Posts Categorized: 2011 Season

Friday 7/22 – 1:08 pm Pre-show talk moved to the shade! Temp: 101 The National Park Service Interpretive program, with whom we collaborate on our preshow talks at the Filene Center, called to ask if we wanted to cancel this evening’s preshow festivities due to the heat. “No!” says I, for I want nothing more

Friday 7/22 – 11:20 am NBC 4  Temp: 97 Ashlyn Rust (Johanna), Ed Mout (Toby) and Dustin Lucas (Beadle Bamford) rolled in here this morning on 30 minutes’ notice to speak with Derrick Ward of NBC4. Their brief interviews should run as part of a weather story (It’s hot, y’all!) on this evening’s news at

Friday 7/22 – 2:45 am Overnight Tech Call: Hour 3 Temp: 81 Two years ago, we did Boheme at this theatre, on an epically beautiful night in August.  At the end of a day when the high temperature was lower than the low temperature will be tonight. Sigh. This is where I exit. The crew

Friday 7/22 – 1:27 am Overnight Tech Call: Hour 2 Temp: 82 Production Stage Manager Beth at her console, keeping me company on stage right as I try to type up notes for my pre-performance discussion tomorrow night. (Oops… later today…) Pre-performance discussion: 7:15pm at the log cabin, near the Encore Circle tent. I will

Friday 7/22 – 12:31 am Beginning of overnight tech call Temp: 85 It’s cooling down in the house. The bugs are coming out, though (they must have been waiting until the heat abated, shaking their heads about the poor fool mortals who were out there working all day), and the smell of Deep Woods Off

Thursday 7/21 – 11:06 pm End of Rehearsal Temp: 89 What an amazingly generous, smart and even-tempered bunch of people. From the designers who have one night to realize their vision to the players and singers who gave their all to an empty house so that we could tech sound and lights, to the production,

Thursday 7/21 – 8:15 pm Top of Rehearsal Temp: 95 The only moment of recorded sound comes at the top of the show, with a jaw-dropping rendition of the Sweeney organ solo, performed by Thierry Escaïch and recorded for the April 2011 production at the Théâtre du Châtele. Chills up and down the spine in

Thursday 7/21 – 7:12 pm Wigs & Makeup Temp: 96 Meet the ladies of Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop, “fresh” from their wig & makeup calls.

Thursday 7/21 – 6:55 pm Dinner break! Temp: 98 Box lunches in the stage right lounge. Feels like summer camp.

Thursday 7/21 – 6:10 pm We hit the New York Times Temp: 98 (it has to drop soon, right?) I had the pleasure this morning of speaking with Daniel Wakin of The New York Times, and he just filed a lovely blog post about our Hottest of All Operas.