Day 9 - A close up of my day
(Are you ready for this)
Pro to working in theatre… My days are very seldom the same as the next.
Con to working in theatre… Expect the Unexpected.
Every morning this week I wake up around 10 am to Jian and lay in bed for another hour… sometime avoiding looking at my phone and sometimes dealing with it right away and then checking CBC news and CTV news… By the time the top of the hour news comes on at 11 I convince myself to get up. Today… No messages waiting for me.
Start the kettle put on black clothes and mukluks, Grind coffee beans, start coffee in my press, run out and start the car, finish getting ready, press coffee, turn radio on for Zoe and out the door. This took 20 minutes tops —- must stop skipping breakfast/lunch
10 minutes later arrive at La Troupe. Unlock booth door, wander down the hallway, check in with Alan. Take coat and coffee up to the booth. Unlock dressing rooms, backstage, check over boxes, refill water jug, forget to turn on speakers more than once… Boot up sound equipment, sound check. It should be about 12 now. Put on black Cons. I have done this all dodging the clingy technician that follows me everywhere I go. If my day is going well, this has all happened without incident and I am greeting actors as I see them. Yesterday however I watched one actor throw up, (again… I don’t know if you are all aware, but I have a huge vomit phobia, so my struggle to stay adult through all if this has been huge) ran down the street to get him gravol, gave up on him getting better, called Alan, had Curtis called in, found someone to take Aaron back to the hospital… and started the show for a full house of kids by 1 PM. Good thing I got there ten minutes early.
12:30 - give half hour call, say hi to box office person from Persephone, turn on the preshow music, let audience in
12:45 - give 15 minute call, collect valuables
12:55 - hold the show for a late school group
1:00 - hold the show again
1:05 - start show regardless of late kids
2:15 - give actors back valuables, send them on their way, except Arron, who always stays and resets the boxes for me. Then reverse all the things I did at 11:45 when I first came in.
Give Arron a ride home, eat something (likely not good for me) curl up on my couch. Don’t move for a few hours, probably nap because I’m not sleeping at night, eat a small fast supper, feed Zoe… back out the door.
10 minutes later (6:45ish) arrive at La Troupe. Unlock booth door, boil kettle, start coffee, visit with Danny a minute. Take coat up to the booth. Unlock dressing rooms, backstage, check over boxes, refill water jug, forget to turn on speakers more than once… Boot up sound equipment, sound check. It should be about 7 now.
7:15 - help out at concession, hug Arron lots.
7:30 - give half hour call, Tell Arron to go to his dressing room and quit schmoozing with his public, turn on the pre show music, let audience in
7:45 - give 15 minute call, collect valuables
7:55 - 5 minute call
8:00 - Places, start show
9:15 - give actors back valuables
Arron resets the boxes, I fill out show reports, full lock up and lights out. Every other night we stay an extra 45 minutes and do the show laundry. Usually Arron and I drink cider and have our own mini party while we wait, and then I drive him home.
Tonight
5:00 - A wonderful pre show supper at Otowa with Samantha
7:00 - Set Sam up to work concession for me
7:30 - realize there are still no volunteers, text Alan, get Darren to rip tickets. (give half hour, start music, open house)
7:45 - Volunteers finally arrive, I am now doing 3 jobs at once and sigh with relief.
(give 15, take valuables, get per diem cheques signed)
7:55 - decide to hold the show 5 minutes
8:04 - Go to start show, realize the lights are frozen. Have to reset the entire computer before we can start. Run backstage, let actors know, Have Danny tell the audience their will be a short delay. Wait while watching Joel fixing the frozen computer with my breath held
8:15 - Start the show for real
10:30 after lockup - Sam and Darren take me for a drink. My old ulcer starts to bleed.
And at the end of every night Rob is waiting patiently to hear about all of it… This week I don’t think he even knows how much that has been keeping me sane.
22 More Sleeps. Can’t wait till those are full night sleeps again…
Also today in a weird serendipitous afternoon I stopped in at Persephone to check over some equity stuff and ended up staying for the staff Christmas party.
I felt like a real high rollerrrrr. 😉
