(Un)dress rehearsals!

Dress rehearsals are the time when the producer hands over to the stage manager (me!) and sits contentedly at the back of the hall and watches it all come together. Well, that's the theory anyhow - in practice it doesn't always work like that!

The first dress rehearsal went as well as it could, considering one of the cast was away so had a stand-in who had never read the play or seen other rehearsals. It made things  interesting! The second was far more dramatic as it happened during one of the fiercest thunderstorms in a long time: the sky went black, the heavens opened, the stage crew were soaked to the skin after ferrying props in from the store then had to stand by the doors armed with sand-bags as the car park filled with water and threatened to pour into the hall, and (just to add atmosphere) the lights flashed dramatically every few minutes!

It was like a cross between a horror movie set (flash, bang, scream!) and a Miss wet t-shirt contest, added to which the sight of one actress in shocking pink tights (and little else!) chatting to another dressed as a lady vicar was quite surreal.

We open tomorrow night - wish us luck - I feel we're going to need it! :)