How Do You Solve a Problem Like Katrina?

Actually, Katrina's not the problem. Today's problem was just a verrrry slow blocking of Sleepy Hollow, which I think frustrated everyone except for me, as I was having the time of my life waving my hanky around at all my rustic admirers. Frankly, I could have kept giggling and flirting and hanky waving all day. You probably didn't know that was a marketable skill set. But it is. Anyway, we're progressing slowly towards getting all the shows blocked.

The entire show (1 hour and 45 minutes of nonstop family fun) is composed of five mini-plays.

1. The Tell-Tale Heart: crazy man hacks up old man he rents room from, thinks he hears his dead heart beating, caught by inspector, bla bla bla. I'm not in it. Moving on.

2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Gangly schoolmaster Ichabod Crane battles "roistering blade" Brom Bones for the heart of "country coquette" Katrina Von Tassel played (obviously) by moi, with lots of giggling. Headless Horseman enters, spookiness ensues. Today we blocked the Katrina-Brom courting scene, in which I am not impressed by his gift of a dead skunk. I have a teeny, tiny crush on Brom Bones. Obviously nothing that's going to make me rethink my I Will Never Again Become Romantically Entangled With An Actor Vow (Helpful acting tip: pursuing your onstage love interest offstage does NOT make you a method actor), but just enough to make being the "blooming object of his rough affections" a wee bit more enjoyable than it probably should be. I keep waiting too long to say "Stop pawing me like a bear!" and it's throwing the next sound cue off. Woopsie...

3. The Monkey's Paw: Turn of the Century England. Mysterious widow (moi) returns from India with cursed monkey's paw, brings doom to happy little family when they interfere with fate. I wear a big black hat and say things like "I WAAARN YOU OF THE CONSEQUENCES" in a deep scary voice.

4. The Necklace: Turn of the Century Paris. Bourgeois housewife (moi!) wants to be rich, gets invited to big fancy ball, borrows necklace from rich friend, loses it, plunges herself and hubby into terrible death and ruins their lives. Enjoyable, because I do a LOT of waltzing and wear a giant blue ballgown that would make Cinderella weep with envy. Seriously - it's gorgeous. Also, I love waltzing. Even though I get about a million posture note (shoulders down! shoulders back! chest out! on your toes!) because I am just not particularly elegant/graceful and they are trying their best to

5. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County: In the Wild West, a gambler named Jim Smiley trains a frog to jump and bets on it, but is tricked by a clever stranger. I play a saloon girl, and then the lady frog (the jumping frog's love interest.) Yes, that's right, a frog. I have a saloon girl frog outfit. Like with giant frog feet and hands and everything.

The Producer made another appeareance this afternoon, to see Actor 3, who has finally arrived (yay! we are now a complete company! well minus the electrician, but she doesn't come until tech) and everything is now pretty much nailed down. Also, it seems like everyone's getting along really well in our crazy crew, at least for now.
Things may change when you put 3 actors, 2 actresses, a stage manager, a house manager and an electrician in a van for hours on end, but I'm feeling pretty optimistic.