And Another Thing!

Bruce comes backstage after the show tonight and asks why the second intermission was so long. I consult my report and tell him it was 20 minutes and 23 seconds. He wanted to know why we couldn't start when the audience was all in their seats. I told him that regardless of the audience being ready, I cannot start until the orchestra manager tells me they're legal. Even though they technically only need a 15-minute break, if it's a posted 20-minute intermission, I can't start until their stopwatch says 20.

The irony here is that we've been rehearsing all week with 15-minute intermissions, and we're going to have 15-minute intermissions at the matinee tomorrow and the second intermission of the evening show to cut back on orchestra overtime. The first intermission tomorrow night will be 20 because Leslie is convinced that front of house needs that long to get all the women in and out of the restrooms after the 58-minute Acts I and II. We've put a lot of thought into the lengths of these intermissions over the past four weeks, and tonight he decides it's too long. I finally just told him we'll never have another 20-minute second intermission, so it won't be a problem.

I could really use some Tension Tamer tea right now, but all I had that was decaf was Black Cherry Berry. It's helping some, but so is writing this on the blog. Today's been unecessarily emotionally turbulent. Sigh. It must be April.