Tonight actually went pretty well. Not perfectly, by any means, but it could potentially have been a lot worse, considering the state of our dress rehearsal last night, but it was good!

I didn’t take many photos, since I didn’t have a chance, but there are 4 more shows so I’m sure I’ll get some at some point!

The least fun part was the unexpected, last minute addition to my costume. The sound crew had decided that since the microphone installed above me on the wall was not doing a very good job of picking up my voice, they would have to give me a body mic instead.

This involves my wearing a mic pack attached to a belt under my costume, with a wire taped up my back leading to a microphone clipped (and taped) to my ear. I’d never used one before, and had no idea what I was supposed to do, so I was a little worried about it being sprung on me at the last minute, but it turned out ok. Until I had to take it off.

The tape is like an extremely strong bandaid, it’s really painful to pull off, and leaves goopy residue behind on your skin/hair. Kind of not looking forward to doing that after every show! Here’s hoping I have some skin left on my neck by the end of the run! o.O

These are a couple of photos of the theatre we’re performing in. The top one is a picture of the entrance from the footpath, and the second one was taken standing on the stage looking out into the auditorium before the show.

EDIT: This is also part of #15 for my 101 in 1001, to "find a cause I believe in and do something to support it". The company which is producing this show has started up as a way to raise money for various children’s charities, which is an idea I love. Hopefully this will also become an annual event.

I’ve heard so many actors say this, and even said it myself on more than a few occasions, but I don’t know how seriously I’ve taken it. It’s not very logical if you think about it. If the last rehearsal sucks, how are things magically going to improve on opening night!? In this case I hope they do.

Our final dress rehearsal last night was rather a mess. The vast majority of the technical problems from the night before seem to have been overcome, thanks to the hard work of the crew, but the problems with the actors are bad enough! Last night was the first time we’d had all our costumes, and been able to see how much time we have to get un-dressed and re-dressed and back to where we’re supposed to come on!

I was particularly worried about one of mine, the change from Humpty Dumpty to the Troubadour at the end of the first act. There’s only one short scene between the two, so I had my other costume backstage in the wings with two people on hand to help me do it as quickly as possible, but as it turned out, it wasn’t quite as rushed as I thought it would be, and I was ready in plenty of time.

Apparently my Humpty Dumpty costume is rather hysterical. Last night was the first time I’d worn the whole thing together, and when I went to stand in the wings to wait for the crew to wheel me (and my wall!) on, everyone around me was laughing so hard! Somewhat surprisingly so was the stage manager! Once she’d started she couldn’t stop, which resulted in the sound and lighting people (who could hear us over the headsets, but couldn’t see us) wondering what on earth was going on!

SOMEHOW I managed to compose myself by the time I went onstage, and got through the scene without laughing. Here’s hoping I can do it tonight too! By the end of the run there were SO many notes, mostly related to the noise levels backstage (the kids don’t seem to understand that they cannot run or talk as loudly as they normally would!) and various "wardrobe malfunctions" which caused several belts to be too small and hats to be too large!

Oh well, hopefully everything will be ok by tonight!

Tonight was the second last rehearsal before opening night, and the first time we were in the theatre.

It’s like a different show! Before we even started, the kids were completely hyper, just because of the new environment and the show actually starting to feel "real". We were supposed to start at 6:30, but by the time the massive number of crew members (who all seem to have materialised for the first time tonight!) had finished setting everything up, it was about 7:15!

This meant that we only ended up doing the first act, up until the end of my song and exit, then cutting straight to the curtain call, since they’d told all the parents we’d be finished by 8:30 and we couldn’t keep people waiting!

Tomorrow will be interesting, since it’s the final dress rehearsal, and by no means have we got all our costumes yet, or timed how long it will take us to run up to our dressing rooms, get changed, and run back again! o.O

Oh well, I suppose that’s what dress rehearsals are for!