Tech Sunday.
Lots of stuff going on at The Players Guild of Dearborn. It’s Tech Sunday. So, here, in no particular order …
Cast and crew began assembling around 11:00AM. The way down basement was divided into Women and Men dressing rooms. The stage was cleared of excess furniture and equipment and swept. Cast members were getting into costumes or partial costumes.
Finally, about 2:00PM the rehearsal began. “Night Waltz I” is very pretty with the light changes. Oops. The chandelier isn’t centered. The Egerman Rooms are moving on stage. Oops. The bed gets stuck moving into the bedroom wall.
The scenes are being run without all the dialog and we’re going from cue to cue. Actors are moving to their appointed places and Director Harold Jurkiewicz is telling the crew in the light booth what he wants for each change. Now they’re figuring out how Anne Egerman’s vanity should be set. Lighting moves all the way across the stage during “Now,” “Later,” and “Soon.” David Reynolds, II, the son of Diana Reynolds (Madame Armfeldt) and the father of Fredrika (Jade Reynolds) is programming the light board to match Harold’s vision for lighting.
The Egerman Rooms move off. The lights are being set for “Glamorous Life.” During a moment of fun, Diana Reynolds (Madame Armfeldt) called for a pink light on her and a green light on Sally Goodman (Desirée).
The “stage of a local theatre” piece seems huge. It’s really quite a nice piece of scenery. It moves on and, along with the theatre chairs, fills up the stage. Harold keeps working on moving the actors and telling the light booth crew what he wants and then moving on to the next cue.
The change between the “local theatre” and the Egerman Rooms is fun watch as the large pieces move on and off stage. At the end of the Egerman Room scene, Harold modifies the blocking to accommodate a new scene change using both the full and half scrims.
We break for lunch around 5:00PM. The meal is catered by Taco Especial, a Mexican Restaurant located on Outer Drive in Ecorse. The Restaurant is operated by members of the Garcia family. Inez Hernandez, who has ties to the family, is a Guild member and is in the cast of the show. The food was wonderful. Inze made a “Night Music” cake. A picture is attached.
The orchestra members arrived during the lunch break and they spent a bit of time rearranging things in the pit so we wouldn’t have to take out a row of audience seats.
The second half of Tech Sunday started with running the show with the orchestra. The music numbers all went well. Oops, at times the orchestra over-powers the singers.
Takesha Walker, a member of the chorus, didn’t have any lines in the show. At one point, however, she plays the role of an usher during the “local theatre scene.” As the on-stage audience members entered, Takesha ad libbed, “Welcome to the theatre.” It’s one of my all-time favorite lines. Harold said, “Leave it in.”
Oops. The set change from the “theatre” to Desirée’s Digs took forever. That’s something the crew will work fix. Oops. Desirée’s wig was awful. That’s something Hair and Makeup will fix. The night shirt bit in Desirée’s Digs is very funny. The remainder of Act I went very well.
There was a short break between acts. The opening of Act II is great. Oops. Cars coming in too fast. Oops. Hats falling off. Stuff to fix. Harold worked on the timing of the exits and entrances.
During the dining room scene the cast needs something in their glasses for the toast. “Ken,” the statue, made his debut. He looks pretty good.
The orchestra went home a little after 10:00. The cast and crew hung out for a time tweaking things. A long, but productive, Tech Sunday was winding down with a list of “Oops” to eliminate. We’ll get there.
Welcome to the theatre.
