A Wedding Tale

Chapter 17: On a High Horse

April 20, 2020

     Yesterday I found my prom dress! I can't wait for Jonatan to see me in it, but I'm keeping it a secret until prom night.

     Today is the beginning of tech week for 'A Winter's Tale'. I have a feeling that this tech week will be worse than 'Romeo and Juliet'. There are several large set changes and moving pieces in the show. Today we have a tech of the whole show. Here we go!

     Xoxo,
         Marilyn Danäe Minnelli

     "Welcome back to Hell Week," Nova began her usual speech. "Now I am going to try and get us all out of here every night as quickly as possible, but I will go ahead and apologize if we are here later than expected. There are several moving aspects of the show- as you probably saw during move in yesterday- and we need to make sure everything runs safely. So tonight what we are going to do is a slow tech of each scene. What this means is that each scene will have a time to figure out their spacing very quickly, Danny and Quinn will make sure you can hear the music, Micheal and Mark will fly in the backdrop, Harry, Mike, Aiden, Max, Dustin, and Rowen will set any set pieces, and Sam and Dan will make sure the lighting looks good.

'While we are doing this I will need you to please be quiet backstage and as much as you can onstage. Mrs. Scarlett will be onstage left and Miss Allison will be onstage right. If they ask you to be quiet, please be quiet so they don't report back to me and I have to be the bad guy.

'Now somethings may go wrong. If you hear Micheal or Mark say 'heads up' please look up and move if you are in the way of a backdrop coming down. I do not want to have to call 911. If the stage goes dark, do not go offstage or talk to your friend. Stay exactly where you are until the lights are on. I do not need anyone tripping and breaking something or even falling off the stage.

'Last thing before we get started. Each scene has thirty minutes for tech, there are schedules backstage so please make sure you are onstage when we need you. Miss Audrey and I do not have time to go and find you. You are all old enough to keep track of time. Okay, I think that is all."

"Places for the first scene," said my mother.

The tech did not follow the schedule at all. It was mostly running set changes over and over to make sure it ran as smoothly as possible. After Act 1, I went up to my private dressing and took a small nap. It was nice having my own dressing room because it came with a bed and a refrigerator. After forty five minutes, I came back downstairs and they still were not ready for me yet.

     I went back upstairs and used my time to finish decorating my dressing room. Since I was the leading lady, I had my own private dressing room. This was my home for the next two weeks and I wanted to make it feel that way. I hung up a flower garland that I bought the last time I had this dressing room. It had pink and peach flowers. I continued with some pictures of me and my family and friends. I set out my stage makeup on the station in a orderly fashion. I also laid out my essentials- perfume, deodorant, tampons, etc. I reorganized my costumes and dumped out all of my pointe shoes in a pile next to the bed. Some shoes were new, some were old but I could still wear, and some were dead but I still wore them sometimes. I had to salvage every pair that I had.

     After an hour, I noticed on my monitor that they were at the end of the wedding scene. I went downstairs and prepped for my final scene.

We finally left the theatre at 1:30.

*******

"Tonight we will be running the show in costumes. No stage makeup, headpieces, or wigs because we do not have time, and we plan to add that element in tomorrow. Make sure you set up your quick changes. Now go get dressed. 30 minutes till places," Nova excused us.