(This entry recaps Saturday since I'm behind.)

Saturday: I got up (which was hard) and went craft fairing, as we traditionally do on this first Saturday of December. Dawn drove (thank goodness because it is pouring like crap), with Loretta and I along, and Becky along for the first show but not the second since she had to be home by 2. We went to the Woodland craft fair, which had many, many good things on offer and things I desperately wanted to buy for someone who'd appreciate them...and alas, I don't have anyone who would appreciate those things in my life that I have to buy gifts for. That said, I did find one gift--a stuffed Darth Vader for Rae. That was the one thing I got all day, hah hah.
I ran into Bridget while she's there--said she's in the elf show in Winters. Said I was too occupied to audition for that, which explained to her why I wasn't there. It sounds like the Grand Princeoreum that they're performing in (or whatever it's called) is interesting....more on this later in the month.

I will note that I sent my mom a picture of a potential gift, her reaction was “cute” (for her, that's an indication of "don't really care") and then the next day she wanted me to get it. Um, too late now, wish you’d reacted more positively instead of her version of eh... She said “call me!” and I said, “remember how you called me and it was so loud in there I couldn’t hear you at all and said to text me?” So....yeah.

We then slogged over to Carmichael (which was a bit of pain to drive around and find things at) to go to the infamous St John's craft fair. I've never been to it before or particularly wanted to because it's at a Very Catholic location (and indeed it is Very Very Very Catholic Everywhere) and that turns me off as a weirdo who does not fit with Catholicism. But this year we didn't have that many on our list to go to, as some of the ones we went to on this day in the past have been discontinued, so we went. It wasn't bad. It's a pretty big one and they theme the rooms ("man cave," food, fabric, garden), so that was helpful. Dawn and Loretta got a few things at that one.

I was a good girl and restrained myself on Shopping for Me, for a change, but god, it's so much easier to shop for me or other weirdos than Normal People, like my mom. Seriously, I'm so tired of having to buy for "I don't want or need anything, I don't like any of your gifts, I think it's rude to give money or gift cards, if you buy me food I will take it as you're trying to make me fat." I started designing some kind of Present Amnesty website in my head, like you have a piece of paper that says,

"Dear X, I just wanted to give you a token of my love and let you know that I truly love you. HOWEVER: (a) I've asked you what you want for Christmas and you don't want or need anything. (b) You think it's tacky to give gifts of money. (c) You don't want food gifts ,or experience gifts, or anything else I've tried. (d) For the last (fill in the blank number of years), you haven't liked anything I've tried to get you. Therefore, I am just giving you my love and an indicator that I love you, but I am no longer wasting hours of my time and money trying to get you a gift when you don't want or need anything tangential I can get you. Love, X."

Or maybe we need to swap who buys presents for people. Have me shop for other people's relatives who like weird things or craft things, and someone else can go out and buy "normal people" gifts for me?

Looks like Scott's not going tonight (didn't sign up for ushering like he said he was going to). As usual, he disappoints me.

Show:

The last time we had huge rain/flash flooding in October, the roof leaked. No, the landlord didn't fix it.

YUP, THE ROOF LEAKED AGAIN. It leaked during the Descendants kids show in the afternoon (though I note Maya, our Tiny Tim, got to sub in as the character of Audrey in that show and was quite pleased. She is officially The Most Hardcore Theater Person I know, doing two shows at once, with an hour break in between them, full blown musicals in both shows. I've done two at once, but one was a 10 minute play!) and it leaked all through our show too. About a fourth of the stage was taped off, had flood buckets and towels, etc. I took photos of this and Sage was all, "Are you taking pictures of things going wrong with the show?" Yes indeedy. I felt like Evita became a cursed show (see late April and all of May entries if you care) and this weekend sure seemed to be heading into that territory, albeit not as bad since this time we didn't cancel and only one person's sick.

I note that DMTC has a custom theater Steve designed, but man, is he unhappy with the landlord, who raises the rent every few months. Steve shares with EVERYONE before every show every time the rent goes up ($14k per month now), every few months, and there isn't fuckall he can do about it and they won't repair anything either. He said he called today and they blamed us and the air conditioner, even though it only leaks in winter when it's raining.

I note that Scrooge Scott asked, “What witch in Descendants cursed us?" and Kimmie (props master/ sound person on this show) said, "No, I know the witches and they're very sweet."

Anyway: call time was at 6:30 and we spent until 7:20 redoing all the dance numbers so as to not use the wet corner of the stage. (You should have seen Dannette's "ffs" face she made when she walked in and saw this going on. Yeah, same.) This was a whopping not a lot of time for everyone to get into elaborate costumes, do makeup, get the mics put on (mic testing and vocal warmups were pitched out the window except for what we did in the dressing room). We started late, but the show went on...albeit raining in London the entire time. I'm surprised Other Jennifer's line about "It rains in London every day!" didn't get a bigger laugh under the circumstances. Steve-the-Beadle-now-Xmas-Present did do an ad lib about the dancers not twirling into the rain spot, hahahah. Steve-New-Beadle made a crack about it snowing (we have a snow machine come on for like 5-10 seconds at the end) AND raining in London.

StB was plugging along, got some more lines in and ad-libs, so good for him there. And nobody got injured or wet, thank goodness, because I was especially worried about the dang tap shoes. I did get a splinter in my finger from the wheelbarrow, which I hopefully pulled out(?) at the time, but I'm not too sure on that. At least it didn't bleed on anything.

One lady told me afterwards this was their second time going to the show (I'm impressed) and therefore they could compare the Omar-as-Present time to this one and she said we did a good job at adapting to the situation. (I suppose it's probably interesting to the audience to see us operating under minor disaster conditions too!) I think the holiday sweater 2-for-1 sale has definitely increased the number of people in the last few weeks compared to opening weekend, plus I get to see sweaters! And one former theater performer here who taped his shoes to look like disco bling.

But hey, I appreciate that people still came in horrendous rain...because Scott didn't even though last weekend he claimed he was going to. So, yeah. I'll finish my comments on THAT on Sunday's entry.

Quotes:

Scrooge Scott: "Welcome to the shit show" and "We're dealing with a tiny little issue with the stage."
"Why did they cast so many tall people. Thank god Omar isn't here." (Omar is 6'6.)

Steve: "Isn't it sad the entire cast fits in the front row?"

Noel during pre-show rehearsal, minus the food table in the Fezziwig scene: "When I was dancing, I was all, we're dancing on the table." (The table was moved.)

Steve the Beadle: "Maya should be singing, she knows the whole thing."

Noel, on moving the Anderson family scene farther back: "We're just going to sing to the bucket." Jan: "I love it."

Jan: "Never a dull moment."

On the light setup not being able to be adjusted for the night, Sarah (light board): "Be blinded. You gotta suffer for your art."

Morgan: "Theater people, the most adaptable people we know."

Maya: "Why would I do TV acting when theater is much more fun?" Agreed.

After all of this, we had the cast party, which (upon having around less than 24 hours notice) had an interesting selection of food, ranging from ladylike cucumber sandwiches to "dump cake" to a Brie wheel to "crack" (Scrooge Scott covers oyster crackers in a zingy mix and thus it was dubbed). I ended up making cookies that I had a frozen pre-made pack from and thought they had come out bad, but almost all of them got eaten, so go figure. I also brought kettle chips, which is another form of crack everyone likes, whew. And Steve's stir fry was delicious. People discussed shows they'd done over the years, which is fun.

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