Posts from — May 2008

As I sat in Schooners, our local bar and grill, last night with our fantastic stage manager, assistant stage manager, and a handful of our great performers, we all looked at each other and expressed the same thought - I can’t believe the first week is over!

The last seven days have been jam-packed with meetings, rehearsals, endless runs to the copy machine, frantic trips across campus to various business offices, and lots of excitement and fun.  The artists in the residence halls instantly formed a great and fun-loving community and camaraderie with each other - whenever I’m there I never want to leave! On Friday night I had the privilege to sit in for an hour or so on the Quilters music rehearsal. I was amazed at how beautifully the seven ladies came together in some pretty complex harmonies after only four rehearsals. It makes me impatient for them to get up on stage and let me see the whole show already! But they’ve still got a few weeks yet to put it all together and turn what’s already beautiful into something perfect.

During last night’s festivities with my fellow TRR ladies (and a gentleman!), we discussed the idea of adding photographs into the blog. I’d love to be able to share some fun rehearsal stills or some shots of Locklyn Brooks’s beautiful creations-in-process in the costume shop or the hard work that Technical Director Steven Ferrier and his crew are doing in the scene shop. So stay tuned - and get your season tickets to TRR now!

Well, that day is finally here! Artists are starting to come into Newport News from out of town and are getting set up at CNU’s lovely Barclay Apartments. The costume and scene shops are filled with hard working techies getting us set up, and my invaluable partner-in-company-management-crime, Elizabeth, is back after a two-week trip to Texas to visit her mother.

The order of the day is similar to the order of the past couple weeks, where I had the privilege to sit at Miss Elizabeth’s desk in the TheaterCNU office (also our administrative base of TRR operations) and try to fill her stylish shoes. We’re getting the business side of things rolling - contracts, payroll, reimbursement, all that thrilling paperwork! I never thought I’d be genuinely excited about something as grown-up as an I-9 Employment Verification Form, but I guess a life in the theatre is full of surprises.

Tomorrow morning, the company will have their first official gathering as a company in the beautiful Yoder Barn, and tomorrow evening, Quilters rehearsal will begin at our own Ferguson. We’ve assembled an incredible team of 7 actresses to tell this story, and director Rebecca Taylor has a truly exciting vision for the play. Everyone’s eager to get rehearsal underway. I know for me that’s what I’ve been waiting for - to have a show in rehearsal! That’s when it really starts to feel like a theatre company to me - once the paperwork shifts from the front burner (though with my position, something tells me paperwork will be my middle name by the end of the summer…and it already feels like my middle initial) and the focus shifts to how we’re making our art happen.

We already have a great partner in helping to create Quilters - the amazing ladies at Nancy’s Calico Patch, right next door in the Hidenwood Shopping Center, are building an absolutely beautiful and big quilt for the show. Nancy and the other dedicated ladies have even provided us with a complete muslin mock-up of the quilt for rehearsal purposes. They’ve become wonderful and invaluable resource in helping us make this show beautiful, and we are so grateful!Well, I’m learning quickly that a company manager’s work is never done…so that’s all for now! See you all at Quilters in a few short weeks…