This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

"The Wedding Singer": The Daily Show with Francyn

Two weeks before curtain and it's crunch time.

Two weeks to go and lots to get done. The first week, the leads got their blocking. The second week we worked on vocals. The third week we did the choreography. This week it all comes together.

Monday we run all of Act 1. Tuesday we run all of Act 2. Wednesday and Thursday we will run the show top to bottom. Friday we are off, but I imagine there will be work on the set. Saturday there will be more set build, maybe hanging drops, setting lights and sound. Sunday we will be performing a “teaser” at the St. Joseph Fun Festival between noon and 1 p.m., and from 1:30-5 p.m. we have Sitz Probe (I’ll keep you guessing on that one for a while). At 6 p.m. we will be on WAAM's "Speaking of Art" program with Ed Hoffman.

Some of the minor characters still need to be blocked into the scenes. My daughter Tally pointed out to me that I have an entire page of dialogue in Act 2 that I forgot about. Guess what I will be doing on the way back and forth to work (and during).

Find out what's happening in Dexterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The challenge for the cast will be to remember when to come on and remembering to sing at the same time we are dancing. We’ve been rehearsing with either the soundtrack or the rehearsed score. This week we will have an accompanist, so it’s up to us to remember.

We will also begin working with the actual set as well as props. It is often the cast’s responsibility to move props and set pieces on and off stage, so remembering to do that takes some practice too.

Find out what's happening in Dexterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Of course, there are always unforeseen problems. A big one we are trying to deal with is getting into the high school. This is summer, so the custodians are not there all the time like when school is in session. The doors are supposed to be unlocked, but very often the ones we use are not. So someone must wander around to the front of the school and find an open door and let the rest of us in. It’s a minor inconvenience, but a frustrating one.

Sunday, I called a production meeting. Most of the crew heads, directors and Dexter Community Players' board representatives got together to discuss where we are at within the production and what is pending. It is just a way of making sure we are all on the same page and everyone is ready for what is to come. Time becomes very crucial when you are two weeks from curtain.

I’ve spent lots of time this weekend working on putting together the play program. I was able to snag pictures of the cast off Facebook and have been nagging them for bios. I am happy to say that most are in! We still have room for program advertising and haven’t met our revenue budget yet on sponsorship. I was able to get a few ads. Thanks to Doreen's who put in a business card ad and will allow us to put up table tents. Dexter's Pub, always a huge supporter of local events, put in a full page ad. I'm still trying to get those all important cover ads. 

I’m in the process of getting quotes for printing the program and trying to figure out how many to print, since we have no idea how big the audience will be. That always seems to be a challenge when at the door sales constitutes most of the ticket purchases. We might have to go with a black and white cover instead of color, but color really adds to the price.

I stopped at the Ann Arbor Salvation Army and found a perfect costume for the Saturday Night number. All the New Yorkers are in black and white while the “bridge and tunnel crowd” stand out in bright colors. This outfit is a black pant suit with silver threads running through it. The top has a foot of fringe at the bottom so when I dance it will fling around. That will be fun.

I also picked up our “show shirts” from Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company on S. Industrial Street. They were amazing to work with. They took my rough design and created an awesome full color shirt and got them done super quick. Kudos to Jerry for wonderful customer service.

The next challenge for me is to get all the T-shirt and participation dues from the cast members who haven’t paid, distribute the shirts, finish up the program and get it to the printer.

I’m off to join girlfriends for coffee, meet with the school to try to resolve the locked doors issue and hopefully get the air conditioning turned up a few degrees in the Center for Performing Arts, put up posters on Jackson Road, have dinner with my husband, and head off to rehearsal where we will put together Act 2.

Next time: Who knows? More daily action.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?