Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Proud of Our Company Today

Opening a show is always fraught with, well, let's just call it the potential for adventure. Tension, stress, lack of sleep, irregular eathing habits, insane personalities, and things that you just can't expect reach up and smack you down just about the time you feel like you're getting the beast to move the way you want it to. This week as we've been working to open Tuna Does Vegas, it often seemed like the beast was going to win, but I think we may have wrestled that beast into submission.

Yesterday as we prepared for the two preview performances we still had some work to do on the show as we awaited the audience verdict on what we were trying to accomplish. The first preview went wonderfully and allowed us to plan additional work before the evening show to take advantage of the lessons we had learned. We had structured notes and work calls down to the second.

Then there was this noise.

As we were looking at some light cues in preparation for the actors to show up for notes there was this loud mechanical hum. A quick investigation yielded that both of our rooftop HVAC units weren't working. Big problem. Now, a lighting storm had knocked both of them out a few weeks ago, resulting in a show cancellation. So we were both extremely worried and extremely confused. We didn't have a storm yesterday anywhere near us. But the units weren't working. As we got on the phone to the service guys, a neighboring restaurant called us and asked us if anything was wrong with our power. They were running on half power. This led us to the answer we needed. It wasn't us, but a problem with the line. Whew! Then, shit. We had an audience showing up as this was happening and were about 90 minutes from curtain. Calls to the power company yielded answers like "yes, there's a problem but we don't know ETA on repair." Great.

Our theatre gets pretty hot without the HVAC, so doing the show without a repair of the line was not an answer unless we wanted our performers to melt and our audience to be miserable. Not a great recipe for comedy. So I made the decision that we would press on, and hold making a final decision until 8:30 at the latest, delaying the curtain by 30 minutes if we could. We told this to our arriving audience and prepped the staff and crew and awaited an update from the power company. Lighting and tech continued to work ahead on notes. (Lighting is on a different system than the HVAC.) We worked through notes with the actors. Then we waited some more and continued to plan out our options, should we not be able to go forward. Finally, at about 7:42 we got the word that power might be restored. We held our breath as our TD flipped the circuit breakers for the HVAC back on, and then turned on the units. They worked! We immediately went into show mode. Called "half-hour" and got the preview up at 8:15pm. The cast and crew were fantastic. The audience had a wonderful evening. We learned more about the show to make some final adjustments today before opening. Then we all had a beer and collapsed.

We also learned how much these folks in this little theatre with a big heart will throw themselves at anything to acheive a goal. Let me tell you the pressure was intense going into preview Saturday, and it only magnified as the events of the day unfolded. I'm grateful to have so many selfless, talented, and giving artists as colleagues here at Wayside Theatre.

 

 

The Only Thing Less Predictable Than This Year's Political Circus is...

The resason the ellipsis sits at the end of the title of this post is that there is no real answer. The only thing faster and more predictable than one of Usain Bolt's sprints was the timing of the reactions to  yesterday's Republican VP announcment. Seconds after the news was official on Romney's choice of Paul Ryan as VP (the news was out long before it was official) there was the expected avalanche of stories, tweets, etc... both praising and condeming Ryan. Expected. Predictable. And ultimately, well, ultimately part of a script that anyone reading this post could write.

The same will be true for the next month or so. Oh, we're going to have a resurgence of stories about Ayn Rand. She's this election cycle's Alaska. We knew she was there, just like we knew Alaska was a state, but now we have to scramble to find out about her. The only fun will be watching pundits misconstrue (both ignorantly and purposefully) her changing thinking about as much as Paul Ryan does. Actually, that meme may have already run its course. Rand ranks up there with Brecht and Stanislavski as one of the most often misunderstood European thinkers by Americans. (Note that Brecht and Rand immigrated to this country to become cultural icons and make real money.) But since she is so easily misinterpreted that means we can just talk in shortcuts and soundbites that demonize while at the same time propping her up on a pedastal. Her estate will be pleased.

As we near the run up to the conventions we'll hear the predictable predictions, polluted polling data, and pompous prognosticating that in the end... well, in the end will all amount to nothing. But stay tuned, after each convention we'll hear about the polls rising for each candidate, and then dismissed as post-convention bump. If there is no bump, or not a big enough bump, or too large of a bump, we'll hear that the election is over for one of the candidates. Those scripts have already been written. But never fear, soon after that we'll start hearing new memes about potential October suprises and polls narrowing accompanying the steady rhythm about disreputable ads and mudslinging that underscore any election cycle.

The potential good news is that I think we've just about run our course on dirt-dishing for this campaign now that both sides are calling each other murderers. About the only thing left to keep the ratings churning is sex. But the candidates running look too squeaky clean on that front. Although I guess the birthers are shifting their focus to talking Obama being gay. You don't need documents for that.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we've run out of BS, lies by both sides, the supercilious, and the predictable. Maybe by the time October rolls around the candidates will actually have to talk about the issues.

I somehow doubt it.

I Think Josh Marshall is On To Something with Ink and Voting

Go read Josh Marshall's post on Talking Points Memo about voter disenfranchisment, voter fraud, etc... He makes the point that perhaps we should forget all about voter registration and simply do what we do in countries where we take over after a short war, declare democracy, and then encourage every one to vote. After voting, the folks in these new bastions of democracy dip their fingers in ink so that everyone knows who has already voted.

If it is good enough for new democracies, shouldn't it be could enough for one with a little age to it? But then again, it is probably too simple of a solution. Imagine the possibilities.