Future Future Dear God Blog Entry 6 (The Stop Stressing Out Edition)

Look at that death-dodging bastard.

So we just had final dress, and I only suffered a minor cardiac arrest (from missing an interruption cue and watching poor Bryan stutter at me for a 1 and a half seconds). This fearful first "performance" as the understudy didn't crash and burn in the fashion that my dreams have been ominously predicting lately.  Visions of crashing planes, sinking ships (the Titanic in particular), landslides engulfing orphanages, you know the deal.

However, it worked. Miraculously. I was really paranoid about being stranded after I missed a queue, but while I was slow on a few pickups they were only minor bumps in the road. I really have to give a lot of credit to Bryan and Alexa for pulling me through this. They've really shown themselves to be consistent in their performance even when the lead actor changes. Half of the things they're doing aren't scripted (the majority of the stoner sidebar conversations) but they've developed such a good rhythm that it comes out strong every time.

We only had a small audience of directors and other production roles, but it was relieving to hear fresh laughter at jokes we had long since forgotten the effect of. I found it amazing what I could discover in playing a character. I shared some notes with J afterward regarding things I had noticed in from my own experience (blocking, moments of dramatic delivery, etc), which I think will strengthen the production overall.

In the end, the ship didn't sink. Hooray. See you opening night.

(Disclaimer: This draft totally existed before opening night)