Saturday, April 21 & Sunday, April 22 - the Dreaded Tech Rehearsal
I rolled in at 8AM ready to spend a couple of hours of quality time with the stage crew getting them ready. Then I'd peel away and work up in the booth getting the mics ready to roll. That was the plan -- surely it would take that long for all the costuming and organization stuff to happen. I think this plan blew up at about 8:10AM when there was something awry with the sound, and then there was screaming for mics and by about 9AM, they were ready to start the show. Stage lights were still being decided on (luckily they were very simple compared to Butterfly) and the music 
was still a big thorn in my side. I had people running around the school looking for cables to hook up the wireless transmitters and it was utter chaos. I was not in a good place...and it was getting worse by the second. All of the direct connect boxes were missing and no one knew where they went, monitors were out and I still hadn't worked a second with the stage crew. A number of parents were there and they were great. Nancy and Brian stepped up mightly with Nancy completely taking over the last bit of flats painting (bookshelves for the library) and Brian whipped up a nifty footbridge out of some 2X4's and PVC. Jeff was there for moral support and Brenda & Diane were doing their costume thing. From my point of view, I was certain that the day wouldn never end. But, because of God's great design, time marched on and before I knew it, the tech rehearsal was over. It was, in my opinion, a complete disaster. I'm certain that Erica and Sharon were feeling it too, but none of us really talked about it. They were giving me a wide birth, and were seemingly avoiding me. In hindsight, it was probably a safety issue, since I was a little brittle and might snap...and they'd be the victims.
And I had to stay late Saturday night to work on some more things...mostly sound and mics, but I "got" to work a little on the Paroo house. And at about 10PM, having put in 10 uninterrupted hours there, I turned off the lights and drove home. As I was driving, I was thinking about how this disaster could be averted. Not positive thoughts, but what sort of sabotage could occur to end this misery.
- Maybe I could fake someone breaking into the school and destroying the sets...I saw that in a movie.
- Maybe if I crash my car, (not fatally as I'm not crazy) they'd either have to postpone/cancel the show or it would be somebody else's problem.
Neither seemed like a good idea really...in hind-sight they seem like crazy thoughts...but that's what I was thinking.
After church on Sunday, I went straight out and bought some new XLR cables both to patch the mics to the board and some to connect the musician's instruments. I then went to the fabric 
store and bought 250 yards of black fabric that somehow got ordered by somebody at the School, but never paid for. I got it at an amazingly low price (about $200) and that solved my "what am I going to cover the curtain & generic screens with?" question, finally. Arriving at the School, I tore up every bit of wiring and re-laid it, carefully running and testing it at every step. I then taped it down with about a mile of duct tape and hoped that would be the end of the wiring related issues. I was almost right. That took until about 7PM and I called it an evening. Kristie gave me the "look" and I assured her that we're in the home stretch and 1 week from now it would be all over.
Internally my stress was at an all time high, I was physically exhausted...and I had to get up and go to work the next day, then rush to the school for our first full dress rehearsal.
We still didn't have the black curtains covered, the house was still not working nor looking like anything. I had no confidence in the sound and hadn't worked with Seth on it at all. The lighting was an open issue, stage crew -- completely untrained and becoming a pariah. And poor Sarah and Danielle, my queens of props had been completely "ignored" by me, but luckily they just kept on smiling.