DrewVogel.COM

Finally! Tonight was the opening night of DINNER WITH FRIENDS, the show I directed for Falcon Theater. After a quick dinner of a Turkey, Cheddar, and Sliced Egg sandwich & some chips from nearby Dixie Chili, I headed to the theater and found lots of last-minute activities as we prepared for our opening night.

We had a good house — maybe the largest number of audience members for an opening night in Falcon’s recent history (we’re checking on that) — and they were very enthusiastic about the show.

Everything went very well. The cast and crew did a great job. I am very proud of them. I wasn’t nervous until about 8:15, when I had just a few minutes of nervousness.

After the show, cast & crew joined in a toast to our opening. Most everyone hung out for a while, but I left early; exhausted.

Tonight must be the calm before the storm. In a fit of confidence, I gave my actors last night off from rehearsal of DINNER WITH FRIENDS, the show I’m directing for Falcon Theater, to allow them to rest and work on their lines before we head into heavy-duty tech rehearsals which start Wednesday evening.

Wendy & I had show-related tasks to do at home, so we were rather busy… I baked all the cakes we’ll use during the run of the show (six in total), ‘mummy-wrapping’ and freezing them as I got done with them. Wendy took time to re-write the props plot for the show — the listing of what-goes-where-and-when that is critical to running a smooth operation backstage. She’s very good at that type of organization, and I’m grateful to have her back there. That’s one thing off my list of things to worry about.

So we hung around the house and did our various show-chores. During the preparation of the cakes, I ate some cottage cheese, potato chips, a handful of dry-roasted peanuts, and an orange, so I guess that counts as dinner. The downtime let us watch an episode of 24 and last night’s AMERICAN IDOL (go Taylor go!), almost like normal folk.