Q 2 Q.

That title is about the only thing fun about a cue-to-cue rehearsal. I've gone back and forth over my acting life as to whether it's necessary for actors to be present for them. On the one hand it gives people in charge of lights and sounds a chance to see the exact people standing and moving in the exact places they will be, in theory, when the sound/light is needed.

On the other hand, it can be difficult for actors to just drop themselves right in the middle of a scene without context sometimes. Q2Qs encourage boredom and discourage blowing off steam due to said boredom, so the testiness level is potentially high. Plus at this level, my experience has been that they rarely make any technical people more prepared for their job; no more prepared at least than learning their cues from the script, and pushing through them the first few times the show is run.

To be honest, I usually lean towards "no" on this subject. But unless I am directing, my thoughts on it don't matter in any given production. All by way of saying we had a Q2Q last night for Macbeth.

Sort of.

Lights are not yet set up for the new space, and the person running lights wasn't there, as far as I know. So in this case it was just the stage manager writing down in the script where and when to do things, for the tech people to refer to when they show up. Again, to me, this being the case, we didn't need actors present, but it was what it was. Not much worth sharing about a Q2Q, other than from what i could tell, all sound and light cues have been written down for when the techies show up. And if there are to be no techies at all, assignments to actors have been given as to when to change the set.

We did try on some costumes too, last night. Army fatigues for me, mostly. I opted to keep my costume on for the rehearsal, just to get used to wearing it for an extended period of time. Should be fine. Only problem is that it smelled a bit musty; I think the owners have had the costumes in storage for a while. I hope to be able to wash them before we open the show.

Tonight I bring my own boots to the party. That will be the real change, as I've never performed in them before. Even though I have no combat in that play, the boots might take me a day or two to get used to moving in.

The director referred to this as "tech week," though we don't actually open until a week from Friday. (Ten days from now.) I guess because there will be a lot more of the techie stuff going on, what with the remodeling and all.

On that subject, the place is almost totally painted black now, and all of the seating is where it will be for good. So in some ways tonight will be the first time we perform in the space as it is intended to be.

I'm feeling a bit better about my speeches and such. I went through them by myself yesterday afternoon in a sort of speed through, and it was almost without error. That to be says I have the lines in my head. The work now is giving them more feeling, and getting them out on stage to that end. (Which I have very nearly done already a few times.) I'm not worried. Plus I'm looking forward to hopefully finally working more on some of the extra nuance of the character.