Catching Up...

So here I am again. Finally. I know it's been a while, and so I'll just skim over the details and hopefully get back into the swing of things. The last couple of weeks have been tied up in preparing for and the production week of a production of Peter Pan. It's been interesting and tiring and a little painful but we have a show now and the kids're enjoying it. Owen and I are responsible for flying the wonderful Miss Petra (who is playing Pan) and we're gettin quite good at it. In fact, we've only bounced her off the scenery once or twice. I think we're ahead of the game, especially given that we only had about two days to practice before we opened. Karl, the guy who set up the flying rig - along with his partner Janine - told us that if we had three months to practice we could've been doing all sortsa stuff, so I think we really ain't doing too badly.

I was going to be on stage as well as ASM (Assistant Stage Manager, for those in the cheap seats), but trying to do both was doing my head in, so I decided just to be crew and am glad I did so. Now I can just concentrate on getting the props, scene changes and Pan flying working smoothly. Of course, the fact that I'm part of a co-op for the show and so if it makes money, I make money, works as incentive also. However, I recently found out that there were spaces in the co-op for two crew, so I'm kinda doing the work of three. That said, all the adult cast that don't have to disappear for rapid costume swaps between scenes help with the changes, so it's not that bad. It does mean I can't be on headsets for more than a minute or so at a time, 'cause I'm running around backstage presetting things and making sure props are where they should be.

The show times themselves are also kinda odd. See, we do two shows a day, one at 1030 and the other at 1400. So, basically, we have an 830am call for the 1030 show, which usually finishes around 1230, making the end of the first show the hour and a half call for the second show. But the plus side is that we're finished by around 1600-1630 most days, so our evenings are our own.

So that's a basic rundown of Pan. I'll probably go on about people involved at great length in another post, but I figure this one's long enough already. Oh, and remind me to tell you about the hardest little girl in theatre.

Eight things I learned recently

1. A "gregory" is actually a "grigri", which is a kind of descender for flying people on ropes.


2. Some 4 year old girls put the professionalism and strength of adult performers to shame.


3. You know you're tired and hunrgy when half a muffin has a significant impact on your energy and enthusiasm levels.


4. Ugly Duckling are amazing live.


5. And so is Pigeon John.


6. The new Astroboy is a travesty.


7. $30 may seem like a good deal for 5 cocktails, but it won't get ye drunk.


8. After four days of watching your mouth while surrounded by munchkins, watching a grotesquely violent film can be extremely therapeutic.

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"You're a filth wizard!"
- Manny, Black Books

"Oh my god! The quarterback is toast!"
- Theo, Die Hard