Rocky waters

Things were not exactly the smoothest sailing for our little ship, the USS Boys Next Door. Most of Phil's notes tonight consisted of pointing out when lines had gone astray - and boy, how did they. At this point, the actors have been studying these lines for weeks. The same words over and over and over and over and over, and most of the lines themselves are repetitive. How many times do Norman and Sheila say hi to each other? How many times does Lucien say that they got no trees? Lots. I think people's brains are a little fried, what with some long rehearsals and work calls and not enough rest and people not eating dinner before rehearsal and all that jazz.

Which is not to say it's looking bad. When they were good, they were good. When things went train wrecky, though, it was a sight to behold. And the biggest problem was an apparent cast-wide mental block about lines. Oh, now, the cast was not entirely to blame. Sound was a little wonky, lights were a little early here, a little early there, the stage crew was clomping about in the wings. But also keep in mind that while the cast has been working on this for weeks now, the tech crew just moved in in the last few days. The sound person, Marcine, had so far as I know not even seen a single rehearsal, just jumped in and did her thing. So what if the doorbell mysteriously rang when no one was at the door? Can we really blame her? This is only her second rehearsal, we must cut her some slack.

So tonight I hope everyone goes home, rests a bit, studies the script and comes back tomorrow having eaten dinner, with a new sense of purpose, knowing what line goes where and wearing quieter shoes.