Four days to go

Well four days till we have an audience. The cast has done a brilliant job, they're ready to go and I am impressed with them.

The only issue is whether the costumes, lighting, sound and other effects and the cast are working together. Tomorrow we have all the costumes, the smoke, the smells, the props, and the curtains up, but getting the cast and the bits and pieces working together is my big worry.

There is much to do. I spent much of the afternoon hanging curtains, these are the 'set'. I also went to hang the gauze, which was a major effort and I discovered the way we intended to do it won't work.

Tomorrow we are without the stage manager and lighting operator for the morning and various cast have given me ultimatums about when they can start and finish.

What it seems is that it's harder and harder to get actors to rehearsals and to get techs and backstage people at all. Today people are working weekends and evenings and anyone with technical skills wants to be paid. Not having a set seemed to be one way to ensure that we could strike the set each night (as we have to) and save effort and energy.

Well the play looks good.