Random Ramblings

Today is our last day at our producing house. Its been lovely - a very smooth week. The pub over the the road from the theatre has kept us fed and watered, The office has let me abuse their printer and laminator, and Front of house has kept me highly amused by their daily fire drill dance routine, which has to be seen to be believed. Long life FOH choreography. The office has given me more information than I have ever had in my brief history of kicking around the industry, I am taking this one out fully informed and equipped to deal with anything with my big cardboard box of papers. Tis all good. I'm happy bunny.

From here our next day off is my birthday, which is perfect timing, so thank you Mr Producer Sir! I shall wake up in my own bed after trodging back from Shrewsbury, so thankyou Mr M40 aswell.

We Opened, We are all stil in one piece, well, 6, but thats ok cos there are six of us. As performances go it was fairly uneventful, we opened late which I hate with a passion, but front of house were very good about it, and sorted out the problem very quickish. Sound still needs a poke with a big stick, but I think I am the only one that knows that so thats ok too.
The Producer is happy, I'm happy, and the cast will be. All in all fabbie biscuits.

My Grandma's hip has fallen out. She was indulging in the high impact sport of lawn bowling.
Dangerous apparently. She's fine, terrorizing the local hospital I would imagine, and about to come home and sit down for a few weeks I should think.
We shall send her postcards from every venue.
Lucky her!

Today was tech day. The main thing about techs is to keep everyone cheerful and relaxed and remembering to explain what is about to happen before it happens. We had a good one. Finished an hour earlier than planned. Pub time!

Opening Night Tomorrow. Apparently the press are coming. Never understood why producers think its a good idea to let the first time it happens in front of the motley public to be the version that is immortalised (or infamised) in the reading matter of the nation.

I've been on cans all day. I think it magically makes my sense of humour dryer. That could just be the company we keep though. Cupcake game tomorrow maybe.

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Sauce. Now I think I'm getting more and more eccentric in my old age.... Nearly 26, and my obsession for chilli cheese sauce has got worse. I used to cope with friends in America sending me a jar, or people on tours there bringing some home for me. Recently I spent a stupid amount of money getting it shipped through an overseas buyer club, despite knowing two tours that are leaving this week for the US, AND I know that I will have chilli cheese sauce on tap when I start my Disney contract. So why the need for it... I have no idea. I'm definitely not pregnant, unless they have changed the rules and not told me about it, I'm definitely not mad, because I have managed to leave an inch in the bottom for the lovely riffraff to get us through next week, so it must be 'eccentricity' setting in. It is hereditary. Must be.
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Remote Control. I can usually achieve anything, whether I am there or not. I am the sort of person that people ask for things because I have an amazing network of friends/family who are very capable, clever, talented and resourceful, and who I now will move heaven and earth for me, as I would for them. My latest challenge has got me 'bemused' to say the least. Here I am up in Derby, traveling up to Buxton today to start production week and on my list of things to do is to magic a hand carved topiary to a patio about 240 miles South. By Monday. Can we do it? Yes we can. Is it one of the most bizarre things We've done? Yes it is!
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Branding. A factor in convincing myself that I'm turning into 'an English eccentric' is my new obsession with branding. I've bought clear labels which I'm going to print the tour/producer/contacts on in the right fonts and stick to EVERYTHING that comes out with us. I'd stick one on the van if we weren't changing it for one that we could actually fit the set in. Even the cue sheets will be branded. I think this is normal, the pm thinks I'm going overboard. Maybe I shall stick one on him.... Oh wait. I've already got Tshirts coming ;o)

This evening my best friend in the entire world is flying out to Turkey to sing and dance his way through the summer months, returning the day after Hallowe'en, by which time I'm either going to be running Wicked, the Opera House or on a Big Floating Disney Park. Ok, only one of those seems likely, but as a wise person once said 'You gotta have a dream - or how ya gonna have a dream come tooo (or true... you gotta sing it in the right accent!) He has been my best friend, confidente, accomplice, playmate, colleague, rock, soulmate etc for the past 11 years, so although I am a Hugely proud bunny I'm gonna miss him lots and lots, and can't wait for my week in the sun with him after this tour, and to see what his company have been up to! I'm glad that we ended up in the same industry though... It does seem to make the world a smaller place.

One of the reasons that I am good at what I do is accuracy. In cues, lists, props, timings, conversation ~ whatever ~ It makes things easier, shows run smoother, teams are happier, and the end product is a piece of viable entertainment at the very least, and a great night out otherwise!
Today it feels like everything is conspiring against me to 'vagueify' my show. Props are appearing in the wrong time zone, sound cues are determined to be too long, and the rider is missing a section because of marketing indecisiveness (again through no fault of their own) Maybe we are doing the big fluffy marshmallow show, and nobody told me. Maybe its just one of those days. I am expecting great things tomorrow though! Its going to be razor sharp by tomorrow night... Just you wait and see!
*Puts on big magic theatre hat*

Easter... a family occasion. Arriving home from rehearsals in Derby late Thursday night I went to bed and woke up to find a whole new level of disfunction hovering over the mothership. The home had to be prepared for an influx of people expection to be fed, chocolated, alcoholed and amused in a day... To leave a day spare of course. Theatre mentality hasn't broken through yet. It will. I'm working on it. So we scrubbed and cooked and cleaned and shopped and cooked some more and then I cooked beacause I hadn't done enough of that. The mentalist attitude of the weekend has been broken up by visits from good friends, who come bearing cupcakes, wit, and huggs, who sampled a lot of the cooking and decided it wasn't poisonous. (Thanks guys!) and then went away again, but only after rescuing me from my cream crisis!

Sunday THEY came... They ate, they drank. Lots. After several rounds of unenthusiastic I spy I took control (as I do) and decided that The Cupcake Game was the way forward. Much hilarity and bonkerness followed, so because we weren't silly enough I combined it with the 'this is a cabbage/dog/kite' game which lead to a discussion on fuel economy and resources and the invention of a perpetual motion machine... A cat (who always lands on its feet) sellotaped to buttered toast (that allways lands butter side down) It would spin for hours and we could harness the energy.

Far to much intellectual talk for one weekend... Back to rehearsals tomorrow.