Tuesday
Aug092011
The Home Stretch
Tue, August 9, 2011 at 10:57 AM It's been quite a roller coaster ride as we wrapped up this weekend and look ahead to the final two performances of F#@king Up Everything. To say that things have been eventful would probably be an understatement--We've seen everything from happily molested audience members thanks to Fritz and Crystal A. to blown out tires on the side of the road to producers run over by cars (no worries, he's just fine). And I'd be remiss if I were to leave out the epic Woolly Flood of 2011 that began as a small pipe leak in the lobby to torrents of water streaming out of pipes all over the building and onto our light board. (Again, no worries, everyone was fine) But what would theatre be without a little drama?
The cast and band get the nightly applause from the audience and if tech is doing our job right, no one really notices we're there. But in representing my peeps, I wanted to spend this blog doing shout outs for some of the little things that went on backstage and might not have gotten the love...
To Daisy, our lighting designer, who doesn't get breaks between her triple headers of FUE-WYB-FUE on the weekends because she's up climbing ladders to flip the lighting plot between shows. While the cast is out schmoozing, she's hard at work.
To AJ, our sound operator, who quite literally saved our butts during tech week by jumping into the show with no advance knowledge. Now, knowing the show as well as any of us, he continues to work on us, sharpen his cueing and make sure all our mics are in the right place. The show sounds as good as it does, in part, because of you.
To Peter, our go-to costume repair genius. I don't know how actors do the things they do to their costumes sometimes, but you've been there to pull things back together.
To Eric and Sam, our writers. As with techies, if you've done your job right, the audience thinks the actors are just making up all the things that come out of their mouths. You've giving us such a layered and joyful piece to work with and it's been an honor to know you set your baby into my and our hands each performance.
To Jeremy and Charlie, our crack team of producers. A producer is more than a credit card, folks. When push comes to shove, they are the phone call that makes things happen or the ear when you need to vent in a crisis. Gentlemen, it's been totally for real... and Jeremy, take care of that foot.
To Grace and Sarah, our kick-ass intern team, who runs our backstage like clockwork. Unless you've done it, you have no idea how much work goes into setting, tracking and maintaining props and costumes for a show. And they clean sweaty, nasty actor underwear... not a pleasant task! Ladies, I've come to rely on the two of you as much as any ASM team I've ever had. Thank you.
And something personal - Stage managers are the people who end up dealing with everyone else's problems and complaints, which doesn't leave much energy for yourself sometimes. There have been several of the cast and team who have been a generous ear to listen or shoulder to lean on. You know who you are, and I thank you endlessly for that. You are the people who replenish others so that we can go on to fight another battle.
So onto that last battle I go... If you haven't been to see us yet, this is it. And to the FUE family, let us fight on like it's "Braveheart" and show everyone our bare butts on the way out!
--Hope Villanueva (Stage Manager)
