It's been a while

I haven't visited my blog space in a while. In fact, it's been so long, I had a hard time remembering my password!

Putting on a Variety Show, musical, what-have-you, is a tiring endeavor! The most frustrating things of all are those things which are completely out of my control. (There's a topic for deep discussion some day...is anything ever in my control?) I'm specifically talking about the tech crew.

These work-release guys are something! Once you get past the tattoos, piercings, doo-rags, unevenly shaved heads, body odor, and their failure to wear underwear (when they bend over to fix wires and things, you see more than you want to, okay? I'm constantly turning my head so fast that I think I've developed whip lash!), you get to see their real incompetence! But, you know, I can deal with incompetent people as long as they know they're incompetent. The trouble is, these guys think they're on the ball! On top of that, last evening, I was sitting in the control booth at the beginning of the show, and caught one or two errors that the lead techie had made. Then, his lackey comes in, and he asks me to leave so she can sit next to him at the control panel! So much for catching any more of his errors! All I can do is remind them each night of what was wrong the previous night, and hope it sinks in.

On the bright side, the kids are doing a great job. They're so enthusiastic and hardworking; willing to do whatever I ask, and all with a good disposition. What more could you ask?

On top of that, the stage moms are great to have on hand as well. Got a tear in the curtain? No problem, one mom just happens to have a box a safety pins. Got mic troubles? No worries, another mom is there with flesh tone tape to hold the mics on the kids' faces. Got a costume malfunction? Johnny on the spot, our costume mom is there with needle and thread and anything else.

So, I keep telling everyone, You're doing a great job! It's just the tech guys who need to work out their issues. I just hope they can rise to the challenge prior to our close tonight.