Not Gonna Make It

It's just not gonna happen. I put in over 9 hours of overtime last week & over 14 this week. (awesome paychecks, btw). Our first audience is this Friday & opening night is the following. We're just not gonna finish. I know I've blogged about the magic of theatre before & how it always gets done. Those of you in theatre know what I'm talking about. But this show would call for a ocean liner full of fairy dust to get it up on time.

All last week we concentrated on getting act one wearable since their first dress rehearsal is today (not this Wednesday as would be normal). Totally plausible right? WRONG!! My actress has 5 costumes, 4 OF THEM ARE IN ACT ONE!!!! They wanna wear Act two by Tuesday. Act two?!?! It's literally still in pieces under my table & I've still got hours of cutting to do on it before I can have the thing sew together let alone wearable.

The good news (I guess it's bad news too) is that everyone is this far behind. It's not just me. We started this far behind. For the AD's to think that a shop of this size can built 75% of "A Little Night Music" in 3 1/2 weeks is insane. We're supposed to start on the next show this week. No comment. Just hire more people you say? We've no where to put them & no machines for them to sew on if we did. I had both of my minions sewing last week while I was cutting. I was at a point I need to sew a littlebut there wasn't an open machine anywhere. We're tripping over each other there's so many of us in the shop.

Wait 'till you see what I've been making, though. GORGEOUS!!! I'm really excited about them. My actress has been a total head case but at least she's hasn't been mean (except for complaining to stage management that we were "picking on" her). In our last fitting, she's head to toe in fabric that's barbie pink with silver sparkle with her decolletage for all to see & she complains that she looks like a boy. WHAT?!?!?! She wants more shape. BUT YOU WON'T LET ME LACE YOUR CORSET TIGHT ENOUGH THAT I CAN'T PUT MY ENTIRE ARM IN THERE WITH YOU!!!! Of course you've no waist. In an earlier fitting she was freaking out, literally gasping for air & breaking out in a cold sweat because her corset was "too tight". I was able to get my entire arm, with room to spare, in her corset with her to do some pinning. How is that too tight? And I don't gots small arms!

All-in-all though, it's totally awesome. I love what I'm doing. I love the people I work with. It's hard, it's stressful, it's scary at times and yet my spirit smiles for the blessing to do what I love to do. Thank you, Jesus for the opportunity. I try every day not to take it for granted.