Archive for June, 2009

Wow… Where do I even begin?

I feel a bit like I did when I was 9 months pregnant… Happy, excited, and completely and totally terrified!  This is really happening!

Everything looks awesome.  The show has completely come together — Anna and Sarah have really captured their characters, and the play is quite moving.  The set looks amazing (yay Lucas and Jeremy!), the costumes are great (go Anna), the music fits perfectly (hooray Jugi) and the lighting is beautiful (good work, Jess)!

Now all we have to do is put it all together.  Wow, that makes it sound so simple.  If only… We have our first tech rehearsal tomorrow night, and we’ll see how complex everything turns out to be then.  Fingers crossed everything works out.  Being completely untested technology, as it were, I’m expecting a few bumps in the road.  I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

Oh, and look for us in this week’s AV Press Showcase!

–Cam

We had the final normal rehearsal today before entering into tech rehearsal on Thursday. All I can say is “WOW”. I am totally blown away by Anna and Sarah. As they will testify, I can always find something nitpicky and subtle to hone in on no matter how good we get; by the third run-through tonight, I was speechless. I totally forgot that I even had my notebook, I was so absorbed… these ladies have put in a huge effort, and they have made art in my garage – I can’t wait to see it with the full tech in place! My work as artistic director is finished. I leave the show in the very capable hands of Courtney the PSM and Jeremy the TD as we go into tech rehearsal.  I concluded my comments this evening by quoting one of my favorite characters (on the screen): “Number One, you have the con.”

“Just” the Producer stuff left, and there is plenty of it.  Confident in the artistic direction of the play, I can now focus entirely on getting the house and theater ready for opening night.

New seats available!!!

When we actually laid out the seats tonight for the first time, turns out we can comfortably fit 28 total.  This means that there are now 2 seats open for Saturday, and 8 seats open for Sunday.   Get those RSVP’s in!!!

Jeremy and I just rigged the curtain today, looks good though it still needs some pins or clamps to keep the panels together.  We also tested out the evap cooler and the lighting heat output.  Further, a smoke detector with emergency lighting system has been installed.

The set is about 85% complete.  IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!  Lucas did an amazing job on that while I was away.  He’s built a decrepit, bombed, and shot-at wall using broken cinder blocks and spray paint.  The dirt he laid out plus the plastic foliage that Jeremy and I just put in makes it look very much like forest ruins.  Still left to do on the set is the church wall, I think Jeremy and Lucas plan to finish that Thursday afternoon… a taller ruined wall of posterboard over an old entertainment center, complete with stained glass windows (can we say, electric candle light effect?!) and a cross.

Costumes are GO, thanks Anna!

Sound is in process, being mixed.  The music selection is perfect, and we’ve timed it out for all the cues.

Makeup is GO.

Lighting is close… 95%.  Maybe a couple more gels, we’re not quite sure yet, and some placement issues, but nearly there.

1 rehearsal left tomorrow before entering tech on Thursday.  We will be going over the final, nitpicky, touches of posture, body language, and movement, especially getting used to the space.  Courtney may post an update from the last rehearsal as well, I’m not sure.

Still on my list: finish front landscaping, clean the master suite for use as the dressing room, and acquire the Bordeaux, cider, and hors d’oevres for Saturday.  Oh yeah and direct a rehearsal, photograph tech, finalize/print the playbill, and flame-protect the curtain material.  Ah, the hell of tech week….

We’ve had some reshuffling, and there are now 4 seats that have opened up for the Saturday (20th) show.  There are 6 seats remaining for the Sunday (21st) show.

In case you missed it live, you can download my interview on the weekly podcast “Community Theatre Heroes” at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Strawberry-Phil

Under “On Demand Episodes”, you can select the one from June 10th. I called in around 14.5min into the podcast.

A few people have raised concerns about fire safety.  We are looking into how the California Fire Code affects us particularly, and will post updates as we find out new information.  I will also be contacting the local fire marshall and explaining our project.

Since we are a) not charging any entrance fee, b) not actually a non-profit or other registered entity, and c) hosting the show at a private residence that is not open to the public, my contention is that this is equivalent to any private party that I might hold at my house; there just happens to be some really good entertainment!

If you’d like to do some research yourself, see Division 12 of the California Health and Safety Code.  If you know any information about this sort of thing, please send me an email (nalin AT avthespians DOT org).

The following measures pertaining to fire safety have been or will be taken:

• All electrical equipment is standalone (no direct modification to the building structure or electrical wiring has been made), and designed for interior use (e.g. interior lamp stands have been fitted with 50W PAR30 bulbs, and heat tested).  Further heat testing with gels on will be conducted prior to tech rehearsal.
• Electrical current draw on any one outlet or power strip has been calculated to be well under stated power strip and extension cord limits, by a factor of 100x in some cases.
• Two battery-powered smoke detectors will be installed in the garage (backstage and audience)
• A fire extinguisher will be present.
• In the event of an emergency, an entire wall of the theatre space (the garage door, in automatic or emergency manual mode) opens to the outside.  In addition there is the garage side door to the outside.  Audience will be reminded of these exits prior to each show.
• I will attempt to get some flame retardant spray from Lowes for the curtain.
• Unlike a “normal” theatre space, there is no electrical equipment near the curtain or in the backstage area.
• Smoking will not be permitted.

As we go forward with this project, we will certainly have to more carefully assess issues like safety and liability.  Thank you to those of you who expressed concern, and we will post further updates as we get new information.

The “Community Theatre Heroes” podcast mentioned in my last post will be at 8:30pm tonight, instead of the posted 8:00pm.  They are having some technical difficulties with the hosting website, and will change the time of their weekly podcast to 8pm starting NEXT week.  I’ll be calling in tonight!

Also, a staff writer from “Showcase”, the AV Press’ Friday theatre and arts magazine, will be interviewing me over the phone tomorrow, as well as showing up to rehearsal with a photographer at the garage theater.  Jeremy, Lucas, and Jess will be working double time tomorrow afternoon to get some semblance of the set, lighting, and costume done a week ahead of intended schedule… good thing I left Jeremy a house key before going on travel for work!  Whew, thanks guys!  Look for us (I think) in the 6/19 issue of Showcase.