so - i'm losing track of days here - we're getting one day off a week, but it's not regular. and i think if it weren't for union rules they'd work us every day! it feels like winter quarters is never going to end and there are all these people there everyday, but no fruits
until today - we had the first run through of act I. over the past few days, the band has been staggering our lunch so we can do sound checks while the floor is empty.
there's a great deal of scheduling for the performers to get their floor time to rehearse and block their own acts. of course there's a lot of space and several preformers so there are always acts getting their stuff ready.
it's not all toiling and brick making though - there have been 2 nights of note - Gag Night and Act Night
Gag Night is where the clowns presented what they've been working on - different acts to be or not to be the the show. there were solo and duet acts mostly and one 4 man act that was great. it was great to see the clowns in their element doing something fresh. everyone's been doing the same show for 2 years now - so there's definately that excitement here in WQ despite the long days...
12 clown gags in all, and i believe 6 were accepted.
last night was act night and was most of our first peeks at the new acts. you'd think with all this circus people flipping and jumping everywhere we'd have seen SOME of these acts by now ... but we, the band, are locked up in this back room playing this new music almost as quickly as it gets written and printed in yet aNOther cave of a room with all the orchestraters, composers, and copyist in it. if i'm not there, i'm off at my keyboards programming them and revising and re-organizing samples and loops and patches orders.... it's tedious, but fun ... but ... tedious
so ... right .. act night .... it was nice to just sit back and enjoy a show of sorts and they laid it out as best as could be done - it was dubbed "The Greatest Act Night on Earth" (for a more detailed expounding of Ringling's protocol concerning standards of greatness please click here
the acts are shaping up to be classic circus, and i couldn't be happier
there's a trapeze act! and several handbalancing and contortion act!
we had neither of these things this past tour.
the new tiger act looks great - more tigers and the tamer is a charmismatic guy with great presence
we've also recently at least run acts I & II so there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel - mostly we're just trying to stay focused and get sleep where we can.
