In high school, as part of the pit orchestra, I dreaded the all-day dress/tech rehearsal. Somehow while others in the production got breaks because they weren't in the scene, or another scene was being run again, or the directors were discussing something and the action was paused, we musicians were forgotten.
Play that again, once more, and one last time. Okay let's move on to the next song. Heat rises right? It should be cool down there. Throw them some food in that hole; they'll be fine.
Being out of the pit is so much more fun!
On Friday, when the rest of school was off, the cast, crew, musicians (who are not stuck under the stage), dancers, and choir, spent the day together running through the show twice and then practicing the lighting scenarios. This took almost twelve hours. By the end of the day, my eyes were burning, my stomach empty, and my voice raspy...but my face hurt from smiling, my abs were sore from laughing, and I couldn't have been more elated!
There were issues with the company the school hired to run the sound system. (We need one since the genius who designed the auditorium decided a hexagon was a good shape for not bouncing sound all over creation.) There were also some tears from some of the kids after being offered construction criticism from some outside acting opinions. But all in all it was a very positive experience. I felt like I got to bond a little with some of the students I didn't know very well because they were never in my class and I learned that much more about the insanity of putting on a stage production.
The highlight (no pun intended) was watching the principle actors, from up in the lighting box, run through the whole musical while coaching the students who were running the lights. They did the entire show as quickly as possible in this comical Spanglish fast-forward mode. I guess you had to be there...
I'll report on how it goes; we have a special preview performance for the school workers and their families on Sunday.
(To Be Continued)
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