Some weeks are harder than others

Yes, I am aware that I've been M.I.A. since Tuesday. Sometimes that's how it goes in the entertainment industry. There are shows that go up without a hitch and you just seem to breeze right through tech week into opening night with enough time for a pedicure and an oil change. Other weeks are like the one I just had.

We opened "The AMT Band plays Abbey Road" last night. Catchy title, right? I'm being sarcastic, of course. That's just about the only criticism I have of this show, though. The title stinks. Everything else is pretty amazing- the show is a visual stunner, and I'm not just talking about the costumes. The entire set is like one giant light box- it reminds me of Mondrian's color blocking artwork. Actually, there's even a costume I made that is inspired by Mondrian's color blocking as well, only I used the color palette of neon pink, neon green and black as opposed to his palette of red, white, black, yellow and blue. I promise to post pictures of the show eventually. Much like everything else with getting this show together, we're behind on getting actual show pictures taken. We did, however, have a photo shoot for the promotional materials a couple of weeks ago, so I'm happy to share some of those with you:

See the cool light boxes?

Left to right: Sam, Gus, Michelle, Todd and Jared- the talented singers in our cast.

As you can see, this picture above features Missy, one of our talented dancers, wearing the Mondrian-inspired gogo dress made with neon pink and green vinyl. Yes, vinyl. It's always classy in my costume shop! ;)

Anyway, as I mentioned, this show was particularly hard to get up for a number of reasons- most of them related to the technical elements of getting a show together. And because of that, I'm not going to bore you with them. I'm just going to say that some weeks are harder than others. On top of everything, I managed to get a flat tire while out running show-related errands. Like I said, some weeks are harder than others.

But no matter how hard the week, all our efforts paid off. The show is without a doubt a great one. Our artistic director, Andrea, has outdone herself on this one. She was given the concept of creating a show in two acts. The first act needed to be the Beatles' album "Abbey Road." Note-for-note, the music absolutely HAD to remain the same as the album. Our cast and band took on the challenge and they sound amazing. As for the visual, she created a beautiful, artistic visual "ballet" for lack of a better word. I don't want to tell you too much, in case you want to come and see it (and I strongly recommend that you do if you live in the area), but just know that it is whimsical at times, dark and edgy at others, but the entire act is so well done, I was in awe when I saw it all "Come Together." (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.) For act 2, she chose to rewind back to the Beatles early music and then take the audience on a fairly chronological journey sampling music from most of their albums. There are some original arrangements, and others done a la "Across the Universe" or arrangements of other artists' cover versions of Beatles songs. Much like the first act, there are a lot of interesting visual choices utilizing the light boxes, among other conventions.

Hopefully I'll recover soon and get back to blogging regularly! In the meantime, enjoy another photo from the show: