If the rehearsal was a touch off, this official opening night was (apart from that nasty tempo snag in "Last House") full on. I couldn't do the walk-on music due to my wife's schedule, and I arrived shortly after the official start to the play--I had to wait outside for a while, until the audience went upstairs. Then I could load in. Unlike last night, there was a curtain up in front of the kitchen/band area, so once behind that, I'd be able to stay there if I had to. Having missed the walk-on, there wasn't much to do for a while, so I set up, soundchecked through headphones, and got to take in a bit more of the play than last time. There was a bit of chaos, and at one point Erica observed that she wasn't sure if she'd be able to tune before her next part. (I said, "Just pretend you're a guitar player.") Even with some confusion here and there, I was able to make it upstairs for the party scene and a slice or two, which also meant that I could see that our neighbor (and belly dance collaborator) Steffi was there! Nice to see familiar faces in the audience.

The party scene was quite funny, tender, jarring, and funny again, before turning dark as it must. It's really quite amazing how well these changes are handled, actually. At the end, I helped load the drums down to the band space, and set up for the final set of tunes. This time, I was wondering if we'd be behind the curtain the whole time, but instead, there's a dramatic curtain drop. I'm sure I heard people in the audience gasp with the suddenness of it--brilliant. Once again, we had tempo issues on "Last House," with Steve cuing drummer Mike to play faster, which was kind of awkward after a point. Still, once we got locked in, things worked. I was concerned that I might be sub-audible, but apparently I could be heard, combining again with the viola. This time, I started my contribution to the mournful string duet, and Steve waved me off--he'd forgotten about asking me to do it the night before (hey, that's just the smallest of a million details he's had to keep in his head for this production, so no big deal).

Afterwards, lots of applause, and congratulations from Steffi and her friend Sue. Mike had been lobbying to play a table drum he has with me for one of the dance gigs, so I asked him to bring it over. Man, pretty amazing sound. I'm going to have to figure out a decent miking arrangement for that. Now Steffi and Mike and I are talking about working together, though if a dance gig comes up with other dancers, I'll definitely ask Mike to get in on it. So even with some rough spots, one leaves with a warm feeling from the audience. Nice.