Can't stop us now!

So, officially, every single person from AV '09 is going to be back at Montreat this summer. Last year's AV had 5 regular crew members, 2 DPTs (projections/slideshow operators) and two supervisors. All five of us who were regular crew members are back on crew again. One of the DPTs from last summer is DPTing again, the other is doing Clubs staff (the second DPT this summer was on AV in '08). One of our supervisors is back again, her sixth summer and fifth in this position. The other supervisor from last year is now the coordinator of AV and Aud crews. The second supervisor this year is also from AV in the past.

And the woman who was the AV and Aud crew coordinator last summer is on the planning team for Omega.

And someone from the Theta planning team last summer is on summer staff working in the offices.

It's gonna be a good summer.

Maker of Dreams has its workshop tomorrow (technically today). The workshop is when we show what we have of the show to a group of faculty that contains one person representing each of the following elements; directing, design, acting, voice and speech, as well as our mentor. This is an incredible opportunities to try things out on a smart, caring audience who gives us incredible feedback. It's also ridiculously nervewracking, because you're showing a toddling infant of a show to a group of people. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of showing work in this way... at least when you're acting or even presenting something, you have something to DO, whereas with directing or design, you have to sit and watch. (In these situations, I write. Sometimes it's not even taking notes. Sometimes it's literally writing, "AAAAAAH" or "Domine ad adjuvandum me festina!" I just need something to physically DO.) I maintain that the worst part of the process, as a director, is the moment between when the audience is seated and when the play begins. God, it's awful.

Luckily, though, our dramaturg was able to come to the last hour of rehearsal tonight (so it's not the FIRST time new eyes have seen it), where we did our first stumblethrough. And frankly, it was the best first stumblethrough I've seen. NOT AT ALL to say, "Oh, it was brilliant, we're done!" because there are a million things that will be changed and this is such such such a draft. But, stumblethroughs are called stumblethroughs because the first time you run things together, transitions are usually awful, people forget a lot of things, you realize all the logistical holes (how does that prop get from there to there?). Musicals are the WORST because there's so much happening. I was working on a musical last semester and I emailed Becker, "Is the first stumblethrough of an act of a musical always the most painful, disheartening thing in the world?" And he responded immediately with, "Yes."

BUT this actually wasn't even a stumblethrough--it was a run. The only logistical issue that arose came from there being a lot of noise outside so one person couldn't hear to enter. But beyond that, it was incredibly smooth. I know a ton is going to change, there are things that work and things that might not work at all. (There's one moment that I was completely undecided on in rehearsal... that it could be really cool or it could be the most awful thing in the world... so clearly we're keeping it in during the workshop, because if it fails there, nothing's lost, and if it works, great!) But the cast feels solid at this point, which honestly shows me that they're a phenomenal cast who are working HARD. We've been in rehearsal for 2 weeks. We started staging the show on Monday. (And didn't have rehearsal on Wednesday.) They're working hard, they're working well, it's a great room to be in, and I'm blessed to have all of their energies on this piece.

The workshop is more stress than it should be. I haven't felt particularly stressed out about it, but last night, all of my dreams were about the show, particularly groundplan, and while I made some great discoveries, I didn't actually get any rest, because I was working on the show in my sleep. This indicates that the workshop is more stressful than I want to admit. I am starting to feel tiny pinches of the "Tongues pressure"; the "the general consensus is that my show last semester rocked, and now people expect 159times more from me" pressure. (As one of my teachers said after Tongues, "Well, now you've screwed yourself over for next semester.") Generally, I'm pretty good at leaving that pressure behind me. It's a new show, and all I can really do it inhale and go through the process honestly and if it hits, great, and if it doesn't, that's all the more for me to learn from. It's just sometimes difficult to be that... noble?

Anyway.

Sleep now.

I'll probably dream about soundscapes tonight.