39 Steps Opens and the Reviewers were kind!

Even as the folks were out front purchasing their tickets and taking their seats, I and Beverly Wand were in the back making last second repairs, moving clasps, sewing on bits of velcro.  It becomes surreal in a way to sew on small squares of black velcro on ivory blouses and thinking 'hey, this is pretty good.. they'll never see it from 20' away.'  The director brought in three costume pieces she'd sewed herself just hours before to replace finished pieces that we've been rehearsing with for weeks.  I looked for cuffs on the sleeves; there were none.  The fabric was simply folded up into the sleeve.  The actor looked at me white faced and wondering how was he going to keep the cuffs from rolling out to bare fabric on the stage.  I don't think I have ever hand basted cuffs up as fast as that ever.  It was really hard not to break out laughing right then.  We had such a great production team there was no panic, screaming, crying .. it was essential to keep our actors in the highest spirits.

The show did go on and we all had a lot of fun, despite the craziness of the last few weeks.  The reviews have all been very good for us.  The company took an enormous chance putting on this play.  So far, the audiences have been delighted.  It is a good feeling, but there are little repairs already to make and a couple of weeks of performances to go. 

My blog posts have been a little out of sorts.  I started with planning the play, and now I've posted the opening reviews.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will write more about what happened in between.  G'night!