The Guardian: Now It Ends

Dress rehearsals continued for the first part of this week, and incorporating all the tech stuff was a lot of work. There's a lot of tech stuff concerning the lights and sounds, and so it made sense that there would be some issues with it. There were a lot of discrepancies between the cue list Haille had and the one that Nicole had for lights and the cues as I had envisioned them. Some of that was definitely on me; a few of the cues had been changed during the rehearsal process and I hadn't updated the cue sheet enough. We managed to correct those after I realized my mistake with them during tech rehearsal. Some of the other tech issues are from the actual technology or from some up-fades and down-fades not syncing up quite right, and there have also been some operator errors with the sound cues. I don't know or care whose fault any of that is; it has simply been a part of the process worth noting.

That being said, my show is by far the most technically complex of all the one-acts this year, and I have the impression that it has many more technical aspects than most of the one-acts in past years as well. I understand that the tech specifications I had envisioned for this show require a lot of work and I am very content with how patient and willing people in the crew and tech fields have been with such parameters.

Opening night was phenomenal. Not only did I feel like my actors were stellar, but I also think everyone's one-act in Panel A was just splendid on Wednesday. I didn't realize it until I saw the show, but I think the final thing Keanu and Chloe needed was to just have an audience sitting in those seats. I had forgotten the energy and connection you can find on-stage as an actor once the audience is added; they are really the final and, arguably, the most vital part of any piece of theatre. Them being there, watching it live, is one of the biggest things that differentiates theatre from other art forms.

With the audience there, Keanu and Chloe were able to amp their performances up to 11. I really felt that they both gave their strongest performances yet on opening night. They were able to reach levels of emotion and do things I had tried to push towards in rehearsal, but had been unable to quite reach. I think, with the audience there to feed off, they found the ability to reach those heights. It was truly beautiful to witness the fruits of all of our labors and I couldn't be prouder of them.

When I was sitting there watching the show on opening night, it really dawned on me that a director really has almost no control over their show once it opens. All I could do was watch the show and hope everything went well. It's out of my hands now.

I just have to sit back, let it go, and watch the show. And that's exactly what I will be doing for the remainder of this process. And I couldn't be more content to do so.