Hello from Tech

I'm blogging this during a 10-out-of-12 tech rehearsal for Boeing Boeing. In case you're not familiar with that phrase, it means that during a 12-hour period, we rehearse/tech for 10 of those hours. Today, it's 12pm-5pm & 7pm-12am.

I am currently wearing my "Alitalia" uniform. It's a short, tight, low-cut green dress. I also have patterned tights, a Pucci-style neck scarf, white custom-cut lace-up white high heeled boots, a black wig, green earrings, a green hat, and a cream-colored cape. In short, it's the coolest costume I think I've ever had. Ever.

I'm off-stage at the moment, and sitting in my dressing room. This season, I'll be sharing a dressing room with the 4 other ladies in my class. But as Newbie and I are the only students in this show, (and we're never on stage at the same time), the dressing room seems rather quiet and empty at the moment.

We're designing make-up for the show tonight. Luckily, I have more make-up than most people, so we'll probably end up using the make-up I already own for this role. And if there's anything else I need, then I'll acquire it. I like having a large stockpile.


(This photo was taken in August, after a major session of throwing out old make-up. I have acquired more since then. It's getting a little out of hand...)

The hardest part about this tech so far has been adjusting to working with doors. The play is a farce, so it is heavily dependent on doors opening and closing with precise timing. Up until yesterday (when we began tech), we had been in a rehearsal space where the doors were marked out in tape out on the floor. Having to physically open and close doors is a lot different from just walking through the door-designated spaces.

Also tricky: the doorjambs. I'm wearing high-heeled go-go boots. There is a doorjamb at every doorway. And I keep forgetting that they're raised and tripping over them. I'm kind of a disaster.

And then there's my hat. I have a hat as part of my costume. In rehearsals, we blocking that I take off and put on my hat in several instances (and at one point, someone else puts my hat on my head for me). But now I have the real hat (not just a rehearsal prop) and I have a wig on. The only way to make the hat stay on the wig is to affix it with hairpins. It's not easy to undo and redo hairpins on stage. I don't know if we'll end up re-blocking things so that I do less business with the hat, or if I'll just have to practice. The costume designer and the head of the costume shop suggested that they might be able to put a comb into the hat instead of pins, but it might mess up the style of the wig. It's all up in the air at the moment.

I also have to get into the habit of stepping into good lighting. Things get re-blocked by small degrees once you're on stage just because of where the lighting hits the stage. If you're a couple inches to the left, you might be in shadow. You have to hit every mark, which means the blocking gets more specific.

We're working through it. And it's already on the right track. We're a lot further along in the play than I thought we would be at this point. It's actually going really well, and is less stressful than most techs. But there's still a lot to learn.