Opening Night

Okay so last night was opening night for our show, God's Country. After six weeks of rehearsal, countless hours in the theatre this week for tech work, dropping $900 on a brand new projector for the video, we're ready to open, with both of Charlotte's finest critics in the house.

And the fucking wheels fell off. It wasn't an absolute disaster. It was an absolute FUCKING disaster. It only takes a couple of moments of lag in a show like God's Country, which is written like a documentary film/rock video, replete with jump cuts and spliced scenes, to make the whole thing shift from tight to incomprehensible.

First there were a couple of line bobbles. Act I started really strong, but there were a couple of jumps and a couple of hiccups. It happens. There are a lot of words, and people are playing a multitude of characters, so it gets confusing. Then act II started, and in the first scene, one of the three actors completely went up on lines and had to ask for help from the other character!!!! It went downhill from there.

Next, one of my actors missed an entrance. Not just late, completely missed the entrance and was called onto the stage by the other actor! This guy has never missed an entrance in his life, so I don't know WTF was going on. Then someone kicks over what sounded like a bucket of screws backstage. Twice. And proceeded to make as much noise trying to clean it up as they did knocking it over. Then another actress misses an entrance. Act II looked like something out of a fucking Keystone Kops movie, only without the comedy.

I couldn't talk to my cast after the show. I couldn't speak to them, I was so unbelievably angry and disgusted. I have never been so disappointed with an opening in my life. This show is so good when they are on, but these fucking mental lapses completely killed the show, with both critics and a pile of theatre folks in the audience, so our word of mouth is pretty much fucked now. It looked like a high school production.

Couple that with the news that our roommates are not signing a new lease on the theatre, and I'm not sure what to do. I was all gung-ho earlier this week to pull everything together to dedicate all my resources, financial and personal, to keeping the company going and taking over the entire lease on the building if we could, but last night really makes everything seem so futile. We worked for weeks on that show, and about half my cast is there with me working as hard as they absolutely can. But the other half isn't, and that just absolutely kills me. A few people who are willing to skate through with an acceptable performance drags down the whole thing, when just a little bit of real focus would elevate the entire show to something incredible. Or not.

I really, really understand why directors precast shows and work with all the same people all the time.

But that's not it. I'm pissed off about last night, and I'm pissed off that some of my cast are there for the work and some are there to be in a play. But the people that fucked up are not the people who aren't focused. Murphy happened. It's over, and now I have to find a way to get together with my cast tonight and give them the confidence to pull their shit together and put on the show I know they are capable of. Because they can. I've seen it. Wednesday night's invited dress was aboput 90% of the show that I believe it can be. Which is what an invited preview should be. But last night the wheels fell off. So tonight, we try and figure out how to pull it back together.

Wish me luck.