It, again, went so much better than I could have ever hoped or dreamed.
Exactly the same as last time, it got very stressful right in the few days leading up to the performances because I was worried that some element wouldn't come together and the show would be limping.
But theatre magic always pulls through and everything always works out somehow. Every time. And this time was no exception.
DC (who designed the tech elements) graduated last semester, so I had no one lined up to run the technical elements. Fortunately, however, I had a fantastic stage manager who stepped up to the plate, and had a wonderful ASM jump on board too. (It just so happened to work out that they also happen to be two of my best friends, which is a wonderful idea and I recommend it.) My ASM ran QLab - with the projections and sound - and my stage manager hit the [grand total of six] light cues on the board while calling the show. Because there were only light cues at the beginning and the end, it didn't end up being too extremely complicated I don't think.
We had Monday off for Easter break, which meant that, coming back in on Tuesday, I wished I'd had the extra day to work on sorting out technical things. We had never really run sound off of a Mac from the control booth in the Black Box before, and I paid lots of visits to Staples and Hobby Lobby, shooting the breeze with the tech gurus, tossing around words like "Firewire," "Adapter," "Input," "Output," "male-to-female," "gender-bender," and ordering lots of very technical-sounding cables. Chyeah.
We didn't actually end up using any of them. But that's okay, because the director of the PPAC came to my rescue and, in our Plan D (which actually worked like a dream), hooked the sound system up to a mixer, and then straight into the headphone jack on my computer. Long and complicated story short: we had sound.
After fiddling with the videos and projections, adding a couple of little things, and asking a friend to re-record one of the audio files, all of that was set and worked perfectly fine. If there had been time, it would have been nice to get all of the projections onto the full screen (they had to be at half screen in Baker, since the screen was so low, but in the Black Box the screen was hanging from the grid quite a few feet above my head). I'm sure it was fine, however. I don't think I heard a single person say anything about it.
As for the acting, I think it went very well both nights. Thanks to the rehearsals in the week leading up to the performances, I felt like this semester's performances were more polished, refined, and deeper than last semester's. It was nice to delve back into Rachel again.
Just from the word-of-mouth feedback I've been hearing, I've heard over and over again:
"That wasn't you."
Which is pretty much the best compliment I could get.
It's nice not to have to stress about it anymore, but I will miss playing Rachel. Perhaps, someday, if I ever get the opportunity to work as an actor, I will get to the point where I'm sick of a character or of performing a role. But this hasn't felt quite fair, because it felt like it was over before it began. I wish I could keep playing that character in front of audiences for days on end. I want to know how that feels. Oh I'm sure I'd get exhausted and overwhelmed. But I also think a deep part of my soul would sing.
Thursday night's crowd was a little tough. People came in late, at least two different groups of people got up and left at different moments, people were apparently texting and a text tone went off (so I'm told - I didn't really hear it), they weren't extremely responsive during the performance, and the talkback was like pulling teeth.
Friday night was the polar opposite. People laughed. A lot. Nobody came in late and nobody left. A lot of people I knew were there. And the talkback was the best one we had in both semesters - people were engaged and asked lots of great questions.
And then we put this little show to bed. And I am still in awe of how it came together. No way it was my doing. That's all I'm saying.
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