Carl's Notes

Final countdown to The Mousetrap in mid-March, so rehearsals are going into overdrive.
I'm still not entirely sure what I'll be doing, aside from "helping out" backstage.

The treasurer for the theatre company was in one day to watch a run-through, and I had been introduced by the director as the ASM (assistant stage manager), though I don't remember being asked just yet.
I'd been told that it's the stage manager's duty to select an ASM, but haven't heard anything officially since.

The set is about halfway done, it needs to be fully assembled where it is now so rehearsing can happen on it, then disassembled, moved and reassembled at the theatre, as well as any final painting that needs to be done.
All the props and costumes are (to my knowledge) complete, even down to the wristwatch that had been picked up for five dollars to go on Molly's wrist, whose band had been too large and had been shortened by our stage manager.
(she's apparently very skilled at many things, so I hope we don't lose her anytime soon!)

I'm still shaking my head at how much the actors were scrambling for lines, though.
We have two more weekends of rehearsals to go, and it looks like I will be helping the actors run lines when they're not needed during a run-through.

The last non-panto rehearsal I've seen was for the last run of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that was basically the final rehearsal before it was moved into the theatre, so I wasn't privy to all the foibles of the actors as they initially stumbled through their lines, and was largely unfamiliar with any weak points before the show ran and I saw it for a whole week of evenings in a row.

Yikes! =0.0=
We're getting awfully close to our first performance date!
Just three more weekends before the preview showing on December 20th, and things are wobbling along fairly well.

Everything that we started rehearsing months ago (has it really been that long? Wow, guess so!) is pretty solid right now, but we're having the usual issues with stuff introduced more recently.
(which makes me glad we're devoting time and effort to them)

This past Saturday we ran through almost the whole show, and halfway through the second act, every other lead that had lines forgot them, leaving things rather hilarious. =^.^=

Another decidedly odd thing that happened this weekend was the fortunes in the cap of my Jones sodas.
(I've been buying a bottle of Jones soda for the past month or so to drink in the latter part of rehearsals, so I don't get a stomach full of carbonation and need to almost constantly burp while singing)
On Saturday, just after we the chorus stepped off "stage" during rehearsal to await our next appearance, I opened my soda to this fortune:
“Your silence at this time is important.”

It was weird, because those of us not on-stage need to be quiet so the director, etc, can hear what's going on to do their job.

Shared it around a bit, commenting on how apropos it was, had a few laughs, commented on their Facebook page, etc etc.

Sunday, I was thirsty earlier in the day, and opened my bottle after the director gave her directing notes to the cast, emphasising that you're supposed to be smiling when you're not reacting to something on-stage.

That fortune read:
“Always smile.”

Passing strange, right?
Got more laughs as I passed it around, as well as comment from the director saying that I'd probably be getting pretty lucky on them if I kept it up.

Later in the day, we had a ten-minute break and I decided to have another to see what came up next.
(there's a store that sells Jones just about next-door to our rehearsal space, so it was easy to get another one)

Now, we'd just been going over some of the more complicated choreography to pin down what we're supposed to be doing, so it was rather surprising to get this fortune:
“Concentration leads to success.”

Um, getting spooky over here... =>.>=