​Two weeks to go until opening night and the madness kicks in ...

The last fortnight before any production is a manic time for me.  Everything needs to be sorted. Programme designed, practice props replaced by real ones, costumes co-ordinated and worn, liaising on set design/construction, sound FX recorded, lighting designed, cue sheets written up and so on ....  My to-do list just gets longer and longer, and my sleep gets less and less!

It amuses me (in an ironic way) that for so many plays I end up hunting down props that in the past have sat around the garage or loft, and we have thrown them away.  There is only so much theatrical 'stuff' we can house, but I am always wary of throwing things away.  Yesterday I spent AGES looking for just the right plastic picnic mugs online - you know, the one's that were ALWAYS on the top of flasks.  The one's that EVERYONE used to have.  Thank goodness for the internet, and that I don't have to trawl around shops any more!

So following on with some more tales of theatrical woe ... in a school production (some years ago - no comments please), a character I was on stage with, had to spend an entire scene embroidering on a flexi hoop.  As the scene to came to a close, she had a big speech, she stood up to say her piece and she had sewn the entire embroidery (hoop and all) onto her skirt.  She had to spend the rest of the scene with it hanging from her skirt - her final sweeping exit was a hoot!  This was the start of me digging my nails into my hands to stop myself corpsing.

'The Wife, The Mistress, The Chair' has been a props challenge with handcuffs and ropes - not finding, but actually using (and before you ask, no, it is NOTHING like '50 Shades of Grey')!​​​​​