One Week to Open

We're at the stage now where costumes, props, and lighting take priority in preparing a show to open. The actors, by now, know what they are doing. At least, they should. A week ago, I made a comparison of the rehearsal time we had remaining to the full rehearsal schedule of another theatre. Forget all of that. It's a new ball game. A lead has dropped out of the show.

With one week to go before our show opens, we will be working a new actress into the role of Florence Unger. She has one week to learn her lines and blocking. One week to find costumes. One week to prepare. Direction will be the icing on a cake we're all hoping bakes in time.

How does our schedule look now? She'll have 24 stage hours to work before we open Friday. I'll have 24 stage hours to adjust to the differences between her and her predecessor. We'll all have 24 stage hours to learn where her lines will fail her, how taut we'll have to hold her net, and how that caution will change my character in turn. This is going to be some week!

Our original Florence gave no warning that her desertion was coming. A few hours before rehearsal, she phoned the director citing "personal reasons" for leaving the show. If those reasons saw elaboration, it was not passed along to the cast. I hope that she isn't facing a health or family emergency. On one hand. On the other? If she jumped ship at this late date for anything less... her father smelled of elderberries and her mother was a hamster!