We Open in Venice....

...or we preview in Caledon.

Whatever, it feels like an opening. There are humans! Coming to see the show! We are not in the same space as we were! That's an opening.

(Dumb sexual joke: I will show you an opening. That's what she said!)

The daunting task of performing in the open air has finally hit me. We had some hot days at rehearsal, but this was like the fiery pits of Hades. However, boys, as they do, will still insist on playing sports.But if the sun doesn't scald you to a lovely melanoma brown, the wind will surely blow you in to another province. It threatened to take our set and tent today.

Apparently, the tent functions just as a sail!Somehow, I have the task of helping to put the tent up and take it down every night. Clearly, this is a job intended for someone with half a brain and a scrap of co-ordination. Fail on both counts. Honestly, we are lucky it stands.

And then, just when you think it is safe, THE BUGS COME OUT OF NOWHERE TO EAT YOU ALIVE.

I swear to God, they were everywhere. Horrifying. My upper arms are like moon craters, I am so covered in bugs. I don't know what they want: at one point, they had clearly won! Go back to your mosquito overlords and tell them the humans are no longer a problem! You clearly won! At another point I almost lost it. I don't consider myself a wimpy girl (FALSE: I am one of the wimpiest people in the world, but what I mean is that when there is work to be done, I am good at coming through and pushing through the most ridiculous of obstacles, usually my contrary nature compels me to want to succeed when everyone else wants to give up, and being attacked by mosquitoes would be the kind of obstacle I just love to surmoung), but I was quite distressed to be a smorgasbord for a swarm of flesh eaters.

This is me distressed. It's not pretty. I'm not pretty even when calm and reflective, which is approximately never. Actually, this is pretty much my constant state of general agitation and screaming.

But, all in all, it was a good show. Great audience, good response.

I'm not really happy with the work I'm doing, I feel that now that the show has come together, looking at the whole thing I don't really fit in. I worry about being a weak link in the cast, and I think Grumio is a bit of a missing link in the show. He has these very funny lines, these 'wise fool' moments, but like Lear's fool, he kind of disappears, and has no plot function at all to ground him in the show. I'm struggling with not being sure how to play it anymore. I felt like I had made sense of it, and then costume changed things for me and I haven't really had time to figure it out. So I feel a bit lost right now, and I"m not sure what I'm going to be able to put together in the run. Something, hopefully. Eep.

One down, 23 to go!