Waiting for the Light[s] to Shine

Working in the theatre = lots of waiting. For the last four days I have been in rehearsal for South Pacific. I've waited while lights were hung, waited while lights were focused, and waited while lights were programmed. Tomorrow I'm going to be waiting while costumes are tried on and paraded. I actually don't mind all of this waiting because it gives me time to read my script which I only got four days ago. I'm currently acting as what I like to call a guerrilla stage manager. Instead of being needed for the entire audition and rehearsal process, as is tradition, I instead get called in 7 days before the show opens. The last few times I have done this I wrangled props and actors and made sure backstage ran smoothly. This time I'm actually calling the show and I'm freaking out!

I haven't called a show in eight years. After college my self confidence in my stage managing capabilities deflated and I gave up on my dreams of being a professional. 10% of my brain is sure that in the end everything will be fine, but right now the other 90% of my brain keeps thinking about Stern's words of wisdom from The Stage Manager's Handbook: "Everything that goes wrong is your fault".

Gulp! One wrongly called cue can bollocks the whole show. It takes time to learn the flow of a show and tomorrow when I call the show for the first time in rehearsal I will only have seen it twice. I've got till Tuesday at 11:00 pm to get it down cold. Please pray for me!!

P.S. - Extra theatre geek bonus points if you understand why the title of this entry is funny.