I was so "on edge" all weekend regarding Stage Managing "Damn Yankees" that I didn't get a single picture. Maybe just as well. So much can go wrong in an instant that it's best to just focus on getting the set changes right.
Friday was opening night, and there were incidents where things didn't work quite right. The first started at the start of the show with the hand off between Pam and Steve in the lighting booth. I called 'lights' to start the show, and Pam informed me that she was waiting for a few stragglers in the audience to sit down before bringing lights down. Then she was relieved by Steve and she headed down to the orchestra pit. Steve hadn't heard our previous conversation. Steve asked why we were waiting and I told Steve that I understood that we were waiting for a few people to sit down. Steve said 'no, we aren't.' So, I assumed the lights would come down immediately, but Steve hadn't heard me say 'lights', and kept the lights up. A standoff ensued. I fished around for magic words to start the show - maybe a Druidic incantation, or burning incense, or something - and eventually I hit upon the word 'lights,' but it took awhile.
We had some trouble with loose electrical cords on stage during the First Act, and a late entrance, but on the whole the show went fairly-well.
On Saturday, the show was going well until I snapped the furring strips in the rolling locker platforms as I helped move them onstage (they are far more fragile than I had thought). These furring strips still haven't been fully repaired, and may yet cause more difficulties. A few people missed set assignments. I also placed the stage left rolling platform on the wrong spike marks in the last scene (someone stepped on someone's foot, and so someone never got backstage to help with the scene change, and having never moved that platform before at that particular time, I had to guess where it belonged, and I guessed wrong).
On Sunday, I managed to accidentally gouge my right pinkie with my left thumbnail, and started bleeding profusely on everything I touched (and there are plenty of things backstage to bleed on). There was also a very late entrance, and people had to make up things to say in the interim. But overall, there were lots of nice compliments on the show.
And so, we're off.
No comments:
Post a Comment