Anything Goes

We opened last night! In general, I thought it was the smoothest opening night I've ever seen at DMTC. The reason for the smoothness is that we are beginning to reap the benefit of investments of time and energy that Michael Miiller, Jennifer Walley, and Mike McElroy have made over the last six months in the nuts and bolts of set design: reusable, sturdy, modular platforms being the principal example. Plus the hard work of Doug Freeman and Don David. And again, Jason Hammond had the set design planned out well in advance (it always helps to be prepared). I feared the size of the set required to simulate a large ship would cripple and distract our available manpower, but that did not happen. And the set design is clever, and it economizes on work required during the show. So, the cast was free to concentrate on the show itself rather than being unnecessarily distracted by the set and furniture hustling. Excellent work by everybody!

As the hyperalert Stage Manager, it doesn't mean the performance was flawless. There were still some issues. Don was flung into running the light board with little preparation, so there were some lighting miscues. Herb and I carefully worked out when I was supposed to call lights on the second scene: it was when "she" came on-stage with him. Only trouble, I didn't know who "she" was, so Kelly and Herb idled away impatiently in the dark as I waited for "she" to make some kind of magical appearance. Noel was carefully trying to move her cart of refreshments backstage, but instead bounced the cart like a pinball off the closely-packed furniture - I thought the strange jangling sound of rattling bottles was some kind of bizarre cellphone ringtone. Megan and Steve would have bumped bellies in the dark if not for the table between them that Megan was carrying, so instead, both merely ended up with gouged shins from the table base. Andy missed a rimshot because of too much backstage conversation. And lastly, Gayle didn't get the memo about wearing gloves in the last scene.

Still, considering some of the nightmarish things that have occurred on opening nights in the past, I am immensely relieved. We've got a great show, and the audience loved it!