thunder road

The shadow of the lone detractor to my show lays heavily on the production. This prudish little man's pungent, outspoken rejection of our show, and claims that it is obscene and not fit for the standards of our town or our theater has left a poisonous aftertaste throughout the whole situation. The production has been having its difficulties without his raising his pussy flag in protest.

Last night's rehearsal was the first we got to actually share in the theater, given the above director's current show that has taken precedence. The whole place is under construction and transition, from the leadership on down to the internal structure of the theater. Walls are temporarily absent, sawdust lingers on the floor like entrails of termites on parade, nails, screws, cords, and power tools lay about as if Home Depot had a twister.

The day had progressed so well beforehand. I had a surprisingly satisfying conversation with my mother, I accomplished a fair amount about the show and around the house, and my girlfriend and I had a delicious meal at one of our favorite joints. The fact that the above director's assistant was still warming up the theater with his presence when we arrived offered a bit of sandpaper rub to the wound. He almost seemed surprised that we were gathering for our rehearsal. It would be nice if our time there could be respected.

But that wasn't the end of it. It's already known that our lead actress is out of town. There's nothing I could do to prevent this. The rest of my troupe seemed no better, with one distracted by happenstance of a dead car battery before rehearsal, another by work and other responsibilities overspilling into this and other rehearsal time, and the other by the contents of the flask in his pocket.

And then it started to rain. It started to pour down as if we had all neglected to follow the weather report, and this would be a storm to knock out the power, and we would all hope that sawdust tastes as good as they say. The roof of the theater has never been known to take kindly to a hard rain. It's one of the reasons that any actor who seems to exhibit difficulty in the projection department is always forewarned about what an audience would get from them during a rainstorm show.

Maybe with my lead out of town, I should not have bothered to meet with the remaindered cast two days in a row. I like to gather to collect our thoughts, run through to help actors learn their lines, and generally grow a rapport. As much work as I have put into this show already, the time moves forward, but it keeps feeling like the show is un-preventatively on pause. I can just hope that the literal rain offers us a bit of a metaphoric fresh start.