NINE tech week begins
Tomorrow is our all afternoon-all evening tech for NINE. Since this show is all about the lighting, it's going to be a looooong day, for sure. Michael, our director, has very specific ideas about all the lighting and looks he wants created so it will be a tedious day. And to add to that, our lighting designer ended up in the hospital a week ago with an emergency appendectomy (shades of one of my supporting actors in Tom Sawyer having the same thing the day before we started our tech week several years ago!) I told Michael it was an ICT 'tradition' since it happened to one of my actors in Tom Sawyer, so perhaps it was a *good* sign, when you consider that Tom Sawyer got a rave review and surprised everyone with what a good show it turned out to me (it was no surprise to me, since I directed it to be good ;-)
I am still working hard to give Michael the Liliane La Fleur he envisions (considering that he saw the original production with Liliane Montevecchi multiple times, that is a tall order for me to live up to) I felt like I had a few breakthroughs in the last few days that are making me feel like Liliane is starting to gel finally. But of course I had worked out the complex boa dance weeks ago and felt like I had that down solidly, but when we moved onto the real stage (which is much larger than our rehearsal space), it has presented some new issues in working with the boa now stretched tightly across the stage that is affecting my moves and how I previously could wrap in it. So I will be starting over in some ways as I figure out how to compensate for the tightly stretched boa that won't allow the fluidity and control I had worked out in the smaller space with a looser boa that allowed 'spare footage.'
If I can get the boa situation resolved, I just want to survive the upcoming exhausting week with my voice in top form and with enough sleep to give my best on opening night. Our 2nd night of opening weekend will be like another opening night, though, because all the critics are coming that night instead of opening night. So the 2nd night, pressure-off, let down had better not happen!
I am still working hard to give Michael the Liliane La Fleur he envisions (considering that he saw the original production with Liliane Montevecchi multiple times, that is a tall order for me to live up to) I felt like I had a few breakthroughs in the last few days that are making me feel like Liliane is starting to gel finally. But of course I had worked out the complex boa dance weeks ago and felt like I had that down solidly, but when we moved onto the real stage (which is much larger than our rehearsal space), it has presented some new issues in working with the boa now stretched tightly across the stage that is affecting my moves and how I previously could wrap in it. So I will be starting over in some ways as I figure out how to compensate for the tightly stretched boa that won't allow the fluidity and control I had worked out in the smaller space with a looser boa that allowed 'spare footage.'
If I can get the boa situation resolved, I just want to survive the upcoming exhausting week with my voice in top form and with enough sleep to give my best on opening night. Our 2nd night of opening weekend will be like another opening night, though, because all the critics are coming that night instead of opening night. So the 2nd night, pressure-off, let down had better not happen!