Feels good to be home, and now it's back to the burgh!
My day off during the All Shook run was spent at the Palacades Mall, which I guess is the fifth largest mall in America or something like that. It was a very relaxing day off; didn’t buy much, except for a Reel Big Fish and a Modest Mouse CD (both very wise purchases). Dinner was had at the Outback. We all ordered steaks, seeing as that was probably the only time this summer we’ll have the money to order a steak.
The second week of All Shook Up went very well. The crowds range from sounding barely interested in what they’re watching to being completely ecstatic from start to finish (Friday night’s crowd was the best this show has seen yet). In the middle of the wed night show my headset in the fly loft decided to stop working and screech in my ear whenever I hit the talk button. Michael Bert tried to fix it on multiple occasions with no luck, so I’ve gotten into the habit of running the show blindly which hasn’t been that bad. I’ve seen the show enough to know where all my cues in the show are.
High School Musical also opened during the second week of All Shook Up, and anyone who has worked on the show hates it to no end. Why you ask? Well, aside from the fact that it’s High School Musical, we’ve had to actually build some set pieces for this children’s show. This sucks for three reasons: the show doesn’t have a budget to begin with, so we’ve had to take money out of the budgets for some of the main stage shows; we’re not contracted to do anything involving the children’s show; and it takes away from the small amount of time we had to build Les Mis (more of that t later). One the nights before HSM, we would have to put the set up after All Shook Up ended. This means an extra 30 minutes to an hour of extra work, depending on how long it takes to set up the rather large light up sign we built for the show. Thankfully, after two very annoying nights of setting up this show, the director has made the ResCo do all the load in and loud outs of the show, which means we’re off the hook for the most part. Sweet.
Now onto Les Mis: Ron is directing the show, which means that the cast, crew, and management staff were all going crazy because he’s very indecisive and doesn’t communicate what’s going on in his head (if in fact anything does go on in his head). He also designs his own shows (using photo shop, of all things). He has us building these weird set pieces for the show (for all of you who did Les Mis with the Theatre Guild, imagine the Cows got turned into spider webs, and that’s what I’ve been working on the past few days). Also, he wanted a live goat on stage. That’s right, a live fucking goat. For all of you unfamiliar with the show, let me answer your question now: no, there is no goat in the show, but he wants one. Why? No one knows. Whatever, it’s only a week old and has the cute factor going for it, so all seems to be forgiven. Doing tech for a Ron show is always an experience. He’s a little bit of a control freak and tends to make everything more difficult than it should be. He was even changing things two hours before the show opened. That’s should sum up how crazy were going.
As for the show itself: seeing as this is one of my favorite shows ever I had very high expectations, and for the most part they were fore filled. Jay, the actor playing Javert, is amazing at playing the part. He’s done it before and it shows; he knows that character inside out, and he makes the character pretty bad ass too. I also discovered that I’ve seen jay perform with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is friggin’ awesome in my book. The sets for the show look really good as well, even though almost everything is painted grey. O’Connor’s lighting for show is spectacular, and makes the show look even more awesome. Some of the scenes are brilliantly executed, and others fall very short. Some of the blocking in a few scenes (“Lovely Ladies” especially) in god damn atrocious. Some scenes make me feel sick when I watch them, but thankfully those scenes are balanced out by some very excellently crafted scenes (One Day More and everything in the ABC Café are fantastic). Also, the show has been cut down, which is understandable because it’s a three hour plus show. Some of the cuts to the show are pretty reasonable: example: “Turning” is cut from the show, and it doesn’t take away from the show, and it’s actually a song that isn’t missed by much people. Half of “Lovely Ladies” is cut, which makes a little bit of sense, but the part of the song that’s cut is when Fantine gets coaxed into being a hooker. In this version getting your hair cut off apparently makes you a lady of the night. Also, tiny bits and pieces from “Dog Eat Dog” and the wedding scene get taken out, which makes the ending a little confusing (well, if you’re still paying attention, that is). Also, Val Jean’s wig is hideous looking. It looks like an ally cat is on his head.
Anyways, now that I’ve been knit-picky about everything, the show has been running great. No problems during a performance on our end; someone did faint during the wed matinee, but that’s been the only excitement. The tech crew is also costumed for this show. That’s pretty fun, though I’m pretty sure that I have the bottom of the barrel for a costume (a pair of pants that aren’t quite pants and aren’t quite shorts, and a poofy shirt that’s too big for Henry VIII).
We set off fireworks at the Dam on the fourth of July, that was a lot of fun. Entire company caravanning to the dam; it was quite a sight.
Right now it’s my day off and I’m home waiting for friends to come by. It feels good to be home, even if it is for only 24 hours. Oh well, let the fun begin before I drive back to Forestburgh at 4 in the morning!
The second week of All Shook Up went very well. The crowds range from sounding barely interested in what they’re watching to being completely ecstatic from start to finish (Friday night’s crowd was the best this show has seen yet). In the middle of the wed night show my headset in the fly loft decided to stop working and screech in my ear whenever I hit the talk button. Michael Bert tried to fix it on multiple occasions with no luck, so I’ve gotten into the habit of running the show blindly which hasn’t been that bad. I’ve seen the show enough to know where all my cues in the show are.
High School Musical also opened during the second week of All Shook Up, and anyone who has worked on the show hates it to no end. Why you ask? Well, aside from the fact that it’s High School Musical, we’ve had to actually build some set pieces for this children’s show. This sucks for three reasons: the show doesn’t have a budget to begin with, so we’ve had to take money out of the budgets for some of the main stage shows; we’re not contracted to do anything involving the children’s show; and it takes away from the small amount of time we had to build Les Mis (more of that t later). One the nights before HSM, we would have to put the set up after All Shook Up ended. This means an extra 30 minutes to an hour of extra work, depending on how long it takes to set up the rather large light up sign we built for the show. Thankfully, after two very annoying nights of setting up this show, the director has made the ResCo do all the load in and loud outs of the show, which means we’re off the hook for the most part. Sweet.
Now onto Les Mis: Ron is directing the show, which means that the cast, crew, and management staff were all going crazy because he’s very indecisive and doesn’t communicate what’s going on in his head (if in fact anything does go on in his head). He also designs his own shows (using photo shop, of all things). He has us building these weird set pieces for the show (for all of you who did Les Mis with the Theatre Guild, imagine the Cows got turned into spider webs, and that’s what I’ve been working on the past few days). Also, he wanted a live goat on stage. That’s right, a live fucking goat. For all of you unfamiliar with the show, let me answer your question now: no, there is no goat in the show, but he wants one. Why? No one knows. Whatever, it’s only a week old and has the cute factor going for it, so all seems to be forgiven. Doing tech for a Ron show is always an experience. He’s a little bit of a control freak and tends to make everything more difficult than it should be. He was even changing things two hours before the show opened. That’s should sum up how crazy were going.
As for the show itself: seeing as this is one of my favorite shows ever I had very high expectations, and for the most part they were fore filled. Jay, the actor playing Javert, is amazing at playing the part. He’s done it before and it shows; he knows that character inside out, and he makes the character pretty bad ass too. I also discovered that I’ve seen jay perform with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is friggin’ awesome in my book. The sets for the show look really good as well, even though almost everything is painted grey. O’Connor’s lighting for show is spectacular, and makes the show look even more awesome. Some of the scenes are brilliantly executed, and others fall very short. Some of the blocking in a few scenes (“Lovely Ladies” especially) in god damn atrocious. Some scenes make me feel sick when I watch them, but thankfully those scenes are balanced out by some very excellently crafted scenes (One Day More and everything in the ABC Café are fantastic). Also, the show has been cut down, which is understandable because it’s a three hour plus show. Some of the cuts to the show are pretty reasonable: example: “Turning” is cut from the show, and it doesn’t take away from the show, and it’s actually a song that isn’t missed by much people. Half of “Lovely Ladies” is cut, which makes a little bit of sense, but the part of the song that’s cut is when Fantine gets coaxed into being a hooker. In this version getting your hair cut off apparently makes you a lady of the night. Also, tiny bits and pieces from “Dog Eat Dog” and the wedding scene get taken out, which makes the ending a little confusing (well, if you’re still paying attention, that is). Also, Val Jean’s wig is hideous looking. It looks like an ally cat is on his head.
Anyways, now that I’ve been knit-picky about everything, the show has been running great. No problems during a performance on our end; someone did faint during the wed matinee, but that’s been the only excitement. The tech crew is also costumed for this show. That’s pretty fun, though I’m pretty sure that I have the bottom of the barrel for a costume (a pair of pants that aren’t quite pants and aren’t quite shorts, and a poofy shirt that’s too big for Henry VIII).
We set off fireworks at the Dam on the fourth of July, that was a lot of fun. Entire company caravanning to the dam; it was quite a sight.
Right now it’s my day off and I’m home waiting for friends to come by. It feels good to be home, even if it is for only 24 hours. Oh well, let the fun begin before I drive back to Forestburgh at 4 in the morning!