A Pattern

I'm noticing my blogging comes much more frequently when wine is involved? I wonder why that is? I am so exhausted from today. No day can be good when it starts with me heading out the door at 8:15am. I know, I know, to those "normal" 9-to-5ers of my blog readers, this is late, and you - like my sister - are probably cursing my name right now, but hear me out... I worked last night until about 9pm (I know this because 9pm is the latest FedEx pickup near my office is at 9pm, and I distinctly remember running down 50th Street to make it in time). Today, I worked until 7pm. I'm not sure what the point was that I was trying to make, but most important, nothing good happens before 11am. Ugh, I didn't even have time for my Starbucks addiction until almost 12:30pm BRUTAL!

Anyway, lots happened today. We announced our fancy ROA Broadway cast today. I'm hoping upon hopes that tomorrow when I walk into rehearsal and meet Amy Spanger, I'm able to refrain myself from sharing the story that my short-lived acting career (count 4 shows before slinking into management) all begin with an audition onstage at the Theatre Company of Bryan/College Station singing along to the cd of her singing "Why Can't You Behave?" That's right, we could sing along to the cds. It's community theatre, y'all, and let's face it, without it, I highly douby I would have made it to this Broadway adventure. So, thanks Amy Spanger! You're awesome, and I haven't even met you yet!

The most excting/stressful/ridiculous part of putting this show up on Broadway are the number of "crises" I deal with on a daily basis. (*Disclaimer, when I say "I" I mean, our management team of 5, but since this isn't their blog, let's just use I to mean the collective I...). Here's a short list of what we dealt with today:

• the already lamented 9am production meeting (attended by at least 20 people, including 5 via conference call)
• assembling, signing, sending out 18 AEA contracts
• rental agreements, furniture distrbution, insurance certificate getting
• royalty correction from the OFF-Broadway show (isn't this over yet?)
• pay the rehearsal studio
• pay the dry cleaners
• set up new Amex cards
• set up new accounts for the wardrobe department
• add actors, crew, musicians, agents, lighting shops, sound shops, designers, marketing teams, lawyers, stage managers, PAs, production supervisiors, creative team per diems, and a partridge in a pear tree to the payroll
• prepare SSDC statements to finish our paperwork to get the return of our Off-Broadway bond
• update the contact sheet, update the contact sheet, update the contact sheet
• get W-4 and I-9s ready for rehearsal tomorrow
• put off making the house seat book AGAIN
• update wrap reports and step charts
• attempt to prepare a group package for 500 friends of my producer
• solve Quickbooks mysteries (once again, in the Off-Broadway books)
• plan our rehearsal game plan
  
• answer 7 million emails
• ignore 15 million emails
• flag 40 million emails for follow up

Well, you get the idea, the ROA corner of the Frankel Green office is hopping. I'm coping by coming home to my aforementioned wine and Wii Fit. Yes, i understand that inherently those do not go togther, but we all deal with stress in our own ways. Plus, Em, Nick, AND I have agreed to give up drinking for Lent. I'm already excepting my birthday, St. Patrick's Day/ROA 1st performance day, and any day where we ahve avoided a near disaster on this show. It's brutal. Ash Wednesday is a week from today. I'm not sure I can survive what I have committed to, but it will probably make my evening on the Wi fit a little easier to handle.

On that note, I'm off to watch Whoose Line is It Anyway and paint my toenails, which have been brutally neglected since I opened Rock of Ages 1.0. Hope y'all had a wonderful Wednesday night.