The Knitting Circle

This last show I did had a fair number of knitters. They came out in full force by the second day of rehearsal. One actor came in with her knitting and the following day, there were no less than a third of our cast showed up with their knitting. The main instigator started converting others throughout the run of the production. She sucked in another actor, one of my crew and (sigh) me. I finally gave in to the dark side during our third week of performances. You don't want to see this piece. I'm attempting to knit a scarf, but frankly, I think I may donate this "scarf" to my cats. They like to lie down on it (while I'm knitting) or "help" me knit. Mind you, their version of helping is playing with the ball of yarn or swatting at the knitting needles (while I'm using them).

New Year's Eve 2006 - Update

New Year's (like Christmas) snuck up on me this year. It's been a stressful holiday season. The show I'm stage managing (Urinetown, The Musical) went into tech the day after Christmas. Literally. It's a huge production - cast of 16, lots of song-and-dance numbers and lots of light cues. LOTS. Most straight plays I've done have averaged about 30-40 cues. Most musicals have averaged close to 100. I think this one is close to 300. At least. I've been to scared to count, to tell you the truth. I do know that one of my busiest (and scariest) songs has 43 cues alone. So this tech week truly has been a hell week (there have been other stuff going on, but I'll save that for another post). On top of hell week (which was actually 2 weeks - tech week and previews), I got sick. In fact, I'm still sick, but at least I can function for most of the day now. Before today, I'd spend most of the day home, trying to rest up as much as possible before going into rehearsal. It has not been a fun holiday season. I'm just glad it's over and we finally opened. There were a few times over the past 2 weeks I didn't think I'd see opening night.