Monday, Monday

If last night's rehearsal was a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, I give tonight about a 7. I think there was marked improvement in a few areas. I would even go so far as to say that one or two of the dance routines went better than they have ever gone.

Even if one might disagree with that from an objective, production-wide vantage point, I know I did my personal best in all of my dances tonight.

There was more energy to many parts of the show tonight. It seems to move along faster in places than it has so far. There are still some scene changes that take longer than would be ideal, but the good thing about a musical is that the orchestra can vamp if there are delays in changing the scene.

Speaking of orchestra, we had another musician with us tonight down in the pit. A clarinet player, whom I did not meet personally. At least I think it was a clarinet. I did not get a good look at the instrument itself from where I was. It sounded like a clarinet to me. Whatever it was, it added some nice flourishes to the music, without it being overtly confusing.

I also felt more energy and creativity in my scenes overall. I was more into the production than I have been the last few nights. Ad-libs in the background. More certainty with the lines that I have. It was an overall comfort with being on stage that I knew I would get to at some point, but had not quite gotten to before tonight. It still needs to get better by opening night. Yet I feel confident that it will, given the fact that I am finally starting to get comfortable with when my many rapid entrances and exists are in the overall production. That had not been automatic in my head, and checking the script was required. I still have to in a few places, just to be sure, but I have it mostly committed to memory.

My next challenge is to study the script of a crowd scene. In it, we all shout at various times in response to what certain people say. I think every cast member had the same problem...We all neglected to look at that part of the script when we had free time. For a week we have only tepidly been responding as group at the right times. It is all still very tentative. It is getting better, but I need to memorize those moments. The more people that do so, the better off it is going to be. So I think I will be spending some time on that tomorrow.

This was the second night in a row that 100% of the cast was present. Hoozah! I am not sure that has happened two days in a row before. If it has, it's been a while.

Only two more rehearsals to go. Hard to believe. But then again, when is it ever easy for an actor to believe it is time to open? If we had three more weeks, I would be saying the same thing three nights before opening.

That being said...holy crap, only two more days!