Stan's Cafe

After a finishing Warwick on a high opening in Vienna knocked us back hard. The truck arrived later than advertised, putting us on the back foot from the start. Then more agro with the dimmers prevented refresher rehearsals. A very poor blackout and lights bouncing of the cream coloured ceiling added to our woes. Being set up in a new space threw people off their stride back stage. A CD inexplicably skipped. Everything distracted from the performances which clunked their way to a conclusion.

I was bitterly disappointed and upset; unwilling to be mollified by Gerard’s reasonable observation that these should be regarded as preview performances and with a young show of this complexity glitches are bound to happen. Even a post show reception with free beer and a number of enthusiastic promoters enquiring about booking the show didn’t help much.

Yesterday a familiarly fearsome Teutonic effort from the resident tech crew built a black box around our seating bank. James M spent the day beating the lighting kit with a big stick and we all worked through tweaking and clarifying a host of small details in the show. The first performance felt much more as it should be and our newly introduced ‘curtain call’ even elicited a couple of “Bravo”. The second performance was equally solid. We’re back.

Today a few emails, a couple of meetings but essentially a day off, some much needed extra sleep and a trip to someone else’s show tonight.

James