The final week before the show working slighly more than 9 to 5!

I arrived at the theatre in good time yesterday so that I could get into the rehearsal room before the actors started work. I needed to look at the furniture and decide which items I wanted painting in which colour. Alan, a freelance prop maker and set builder, was coming in to do the job, so I needed to make decisions. It would be much easier if I could actually see all the furniture together on the set, but the painting had to be done then. I looked through the various paints which I bought and made a rather random selection, so that Alan could get going. If I have not chosen well I will have to pay for my mistake by doing the job again myself!

In the afternoon I had a treat! I went in to watch a run- through of the play and really enjoyed it. The performances are fantastic; funny, moving and totally engaging. Seeing a run is quite a milestone in the design process because you can actually imagine this performance on your set. In the worst case you get a terrible sinking feeling because it is clear that the director and company have gone off in a different direction, and that your set is not going to serve the piece as well as you hoped. Then it’s an exercise in damage limitation, trying to persuade production staff to make alterations to the set or changing the costume plot. This is not the case with Glengarry, thank Goodness! I don’t pick up any problems which worry me, although there will inevitably be a bit of adjusting to the actual space onstage. It has helped to have so much of the furniture in rehearsal for the office, but I think the curved benches of the Chinese restaurant will feel a bit different from the rows of chairs which have represented them. You can see two of our actors in the photo, sitting in the mocked-up rehearsal room restaurant.

I have collected the picture frames which I ordered a couple of weeks ago and today I have inserted the finished dragon pictures. Painting the scales was a laborious job but I discovered that I could do it with one hand, so I made the most of my time by catching up on some phone calls. I am including a photo of the pictures and you can see that they have turned out well. Certain members of the production team were a bit shocked at the price of the frames, but if you need a big picture doing, it is expensive. Anyway, they look good and will finish off the restaurant set very nicely.

Monday is the day of the fit-up! Next week we will all be at the theatre, from about 9.30am until about 10.30pm each day, getting the show ready for opening night. I will try to keep the blog running to include you in the ups and downs of production week including disasters, delights, tantrums and hissy- fits.