March 11, 2012

  • Hell Sunday aka Tech Sunday

    Yes, it's Tech Week, also called Hell Week.  For us, "Hell Week" will be appropriate.

    For those of you who haven't done theatre, Tech Sunday is the Sunday before your show opens.  Usually you have an afternoon call.  For some reason, our call is at noon, which means they must anticipate a very long day.  Call at noon, curtain at 1pm. 

    Now at most theatres, you first do what is called the "cue-to-cue".  This is where you start at the top of the show and move only to the next sound or light cue.  So you go until you get to whatever the first sound or light cue is, make sure it looks good, then skip ahead to whatever is the next sound or light cue.  This usually means the actors are standing around doing a lot of nothing while lights and/or sounds are adjusted.  Sometimes it means the actors are standing there while a fight breaks out between the director and tech person.  Or if it's a musical, sometimes a fight breaks out with the choreographer and/or music director as well (in any combination with the director and tech person).  This is why we have two sayings in our circle of theatre friends:

    "Oh, the drama in drama."

    And

    "Our drinking department has a theatre problem."

    This Hell Sunday should be a real blast because we have not been told if the first rehearsal will be a cue-to-cue or not.  Because usually after the cue-to-cue, you then break for dinner and then it's a full run of the show in costume after dinner.

    Problem is, many of us don't even HAVE a costume yet.  We have not been given any costume pieces.  I have tried on some shirts and a wig (I am playing an over-the-top "king of Latin lovers" believe it or not), but that is all.  And I have a very strong feeling that this director expects to run two full run-throughs both in costume, which is going to make many of the actors really grumble.  I myself am going to sweat BIG time in this show.  I'll have a cape and a wig on and I am dancing/falling/tango-ing in my big number.  So it will be sweat city.  Wish this theatre had a shower in the dressing rooms.

    Then to top it off is, of course, the on-going feud between the cast and the music director and our complete lack of a real orchestra.  The biggest problem is that our director should have had the guts to go to the Board and said, "This new music director is NOT working out - I need REAL musicians and fast" and fired her and gone to the Cleveland Musicians Union for some real musicians who could play much better and right away.  But this director doesn't like to make waves and wants to appease everyone - rather than worry about how it's going to make the show look.

    So we have one of the best damn casts I've ever done a show with and the worst orchestra/music director behind us.

    Fan-freakin'-tastic.

    My one hope is that the reviewer will say something along the lines of "A great cast is done a disservice with a lousy orchestra".

    Also usually during Hell Week, to make it easier on the cast, the director will usually make Monday and Tuesday's rehearsals without costume and starting as close to 7pm as possible so that people can go home early and get some sleep.

    No, this director expects full costumes with a call at 7pm every night, but curtain not until 8pm.  And this is after we lost an hour's sleep last night due to Daylight Savings Time.

    This really IS going to be a Hell Week.