Slow Going

I've had two rehearsals since the last post here on the blog. One on Sunday, and one last night. Sadly, last night was called off early, because several unavoidable, difficult circumstances arose which prevented a "quorum" if you will. That is to say, there were simply not enough of us present to work. (Though we did read through the lines of the shortest play as best we could.)

Naturally, I would prefer that schedules and circumstances didn't keep people away so much. I'm not worried yet, however. It;s fairly typical of a community production to have more than a few absences. I'll admit this show has seen more in a shorter period of time than most, but I don't think that puts us in any kind of trouble at this time.

We do need to get off book soon, and I have until the start of next month to do so. I'll have to work at it, but I should be there, especially since someone will be prompting for a few days after that anyway.

About 98% of the time in such situations, things work themselves out. I'm not sure how it happens exactly,  but speaking from my own experience, rare is the show that can't open on time because of problems.

The director of the shortest show (an original script) has suggested we warn audiences about the mature subject matter and adult language involved. There are differing views on this throughout the theatre world, but I came out in favor of the warning, at least in this venue. It's a slightly-conservative area, and the venue itself has for the last few years been home mostly to children's theater. Giving parent the opportunity to make the conscious choice to keep kids away from the show is only good policy, in my view. (Or perhaps for adults who don't want to deal with mature subject matter.) I'd much rather have the warnings than have surprised and shocked people get up and leave en mass in the middle of a performance. (Something that happened at this same venue when it was under different management during a "mature audiences" show previously, if I remember correctly.)

So a warning it is.

In different news, the heat doesn't seem to be working on the venue just now. I had a similar issue last year this time when I was rehearsing The King is But a Man. It's been frigid in this area lately, too. Just have to keep moving.

Heavy snow is in the forecast for our next rehearsal, this Friday evening. So that might get cancelled. Huge pain in the backside.

But still nothing to panic over. Again, such is community theater, especially in an area with rough winters such as this one. The cast is talented for the most part, and right now I see no reason why we can't make it a quality production despite the rough early going.