Do ghosts ever need naps? Do they have day jobs? This one (the Ghost of Xmas Past, a.k.a. GXP) sure does! It’s been a long week of late nights and hard work. The feet are sore and the eyes are bleary, and I’ve lost the plot to my life several times today and all week. But the excitement is building: the Preview performance (invited friends and family, staff of the Fine Arts Center, sponsors) is tonight and I think we’re ready. Not because the show is perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. But as they say, “There’s nothing like the threat of death at dawn to focus the mind.” And with that extra dose of excitement, mixed with a pinch of terror, we should be better able to focus and “bring home” the performance tonight on a Guinea-pig audience!
Tomorrow is opening night.
Last night went better than the night before; the kinks in the machine are getting fixed, one by one, bit by bit. There was some hilarity: Scrooge stripped off his night shirt at one point and stood, fearless, in his long-johns, when a needed blanket prop was not in place. That began a cascade of mischief, which you really had to be there for to appreciate, but suffice to say, I “lost it” on stage, and had to cover my face to conceal laughter. (With luck, Julian will at some point describe his shenanigans with poultry, but that may have to remain a backstage secret.) Out-of-character laughter is, of course, a no-no in performances. We must keep our character and our decorum no matter what is happening on stage and no matter how funny.
On another subject, I am reading the original Dickens “A Christmas Carol” to my 9-year-old daughter, Tess. Much of the text you will hear spoken on stage is taken verbatim from the book. I would recommend, as a delightful complement to seeing the play, that those with kids, or without, read the story first. It’s a delight. Dickens’ descriptions are so rich and vivid!!
That’s all from the Ghost of Christmas Past for the day. Onward and upward! (With luck, not downward and backward!)
Happy days to all,
GXP (Amy Brooks)