our show opens tonight.

we've been working on a gilbert and sullivan operetta but we've set ours in space so the whole thing takes place on what is basically the starship enterprise. our set has lots of flashing lights, a captain's chair and two sets of doors that slide open and closed.

turns out i have to call the doors opening and closing (and have two crew people on each set of doors to pull them open and closed) which means every time someone wants to enter or leave the stage, i have to make the doors work for them.

during tech week, i always have show nightmares. i've discovered that whatever is most stressful about the show is what will appear in my dreams. which means that those doors are the stuff of nightmares. literally. in my dreams, though, there are four sets of doors and no one wants to enter or exit from the same ones twice and i'm trying to get enough people to work the doors and... well, you get the idea.

since i've been stage managing for a few years now, i've grown accustumed to these tech week nightmares. after all, i used to dream about having to call the show for the first time on opening night and then, a few years ago, i ended up doing just that and it worked out ok.

which all means that no matter how many doors get thrown at me tonight, i think we'll be ok.

(knock on wood! here's hoping for lots of broken legs!!)