The gift that keeps on giving.

One of the outfits we received for the polliwog as a birth present was from my lovely sister-and-brother-in-law, who have recently spawned as well.  It is a blue one-piece outfit with a pithy saying on the front: "Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet as Chuck Norris."  On the rear of the outfit, strategically placed, is a silhouette of Chuck Norris:

He's finally grown into the outfit and wore it for the first time this week, which has led to several statistically improbable conversations in the past few hours.

Exhibit #1:

"He's got a spider on him! Mom! There's a spider on him!"

"No, honey. That's not a spider. That's Chuck Norris."

Exhibit #2:

(after a bowel movement has noisily announced itself and is testing the boundaries of his diaper, and he is sitting on my lap getting wiggly while simultaneously looking extremely satisfied)

"Could someone get me a diaper?"

[wind whistles through the kitchen as no one responds]

"Could someone get me a diaper and some wipes, please?"

[continued lack of family response]

"If SOMEone doesn't get me a diaper and give me some help, there is going to be poop on Chuck Norris. And we don't want that."

Rehearsal report.

So we're three weeks from preview, and tonight is the night of costume fitting.  As someone who worked in a costume shop for two years, this is one of the real magic moments or tense moments of the production process.  It's magic if the designer is on the same wavelength with the director and actors, and all of a sudden people are transformed into their characters.  It's extremely tense if the designer has a different vision than the direction the production is going in,  and you can read the disappointment on an actor's face when she hates a costume.

Tonight's going well.  Most of the pieces are a good fit with these actresses, and the ones that aren't are quickly falling to the wayside.  I've been on all sides of this particular negotiation and it's really tough.  As the designer, you know you've looked a hundred places for that particular purple shirt, in that size, and it is more than a bit frustrating when one of the actresses doesn't fit into that perfect piece.  As the actress, it absolutely sucks to wear costumes that don't fit and try to adjust yourself through posture to make it work, whether it's too-small (too-pointy, too-big, too-tiny-heeled) shoes or too-big jeans with a crappy belt.  It's even worse when whatever the costume is fits you exactly as intended, but you feel like you look awful in it and don't agree with the designer's intention.  Perhaps the worst role in this set of negotiations belongs to the director, who has to read both the heart of the designer and the faces of her actors in order to say what stays and what has to change.  Me? I'm the stage manager, I just take notes so everyone remembers what's been decided.  No dog in this fight.

I love that this part comes early in this process compared with the sets and lighting.  Tech week begins for us on February 8, and between negotiating the moving of furniture, lighting and sound cues, and the addition of the real actual props (now with liquid!), it is SO GOOD to have the costumes worked out in advance.  This play has 23 short scenes and thus has roughly 21 quick costume changes for one actress who's in almost every scene.  The more I can map out in advance in terms of who is wearing what when, the easier tech weekend will be in terms of mapping the 22 transitions between scenes.  

Did I mention that there are roughly 11 different locations in the script?  Set shifting is going to be fun...but the production is in a rather minimal style so it will definitely all work out.  The play's events are not in chronological order, which may prove challenging for the audience. The trick is to provide just enough visual information to set each scene without cluttering up the stage with unnecessary stuff that takes forever to get on and off, thus bogging down the scene transitions.  I'll keep you posted on (if?) how we pull it off.

Split shift.

The work goes well, and the family survives.

In a bit more detail:  I'm now working school hours (about 8-2:30) four days a week, and have rehearsal four nights a week and one weekend day.  Both my opera work and my rehearsals are on campus, so I'm going back and forth from Longmont to Boulder...let's see...twice a day on most days.  I'm with the kids from 2:30 to about 5:30, and then Matt watches them until bedtime and my arrival home.  Fridays and Sundays are both days completely off, at least until tech week begins 2/8.

While the current arrangement does keep both kids out of full-time day care, which is a huge plus, it means I rarely see my spouse during the week at least before we're both exhausted.  I'm glad this is not going to be a permanent arrangement.  My show opens 2/12, so after that I'll be working weekdays and weekend nights for three weeks which will be much better.  The show closes 2/28,  and then I'm back to working days only!  And nights at home after the kids are in bed, writing, of course, but I mean work-on-someone-else's-preferred-schedule type of labor.

What do I do at the opera, you may ask?  Who's in charge of me?  Great question.  I've been there two weeks and don't know the answer yet.  Lots of people need me to get things for them from other people, but it looks like I will have three different supervisors over the next three months and then a fourth new person will become my permanent supervisor in August.  Basically, whoever is directing the next opera is my boss, except for right now when the music director is my boss...I'm still meeting all the faculty who I'll be negotiating with regarding schedules and such in the months ahead.  It is a lot of fun, though, and I'm already getting my hands dirty in box office data analysis and past budget review and preliminary budget work for future seasons.  Good stuff, and so far everyone seems like fun, creative, energetic people to work with.  We'll see what happens the first time those energies are aimed at cross-purposes.

Where I've been, and where I'm going.

Hello, all!  It's been a screamingly busy few weeks since the last post.  Actually, it's been pre-busy, as nothing much has changed here yet but big changes are coming next week. The bug returned to school today, so I have a few minutes to share my news.

I'm going back to work next week, and will be juggling, um, four part-time jobs for the next two months.  

1 and 2) I'll still be doing my grantwriting and administrative work for the local theatre company I've been working with, and I'm also stage-managing their next show which goes up in February.

3) I start Monday at the CU Opera, where I'll be their production assistant.  They currently have no director of opera, only guest directors, so I will be keeping the ship afloat until a permanent leader arrives on the scene next fall.

4) I will be doing some grant and administrative work for CASA, Matt's place of employment, precise start date still TBD.  This one promises to be much fun as I've been proofreading and editing Matt's work for years and am looking forward to doing so with the work of his peers.

I found a lovely daycare center for the polliwog last week, and he'll be going four days per week while the bug is in school.  All these jobs are partial,  can-work-from-home, no-set-schedule type of stuff except for stage-managing.  It will be quite tricky to keep all these balls in the air, especially at first, but by March I'll be down to three of them and my evenings will free up and I may once again resume oxygen intake...in short, postings are likely to be sparse until then.  Any free time will go right to my family, and probably also to sleep. :)