oh, and Mlle. Modiste which opened today starts in a hat shop which has two majors walls and a drop wall with all kinds of feathered hats. Lots of good things are happening here in theater world.

We're in rehearsals this week for Helen of Troy, and that will open next Friday with a matinee. Tomorrow we do Fiddler again, and Venice in the evening, then Pinafore on Friday. Saturday is the 4th of July, and there's a concert in the square which most of the singers are a part of, they've got rehearsal that afternoon and the concert in the evening. Tech crews have that off, so that will be quite a fun night for us, just relaxing and watching fireworks.

So, that's a mini play by play of what's been happening. I wish I had more to say, but it's a lot of the same. We supervise the rehearsals, and get ready for productions, once productions go into tech we're polishing things up, making sure we have the right props, scenic things, wardrobe, etc. to get us going, and then the show is open. Once shows are open, we just come back again and do the same things, making sure notes are made for things that may have gone awry so they don't happen again. Mostly that part of it, going back and running the shows, can just be fun. In HMS Pinafore I get to shoot off a CO2 Confetti cannon. Twice. Of course, I also have to help clean it up at intermission and the end of the show, but still, it's quite fun. :)

Ummmm.... yeah. That's life here at OLO. July 21st is the opening of Ruddigore, and that is our last opening, then we're in rep for those three weeks. At this point, I still think Of Thee I Sing is my favorite show, very cheerful, very lovey, very fun. Pinafore is a close second with the cutesy fun, Gilbert & Sullivan were oh so witty. I'm hoping Ruddigore (another G&S) will be more of the same.

So things are still going, winding down slowly but surely, and I'm very excited to be in rep and then back in North Carolina. I've learned a lot in working with the different departments here at OLO, which is a change from Wingate where we are all the departments. The clarifications between props and scenic as well as other collaborations are very interesting. I'm feeling more qualified 'officially' as stage management, knowing what has to be done to run things in a professional company.

So that's all for now. I have the evening off on the 4th and 5th, and then a long week of shows. I'll try to post again before Ruddigore opens, haha. Maybe later next week. :)

Au Revoir! Until next time --