painting sets

We had a work day on Saturday.  I fought a cold or something all weekend, but when I woke up on Saturday I was feeling well enough to go down to the theatre and paint.  At least I didn't have a fever like I did on Friday, so I wasn't contagious or anything.  So Noah and I worked for a few hours and it was a lot of fun.  We got almost everything finished, including cutting some fabric for a scene where we all needed this black, almost sheer fabric to cover ourselves to symbolize the effects of the fire.  And Noah helped build the fence!  He had a great time, and even asked me if he could help when we do this for every show in the future.  I'm not sure how long that will last, but it was nice that he asked.

But about the set - it's basically a black box with some brown pieces (stools, ladders, etc) and the color comes from the costumes and the quilt blocks.  I think it will be very effective.

Play selection is still going on, although we should have picked something by now.  One play we considered for this season is now on another theatre's slate for next season, which is sad because I was going to ask them to reconsider.  I'm going to go see it at the other theatre because it seems very funny and fun.  I might even try out!  But for play selection, I read "A Doll's House" (again - we read it in school) and I think we could really do it justice.  I'm reading a play called "Sealed for Freshness" right now, which seems funny so far.  We've had a lot of comments about how dark this year's slate was and how people would rather see lighter shows, so I think we are going to focus on funny a little more next year just to help counterbalance the darkness of this year's shows.  It's true, when you look at it, all the shows dealt with death in some way.  Even our comedy, "Dearly Departed," was about a funeral and had some truly dark moments.  We're trying to put on quality shows that make people think and really challenge them, but I think there is some merit to putting in one "fluff" show to help cheer things up a little.  Our committee is having this discussion right now and there are people who strongly support both sides of the argument.  I stand in the center, because I see both sides.  There's no use in putting on four heavy shows a year if nobody comes to see them - and if nobody auditions!  So that's our current problem.

Rehearsal tonight!  We've shifted to a Mon-Fri schedule and have dropped Sundays, which is good.  Only 17 more days until opening night!