It’s gotten hot, and that makes the gymnasium a sweaty place. But, as with everything else, the Headwaters company is dealing with it – almost always with good grace.  We’re all losing a little weight during this process, and we’re sweating out lots of toxins, I feel certain.

This week we "stumbled through" Acts 1 and 2, on Wednesday and Friday, and got through them both quite swimmingly.  The process of running an act, in its entirety, is always so revealing.  As director, I know what I need to work on with the performers, but I can also see what already works and doesn’t need to be messed with too much.  Several of the monologues, most notably "Foot", are in this latter position. 

We’ll be performing "Foot" twice this coming week, once at a travel industry luncheon on Wednesday in the Community Hall, and then again on Friday night as part of the Lawn Party that will open SummerFest.  Both times it will be combined with other pieces from the show.  When I told the cast that we were going to perform it this week in public, there was a little concern that we were giving away our "secret" before the show opened.  I had thought about that, when I was considering whether to do this piece, but I decided that we would serve the show best by presenting material that is in the best shape, rather than withholding a terrific piece because it will give away the ending of the show.  This show’s not a mystery, and the joys of "Foot" are many:  Barbara Brady performs it beautifully, it is a story of and from Gloria Brown, whom many people knew and loved, and it’s deliciously well written.  Three counts in its favor.  And then there’s the kicker: performing it in public will give Barbara lots more to work on, as she sees what plays and what doesn’t.  It will only make it better, methinks.  And entice people in to see what the rest of the play has to offer.

We spent Saturday morning working with Nicole Livieratos, re-setting and "cleaning" the final movement number in the show – the big Thank You party that Philip and Laura give to all the people who helped with the big surprise house make-over.  Celeste created this dance – it really is dancing, since it’s based on a Virginia reel – in about 15 minutes, and we hadn’t run it in two weeks.  Nicole did a great job of putting other folks into it, and cleaning it up so that it runs smoothly.  It’s danced to "Hold Fast to the Laughter", a song I wrote when I was playing old time music with a bunch of geezers in East Tennessee back in the late 90s.  It makes a wonderful reel accompaniment, and the reel is a great way for people to greet each other at the party.  Best of all,  it gets everyone onstage  for "Foot", which follows immediately. 

Rehearsing the reel helped make evident one of the realities of this kind of work: we will never have the same cast twice.  With all the conflicts inherent among 33 people who have real lives that have to be attended to, this reel will never be the same in any two performances.  The next several weeks will be a process of learning to adapt to perpetually changing circumstances – another of the useful life lessons Headwaters is providing to all of us.

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