3MF

Back in black

Don i now my black apparel as i once again head back stage to crew a show. This time the show is Morning's At Seven* and the location is Circle Theatre

When i agreed to help out, i knew very little about the show. I remember that the revival was nominated for a Tony award or two a few years back. From the title, I figured it was probably going to be some sort of tragic drama which isn't my favorite type of show to crew. I got ever more worried when i showed up for the run-though and saw that practically the entire cast was over sixty. I had to speak loudly and repeat myself frequently when talking to them. Every once in a while, i'd hear one of them hacking something up. It's not not i hate old people; they just scare me.

I went into the house was the actors began. I took the opportunity to just sit and watch the show, something i don't always get the chance to do when i crew. Quickly i learned that the show was funny. As awkward as the old folks were back stage, they were sharp on stage. Living that long gives you a chance to build up many years of acting experience. The chase scene is hilarious; old people running is always amusing. The actors don't have to work too hard because the script itself is pretty amusing. I think you should check it out if you can.

I don't have a lot to do on the deck. Right now my only real task is to ring a phone ten minutes into act one. I'm also responsible for presetting props and cleaning up. It's really going to be rather boring for me. I think i'm only being kept around because i'm the only crew member on the deck. The sound guy, light board op, and stage manager are all up in the booth. If anything should go wrong, i'm the only person down there to handle it. It's really more like baby-sitting than crewing. I should probably review my CPR book just in case a member of the cast start to see a bright light off stage.

This is my first time back stage at the new Circle space and its taking some time to get used to. There are a lot of doors around and every time i open one i'm still not sure what i'll see on the other side. I'm a bit disappointed with what i've seen so far. It's a really nice building, its just not a great theatre. There are parts of the design that seem clumsy. There are lots of plus around but not where they'd be really helpful. Sightlines are bad thanks to gaps where it's impossible to hang masking. To get to the stage from the dressing room, you have to pass though several hallways without monitors where you loose touch with what's happening on the stage. I suppose that i had really high exceptions seeing as how they had the opportunity to build a dream theatre. All my complaints are from a technical perspective and i doubt it would effect the enjoyment of the audience so no big deal.

So anyway we open this Wednesday and have performances Tue-Sat at 8:00 PM with Sunday matinees at 3:00 PM. The final performance is Sunday, June 20.

* If you're crazy about punctuation like me, you might wonder why the title has an apostrophe. Well, the title comes from a Robert Browning poem where it's the contraction form of "morning is" rather than the possessive construction as i had first incorrectly thought.

Posted by Matthew at May 30, 2004 10:43 PM