Another whirlwind week

Thursday night dancing picked up a bit...I think I have more energy when Danny's there to be my Ginger. We didn't have any sound issues that were my cause this time, but that ground fault hum is still there. I emailed the DJ to see what's up, and he says he has the same problem. Hmmm.

Danny's brother Peter and his wife Kerry arrived about 3:30 on Friday...I could tell how pleased Danny was to host them for the weekend, in spite of his grousing about how awful they are. Since I was having to work on and off at "Oklahoma" over the weekend, he did the lion's share of touristing with them, but some subset of us did succeed in hitting Old Town, the Planetarium, Tingley Beach, the show "Oklahoma," the Ranch for 2-stepping, Western Warehouse (for cowboy drag for the Brits), Sandia Crest and Tinkertown Museum, with the weekend rounded off last night with several games of Rummicubs over G&Ts.

I thought it was a great visit...much better than if my own siblings had been here. In fact, in 1994, when my youngest brother visited with his then-wife, Ms Shrew Leta, and their then 6-year-old son Josh, it was dicey at best, since they were either arguing with each other, or berating Josh nearly the whole time. I was happy to see them go. Peter and Kerry are welcome back any time and they're already talking about a trip back next year...pricey for the Brits, but they think gas is CHEAP here at $2.87/gal versus their $8.00/gallon.

My middle brother Steve has never visited me in the West. Ever. And I've lived outside of Louisiana for 30 years.

Peter and Kerry weren't worse for the wear this morning for the quantities of G&T and off they headed to continue their SW tour, heading to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, then on to Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Denver (where they originally arrived). The weather has been fantastic, and they even got to experience our .13 inches of rain we had early Saturday morning.

"Oklahoma!" sold better than I budgeted, so we nearly made up the loss from Hairspray earlier in the month. Whew! Probably the easy show I've had to settle in my five years here. The company manager Jamey, was of course family, as nearly all the male company managers seem to be.

The main library on campus here, Zimmerman Library had a serious fire last night in the basement...no notice of what the cause was yet. The original library dates back to 1937 as a WPA project, and what with the numerous additions over the years, no tellilng what kind of wiring issues they had. Finals are coming up for students shortly, so Zimmerman being close will definitely have an impact, even they interviews with some students during the fire last night showed that some of them weren't even AWARE of the library, what with the internet and all.

Yesterday I succeeded in doing a project in one day in between shows, while Danny was out tourising with his family. I built a two-level step stool for the bird feeder to replace the dangerous unsightly old aluminum ladder I'd been using for years. Danny's always been afraid I'd kill myself on it...and it could have happened, as rickety as it was.

Tonight is Wilde Bunch night...we'll see how much the dancers have retained both with C1 and Basic over the past week!

Lunch with Hal Simons at a greek restaurant in an hour...can't wait! Yum!

Another whirlwind week

Thursday night dancing picked up a bit...I think I have more energy when Danny's there to be my Ginger. We didn't have any sound issues that were my cause this time, but that ground fault hum is still there. I emailed the DJ to see what's up, and he says he has the same problem. Hmmm.

Danny's brother Peter and his wife Kerry arrived about 3:30 on Friday...I could tell how pleased Danny was to host them for the weekend, in spite of his grousing about how awful they are. Since I was having to work on and off at "Oklahoma" over the weekend, he did the lion's share of touristing with them, but some subset of us did succeed in hitting Old Town, the Planetarium, Tingley Beach, the show "Oklahoma," the Ranch for 2-stepping, Western Warehouse (for cowboy drag for the Brits), Sandia Crest and Tinkertown Museum, with the weekend rounded off last night with several games of Rummicubs over G&Ts.

I thought it was a great visit...much better than if my own siblings had been here. In fact, in 1994, when my youngest brother visited with his then-wife, Ms Shrew Leta, and their then 6-year-old son Josh, it was dicey at best, since they were either arguing with each other, or berating Josh nearly the whole time. I was happy to see them go. Peter and Kerry are welcome back any time and they're already talking about a trip back next year...pricey for the Brits, but they think gas is CHEAP here at $2.87/gal versus their $8.00/gallon.

My middle brother Steve has never visited me in the West. Ever. And I've lived outside of Louisiana for 30 years.

Peter and Kerry weren't worse for the wear this morning for the quantities of G&T and off they headed to continue their SW tour, heading to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, then on to Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Denver (where they originally arrived). The weather has been fantastic, and they even got to experience our .13 inches of rain we had early Saturday morning.

"Oklahoma!" sold better than I budgeted, so we nearly made up the loss from Hairspray earlier in the month. Whew! Probably the easy show I've had to settle in my five years here. The company manager Jamey, was of course family, as nearly all the male company managers seem to be.

The main library on campus here, Zimmerman Library had a serious fire last night in the basement...no notice of what the cause was yet. The original library dates back to 1937 as a WPA project, and what with the numerous additions over the years, no tellilng what kind of wiring issues they had. Finals are coming up for students shortly, so Zimmerman being close will definitely have an impact, even they interviews with some students during the fire last night showed that some of them weren't even AWARE of the library, what with the internet and all.

Yesterday I succeeded in doing a project in one day in between shows, while Danny was out tourising with his family. I built a two-level step stool for the bird feeder to replace the dangerous unsightly old aluminum ladder I'd been using for years. Danny's always been afraid I'd kill myself on it...and it could have happened, as rickety as it was.

Tonight is Wilde Bunch night...we'll see how much the dancers have retained both with C1 and Basic over the past week!

Lunch with Hal Simons at a greek restaurant in an hour...can't wait! Yum!

Behind the scenes

Touring musical theatre is NOT a pretty business. It's all about cutting costs on their end, filling all possible tour dates, and petty negotiations on the other. And who cares about the patrons who shell out $35-$70 for a ticket...here at least.

Of course, the end product isn't really that bleak, but having been working on the presenting end of theatre for five years, rather than PRODUCING local community theatre, that's five years of becoming jaded with the powers that be in the New York based touring world.

"Hairspray" is a perfect example of a great show gone bad for presenters.

'Advancing the show' means letting the local venue know everything that needs to be known about lighting, sight lines, tech notes, ad nauseam.

The "Hairspray" NY office could have cared less...one week out, we found out there were HUGE sight line issues for about 60 seats on the front left and right of the orchestra. The sound and light towers are HUGE for that show, and because of that, they can only use about 2/3 of the prosceneum, but they neglected to tell our tech team, which meant that the word didn't get to the ticket office either. We sold all those seats early on, which meant that each night-of, the ticketing office and front of house had to scramble to find good seating for the 60 or so patrons that had to be reseated so they could actually SEE the show they'd paid up to $65 to see.

The company manager didn't particularly care...their tour was almost over. The same show is coming to Salt Lake City with our partners there, and they have to deal with over 140 seats every performance for reseating. The only mercy is that the show didn't sell well, so SOME seats could be found, but moving patrons around is HUGE in theatres.

I sometimes long for the general admission that movie theatres have...sigh.

Happily, "Hairspray" had been gone for 3 weeks, "Oklahoma" was over this past weekend, and the only B'way show coming up is "Stomp" in June, which won't sell out either.

Behind the scenes

Touring musical theatre is NOT a pretty business. It's all about cutting costs on their end, filling all possible tour dates, and petty negotiations on the other. And who cares about the patrons who shell out $35-$70 for a ticket...here at least.

Of course, the end product isn't really that bleak, but having been working on the presenting end of theatre for five years, rather than PRODUCING local community theatre, that's five years of becoming jaded with the powers that be in the New York based touring world.

"Hairspray" is a perfect example of a great show gone bad for presenters.

'Advancing the show' means letting the local venue know everything that needs to be known about lighting, sight lines, tech notes, ad nauseam.

The "Hairspray" NY office could have cared less...one week out, we found out there were HUGE sight line issues for about 60 seats on the front left and right of the orchestra. The sound and light towers are HUGE for that show, and because of that, they can only use about 2/3 of the prosceneum, but they neglected to tell our tech team, which meant that the word didn't get to the ticket office either. We sold all those seats early on, which meant that each night-of, the ticketing office and front of house had to scramble to find good seating for the 60 or so patrons that had to be reseated so they could actually SEE the show they'd paid up to $65 to see.

The company manager didn't particularly care...their tour was almost over. The same show is coming to Salt Lake City with our partners there, and they have to deal with over 140 seats every performance for reseating. The only mercy is that the show didn't sell well, so SOME seats could be found, but moving patrons around is HUGE in theatres.

I sometimes long for the general admission that movie theatres have...sigh.

Happily, "Hairspray" had been gone for 3 weeks, "Oklahoma" was over this past weekend, and the only B'way show coming up is "Stomp" in June, which won't sell out either.