Opening Night!

I think, all in all, it went off incredibly well.  There were a few snags, as always.  They let us in 5 minutes late, so we scrambled a bit.  Next time we'll set up the stage first and then get into costume.  The sound was a bit low at the very start, but they fixed that.

There were a few line drops but nothing too significant and nobody froze.  The most significant misstep was when an actor skipped pretty close to a whole page, leaving out a song!  (In fact the only song, though intentionally it wasn't an amazing song.)  Amazingly, the other two actors in the scene were able to keep going, even after he realized his mistake and redirected back to the song.  (I would have been upset for the actor who is supposed to sing if his whole moment was lost.)  So it feels like things are under control, and I can probably just leave the script at home from here on out.

One slight downside is that while Alumnae is air conditioned, it is so loud, they only run it between performances, so the audience did start to wilt and I think the second scene suffered a bit due to that.  But there were good laughs in the first and third scenes.  

We had over 40 people for the opening, which is terrific.  Most night we are doing pretty well, though Sat. evening is low, so I will make it one of the Daily Deals.  We have 75 people booked to show up on Sun., which is incredible.

We're sitting at just over 240 seats sold (plus passes).  I will have to adjust my expectations somewhat, as I thought we would be doing pretty well if we got to 250, and we will clearly surpass that.  Maybe 300, with 350 as a stretch goal.  We still won't actually break even, that would take probably 500-600, but it isn't going to be a complete financial disaster...  I thought there was an outside chance we might be Patron Pick at Alumnae, but we are up against a ringer -- Every Fringe Show You've Ever Seen All At Once.  I think the only way we would get it is if they had too many schedule conflicts (as they are already performing on Sunday!) and bowed out, which they would be crazy to do.  So I think I will likely be able to see Whose Lineage is It Anyway again on Sunday, but again I will hold off for a while.  Hopefully that performance doesn't sell out.  (I mean I do have an unused voucher, so I could book it anyway and pass it to someone else if we somehow do end up being Patron Pick for Alumnae.)

Today, I am off to see Little One, by Leroy Company.  I'm still looking forward to it, but am still also annoyed that they moved the venue from Bloor down to Queen, so getting between Little One and Fray will be challenging, particularly if this when we get hit with the sporadic thunderstorms in the forecast.  I wouldn't have constructed my schedule this way if I had known beforehand what the ultimate venue would be.  Interestingly, Fray is in a tiny black box theatre not far at all from Aluna, where we did all our rehearsing.  There is an outside chance that I will hit Potato Potato Saves the World at Soulpepper.  (It's more or less on the way back, though I would have to dip a bit further south, but it is at the brutal time of 10:30 pm.  In fact, I see they made this show a Daily Discount, though I would use my rush pass, given I don't want to commit to going until I know how I feel, and if I get soaked in the rain...)