More Hedda Blogging

Rehearsal last night was muuuuch better. Still some minor slips, but they were spread rather evenly around and everyone covered nicely. My favorite cover, though, was actually not so smooth. In the Lovborg (Adam) / Tesman (Brian) scene in Act II - when they were discussing Lovborg's new book - the lines are (roughly) supposed to be:

Adam: It's the sequel.
Brian: The sequel?
Adam: To the book.
Brian: You mean, the one just out?
Adam: Yes.
Brian: But that one comes right up to the present.
Adam: Yes, but this one deals with the future. . . .

Instead, Brian says: "But that one comes right up through the future." So Adam covers: "That one came up to the present, but this one, this one deals with the future." Brian responds: "I predicted that." I managed not to crack a smile.

We're also doing some work with the whole "burning the child" scene. I have yet to do it with an inflection and pitch I like, but Greenman had some really good ideas last night.

I do still need skirts for Acts II-IV. Otherwise you'll just get the freaky ugly technicolor dreamskirt. I think the hot pink and teal could cause the audience to go blind if they stare directly at it, particularly under the lights. And distracting? Three quarters of them would be thinking: "You kill yourself now? WTF? You should've offed yourself in the second act when you found out you had such hideous taste in clothes."

I did get the corset. 'Nelle pointed out at rehearsal that it was no fair teasing with the earlier link to the UPS site instead of a picture of the corset, so here it is. It's not fetish wear, it's got a busk front and enough boning and so forth that I could probably substitute it for a bullet-proof vest. The point was to acquire a carriage similar to a Victorian female by basically trussing myself up as one.

Corset lessons learned: 1) You do not want to try to drive in one of those things. Just trust me. 2) It is not easy to pick things up off the floor when you can only bend at your pelvis. I can touch the floor fine, but I'm used to balancing differently. It's weird. 3) Even relatively loosely laced (I only did it tight enough to allow me to go braless) the thing is meant to give an hour-glass shape. But we're not actually shaped that way, we're kind of squarish until the point the rib cage leaves off. To create an hour-glass shape requires slight squeezing of the lower rib cage. Not bad for the first hour or so, but not exactly comfortable and it hurts your back after two hours.

Corset Questions: 1) How did they ever learn to live in those things? 2) And what precisely am I supposed to do with the eight feet of extra lacing that hangs off either side? Tie myself to random objects? Braid it? I suppose it's to accomodate people who utterly ignore the sizing, but wouldn't it look a little odd if the back was all lacing? Like a black satin breastplate? Never mind.

Gadgets: We've got a cool light rigged up with the parlor stove, so a fire-like glow will be emitted when I open the door to burn the manuscript. The guns are working very nicely, and the bang from the blanks in Nelle's gun is awesome. Half my simulated kickback is a controlled startle reflex.

For backstage fun, you should see Brian's "phrase-o-matic." He took a box and attached three arrows that can spin around, pointing to Tesmanesque sayings like: "Oh,my." "Imagine!" "Eh?" "Extraordinary." You just flick the arrows in sequence and come up with Brian's next line: "Oh, my. Imagine! Extraordinary! Eh?" Way cool. I've thought of a good alternate use for it: you know that special type of friend and/or colleague who talks too much? Where you can interject a single word during a phone conversation, and be covered for the next twenty minutes? I think I'll commandeer this and see if they ever notice the change from my normal platitudes.

We've still got a ton of stuff to do, all the stupid little details that no one will notice. Unless they're missing, then they'd notice. I need to bring double-sided tape to put between the corset and the nightie in the first scene, or you get a tiny bit of black peeking out. I'd like to have a go at the piano with some Old English scratch remover. We need to call Jonathon to get curtains for the sides of the stage. Did somebody oil the double door between the library/backstage area so it doesn't squeak when we open it? Do we still need a bell for the door (yes, I know, not a doorbell)? I also need still need a servant-type bell pull, unless Berta adds telepathy to her psychokinetic teleportation talents. Didn't we used to have more sets of hot rollers backstage? Did Barby toss those too?

But I'm feeling much better now. I feel fine. I think I'll go for a walk. I feel happy. . . .

Have I mentioned I've only had four hours or so of sleep a night this week?

We open when????