More and More Music Man

So much has been going on this past week. It seems like we have been doing this for much more than that and yet its like almost half done. Every night there are new set pieces in place and things are really coming right along. Working with Rod Caspers. He is an amazing director and a really great guy. He had shoulder reconstruction surgery not long before he came up here from Texas for Music Man and so it has been interesting dealing with that. But the man is completely awesome and has so much energy, even with the arm in a sling and such he is still walking through what he is looking for in blocking and running around the stage and climbing on things and then you have the bad looks coming from Pip, Steph, Rachel and I towards him because he is going to hurt himself climbing up on ladders and jumping on chairs and such. But it makes me wonder just how physical of a director this man is when he isn't held back by a brace on this arm.

One of the coolest things about this show is the fact that it is a sing-a-long show. Rod decided that he would go with the idea that is becoming popular with musical movies. So are going to be having the audience sing with us for a lot of the big numbers in the show, during which we will have the words projected up on the wall for audience convenience. I think that it is really awesome that the audience gets to sing with the cast. I know that when ever I see a show I am always at least mouthing the words if not mumbling them under my breath, so the fact that it is being encouraged for this show is great.

Right now we have just almost all of act 1 staged and are getting started on act 2 tonight, which seems like we are really behind since we open in just about 2 1/2 weeks but act 1 is so huge and has almost all of the big numbers that we are going to be fine on time. At least that is what we have decided is going to be the out come. Everyone has been working really hard and people have been really good about just jumping in when and if needed.

When I signed up for this show I knew that I was going to be ASM and I figured that that would be "my" place in the show, but I am also getting to do some work with props as well. The other day I went with Pip, the coordinator of the Orpheum Theatre, to Grinnell College to find and pick up props. We had a really good time and it was great to see props that were actually organized and sorted into different sections. Made me very jealous but when you have lots of money at a school then that would make things easier.

So far, so good