Letters to Holly

Monday, January 29

Day Thirty-One: A Spreading Plague

Victoria is out, which makes the stage-left manager in charge of backstage. I'm not worried; she knows this play by now, and Susan the stage manger calls the cues from the lightbooth. The oldest girl is also out again. Another child erupts into a nasty coughing fit near the drinking fountain, and it's not nearly as appetizing anymore. The fountain, not the child. We get a look at the first round of official pictures, and they are quite nice. The other half is supposed to arrive next weekend, and then we can place our orders for prints.

Big Daddy admits during warm-ups that he didn't see a signer at all; it was an over-dramatic coughing fit. A Fringe Festival is held downstairs, right below the stage, and we find a trail of carpets from the green room to the stage-left wing to cushion our footsteps. We can hear the noise wafting up the backstage staircase. It sounds like the Peanuts teachers imitating wrestlers.

It's our biggest crowd yet, and they're initially quiet. But once Maggie and Mae get catty, they laugh, and I hear an alarming mass of peoples. The birthday candles are only half-lit as I take the cake onstage, but Big Mama lights the rest during a quiet moment for her. Turns out the backstage lighter was acting up. I assure tonight's backstage chief that it's OK. Talky Boy is flat-out rambunctious tonight, and even a costume lady whisper-yells to them to shut it. They're getting listless with tedium.

I'm told after the show that the light-booth crew has formed the Gooper Groupies from a mix of pity and pride in what we've done with the character. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that. Also, the cast party is tomorrow, not Super Bowl Sunday, as I thought.


Previous entries:
Day One: Reading It Through
Day Two: Act Two
Day Three: Reading Act Two
Day Four: Talking It Through
Day Five: Blocking Act Two
Day Six: Act Two Redux
Day Seven: Reading Act Three
Day Eight: The Da Gooper Code
Day Nine: The Laying On of Hands
Day Ten: Pictures and Pages
Day Eleven: Onstage
Day Twelve: Memory
Day Thirteen: The Quickie
Day Fourteen: The Lines
Day Fifteen: Act III Anxiety
Day Sixteen: Let's Just Get It Right
Day Seventeen: Molding the Gooper
Day Eighteen: Goopercalypse
Day Nineteen: There Is Not A Doctor In The House
Day Twenty: Back to Words
Day Twenty-One: Getting Technical
Day Twenty-Two: We're Ready When You Are
Day Twenty-Three: Socks
Day Twenty-Four: Our First Audience
Day Twenty-Five: Calamity
Day Twenty-Six: Opening Night
Day Twenty-Seven: Second Night
Day Twenty-Eight: The Show You Saw
Day Twenty-Nine: Brush-Up
Day Thirty: Back to Work

No comments: