Prepping for the Road

It's Saturday night, and tomorrow we have two more shows at the Guthrie and then we're gone.   Much of my attention in these last couple days has been focused more on packing and preparing to leave than on the shows we have remaining here.

I did most of my laundry last night, and will do the last bit tonight.  I cleaned my apartment last night, and tonight is my last opportunity to pack.  In the morning before the matinee call we have to bring our luggage to the parking lot of the Guthrie, where the crew bus is already parked.  As soon as the show is loaded out tomorrow night we hop on board and are off to West Lafayette, IN.  The cast will get picked up by their bus at the company housing on Monday morning, and will arrive at West Lafayette in the evening.

Our production manager and tech director, Joel, took all of the crew, as well as our staff rep director and company manager, out to dinner tonight between shows.  This was our last opportunity to talk as a group about anything that might need to be said about how things will work on the road.  It was a great opportunity for all of us to get on the same page and approach our next challenges as a team.  By the time we walked back to the theatre, our bus had arrived, so a bunch of us ventured to the parking lot to take a tour of the bus, and meet our driver, Bart.  He has been driving the crew bus for The Acting Company for many years, and by all accounts is incredibly awesome.

Here's Nick and one of our actors, Andy, who happened to tag along to see the bus, testing out the couches in the back lounge (pardon my flash -- there are a lot of mirrored surfaces).

   In the morning I plan to come in early (which Nick thinks is hysterical because lately I'm never early, and barely on time for my own duties) to clean up all of the random stage management stuff strewn around the theatre.  We have a cardboard box that lives under the seats in the theatre with a bunch of stuff that needs to get thrown out, and a bunch of stuff that needs to be packed in our road box before the whole place turns into a disaster area during load-out.  So I hope to have a lot of time to make order out of all our belongings so there's as little as possible to keep track of after the shows.

We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but everyone is very excited to start the most adventurous part of this gig.