Well … here we are the Monday evening after “Floyd Collins” has opened. I survived!!! And so did the cast for that matter. The performances went really well even though we did have a small house on Saturday night. I am hoping that some good word of mouth will spread and tickets sell will improve. I suppose it doesn’t help that we’ve had a gas scare here in WNC and the economy is tanking faster than you can say “Boo!” We have two more weekends of performances (Friday, Saturday and Sunday Matinee), so come on out and see us!

It feels kind weird to not be at the theater this evening after being there for 7 days straight. Weird and very nice. The week is gonna be spent getting caught up on some things … mowing, movies, Lego Batman, books, freelance work. Whoo.

In other news:
I am oh-so close to investing in a Blu-Ray Player. Somebody stop me!!!

Yup. I am still alive.

“Floyd Collins” is in it’s final week of rehearsal and eating up all my free time at this point. I should be snapping some photos tomorrow night with lights and costumes and all for you to see.

That’s about all the brain power I have right now after a 17 hour day …

One week. One week. One week until the preview. And there is still oh-so-much to worry about. Costumes are done. Yes! But there is still the doom cloud of technical stuff to come. Lights. Sounds. Sound Effects. Orchestra. Yes … my stress level is kinda high right now. Yes … I am worried that it all won’t come together. Yes … I will be happy when the show is up and running. Free Weeknights!!!

Finally … a short “Floyd Collins” post!

We have been on the stage a couple of weeks now and things are slowly coming together. We do have a pretty cool set and the fine “backstage” got it up really quick. So, having so much time on the actual set has been a pretty cool thing. Most times, you have to wait for a few weeks before the set is completed.

I finally took the camera to rehearsal last night and snapped a few pictures. I’ll post ’em when I get the gumption to download them.

We are currently about 2-1/2 weeks out from our opening and there is still lots to do. I need to get off my ass and work on sound effects this coming weekend. The following weekend will be setting and programming the lights … a task that I really hate. It always takes waaaaaay longer then you think it will.

And …

Will “Floyd Collins” go down as the gayest show in HART’s history? It’s very possible.

Things here have been busier than a one-armed man at an ass grabbin’ contest. On top of work and “Floyd Collins” rehearsals, I have had a house guest all week (the theater’s intern) and that’s been keeping me busy as well since he doesn’t drive.

Meanwhile, “Floyd Collins” is still not totally cast. Three weeks in and we are still looking for Lee Collins and Ed Bishop. The major trouble is they both have to be able to sing. I know plenty of fellas that would say yes to the roles … that don’t sing. We’ve had some folks on the hook (quite a few in fact) but they have all wriggled off due to the time commitment … or conflicts with performance dates … or work schedules … or just not being interested. I am starting to suspect that I (again) will end somehow end up in my own show and I don’t want that to happen.

Last night I have this very vivid dream that I was directing the show. We had this massive and pretty cool set that was all multi level platforms with a huge raked section in the center. There were a lot of folks in the show (more than the real life show calls for). We were rehearsing a group scene but nobody was listening to me. I was trying to stage a scene where Floyd (played by Adam K. for some reason) is still trapped and members of the cast gather around and sing about his entrapment. I would try and tell them what needed to be done and they would just be talking amongst themselves. When I would yell to get their attention, they would pay attention for a few moments and then go back to talking. I was becoming very frustrated because nobody would pay attention to me.   

Sheesh. We haven’t even really gotten started and I think I need a break already.

People are falling into place and we only have two roles left to fill. The good news is I have two folks that might take those parts. I should know about one of them tonight and the other on Wednesday. The first cast gathering/read through is tonight. Hopefully I will have all my shit together by then. Gotta look like I am in charge and know what the hell I am doing. Yup.

Well, the show was pretty much cast … knowing that we had to hunt for two people. And then last night I had three guys that I offered parts to turn me down. So now we are having to hunt for FIVE of the characters. That is almost half the cast! To say I am a wee depressed, stressed and worried today would be an understatement.

We had more folks come to the “Floyd Collins” auditions last night … and that made me hap-hap-happy. I was pretty stressed out about it all day yesterday. Now, I get to be all stressed out until all the potential cast members are called and accept the parts we are offering them. It took about two hours last night of deliberating to make our decisions. We had some good folks audition that we won’t be able to offer parts to and that sucks. But the cool thing is that there are some folks that I haven’t worked with before that we have cast.

There are still a couple of male parts that we are gonna have to rustle up folks for, but we have good leads on people who might be interested (or at the very least, can twist their arms until they say “yes”).

The official cast list will be posted as soon as we have everyone locked in.