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Keep it Simple, Stupid
2006-03-13 - 5:03 p.m.

I had a really good time on Saturday with my lovely friends. It was so good to just sit and talk with them. There was a lot to catch up on. One has a new girlfriend, who is apparently just lovely. We haven�t met her yet, but my friend tends to have good taste and he seems quite smitten, so she must be good people. Another just split with her girlfriend, which is really her story to tell so I will leave it there. It was good to talk, though and feel things out with that. I really am so glad to know that I have this support network and that they also will come to me when they need support. This is what I�m talking about when I say someone is part of my friend-family. You are more than happy to offer your shoulder for them to smear snot on and you know they would do the same for you in a minute. I was also able to whinge a bit about a friend situation of my own and get their opinions and advice. We also shared gossip and such and ate good pub food and had a few drinks. Very nice. We need to do it again soon, though it will actually probably be a little ways off, as one is going to France and I head back into tech next week.

Yup, back into tech. This show coming up is giving me a few problems because it is turning out to be way too easy. I think that�s the first time I have ever said that. It�s a funny little musical; 1/3rd of it is set in a woman�s living room and another 1/3rd is in her dressing room. There is one 3- minute scene in a disco, but that is as exciting as it gets. I keep trying to think up ideas but everything I think of ends up going back to �That will look ridiculous, it�s a living room for chri�sakes!� I think I have finally resigned myself to just acknowledging that this isn�t a lighting show (which is a very strange thing to say about a musical) and I�m just going to focus (heh) on having really clean washes and stick to the basics, K.I.S.S. lighting, basically. It is actually a very good lesson for me, I think. Sometimes remembering that less really can be more and flash and trash is often just that and there are times, even in musicals, where lighting can just take a backseat and really not be very noticeable. We shall see how this goes. The disco scene is going to be hot, though.

There is still much to do, even with the scaling back, and I�m not sure when I�m going to do it all. I need two or three extra days in the week this week and it isn�t going to happen. It will come together, I think, but it will probably be a crunch at the end. The good thing about simpler lighting, though, is if you have two of three of your high sides working it is much easier to say, �Yeah, that spot won�t be dark. It just needs a new socket then it will look like the rest.� Than to say, �Well, it isn�t here yet, but this is when the flying monkey gobo starts swooping around the stage.� Imagining not darkness is easier than imagining something you have never seen before. It is also going to be interesting because there is a very distinct possibility I will be on the running crew for this show. It will be interesting to try to check cueing from backstage. I think I will be doing a lot of running through the rain next week to go from backstage to front of house between scene changes.

Time to run off.

when we last left our heros� - in our next exciting installment�