3rd and applicable assignment

Now that my show has ended and I’ve had some down time to process the
whole process, I’m here to mention some surprises I’ve encountered.
Foremost, my opening night didn’t go as well as expected.  It wasn’t so
much that anything went wrong, but their energy was fairly low and a lot
of the genuineness went out the window.  Maybe I should have mentioned
something about it before the show or perhaps I shouldn’t have ran it
twice each rehearsal in the two days prior.  Actually, one of my goals
was to not run the show twice a day; I’ve been in productions in which
that was asked of us and it was much more a hindrance than a help.  I
think that it has a much greater possibility to run the show dry.
However, at the time I knew we weren’t where we needed to be. 
A pleasant surprise though, was my cast.  They all went above and beyond
what was expected of them.  Natalie was a godsend during tech, as well
as spot on with lines and (along with Nikki) wonderfully professional.
At the get-go, I was a bit skeptical of casting a 17 year old in such a
serious and dire role.  Also, most of Nikki’s experience fell into the
musical genre, and I was afraid that would get in her way.  To her
credit though, I thought she played the role in a very realistic
fashion.  Hank was in the same boat.  We all know and love his antics
and they play beautifully on the stage, on the other hand that wasn’t
what my show was about.  One of my first stylistic choices was to do a
real slice of life show.  At points I even let them speak up-stage
because in life, there isn’t an audience to play to.  It was a fun line
I had them balance between keeping the realistic bits in and still
getting their emotions across.  I thought they walked the line quite
fine.  A bit of criticism for Nick now, I had fairly low expectations of
him.  After casting him I heard the tales of his missing rehearsals,
“getting around” to learning his lines, and generally unprofessional
behavior.  At the start, that’s what I got.  He was often late or
getting there just in time, (like hank) he ‘Gist’ed his lines for a bit,
and seemed more concerned with wooing Nikki than for the rehearsal at
hand.  He also neglected to tell me about a prior engagement until the
day before.  Another shot at him: while the rest of the cast was willing
to cancel plans to stay a bit later, he was too busy (he had gotten a
girls phone number and wanted to give her a ring.)  With that said, by
the end he had notably improved.  He was off-book, on time, and very
gung-ho by the end of the rehearsal period.  I would have been worlds
happier if he had started off that way, but we can’t always get what we
want.  
To the question of the day though, there weren’t that many surprises I
didn’t see coming.  For instance, I knew my cast would need more time
than they were given for lines, so I gave them very little, asking to
have them off-book at the return from spring break, about 2 weeks
earlier than actually expected.  (With the exception of Nikki who was
completely off-book upon return)  They were right on schedule.  I was
pretty proud. 
Oh!  One surprise I should have planned for: the working toaster oven.
I probably should have had that in earlier instead of waiting till the
last minute.  Natalie, having never worked with it beyond the 2 shows,
turned it a bit too far when angrily shutting it off and taking out her
bagel. It turned right back on.  Long story short, I ran backstage to
let Nikki know to turn it off the second she was on stage again.  When
she asked her motivation: “You’re motivation is to NOT burn the theater
down with everyone in it.”  She took it well and quite possibly saved
the show. 
As mentioned before though, not many unforeseen crisis.  Would I do the
show again the exact same way?  Hell yes.