Hustle and Bustle - 9/06/05

It's been quite a busy time over the past six days. We are precisely one week away from taking off on the road with the first stop at Elon University in Elon, NC. We've spent most of this past week preparing our shows, polishing them off, and getting all our gear in shape. We've done one packing drill, and did one special preview performance at the Veritas Winery in Afton VA, right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 20 minutes east of Staunton. More on that in a minute.

Before I go further into the company's week, I do want to mention that tonight we did a "pay what you will" performance of Forbidden Planet as a benefit for Hurricane Katrina relief victims. This, of course, is something performers can do - benefit performances to raise money. I did not get the final dollar amount before I left the theatre tonight, but we had a house of about 150 or so, and hopefully they all gave a bit of money. While our own effort here is small, I would hope that this idea might catch on throughout the theatre world. Perhaps something like every theatre in the nation dedicating the box office receipts of one specific night to hurrican relief efforts would make a more telling dent in what's needed. If you're reading this and you're in a position to move an idea like that along, why not give it a try?

OK a few more details about our week. We have technically completed the rehearsal period for every show. With R3 now up on the boards and having "opened" last night, we are pretty much set to leave. Everyone is bustling about doing their other company jobs, and we need to get our workshops in order before we take off. It's amazing that we can pack everything into our one cargo van. Credit for that goes to master packer Greg, who's almost as good as my wife in seeing space and packing accordingly. We were afraid we'd have to take a trailer along with us on tour, and no one really wanted to do that, so great sighs of relief were breathed when everything fit. This Mon-Wed we are doing each of the shows to invited audienced from Mary Baldwin College; R3 was yesterday, Planet today and Much Ado tomorrow night.

I will tell you one thing, Forbidden Planet will be a crowd-pleasing show-stopper. We took the show to the Veritas Winery, which was mainly a crowd of 50-60-year-olds who had come for this special wine-tasting event. They were a little juiced up before we even got on stage, but once we started to rock-and-roll they really got loose. Of course, the songs in the show are all 1950s R&R songs that these people knew from their teen-age days (like me!) and they dug it all. One white-haired woman reached out and grabbed Tyler's butt during his rendition of "Who's Sorry Now," and I got one women to get up and dance with me during the finale of "Monster Mash". It's hard to describe the evening in words, but all these well-off wine tasters just loved the event. Good contacts and good publicity were gained by the theatre, so the event had to be deemed a success. Tonight, sort of the opposite - not in terms of reaction, but in terms of age. We had college-age kids swinging and swaying in their seats to the same tunes. Fun to watch - especially when you have the freedon of audience contact to get involved with them.

I'll mention one final thing before I close for tonight, and that's the noticeable ease with which the final dress and opening went for R3. Because there was no "tech" rehearsals to get through, it seemed as if one day we could rehearse in street clothes, and the next day get in costumes and do a final dress. All the jobs amongst the troupe members are so clear and evenly divided that shit just gets done, man. I hardly had the feeling at all that we had ever "dress rehearsed." Probably my technical friends will go nuts when I say this, but the lack of complicated tech rehearsals simply means the shows get up on their feet and go so much more smoothly. Our costumes for R3 are simple doublets, capes and sashes with grey pants and grey shirts as the base. It all seems so easy and seemless. Food for thought.

That's about it for this post. I seemed to have a lot more to say but being busy and getting ready for getting on the road has gotten me less introspective. Besides, Ann Marie is in for a visit for a week before I take off. So forgiveness, please, if all this seems like chatty noise. It's been that kind of a week. -TWL