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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

It's a Girl! Or a show about them at least

Oh my goodness, it's finally here. Stop Kiss is opening tonight and I could not be happier. It's been a long, rough ride but we're here. We made it. And we've done a darn good job I think too. It's such a relief to finally let the show go. It really is like raising a kid, you have to help it grow and nurture it, then it has the awkward teenage phase and makes you made enough you don't want to deal with it, and then eventually you reach the point where it's time to let go and you have to just see what happens.

And now it's finally grown up. :)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Holy Techs Batman!

So, we've just wrapped for night two of tech rehearsals for Stop Kiss. It's only 9 p.m. Crazy huh? Last night didn't go past 9 either. Talk about a painless tech week. I finished up my list of notes this afternoon which *totally* made my day, and the only notes I have from this run are a couple of paint notes. This makes me very happy. Finally seeing the show with lights is awesome. I can't wait until final dress. We've done good work, I can really see that now. It's really fulfilling to have that moment of pride that you were part of a team that did a great job.

THAT'S what I do this for. Sometimes I forget.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Kiss My Face

I'm sure you all have been *dying* to find out if we finished the set or not. Well, I'm sorry to say that we did need the work call on Monday, but the major things are finished now, and we're just working on minor details. I have some molding to put up in the morning and some cabinet handles to attach, but I think we're getting down there. I need to get the locks put on the door too, since they're starting techs tomorrow and that would probably be helpful.

As my list gets smaller it makes me really happy about what we've managed to accomplish in so short a time. There has been nothing but positive feedback from everyone who has seen it. In fact, today during the middle of our Intro to Direction class (which we have in the Masquer), Greg stopped mid-sentence and says, "Oh wow. That's looking good. I want that kitchen!" Most amusing and very appreciated.

That's really the only exciting thing that's going on right now. We start techs tomorrow and hopefully they'll be pretty painless. None of the set actually moves, so my end of the deal should be pretty uneventful. I'll probably go to the final few dress rehearsals unless someone requests otherwise.

Oh for the show to be done. Soon my pretties. Very soon.

(As a side note: The title for this post came from a bar of soap I found in the drawer of the kitchen cabinet on set today. I found it rather amusing.)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Stop Kiss

*sniff* Ah, the smell of a brand new blog. I thought that maybe this one could be a little more general than my tour blog, since it was created strictly for touring. I would like to open this blog with a post about Stop Kiss. Stop Kiss is the current - and last - show I will be working on for a while, and I'm very excited by this.

We've had a good time for the most part. Our design team is entirely student-based, which is a rarity in this department, and we all seem to get along together really well. I'm TD with Brandon as my scene designer, and that fact could not have made me happier. We're both very forgiving toward each other and try our hardest not to make the other's lives any harder than it needs to be. The design for this show is in the round, which also hasn't been done for at least four years here. It's very unique, I really like it. Perhaps on a more ambitious day I'll post some pictures and a ground plan.

That said, we're also the smallest show this semester, with a $200 budget and a two-week build period. We're also the first show to go up. Because of this, labor is a little sketchy in the shop, since we've just got in a batch of new students and they haven't learned everything they really need yet to be completely functional.

The start of the build was really amazing. We got 75% of the set in within three days. Since that day, however, things have been a mite slower. It's been getting down to detail work, which isn't terribly complicated, but takes some time. I always hope things will go so much faster than they really do. My load-in date was yesterday (Friday the 15th) but there is still a couple things that need to happen. We have Monday off from school for the holiday, but I don't really want to be at school that day - nor does anyone else for that matter. So I've enlisted help for tomorrow afternoon to go finish up what we need to do. I think we should be done in a couple hours, and working when there's no students around and you can just relax and take your time without the stress of trying to finish before rehearsal is really lovely. Brandon is also going in in the evening to finish up painting, so if all goes well the set should be entirely finished by tomorrow night. How exciting would that be? Whoo!

I have very mixed emotions about the process for this show, but overall it's been a really wonderful experience. I am glad, however, that after next week I'll have my afternoons back to myself again, and that after March 8th I'll be completely free of any commitment I have to the department. I've enjoyed most of my time here, but I am very ready to be somewhere else doing something else. To not be in school will be a very welcome vacation.