Wow... Man of La Mancha.... This is going to be the most physical show I've been in. We're in a dark, dungeon-like prison and the show starts out with me walking onstage, grabbing one of the female prisoners, and then being thrown down by another prisoner. We are crawling around on the floor for a good bit of the show. My knees hurt, my feet hurt, my calves hurt, my neck hurts, back hurts, and my elbows hurt. I am going to be so freaking sore by the end of this.

Good news: We got through the first scene today.

I got knee pads the other day because they warned us about this. But I got the kind that you use to lay carpet or do flooring. They are very well padded but they don't let you walk very well. I'm going to have to get some of the soft sports kind, I guess. You know, with all that time I have in the next few days!

Work has been stressful this week... To say the least.

Larry, the boss, was out of town from Monday until last night. Friday we got a request for a semi-rush job. Really big, complicated job. There were 350 thick books and 275 small books to print the insides and front/back covers for, cut down to 9”x7.5”, punch for spiral binding and spiral bind. The job was due today. So Larry gave the job to me since he would be out of town. Gee, thanks Larry.

I started it printing Friday and running 1 of the 2 copiers all day every day and the other copier when there were no other jobs running I just got everything printed today. The first 150 books just got printed yesterday (they were the biggest). There are four cuts for each book, had to get the covers to print correctly, and there was one book that had to be laid out in another way from the others which took some doing on our typesetter's part.

In the midst of this we had to reprint a job for Club Car (big customer), a 2000 piece mailing I had to run, maintenance on the mailing equipment... Then a customer came to us with a new mailing that they had cards for printed somewhere else that we ended up not being able to print on.... So I wasted time with that job too...

Anyway, the big job that came in Friday is nearly done, except we didn't get the white 22mm spirals like we needed, we got black. So 25 of the Spanish language manuals will not be done until next week, and the job will get delivered tomorrow instead of today but the wonderful lady said it was ok.

The 2000 piece mailing is done and at the post office, Larry thinks we will not try the other mailing. And other than this huge job there haven't been a LOT of other jobs piling up so that is good. And tomorrow is Friday.

The evening rehearsals have been good to relax from work. And, though grueling, the staging tonight was a good release. I do need to get into shape, though...

And last night's choir rehearsal was energizing, always good. That means that singing three days a week lately has helped me keep my voice up enough to be in good voice through a rehearsal.

So things I need to do tomorrow: Get new knee pads. Go by the costume shop and get fitted.

Saturday or Sunday I'm going to go see the Augusta Players do My Fair Lady because it is one of my favourite musicals ever, and they are doing it. So I must go. It is required.

Anyway...

Saturday saw a visit from my friend Anya, one of the New Orleans friends. She has since moved to New York and then Boston as well as got married. Now she is moving to Cambridge, England for three years to get her PhD and play with a supersonic wind tunnel. It was great to see her and her husband, Dave, whom I had only met once at their wedding.

Well, now I am going to end this long and boring post wherein I ranted about work.

If you're in Augusta on October 6 or 7 you are ordered to come see Man of La Mancha. If you are not in Augusta on those dates I highly suggest that you come to Augusta on one of those dates and see the show. It will be great.
- posted by Nick @ 9/21/2006 11:31:00 PM | 0 comments