Hell Week by Infinimato (G) [Song & Dance challenge]
Title: Hell Week
Author: infinimato
Spoilers: none
Word count: 970
Summary: If you've ever done theater, you know what Hell Week means. ( This is an add-on to a previous fic called Drama Queens but is designed to be read independantly.)
A/N: Unbetaed because a) I just thought of this, 2) I wanted to slip this in before the challenged closed, and pi) the usual suspects are in hiding. :-) My humble apologies for all screwups. ETA: thanks to Josh for catching two typos :).
There was nothing like Hell Week. It had been many years since Evan Lorne had had to put up with one, but here he was again, stuck in the middle of Hell.
The Gerotians had demanded that the Atlanteans prove their worth as a trading partner by putting on a play. That all was well and good, but someone had let it leak that Lorne had experience directing plays and he'd found himself directing not just a play, but, dear god, musical theater.
The basic plot of the show was simple -- they came to Atlantis from Earth, the city showed it's need for ZPMs, they helped culled populations and fought the Wraith and traded with other planets. Especially other planets willing to trade for a ZPM.
They'd been given a month to produce their "proof," and now it was three days until "showtime" and, as the drama cliche went, things had been going to hell since the week-before mark.
First had been the Stargate. Colonel Sheppard and Ronon Dex had built a replica of the real Stargate that sat to one side of the set. But it wobbled. It wobbled badly. The two were good at basic design but not so good at the carpentry part. Lorne resolved never to try to live in a shelter those two built. He'd mentioned the wobble to them a few times but they ignored him and then, inevitably, the thing tipped over. Fortunately, it went over backwards, which meant nobody on the stage got smushed. Unfortunatly, it landed back stage onto a box full of Cadman's pyrotechnics. Thankfully none went off, but she'd been bitching about the loss since.
Then was the Stargate's puddle. Sheppard and Ronon had rigged a shimmery material (Lorne didn't want to know where it came from -- there was enough to stress him without thinking too hard about some things.) to drop down from the top of the Stargate when an active puddle was supposed to appear. It had a couple of slashes built in so people could walk through it, but apparently they weren't well dilineated and Katie Brown tripped yesterday, sending her sprawling into the arms of Carson Beckett. (And the look on Cadman's face was possibly worth the chance that Katie had hurt something, which, again thankfully, she hadn't.)
Of course, the yanking of Katie's foot had caused the whole "puddle" thing to come down, with the top roller landing squarely on the head of Sgt. Ben Myers. Again, fortune was with them; the set builders had used paper towel roll innards to make the dowel to wrap the material around, so after a quick check from the conveniently located Dr. Beckett (who insisted on checking), Sgt Myers was declared fine.
And speaking of Cadman... as the resident bomb expert she'd seemed the right person to have handle the pyrotechnics, but he'd forgotten that the Marine could tend to go a bit... overboard. So far she'd singed the edge of the Stargate (fortunately not one facing the audience), a piece of one of the "consoles" on the set (which, briefly bursting into a small fire, did have to be rebuilt) and a bit of one of Lorne's eyebrows when he'd gotten too close aftern she'd run over excitedly yelling, "Major! Come see, this is too cool!!"
Maybe I'll never learn, Lorne thought sourly.
The two leads, Carson Beckett, M.D. and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Colleen Baker had been at each others throats almost as long as the two writers/composers -- Teyla and Rodney McKay. Teyla and Rodney constantly squabbled over whether music from Earth or Athos was more appropriate for a particular piece; even after it had been rehearsed, they had twice changed the music behind certain lyrics. This lead to the fighting between Carson and Gunny Baker as both accussed the other of singing over other parts, and of singing off-key. (Lorne, who actually had never directed music theater before, just plays, thought they were *both* off-key, but didn't dare say a word lest their wrath come raining down on him instead.)
Tomorrow was the tech run through, where the technicians would go through cues piece by piece, and costume changes would be run through, and everyone would get grumpy quickly. The following night would be the full dress -- Evan hoped to be able to do two but didn't hope too hard. Getting them through one was bad enough.
Today the techs were finishing up the last of the lighting and other rigging. Thankfully someone had worked with theatrical lights before and had thrown together some wire-based safety lines for the lights; one actually came *loose* while being focused and, if it had fallen, would have at least shattered glass all over, if not hit someone on the head. Thank god someone was thinking of safety.
Lorne was also thankful they didn't have to worry about sound equipment. The acoustics of the room they were using were designed for performances. Lorne thought that if he'd had to put up with feedback, on top of everything else, he would start banging his head against the wall. Then again, he just might start anyway.
Suddenly someone yelled, "HEADS!!!" and bodies went flying in all directions as a wrench fell from on top of a ladder. Evan Lorne sighed as he realized how bad it could have been -- that could be Sly Siler up there, and everyone who ever worked at the SGC knew about him and his giant wrench.
Wandering over to get another cup of coffee, he sat down and waited for the techs to finish so that another rehearsal could start. "Two and a half more days," he kept repeating to himself, "Just two and a half more days."
Another crash was heard from the other side of the stage. He didn't get up. He didn't want to know. Two and a half more days.
Author: infinimato
Spoilers: none
Word count: 970
Summary: If you've ever done theater, you know what Hell Week means. ( This is an add-on to a previous fic called Drama Queens but is designed to be read independantly.)
A/N: Unbetaed because a) I just thought of this, 2) I wanted to slip this in before the challenged closed, and pi) the usual suspects are in hiding. :-) My humble apologies for all screwups. ETA: thanks to Josh for catching two typos :).
There was nothing like Hell Week. It had been many years since Evan Lorne had had to put up with one, but here he was again, stuck in the middle of Hell.
The Gerotians had demanded that the Atlanteans prove their worth as a trading partner by putting on a play. That all was well and good, but someone had let it leak that Lorne had experience directing plays and he'd found himself directing not just a play, but, dear god, musical theater.
The basic plot of the show was simple -- they came to Atlantis from Earth, the city showed it's need for ZPMs, they helped culled populations and fought the Wraith and traded with other planets. Especially other planets willing to trade for a ZPM.
They'd been given a month to produce their "proof," and now it was three days until "showtime" and, as the drama cliche went, things had been going to hell since the week-before mark.
First had been the Stargate. Colonel Sheppard and Ronon Dex had built a replica of the real Stargate that sat to one side of the set. But it wobbled. It wobbled badly. The two were good at basic design but not so good at the carpentry part. Lorne resolved never to try to live in a shelter those two built. He'd mentioned the wobble to them a few times but they ignored him and then, inevitably, the thing tipped over. Fortunately, it went over backwards, which meant nobody on the stage got smushed. Unfortunatly, it landed back stage onto a box full of Cadman's pyrotechnics. Thankfully none went off, but she'd been bitching about the loss since.
Then was the Stargate's puddle. Sheppard and Ronon had rigged a shimmery material (Lorne didn't want to know where it came from -- there was enough to stress him without thinking too hard about some things.) to drop down from the top of the Stargate when an active puddle was supposed to appear. It had a couple of slashes built in so people could walk through it, but apparently they weren't well dilineated and Katie Brown tripped yesterday, sending her sprawling into the arms of Carson Beckett. (And the look on Cadman's face was possibly worth the chance that Katie had hurt something, which, again thankfully, she hadn't.)
Of course, the yanking of Katie's foot had caused the whole "puddle" thing to come down, with the top roller landing squarely on the head of Sgt. Ben Myers. Again, fortune was with them; the set builders had used paper towel roll innards to make the dowel to wrap the material around, so after a quick check from the conveniently located Dr. Beckett (who insisted on checking), Sgt Myers was declared fine.
And speaking of Cadman... as the resident bomb expert she'd seemed the right person to have handle the pyrotechnics, but he'd forgotten that the Marine could tend to go a bit... overboard. So far she'd singed the edge of the Stargate (fortunately not one facing the audience), a piece of one of the "consoles" on the set (which, briefly bursting into a small fire, did have to be rebuilt) and a bit of one of Lorne's eyebrows when he'd gotten too close aftern she'd run over excitedly yelling, "Major! Come see, this is too cool!!"
Maybe I'll never learn, Lorne thought sourly.
The two leads, Carson Beckett, M.D. and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Colleen Baker had been at each others throats almost as long as the two writers/composers -- Teyla and Rodney McKay. Teyla and Rodney constantly squabbled over whether music from Earth or Athos was more appropriate for a particular piece; even after it had been rehearsed, they had twice changed the music behind certain lyrics. This lead to the fighting between Carson and Gunny Baker as both accussed the other of singing over other parts, and of singing off-key. (Lorne, who actually had never directed music theater before, just plays, thought they were *both* off-key, but didn't dare say a word lest their wrath come raining down on him instead.)
Tomorrow was the tech run through, where the technicians would go through cues piece by piece, and costume changes would be run through, and everyone would get grumpy quickly. The following night would be the full dress -- Evan hoped to be able to do two but didn't hope too hard. Getting them through one was bad enough.
Today the techs were finishing up the last of the lighting and other rigging. Thankfully someone had worked with theatrical lights before and had thrown together some wire-based safety lines for the lights; one actually came *loose* while being focused and, if it had fallen, would have at least shattered glass all over, if not hit someone on the head. Thank god someone was thinking of safety.
Lorne was also thankful they didn't have to worry about sound equipment. The acoustics of the room they were using were designed for performances. Lorne thought that if he'd had to put up with feedback, on top of everything else, he would start banging his head against the wall. Then again, he just might start anyway.
Suddenly someone yelled, "HEADS!!!" and bodies went flying in all directions as a wrench fell from on top of a ladder. Evan Lorne sighed as he realized how bad it could have been -- that could be Sly Siler up there, and everyone who ever worked at the SGC knew about him and his giant wrench.
Wandering over to get another cup of coffee, he sat down and waited for the techs to finish so that another rehearsal could start. "Two and a half more days," he kept repeating to himself, "Just two and a half more days."
Another crash was heard from the other side of the stage. He didn't get up. He didn't want to know. Two and a half more days.