Today we had a terrifically productive work fest at the theatre--building, painting, adding details, hanging lights, and generally making enormous progress in our technical production. In fact, we got so much done with so many helpers from the cast (and their families, in some cases) that tomorrow's agenda has shrunk considerably, and we should be in excellent shape to begin full runthroughs using the set by Tuesday or Wednesday. Since we don't open for another week and a day after that, we all consider this quite a gift. In these pictures (from top) we see Captain Ron (as we call Ron/Pawnee Bill, our construction chief) getting ready to cut some more wood for some platform or flat or other (that's our 7-year-old Adrian's grandpa Pat in the background); Laura and Jena mugging for the camera as they take a break from painting the bunks for the train scene (with Betsy, who is not in the show but who generously volunteered to help, in the background); Lacey (Annie) and me (whose pants were painted courtesy of the cast--those devils--today); Ramon (Tommy) as a monkey hanging lights; and Jessica (Winnie) taking a bite of stage manager Sharon's scrumptious coffee cake (Sharon brings fresh-baked cookies to every rehearsal--oh no, our waistlines!) as she gets ready to move some panels out from in front of the train scene. The way our cast and crew have bonded and get along is just beautiful. Even painting, hoisting, lugging, bending, kneeling, stretching, and bolting are part of the fun (and the three pizzas to which I treated everyone today didn't hurt either).
