1..2..3.. smile!

Actually you're more likely to hear someone shout "Hold it!" during a photo call. I remember once when my sister told me she was disappointed to hear that the photos of shows and dances for archives were posed rather than shot during a show. You do lose a little of the honest intent, but you get a better shot and more faces and sometimes you can even make the designers somewhat satisfied with images for their portfolios.

As you probably guessed, we're in the midst of taking production photos of the shows for the company archives. Maybe it would've been a better idea to spread it out throughout the months, but we opted to squish all the photo nights together in a week to get it over with - I say 'get it over with' even though we're doing it the second to the last week of the season. But, sometimes that's the way the tea leaves float.

We got Pirates done last night and got out of the theatre around 11:30. That'll be the easiest one, with the fewest costume and set changes. At least most of the scenery for the other shows rolls. Mostly it will be costumes that eat up the time, I think, and people snapping extra shots for everyone's benefit. That's lucky for everyone although when there's seven or eight people taking pictures, it can be slow going. That's one thing I'll say for an Equity photo call - you have to get in and out of there. But I enjoy our looser structure here too so that everyone can get a decent picture of themselves in the show and so on - and a goofy one here and there. Major General Stanley in enormous, dark sunglass? Sure...

These last couple of weeks will fly. It feels as if we have so much work coming up ahead of us - and we do, but it's already Wednesday and before we know it, photos will be done. We'll have a couple more company parties and special events thrown by locals who love the playhouse. Play adn win or lose a softball game against the Townies. Next week we'll have a couple performances and strike the first show...then the second. Space will clear up backstage and on the costume racks. Props will migrate back to storage and backstage will seem miraculously tidy. Actors will return scripts. People will be double checking their flight itineraries, sealing boxes scrounged from UPS and the IGA and shipping them home...

I'm probably thinking too far ahead, but before we know it... so long Bigfork 2006.

But hey, there's still another week and a half.