Today was the first day of tech rehearsals at the theater. Everybody was excited to begin and the day began with the cast and Chicago crew getting to know each other.
The day started very early and Nanae and I had a private breakfast to discuss some of the technical details of the show, the venue, and the day's rehearsals. The trucks arrived late morning and the load-in process took about two hours after which we were ready to go. The cast got to warm up on the new stage and become familiar with the space. After about twelve hours of rehearsals we decided it was time to call it a day and we felt comfortable with how we needed to proceed. Some new lighting equipment has to be ordered in the morning to accommodate the unique lighting of A DREAM OF ARABIA, especially given the size and shape of the stage. Our technical director, Bill Jenkins, will be making sure everything is ready for Day 2 of our rehearsals. We made so much progress today, with the help of an extremely well-rehearsed cast and a top-notch professional crew, that Bill and I feel very comfortable that we will be ready for dress rehearsals on Wednesday without any issues. This makes my life very easy given the amount of work we have ahead of us, the press and publicity I have scheduled over the next few days, and opening night only three days away...