We had our opening night for Midsummer on Friday. And it seems that as usual, we were working up to the last day. Nothing critical, but lots of details that make it a finished professional product. I guess that what Paul Valery used to say is true, "An artist never finishes a work, he merely abandons it." (Oh, gods! Now I'm quoting Paul Valery at you!)
The tech week for this was particularly rough. Set was really behind. Which put all the rest of us behind, as we all pitched in to help him finish. (in his defense, he is totally alone in the shop, and only has occasional job-in help. Against him is that he doesn't always ask for help, and that he doesn't make lists of things left to do. And forgets his mental lists.) I almost made a post saying just "I hate Christmas lights" but never got the time to do it.
The forest is two big climbable 'rocks' amidst trees made of crinkly burlap, capped with tree canopies of green dyed erosion cloth. Its these erosion cloth canapies that get the christmas lights. The biggest is a border, 32' long by 1-2' high stretching the width of the stage. It has three strings of lights on it, the others have only one or two each, probably 10 in all. I did the long one, and had two of our volunteers help with the rest, 'cause by that time, I had to be in rehearsal, writing cues. What doesn't show well in the pic is the shower curtain thing which will eventually be Titania's bower. It gets a burlap and fabric and flower-greenery drape around a tree, which can be closed for her privacy.
The other pic is the dukes palace with mural. These walls track off to reveal the forest. The painter did an incredible job with the likeness of our lead. The lower openings will be scrim panels which will be opaque except to reveal the fairies at the very end of the show. Cool effect, but woefully underplayed by the director.
The other thing that put us behind was that the designer couldn't be around to finish the set, but left it to us. S did the lion's share, roughing in most of the floor and the rocks and having the designer come back for detail work, which ended up not being enough so she had to finish those too. Boss wouldn't even let her do her own work until the painting and bower were finished.
Anyway, after several long nights, getting out at 4am or later, we got it all finished.
Friday was also what is commonly known as a Xanadu party. One of the actors has an apartment in a riverfront highrise. He has a love for art and objects d'art. Thus he's nicknamed his apartment Xanadu, and it really is a pleasure dome. Anyway, every show he's in, he hosts a party, often on Opening night. The partygoers are pretty much an equal split between theatre folk, and his, shall we say, flambouyant male friends. It's always a grand party, lots of food for noshing, and lots of drinks for imbibing. Recently he's started a byo appetizer or drink of choice. I took a bottle of Metaxa, sticking to the greek theme of the show. Good Stuff! I should know, I drank most of the bottle. Needless to say, even by Saturday evening, many of us at the show were still moving mighty slow. I left about 3. I found out that many of the actors went across the street to their apartments about 5 and continued to party there, garnering several noise complaints in the process.
I had a very enjoyable evening overall, having invited K to join me, both at the show and to the party. It turns out that in the many years of working at our theatre, she's never been to one of his Xanadu parties. Had a good time just chatting with her and with other friends and actors. Wife was none too pleased, but oh well, it was overdue (for me, not her. She hasn't seen me in a week.)
Oh well. Now to get to work for a sunday Mat.
By the way, I'm trying just copying pix into this post. For some reason, no matter how big the pix, Blogger just won't upload it. I've tried twice, and it just never moves. It shouldn't take that long for a 40K picture. The photos are too big for the template, but oh well. I'll fix it later if I care.
OK I cared, and they're in now.
