we open tomorrow!

Last night, we haunted the Ragan Theater until exactly Midnight, working and re-working the intensely intricate motions of this show. Spike tape litters the stage like confetti on New Year's Eve. Electrical wires and power cords lay like vines, snaking up light trees and cameras. Every detail of every scene change was assigned, re-assigned, worked, and re-worked. A cast and crew of forty-or-so college students maintained an incredible level of concentration, while working costumes, makeup, and set changes for six nonstop hours. If we're not ready, it isn't because we're not busting our butts.

What impressed me the most last night was a short walk I took across the stage at around 11:00. We had been rehearsing furiously for 5 hours. At this point in a typical rehearsal, students would have checked out. But as I walked surreptitiously from station to station, I noticed that every single conversation - and there were at least ten - was totally focused on solving a specific problem on stage. Nearly everyone at nearly every moment of this production process has been intently, patiently, and urgently focusing on making Nosferatu work.

I'm literally awed by the work this cast and crew have accomplished.

So, barring some sort of catastrophic event this evening (when we run the whole show for the first time ever), we're good to go.