Well, That's Done
Apr. 15th, 2013 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdFinished up Brigadoon with a night show Saturday and a Sunday Matinée, and then struck the set. The show still felt like a dress rehearsal, and chatting with other cast members who felt the same way we narrowed it down to a director who was all about the dancing, who did not pay attention to the acting.
When I directed Yeomen of the Guard at Stanford** many years ago, the first thing I did was direct traffic. One of the biggest frustrations I had was the cast ignored my directions and consistently ran into each other during the performances. Someone in the cast decided that if they went off stage left to get to the tower once, they had to go off stage left to get to the tower every time, even if there were people trying to enter from stage left. I had explained over and over that the tower was 180° behind the stage, one equally could go left or right to get there, just please exit the direction we blocked it.
This director did not give clear traffic signals. He blocked things in vague ways which made no sense, and in fact did away with the market fair with booths for each vendor and townspeople walking around the booths. Instead he gave each vendor a tray or a basket, and we were supposed to randomly walk around vending to each other.
And then there were the trees. four of them, 12' tall, 5' wide, on sliders, with person inside each of them to move them around onstage. The original blocking was for 8 much smaller trees which would be on carts that cast members would pull on and off stage. At no point did he count on having a stage crew, even though the theater group always has 4 to 6 people show up as stage hands. BTW, the trees were painted battleship grey. They were supposed to have been brown, which would have been easy because they were made from gluing brown cardboard and wrapping paper onto solid wood frames.
Long story short, the directing was incomplete, the set was incomplete, so the show felt incomplete.
The best part of the show was the orchestra. They were great. They got a huge applause every night at the start of Act II.
Striking the set was pretty easy, lots of people helped. The last two platforms were in the process of being taken apart when I left, my knee was killing me. And the director plus the two leading men were sitting in the audience not doing anything helpful by that time.
Decided not to go to the cast party for three reasons:1. $20 for a BBQ buffet worth half that, back at the rehearsal hall/warehouse. With all the work the cast put into the show, I expect the organization to do better than that by us.
2. The ever annoying Stage Mangler would be there, being stupid and loud.
3. I would have said rude things.
Instead, I dumped my things in the car, grabbed the cell phone and wallet, walked a couple of blocks to my favorite bakery/café and had a napoleon and coffee while watching major eye candy traffic glide by - there was some sort of cosmetics convention in town.
Home, decided not to go shopping (I need bananas and ice cream and limes). Stripped the yellow microfiber sheets off the bed and put them in the wash, and made the bed with the blue ones. Kaan did not help, but Domino inspected the work later. My sister's quilt is back, but I really need to find someone to re-hem it. The hem is all frayed.
Dinner was a turkey pot pie and a Klondike bar.
And now I am going to trim my beard.
**The fellow who played one of the leading men in this show I gave his first major role to in Yeomen.
Plans for tomorrow:
Work. Tease boss for not showing up for the show (he said he had tickets, but this weekend was Songkran, so I knew Saturday night was iffy and Sunday was impossible)
BASFA. Show off my Boskone program
When I directed Yeomen of the Guard at Stanford** many years ago, the first thing I did was direct traffic. One of the biggest frustrations I had was the cast ignored my directions and consistently ran into each other during the performances. Someone in the cast decided that if they went off stage left to get to the tower once, they had to go off stage left to get to the tower every time, even if there were people trying to enter from stage left. I had explained over and over that the tower was 180° behind the stage, one equally could go left or right to get there, just please exit the direction we blocked it.
This director did not give clear traffic signals. He blocked things in vague ways which made no sense, and in fact did away with the market fair with booths for each vendor and townspeople walking around the booths. Instead he gave each vendor a tray or a basket, and we were supposed to randomly walk around vending to each other.
And then there were the trees. four of them, 12' tall, 5' wide, on sliders, with person inside each of them to move them around onstage. The original blocking was for 8 much smaller trees which would be on carts that cast members would pull on and off stage. At no point did he count on having a stage crew, even though the theater group always has 4 to 6 people show up as stage hands. BTW, the trees were painted battleship grey. They were supposed to have been brown, which would have been easy because they were made from gluing brown cardboard and wrapping paper onto solid wood frames.
Long story short, the directing was incomplete, the set was incomplete, so the show felt incomplete.
The best part of the show was the orchestra. They were great. They got a huge applause every night at the start of Act II.
Striking the set was pretty easy, lots of people helped. The last two platforms were in the process of being taken apart when I left, my knee was killing me. And the director plus the two leading men were sitting in the audience not doing anything helpful by that time.
Decided not to go to the cast party for three reasons:1. $20 for a BBQ buffet worth half that, back at the rehearsal hall/warehouse. With all the work the cast put into the show, I expect the organization to do better than that by us.
2. The ever annoying Stage Mangler would be there, being stupid and loud.
3. I would have said rude things.
Instead, I dumped my things in the car, grabbed the cell phone and wallet, walked a couple of blocks to my favorite bakery/café and had a napoleon and coffee while watching major eye candy traffic glide by - there was some sort of cosmetics convention in town.
Home, decided not to go shopping (I need bananas and ice cream and limes). Stripped the yellow microfiber sheets off the bed and put them in the wash, and made the bed with the blue ones. Kaan did not help, but Domino inspected the work later. My sister's quilt is back, but I really need to find someone to re-hem it. The hem is all frayed.
Dinner was a turkey pot pie and a Klondike bar.
And now I am going to trim my beard.
**The fellow who played one of the leading men in this show I gave his first major role to in Yeomen.
Plans for tomorrow:
Work. Tease boss for not showing up for the show (he said he had tickets, but this weekend was Songkran, so I knew Saturday night was iffy and Sunday was impossible)
BASFA. Show off my Boskone program
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