Raccoons and Padua

Last night I watched the Final Dress Rehearsal for Kiss Me Kate, which I'll get to later, but it was the first time I'd driven on these backroads at night, and I saw three raccoons and an oppossum on the 20-min drive back to Helen and David's house. That was a little weird.

Helen and David's house reminds me of Mucci's house in Buffalo. It's big and the furniture is fairly Victorian, but this house was certainly more "down home country" and more lived in. But I loved staying in their guest room. It was right inside the entrance to the house, and had a bathroom off the same little alcove to the room. It was also pretty big, with two twin beds, a fireplace, a dressing area, a desk, a chair, a big dresser, and two doors I assume lead to closets.

So, I packed up all my stuff this morning to move into my room in the dorm today, but once I arrived at work, Pamela told me that Audra had a lot of last-minute painting to do, so she was staying til tomorrow (they open tonight). Of course, Helen and David are going to the city for the night tonight, so even though they told me I was welcome to stay another night if my room wasn't ready, I still feel really awkward about it.

And as far as Kiss Me Kate goes, the obvious weak points were the gangsters (one of them has been a nightmare not knowing his lines and what not), the scene changes (which the cast does) took too long, and there were a couple sound-cue mix-ups. The thing about this place is they bring in 2 Equity actors, and several non-Equity professionals from the city, and the minor roles and chorus are made up of locals. All the singing was good (although, Petruchio spoke most of "Where is the Life that Late I Led?" until the director ran up with a glass of water), though I was particularly impressed with Bianca. And the choreography and dancing was very good, too. It just needs a little more polishing. I hope they tackle that this afternoon and their opening goes well. I'm probably not going to the performance tonight, but I was planning on going to the party (or at least I was before I found out I couldn't move in today). I may still go, because I don't want to seem anti-social.

Anyway,,, Back to work. I'm going to do the flash rom swap to print to the laser printer in the office since Fred is busy onstage all day and he's the one who can troubleshoot why I could add the printer wirelessly but cannot print. Ah well. And I don't have a hard copy of the ground plan, so I can't tape yet. But I don't have to bother with coffee here, so yay!

And right now, Michael is giving a voice lesson to this elderly man (in my rehearsal hall)--the song they're doing right now is "Old Friends" from Merrily We Roll Along. I totally want to sing along!