Rumors goes off with out a hitch....

...in spite of all the things that went wrong. I only wish they could have put on a few more performances, such a lot of work-on the part of the actors, as well as us-for only 3 nights! Oh well, they all did a tremendous job and had a great time doing it. Here's what the set looked like when it was all done:
Other pics from the performance itself are at www.incrediblethreads.com/rumors.html if you're interested.

So now it's back to my regularly scheduled life, which first and foremost involves catching up on all the sewing I didn't do last week. In spite of my best efforts, I did fall behind....I refuse to stay up past 3 am working. I am not kidding. I did finally get to meet Carol Mars from the Pequot Museum, and she had great things to say about my work! She did place a large order for shirts and other stuff, pending the completion of my vendor paperwork, so I need to get going on that. And this week I have an appointment with Deb Burns; I have been promising to paint a tree in her hallway for at least a year now, and she's been so patient with me! Also I have a myspace page, finally, but I don't have a clue how to make it work so I need to book some time with my son (yes, it's come to that...between work and musical and theatrical projects, he's hardly ever here for more than 5 minutes) to walk me through it.

One last note; check out Georgia's new project at www.thequotebookcomic.com (CAUTION: May contain strong language and hilarity). And if you want to see some real talent go to www.georgiadunn.net

1 Day Till Rumors

We can breathe just a little, the construction is DONE. This is what it looked like when we left last night. All the flats with the painting on them were borrowed from the Chariho Players, left over from their past shows. The whole thing needs to be painted, which the U/M crew is supposed to do in the morning (nothing like last minute!) and we are going down in the early afternoon to put carpet on the stairs, hang curtains, hang some art and stuff on the walls, and just generally put the finishing touches on. Oh and clean up the big mess we left behind it...scrap wood, tools, sawdust, all that. I can't believe we pulled it off, I really am amazed. What scares me is that PJ never doubted it for a second. He had said, "I'm not worried at all." and I said, "Are you insane? I'm worried! I'm worried a LOT!" He had enough to worry about though. Today something else went wrong, something very major which I won't go into...it was solved by an executive decision to put me on the U/M Board. THAT'S RIGHT, Mom, I'm now an official Director of Ungar/Madison Productions, Inc. Have a good laugh. As for me, I'm too tired to laugh.

2 DaysTill Rumors

At the end of two days of construction at the school, we have made a lot of progress...but not nearly enough. Still need to put up walls, hang the other door, etc. etc. UBS has come to our rescue, just because I asked them (and thanks to Preston for suggesting THAT), they gave us $200 of building materials so we should have enough to finish. We were clueless as to how we were EVER going to make it with no materials and no money. The thing probably won't be pretty, because there will be no time left to paint anything. BUT it will be functional, and I have some curtains to hang and some pictures for the walls and hopefully the acting will be so stellar as to distract the audience from the set.

And the drama continues....the sound and light guy dropped out, so they have had to find someone else to do that job. I am refraining from any comments as to the problems this show is having, in fear of tempting the fates to screw something else up. Our son is learning the lesson that I at my advanced age continue to learn, which is that you cannot completely rely on other people to do what they are supposed to do. This is why I'm the way I am, I am convinced that things won't get done the way they need to be done unless I do them myself. So I take on way too much myself and can't delegate. Total control freak, but there is a good reason for it. Unfortunately in a situation like this, he physically can't do all the jobs himself so he has to just hope for the best. Pardon my ramblings, I am running on much stress and little sleep this week.

3 Days Till Rumors

So this is what the set looked like at the end of the day, the first day of construction at Westerly Middle School....We got quite a bit done, although the amount of work still to come is too daunting to think about. The poor director got some bad news, one of the cast members dropped out today. Her mother made her quit. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What kind of person does that, effectively screwing the whole production 4 days before the show? Great lesson to teach your kid, just because you're in a snit. But fortunately, the show does go on. They found a replacement and so far it looks like she is having no problem filling those heels. So rehearsals continue, as does the
construction.

4 Days till Rumors

Preston continued the set construction today, although he's pretty much out of materials and had to scrounge some junk lumber from somewhere. I managed to find some doors for us to use, but they're in bad condition. I know we need to make due with what we can get, but some of them are probably so bad as to be unusable!
On the positive side, the Ungar/Madison crew held a car wash today to try and raise some money and I guess they did a pretty good business. Also I managed to sell a few more ads for the program so that we will be able to afford to pay to be in the school for a few more hours to construct the set. It's very hard to pull stuff off at the last minute with no money, but I have to say we are getting pretty good at it after having done it so many times over the years. I just hope there is a good turnout or it will all be for naught. PJ says he is not worried and he thinks everything will come together fine, although the other day I heard him tell one of the other guys that he had a huge knot in his stomach. Being the director, if things are bad it reflects not only on the company but on him too.

5 Days till Rumors...

...and set construction begins.... With lots of help from Myah....How we're ever going to pull this off under the circumstances, I don't know but we're giving it our best shot. And the circumstances are these; Ungar/Madison Productions has no money to buy wood, etc.; there is wood and some set pieces left over from some of the Chariho Players shows that we can use, but it's locked up at one school and needs to be brought to another school to use. Trying to get into schools in the summer is chancy; on the weekend in the summer it's quite impossible. Also we need several doors, and UBS is not open from Saturday 1:00 until Monday morning even if we had money to buy them. So we need to borrow doors from people, which sounds nuts but I've done it before. We'll see what I can come up with. A lot of the people I know are used to strange requests from me, and I have no problem making them! The other problem we have is actually BEING in Westerly Middle School to build the set; U/M has no money to pay the janitors/fees which is what you need to do to even set foot in a school in the summer.

Upholstery for fun and no profit

In preparation for the play that PJ is directing, I am attempting to secure set furniture and costumes. As things so often happen to me for some unknown serendipitous reason, the day PJ told me he needed two chairs, our neighbor down the street put two large wing chairs on his front lawn free for the taking. So I took them. The chairs themselves were in structurally great condition, just the fabric was faded and that on the arms was completely destroyed. I thought, how hard can it be to do a hack job of covering them? They only have to look good from a distance. It is to laugh. I asked Nancy the Upholstery Queen (no sarcasm here, she really is!), if she could just do a quick job on them and she said there is no such thing. So I did it myself. Here's what they looked like before:
I got some really elegant fabric from Nancy the Upholstery Queen ($4 a yard!!) and went to work with my staple gun and my hammer. It took me two afternoons to do both chairs. "There's good money in that upholstery stuff, you should go into that. Professionally". I hear my father's voice in my head; surprisingly enough, I didn't hear it in my ears this time. I'm very sure there is good money in it, and now I know there's a very good reason for that. Two afternoons and one very large blister (from the staple gun), many wasted staples, many safety pins and many naughty words later, I have two chairs that will not hold up to close inspection.
Nancy, my hat is off to you. But they look good from a distance, and if they survive the play I will be happy. Happy, nothing...I'll be astonished! No, I kid. They will be fine, you just can't look in the back or under the cushions!