Another show has taken over my life and it’s close to crunch time. Of course I’m talking about my stage production of Reservoir Dogs. Tonight we had a full run with the guns- blank guns. Seems the ones we have ‘tophat’ under rapid fire. Kara Wooten- the fight choreographer and gun wrangler- brought out the 9 mm. They worked awesomely but were too loud… So making blood packs and squibs and more blood pack and a blood fountain. My main concern has been actor issues and space problems. Our original space shut down so we turned to a friend of ours- Jim McGuire, a local artist- for help. He was more than willing to assist but we had to share the space with hula hoopers (Great exercise by the way!) and any other project going on… which can make things difficult at best. Actors are always another issue all to their own… From having to cater to each one’s needs on the acting side to scheduling to just being cantankerous. I had one fellow who is a major character try out for and get another major part in a play. His absence during the time of rehearsals greatly hamstringed the entire production- now if that story was limited to just one actor. That’s right I had not one, not two… but three actors splitting their time between productions. One was in a musical, the first in a drama and the last in a film about zombies. In Charleston. Yay. So scheduling on that end became a monster very quickly which in turn became a monster for the space. Which in turn became a major pain in my ass… cause I had to keep my schedule open in case of ‘Tortugas Assemble!’. Fun. In the midst of this I got a short job working for NASCAR during their media week. A lot of setting up and tearing down of stages.
Meanwhile, there were concerns for set building, soundtrack, lighting, costumes, props… all of which are being worked on… still. But ahhh the guns. The guns are fun. We plan to give out earplugs during the intermission to help the audience go home with eardrums intact. Then the blood. The recipe is- 5 packs of red kool aid. Pack of lemon lime. Sugar. Water. Soap. The blood pack squibs are cling wrap placed around a cigar holder (then slipped off), filled with ‘blood’ and added to pockets on an inner shirt… and the explosive squibs have left me pocked with bruises. We’ll not talk of that again. There is a razor that has to squirt blood and that took some planning to hide the bladder.
The blocking was strained due to such a shallow playing area- which is an all white room with rounded edges going to the floor- like a photo studio. There is no grid or real electrical so lighting is simple and sparse. Seating comes in the form of folding chairs and we have a PA for sound. Missing? A projector for the names…. Working on getting one now. So that’s it… all in all I could be in worse shape.
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In fact I need to go get busy... More work on the show and such then into Treasure Island at the Children’s theatre…
So busy busy… I’ll catch you next time-
-x
