Hey everyone, things are going well here, just getting the last push done for our last show "Crazy For You" and it's a big one! We spent today rigging and hanging several fly-in units one being a gigantic flat sort of thing that has 11 bricks and counting on it. Quick note, we have a double purchase system here so our weight is 40 lbs a brick to be exact and having to load the arbor with them gives you quite the workout. Other than the fly-in units, the scene shop is trying to put together rather large roll-on platforms that don't seem to fit in the wings...but I'm sure it'll be fine, always is.
Tonight we had a full runthrough of the show and it went better than expected. There are some spots in the choreography that are a little off because we haven't done them full tempo with the piano yet, just the CD and of course they are different. And this leads me into a mini vent, should be fun for you guys, here it goes: So the past week or so the entire company has been frustrated with our choreographer. The reason is because she has come in multiple times and said, "Well, I didn't know we were doing this number today...." You can imagine why this might be frustrating because we have had the schedule out since we started, and how can we expect to learn the choreography well if she doesn't even have any of it planned out already.
We are taught to come prepared to every rehearsal, unfortunately she has not been on various occasions and she has even given the responsibility of choreographing to the lead actor and actress, for their duets. We have two really big numbers in the first act which we spent two full weeks on staying an extra hour after the afternoon session. Now that we are on act two, all she does is average dance steps that are really easy for some people the rest are just doing various tableaus and acting interested in the others who are dancing. I see this as just being lazy and not putting in the time to make these numbers as good as they can be. The choreographer and even sometimes the director seem to be doing things with the mind set of getting them done, instead of taking the time to actually do it. Take the finale for example as it's blocked now, 5 cowboys (including me) don't even come on stage until the bows. And the final tableau consists of the 6 show girls and the two leads, remember this is the finale we are talking about. I asked why the 6 dancing cowboys aren't at least coming on to make the last pose more interesting, and the director told me it was because he didn't want to have to make costumes for us to match the girls' and that he wanted us in the cowboy outfits for the bows. You can take this two ways, saying "okay that makes sense." or "Really? You have "been ahead" in the costume shop for two weeks, and can't come up with simple vests for the guys to wear". I totally get wanting us to be in the cowboy costumes for the bow, but just the way he said it and what has been happening with the choreographer it kind of came off as the costume shop being lazy as well.
This may seem petty, but if you were here, you'd understand my frustration. It seems everyone is just lethargic when doing everything and I don't get it. This past strike took just as long as the strike that needed to take 5 hours and that's real irritating. People here just take their time with what they are doing, there's no sense of urgency. Anyway, I'll be done, just note that I will have a lot more patience for people when I get back.
And don't get me wrong, I do like it here, we are just going 5 weeks straight and I need a break. We have 8 more rehearsals until we open Crazy For You. Hope we'll get to performance ready. I'm sure we will, it's theatre, everything works out because it has too.
Ta-Ta for now
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