two shows at once

Ok this time it's true. I've been busy. I'm in the middle of doing The Robber Bridegroom at the local Country Day school, and only a week later from that is Tuesdays with Morrie at AE. Last week the plot was due for Bridegroom, and this week it's Morrie. Bridegroom is running late in general. Tuesday, when I dropped off the plot, I found out that one of the students, not in the show, but at the school, and in past shows, was killed in a skiing accident. So there was two days of little productivity due to viewing and funeral. So they go up first, and the set is still a ways away. We focused the lights on Saturday, or rather we were supposed to focus lights and ended up hanging and focusing lights on Saturday. Thank gods it was a small plot. I've not seen a full run-thru of it yet, so I'm not sure about cuing yet.
Morrie on the other hand has been running early. We had a run thru last week Wed, and two more last night. I've got most of the plot figured out after those two. I got cuing figured out after Wednesday's run. Today I finalize the plot, and redraw it tomorrow and hand it off to their lighting student to hang. Focus there next weekend. Tech Bridegroom the weekend after, and Tech Morrie the weekend after that while Bridegroom opens. Now I remember why I try to keep two weeks between shows.
Morrie is really a tough show for me. If you don't know the book (or Hank Azaria/Jack Lemmon TV movie) (both of which I HIGHLY recommend), it's a true story by Mitch Albom, Detroit sports writer who re-connects with his old mentor/professor from college who's been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease). Mitch spends each Tuesday with Morrie, sitting and talking about Life, Death, and how to do each well. In the book it's only like 15 weeks or so, in the play, it's not defined. ALS is a very debilitating, wasting, disease. Not far from any upper body cancer. I've watched four people die from cancer or other similar diseases. Most recently was Becky. So needless to say, I find this a very personal show to watch. I found photos from my last trip out to Nebraska (watching Becky die) and remembered that when i got them processed, they got put on floppy disks (for some reason they couldn't do CDs) The files on floppy were crappy. So the pix uploaded to flickr were crappy. I motivated myself to scan in the photos and re-post them to flickr. Some of them at least. But I find myself thinking more and more about death. For the most part, I'm not afraid to die. I'm not exceedingly attached to this life, what happens, happens. When it's time to move on, I'll move on, and get stuck learning what I didn't learn in this life, in the next one. Part of the source of these morbid thoughts stems from my own health. I can tell, now that I'm not as active, that I'm at a higher risk of heart attack than ever. I get winded easier. I feel my heartbeat more. While I've always been a big guy, I've also always been pretty agile when I needed to be (during a couple of emergency situations at work I would run in to help, and people later said that they didn't know I could move that fast). I need to get more excercise, though I'm trying to eat better, more fruits and veggies, etc. My fear is ending up like Morrie. Or Becky. in bed, gasping for each breath, lingering on past when life is enjoyable. I'm really tempted to make my first tattoo a big 'DNR' across my chest. I've got to make that clear. I never overstay my welcome.
Ok, I need to finish this post so i can finish the Morrie plot. Angelo's given me a great floor to work with, and after the runs yesterday, I remembered that I hadn't plotted lights to highlight the floor (it's a feather dusting of natural colors so I'll be able to change seasons by the color of light on the floor. Cool effect).