wanna see a magic trick?

The other day I got to the theater an hour before rehearsal was scheduled to start. When possible I like to walk around on stage and out in the house. As I do ,I play the show out in my head, gives me an opportunity to see if everything flows.

We are about two weeks away from our opening, so as I walked in, the place was a wreck! Costume racks in the aisle, power tools on the edge of the stage, set pieces on stage or in the wings or laid out on the seats. Paint cans. Sound equipment. Music stands. Instruments. It's bedlam.

I love it.

Occasionally a passer by will stick their head in the theater and take a look. They are shocked! It's inconceivable that sooner then later an audience will be sitting in those seats watching a show on that stage. You can barely see the stage. Inevitably at this point they will comment on "the magic of theater" Somehow it always comes together...... Grrrrrr....... Not a fan of "the Magic", I'll tell you how it comes together a whole lot of people working tirelessly all concentrating on a single goal- get that show up.  If we sat and waited for the Theater Fairies to arrive and sprinkle the magic completion dust, we still would be sitting........ and waiting.

Lorne Michaels, he of SNL, has the perfect quote regarding this phenomenon " SNL doesn't go on the air because it's finished, it goes on because it's 11:30" ( my apologies, that is a massive paraphrase)

For many years a worked at a theater where a new show would open every 4 weeks. We would close on Sunday night and the next show would open on Friday. So, we would be loading in the set (and often be constructing the set) and focusing lights and doing last minute decorating as well as rehearsing. This would make for some very looooong hours. I'm not whining about it,just stating a fact. It was intense and more than a bit harrowing, but all in all it was great fun. There were a number of occasions where a last minute set adjustment was being made as the audience stood in the lobby waiting for the house to open. On one occasion , we had a half dozen fans trained on the stage floor training desperately to dry the freshly painted floor. A prime example of poor planning. We did not achieve "dry" we were closer to "tacky"

Opening night is approaching. The amount of time between now and then is finite. There is so much left to do. Soooooo much. Progress is being made. I am always encouraged when we are moving forward, no matter how slowly. It's when we are sitting in place and the wheels are spinning , that I begin to show concern (panic, die a bit inside, curse the darkness) all the while with a smile on my face. (There have been a few occasions of lunatic raging, but I try to keep them few and far between)

In the meantime , I'll just sit here by myself and watch the show.