Wednesday, March 26, 2003

I've entered that point in the rehearsal process where the demands of this hobby begin to take their toll. My energy is down and I've been dragging around like this for more than a week. That's a large part of the reason for the six day lag between this post and the last.

Other things have contributed, like foolishly staying up to watch the whole Oscar telecast despite the fact that I had a pre-work errand to run Monday morning, and a whirlwind trip to Chicago by car the weekend before that. The psychological effect of the war is also chipping in, I'm sure. Mostly it's the show, though.

I'm a bit worried that I'm hitting this point so early. Music Man opens a month from yesterday. In the past, things haven't gotten rough for me until three weeks out from opening night, so history says I should have another week and a half before the slogging begins. Yet here I am, and I've been here for some time already.

Part of the reason is that I've got a role that requires me to be at rehearsal every night. I'm not complaining about that, because Harold Hill is one of a handful of parts that I've wanted to play for years. The nightly grind just can't be ignored as a factor.

The main contributor is most likely that Music Man is the first show I've done since autumn 2001 where I've also had a job to go to each weekday. The last three shows I did happened during my unemployment, and with no clock to punch and the job search as my only other activity, the shows were my main focus.

Of course, prior to the eleven month period of joy and puppies that was my employment interregnum I'd always had either work or school to attend to, and the three-week rule of thumb was generally correct. The difference now, I think, is that I'm out of practice. I'm like a long-distance runner who broke training for a year and is trying to get his stride back.

I have no doubt that I'll make it to the end of this race, but I'll probably forgo a victory lap at the end.

Posted @ 10:13 AM

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