Final Dress....

....last night for The Birds.  Have I said that it's at Citadel Theatre, 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest, Illinois?  Well, I have now :-)  Let's just say we hope the old adage is true:  bad final dress, great first preview.  It could have gone better, but it's good to get that one out of the way and know that we can all live and laugh and say, ah, well, s**t happens.  I'm loving the actors I'm working with, pictured in the shot below, and they would be John Gray, Abby Dillon, and Errol McLendon.  And it's been a true pleasure working with our passionate director, Scott Phelps.  And I adore our excellent crew who really stepped up in a time of difficulty when we lost our scenic charge artist right before tech.  This show is very complicated in so many ways and it's really exciting to see all the elements come together -- lights, sound (which is really the fifth character in this play), set, props, costumes.  Is there anything more collaborative than theater?  I mean, look at all of these fabulous artists coming together to make this play work -- directors, stage managers, lighting designers, sound designers, costume designers, prop designers, set designers, carpenters, painters, electricians, dramaturgs, actors -- artists all.  I was standing on the set during tech on Saturday while they were discussing levels of sound and fixing lights and thinking I am the luckiest person on Earth :-)