We Have Arrived

Sorry it's been a couple days. As I'm sure you can imagine, we'd been pretty busy preparing for opening night. So since Monday... Evan arrived in time to see the second half of our rehearsal on Tuesday night. Before we started we had a mini question and answer session with a select group of people who were there to get a kind of behind the scenes look at what the theatre does. I believe these were potential supporters of the theatre, or volunteers, or something along those lines. Aside from those from that group that chose to stay and watch the "performance", we had a pseudo audience - we were told we could invite a friend or two, and some kids from the RMTC children's program were there. We only had to stop once for a quick fix, and besides that it ran smoothly.

Wednesday Evan and I went to check out the Civil rights institute. It's located directly across the street from one of the churches that was bombed in the 60's. It was pretty incredible learning about what struggles black people went through for equality. I think it was equally inspiring and depressing. I'm so glad I live now instead of then. We are a pretty lucky generation.

That night was Media Night, the preview night I spoke of before. It was a pretty big house and the show went great. That made it feel like opening night, so on Thursday, our actual opening, some of the pre-show nerves were gone. Aside from me forgetting a part of my costume at one point, I had a pretty good show. Even with the abundance of older people in the audience, not a single person walked out or left at intermission (at least as far as I could tell). We've all had our fears about how this show would be received, but so far it's been great. We even have a review of our opening night that gave us 5 out of 5 stars. Read It Here!

Thursday afternoon before our show, we - as in me plus the 3 other boys at the hotel (and Evan) - took Ron out to lunch and Jim N' Nick's. It's a fantastic barbecue place. It was so nice to do something for him and just hang out outside the theatre. He is such an incredible man, and we all agree he's one of the most fantastic directors we've worked with. He's putting up another production in Rancho Cucamonga next year that we would love to do, and he told us he had been meaning to talk to us about that - he definitely wants the producer to see us. I don't know if this particular theatre would fly people out to be in the show, but we have so many gems in this particular cast, I think it would be worth their while.

The cast party was held at Rogue Tavern, a few short blocks away from the theatre. It had a pretty nice atmosphere and reasonably priced food and drinks, so everyone enjoyed themselves. We also presented a gift from the cast to Ron. It was Kas's idea and it was perfect - a big RENT book, all about the show and the lives surrounding it, signed throughout by the entire cast. I still have to find a way to upload pictures, there are some really great ones from that night.

I never know how to end these. I wish I was as good at coming around full circle as Lauren is in her blog. Check it out, it's http://www.laurenab.wordpress.com/
Oh, and duh - Evan reviewed the show too http://www.swanfungus.com/2009/10/birmingham-alabama-day-3.html