Headwaters is a hit - in so many ways.  

The final dress rehearsal on Thursday 7/5 had about 30 good friends who responded wonderfully, and then the Friends and Family Preview on 7/6 went off without a hitch, with about 110 people watching.  Opening night was truly terrific - the cast kicked it up a notch, about 25% more intensity; the pre-show VIP reception had 100 people who listened attentively as Kathy Blandin and I gushed about what this show means for SNCA and Sautee Nacoochee; and afterwards MK and I got to go hang out with Jim and Courtney Johnston, around the same kitchen counter where the ball got rolling in the first place.  Barbara Luhn was there, too, which inspired at least one impromptu singing - "knee bone connected to the leg bone" ending in 3 part harmony.

Sunday at 2 pm we had another terrific show, and a wonderful conversation with the audience and cast and Jo Carson following it.  Sunday’s performance was the other way in which the show was a hit - the bear cage fell from the rafters and whacked young John Edgar Boyes in the head as he sat beneath it.  I said "that wasn’t supposed to happen," and then saw the other Bear Boys hustling John Edgar off stage, with blood running down his face.  I jammed backstage and found him in the bathroom, and immediately knew he was in for a trip to the emergency hospital (I’m a veteran of three head wounds myself, courtesy of over zealous big brothers).

We’re blessed to have Roger Williams and John Lumsden in the cast, our volunteer firemen and well-trained EMT’s.  They bandaged John Edgar up - probably while still wearing their bear costumes, by that time I’d gone back to watch the show, knowing everything was under control.

One of the great things about this whole, extremely unfortunate, incident was the way nobody skipped a beat (okay, one performer was a little bumfuzzled and dropped some lines in the last scene, but that’s understandable).  Sheilah Welsch was moving through backstage fast and sure, telling people to get ready for the final "Joey’s Dance" number.  And Roger and John made it back onstage for that.

This Thursday, John Edgar arrived at rehearsal wearing a t-shirt covered in fake blood that said "Headwaters :: Liquid from a Goodly Portion of my Head!".  He was showered with gifts and praise, just as anyone who gets back up on the horse after 15 stitches should be. 

Talk about the self-repairing ensemble.

And boy are we selling tickets.  This weekend’s performances are moments away from being sold out, and the closing weekend is nearly full too.  Woo hoo!  Folks are coming from all over the state to see the show, and a segment on it will air on Georgia Public Television in August.  We’re expecting a review by Rickey Bevington during Morning Edition on Monday or Tuesday on Georgia Public Radio (the statewide version that doesn’t really air in Atlanta).

One of the remarkable things about selling this show out is that we’re doing it entirely with single tickets.  We didn’t have the human-power to sell group tickets to churches before the run opened (a sure way to fill the house), so we were 100% at risk for sales, and only had a few pre-sales the week before we opened.

Being on the front page of both of the local papers - the White County News (weekly) and the Northeast Georgian (semi-weekly) - has helped a lot.  Here’s the link to the White County paper this week, which has a terrific story.  I never thought I’d be saying that, but Denise Etheridge got it, completely, and no one edited out all the good parts.  http://www.whitecountynewstelegraph.com/articles/2007/07/12/news/news01.txt

We’ve shot oodles of video, including a terrific 30 minute film by Mondo Bizarro on the community, the center, and the play.  We’ll post that in segments… eventually.

Y’all come! (If you can get tickets, hee hee.)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Headwaters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.