Week 2:
Opening Night!

May 29, 2016

I’ve now been in Creede for two weeks, but it already feels like longer than that.  I’ve made myself comfortable in the Bordello, I’ve visited the local grocery store oddly named Kentucky Belle Market numerous times, and I’ve opened my first show here.  But before we talk about the excitement of opening night, let’s talk about the tech week that led there.

I’ve been doing theatre since 1st grade, so I have participated in many 10 out of 12 days – in a 10 out of 12 you are scheduled to rehearse for 12 hours with a 2 hour dinner break.  However, I’ve only ever done one 10 out of 12 per show run.  Here, things are a little different.  We ended last week with a 10 out of 12 and started this week with one as well.  Just like last week, the rehearsal for The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence went incredibly well, and we did get out before our hard out at midnight (a hard out means that no matter where you are in rehearsal, if it reaches a certain time, everyone is released).

The next day was slightly shorter, an 8 of 10.  The director used these long rehearsals to, of course, run the show but also focused a lot on transitions and quick changes.  As mentioned last week, this show has many transitions and they are very intricate.  Many of them involve on-stage costume changes for the lead actor.  We worked to time these transitions perfectly and find the exact path each crew member would need to take so there would be no traffic jams.  After running a transition smoothly, you could feel the satisfaction in the room from all the crew; our smiles as we walked off-stage seemed to say, “Oh yeah, we’ve got this.”

Thursday was preview day, which means although it was technically still a rehearsal, we had an audience full of company members and sponsors.  The main challenge for me having an audience there was going to be not hitting them with any furniture pieces.  I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.

The show is done in the round, meaning there are audience members on all four sides.  We have four voms (a vom is basically a big diagonal entrance) between each section of audience.   It is through these voms that we enter and exit with furniture pieces.  The first row of the audience is extremely close to the stage.  So close, in fact, that their feet rest comfortably on the painted set.

In rehearsals, the transitions seemed doable – just slide the chaise between the chairs, Donna.  But once actual bodies were in those chairs?  That was another story entirely.  Watch their feet, Donna.  Make eye contact if they are directly in the way so they know to adjust.  Whatever you do, DO NOT HIT AN AUDIENCE MEMBER.

To my relief, no audience members were hit.  I managed to squeeze my way through the seats with ease.  There was one adjustment we had to make after preview.  A very intimate scene happens on the chaise in one of the corners of the stage.  The chaise was placed so incredibly close to the audience that even fellow company members suggested changing it for the comfort of the audience.  We moved the chaise about 6 inches forward – problem solved!

Don’t get me wrong though, the first row of this show is in for quite a performance.  There are times when the actors and crew are so close to the audience that they could reach out and touch them.  I imagine this type of theatre isn’t ideal for everyone.  Some may be uncomfortable and prefer a seat a few rows back.  But others, like myself, would find it truly exhilarating to be able to see each tiny change in expression on the actors’ faces, to be so close to the bag of Twizzlers that you can smell them, to closely examine the beautiful painting of the floor.

After preview, there was a small celebration on-stage, lovingly referred to as “shop shop shots”.  Opening night is the true celebration – “shop shots” – which the full company is invited to.  But “shop shop shots” is reserved just for those who work behind the scenes.  It was a blast mingling with other company members and being initiated into this company tradition.

That leads us to Friday – opening night, and the first opening night celebration of the Creede Repertory Theatre 2016 season.  The show on Friday was beautiful.  The actors did an incredible job and the transitions ran smoothly, a few bumps, but nothing too bad.  And nothing that prevented the audience from loving the show.  CRT has two theatres, the main stage and the smaller, black box called the Ruth.  After we closed the show at the Ruth and put all the props away, we all made our way over to the main stage for “shop shots.”

I was debating not going to this celebration.  I needed to wake up early for work the next day and I was exhausted from the show.  But part of me thought I would regret it if I didn’t go, so I attended and I am so glad I did.  Upon entering the Heflin rehearsal hall where the party was happening, I immediately found my friend and roommate Scoops, who just graduated from Cornell this past year and completed a fellowship at Creede last summer.  She is back working front of house.

We mingled for about 30 minutes and then the party really began.  The director of Watson got up to thank the people involved in the show.  I was included in this and it made me feel truly honored and welcomed.  Then she surprised us all by singing a song!  A running joke in the play is that the character Eliza despises Billy Joel.  So Christy, the director, rewrote the lyrics to “Piano Man” to be about Creede.  It was great fun and quite hysterical and by the end we were all singing along.

The tradition here is to drop the ball after each show is open.  There is a wooden column on which a company member paints designs for each show.  At each opening night, the ball is dropped farther down the column and the design for that show is revealed.  The incredible art was revealed and all the company members took the first shot of “shop shots”, which is based on whichever show opened.  In Watson, Eliza likes to eat Twizzlers dipped in Jim Beam.  So that was the company shot – tiny glasses of Jim Beam with little pieces of Twizzlers dipped in.  Admittedly, it was a disgusting shot and silence filled the room as we all tried to swallow it down, but it was a great homage to the show.

The night of traditions was full of surprises for me.  Soon after we took the full company shot, a member of the stage management team found me to say we were all meeting in the office.  It was then I discovered that the stage management team also did a shot together, and at each show a different person on the team chooses the shot.  We had a french toast shot chosen by Domingo which was as weird as it sounds.

Side note: I promise we are not all alcoholics here at Creede.  We just know how to celebrate after a long week of work.

Soon after the stage management shot, I walked home to try to get some rest before my very long day on Saturday.  Saturday was a double changeover day at the Ruth.  That means that the current set on stage was for Watson, but we needed to switch the set to Reading! And Other Super Powers (a fun piece for young audiences) for a matinee performance.  Then afterwards, we needed to switch the set back to Watson for an evening performance.

Most people wouldn’t have to do changeover twice a day, but interns are lucky enough to be on two changeover teams, so I was involved in both changeovers.

Changeovers are an incredible opportunity for me to learn because it involves an aspect of theatre I am probably least familiar with – building things and taking them apart (with the intention of being able to put them back together).  I’m technically tool trained, but I’ll be honest, power tools do scare me a little.  But I successfully made it through two changeovers, each lasting around three hours.  I know that each time I do a changeover, I will get better at it. My attitude with changeovers is to be as helpful as I can, instead of dwelling on the things I can’t help with.

After my second changeover, we had another performance of Watson.  I was utterly exhausted, but made it through the show and was incredibly proud of myself for working through the long day.

Finally, that brings us to last night’s performance of Watson.  We had a pretty small audience, which can be worrisome.  The actors really feed off the audience and if the audience isn’t energetic, it can really affect the show.  But it was clear the audience loved it and the actors brought their best performance.  At the end, they got a standing ovation, the first of what, I assume, will be many.

And though only the actors are on stage for curtain call, I know in my heart that that standing ovation was for all of us, the whole team of people who have worked so hard to put this show up, this whole company of devoted artists who just want to put up a good show.  And I can say, we’ve done it.  We have put up a great show and I can’t wait to continue to share it with audiences for the rest of the summer.

“The world is full of people who could ruin me with love.” – The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence