Sunday, February 8, 2015

How does he manage?!

Since 2008, I haven't had to manage a show alone.  My wonderful boyfriend, Chris Manson, took over that job, leaving me more time to write new shows and work on advertising.  But a few months ago when our February shows started booking, we realized we were going to need to be able to double-book on a couple of nights in order to accommodate both public shows and private events on and around Valentine's Day.  So last night was my first foray back into the world of stage managing.

I honestly don't know how he does it.  As much as I love this business - the shows, the actors, the restaurants, the guests… it's a tough gig to manage a show.  I had to deal with comments and complaints about the music being too loud and not loud enough, the room being too cold and too hot, guests asking me for refills on drinks, to turn on the fans and turn off the fans, and "where's my sour cream," "could you bring more more ranch dressing," and, "Help, I spilled my water… ," well, you get the drift.  I did my best to keep up and make everyone comfortable, but by the end of the night I was exhausted.

Here's the thing - Chris doesn't just MANAGE the shows, he's also in them.  All I was doing was managing, and I forgot about handing out the "After Scene One" handout until 30 seconds before Scene Two was about to start, ALMOST forgot to do the door prize drawing at the end of the show, and COMPLETELY forgot to hand out comment cards.  He never forgets anything.

Despite MY inadequacies, the cast was amazing and it was successful premier of my newest show, DEATH BY CUPCAKE.  Thanks so much to the Coach-N-Four in Crestview - what a great, hard-working staff they have there!  And once we got the music and room temperature set where everyone was pleased, and all that ranch dressing and sour cream out, everyone had a great time.

I get to do it again in a week when we have two shows on Valentine's Day.  Maybe I'll do a better job of keeping my head on straight.  It's no mystery what I have to do - I need to pretend I'm Chris and do it without breaking a sweat.  ~~ Paula


No comments: