It's been over two weeks since I did my first official "run" of the full two-act version of my one-man musical Miss Isabella Rainsong and Her Traveling Companion: A One-Guitar Show at the Howard County Center for the Arts on October 5-7, 2018. I'm still trying to get caught up with all the things left undone or neglected -- from work to family to just pausing to catch my breath.
There's lots to say about the experience and I will say more soon, but for now here are some highlights:
Every night had its own special crisis that needed to be dealt with, but every night was also special. As usual, the hours leading up to the show were a little chaotic as ordered lights weren't released or dimmers weren't dimming or traffic was at a standstill in the area. But the show went on and the talk backs were wonderfully helpful in further honing the performances. Each night, I made modifications based on the feedback from the prior night.
Backstage Baltimore published a particularly kind review! I'm grateful for the feedback and the encouragement of this review and hope to find a new performance home for the show sometime in 2019.
It takes some fuzzy math to come up with it (mostly ignoring all the sunk costs of creating this show), but I calculated that, after all expenses, I made about $3.82 per hour when I add up all the hours I tracked against preparing for and performing this three-day run! Had my wonderful light and sound designers, Terry and Jay Paul, not graciously volunteered their time along with the many others who ushered, filmed, photographed, baked cookies, and hosted (to my love, Kym, MWAH!), we would have come out deeply in the red. It's good to have friends and family!
My good friend Dr. Steve Labkoff of Luminant Pix once again filmed the show two nights and my son filmed the third. This time we captured the audio from the board. So I should be able to come up with a decent video by grabbing the best shots from the three nights -- a primary goal of the run.
For now, my focus is on getting the CD produced and getting work done. Thank you all for continuing to support this dream. It is one step closer in the process of seeing what it can become in fullness. Stay tuned...