We had a kind of "pre-dress rehearsal" last night and incredibly, it went pretty well. We were there until 12:15, however, and I'm afraid the play is running longer than it's supposed to. I had assembled all my costumes and they look good. Billy did my hair--it has to change in each scene--as he's doing all the beauty salon "customers," and I think it looked a lot better than the way my regular hairdressor does it at eighty-five dollars a pop.
Of course, there were some snafus, what with missed lines and prop problems, but it went better than I had expected. Director Tara was satisfied. She gave me some notes about where to move about the stage; at one point, I sat in the dryer chair and "M'Lynn" needed to be there; I must remember to sit elsewhere at that point in the proceedings.
Earlier in the day, I recorded my cues-- and the cues only--in areas where I had problems remembering them, and that worked very well. I took the recorder (just a twenty dollar one from Wal-Mart) with me all day to listen to, and it helped so much. I think it's important to record the cues only, then to leave "blank" space to say my lines. When I put my own lines in, as I had done earlier, I believe it gave my brain permission to be lazy and just wait for them. Anyway, I'm gratified that I did pretty well in that regard last night.
Tonight, we do the actual dress rehearsal, for a number of other LETCO members and a few friends. I'm glad I slept until NINE O'CLOCK! Yes, that's 9:00 am, folks--there's no question I'm getting craven and decadent in my old age.