One down, two to go

Tonight was our first dress rehearsal; It went surprisingly smooth! I just dont know how we're going to be able to move around and do what we have to once we get three more musicians backstage left. We shall see how that all works out tomorrow. My costume totally makes me look like a reject character from Brokeback Mountain. It is definitely a new/different look for me. The cowboy boots KILL my feet - luckily I get two scenes in Act Two out of them and then some time off-stage before I have to put them on again. I'm still a little bummed about not using the body mics, but Helen told me that you could hear me in the next county - go go tenor belt!!! :-P Hopefully all of the lower stuff and the things I sing way upstage won't get drowned out by the musicians. That's another thing that we'll have to wait and see tomorrow how it pans out. Check back tomorrow - same bat time, same bat place!

P.S. I'll do my best to get some pics of me in my Sheriff Joe Sutter get-up.

We're gettin' there!

On Friday night we had our very first rehearsal with the entire band. We have four pieces - a keyboard, Accoustic Guitar, Violin and Electric Bass. We sang through the entire show, which even though it took a decent chunk of time, went very well - especially considering all of the guys were sight-reading. That being said, the music has an AMAZING country feel to it...I can't wait to see how everything feels when all of the elements are combined onstage for the first time - it's going to be something VERY special and unique.

On Saturday, we all arrived at the theatre at 10 A.M. to have our tech. Instead of doing a Cue-to-Cue and then run the entire show, we ran the show and recorded all of the cues as we went through it. We had quite a bit of down time. We started running the actual show around 11 A.M. and by 1 o'clock, when lucnh arrived we hadn't even gotten through HALF of Act one. We all sat at the picnic tables outside, even though it was a little chilly. After lunch we all headed back upstairs and picked up where we left off - with "Ice and Snow." A few changes that happened yesterday were that we moved the band from down in front of the stage to off-stage left. Things are going to be a little cramped and awkward - especially with the wheel-barrow for "Shoot the Moon", but I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out on Tuesday night - our first night with the band in the theatre. Another "obstacle" that Cindy and I have now is that because they have to put the floor in on top of the stairs on stage left in order to have the back wall for "Out of the Fryin' Pan" roll in, we're not able to go out the S.L. door into the lobby to head up to the Balcony (Me in "Ice and Snow") and the house (Cindy in "Shoot the Moon"). It's really interesting (ok..HIGHLY amusing) to watch the two of us sit down and slide out the door...It's definitely going to make for good times. LOL. Claudia has also decided to NOT use Body Mics. Not a huge deal, but I was actually kind of looking forward to using them. Oh well. Tomorrow night we're back in the Theatre with Costumes and make-up. I'm looking forward to it. Stay tuned dear readers!

Photos: 1.View from the Stage of the Antrim Playhouse. 2. Alison and I during some down time. 3. Cindy and I before the rehearsal.

Hey Y'all!

Hey everyone! I decided to start this blog because I've been having a great time working on a fantastic little musical called The Spitfire Grill and unfortunately this is my first time doing a show and not having any of my friends in the company with me. I can't tell you how much I miss working with you guys!! So hopefully I'll be able to keep this updated and you all will check back often! Since I don't have a rehearsal tonight and nothing to write about, I figured I'd just take a second to explain who everyone is that I might be referring to in later blogs - this way you guys aren't confused.

The Cast
Percy Talbott - Monica Olive
Shelby Thorpe- Alison Rastelli
Hannah Ferguson - Helen Ballantyne
Joe Sutter- T. Eric Collins (That's me!)
Effy Krayneck- Cindy Rea
Caleb Thorpe - Doug Ward
Eli Ferguson - Stephen St. Vincent

Production Team
Director - Claudia Stefany
Musical Director - Chris Bankey
Producer - Jim Guarasci

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Tomorrow night is our Sitz Probe - our first rehearsal with the entire band (I guess we'll call them the band). I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow night after the rehearsal and then after that we start our tech week on Saturday morning - so stay tuned!