Opening night!

This was originally written on 21 October 2004.



What a week! *lol*

Last night was opening night of the school musical. I'd carefully scheduled all the things still needing to be done on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so that everything would dovetail neatly in time for the opening.

Yeah... right!

First variation to that plan was discovering late on Tuesday that there was nowhere at the theatre to suspend a data projector, despite being told repeatedly that there was. (The person in charge thought a data projector was the same as a cinema projector!)

Luckily, we have talented parents at the school, so two engineers created an ingenious suspension cradle for us overnight and it worked perfectly. Then we found there was no cabling to link a laptop to the data projector, and no stores or service businesses in town could supply us with a 60 foot long video cable.

This is why I have my trusty business partner, John Crooks, who's based in Melbourne. Within 90 minutes he'd had one made by a wholesale computer company, at less cost than buying a 10 foot cable at Tandy, and shipped to us overnight by courier.

The next challenge was me falling asleep at the keyboard in the middle of finishing the multi-media presentation for Act 2, at about 2am yesterday morning. Bad enough to lose 5 hours sleeping -- but I managed to erase 90% of the multi-media presentation in the process! So I lost another 5 hours re-doing all that work! The multi media is critical to the plot development -- it projects onto the giant computer monitor (16 feet high by 20 feet wide).

At 3:30pm -- 4 hours before opening -- I realised I hadn't finished editing and recording the sound effects for the show! Panic stations!

Home to my place where I have a small recording and editing suite. Back to the theatre at 6 pm with the CD-ROM hot off the burner, untested. It worked!

Then I realised I hadn't printed out the technical scripts for lighting, sound and multi-media, or for the stage manager. And no time to do it. So we grabbed some of the kids' scripts (they no longer needed them -- they were either ready or it was too late for them!) and spent half an hour going through them with the sound and lighting people (I had to run the multi-media stuff, since no-one else knew what it contained, or the cues to interact with the actors). We finished this meeting (for the first act only -- act two we discussed at interval!) 10 minutes before the curtain opened.

*Whew!*

Apart from a few minor dramas supplementary to the main drama, such as the stage crew forgetting to warm up the fog machine for 15 minutes before the spectacular revealing of the giant computer screen, so nothing happened, and an audience member unwittingly disconnecting the cable from the CD player to the sound mixing desk, everything went well and the capacity audience was thrilled with the performance. The kids all did wonderfully, the 19 piece orchestra was terrific and the costumes looked spectacular.

I came home to almost 800 emails and around 30 phone messages from clients, friends, etc who have been largely ignored the past few days, so I dealt with them, one way or another (!), and got a good night's sleep. I have a full day producing and consulting for desperate clients all day today and tomorrow.

Oh... and John Crooks arrived on my doorstep at about 5pm in the middle of the recording and editing session. He decided he wanted to see the show for himself. (He loved it.)

Another capacity crowd tonight, including Lynne and Esther, our 15 yo youngest daughter, who are driving down the coast from Melbourne to see it. Esther helped the principal actors as a dialogue and drama coach while she stayed with me for the 4 weeks Lynne was away in Canada and Florida, and they're looking forward to seeing her again. So many of the parents of kids in the show were in Lynne's shows at the school between 1977 and 1986, and they're looking forward to catching up with her -- she'll be here all night! *lol*

Actually, the principal of the school has been overwhelmed by the level of parental support for the show. He couldn't understand why they were all so keen to be involved. I explained to him that they were products of a culture that developed over that decade that was missing from their kids' lives, and they were excited to have it back again. They wanted it for their children -- and for themselves! :) (I can't go shopping without being waylaid by excited parents in recent weeks.)

So it's been a huge success so far. Changed many children's lives permanently, which is what it's really about for me. Kids who were outcasts, the butt of unkind jokes, who looked "different" or "funny", or had physical or intellectual disabilities... all of whom are the school's new heroes -- whose status has changed irrevocably, who have newfound self-esteem and acclaim. Wonderful to watch and be a part of. :)

Next: The Wrap-up on the Musical