Corinna and crew are down at the University Church right now doing the first rehearsal In The Space. I went in briefly to drop off Gravy 2.0. You know, I was never a theater kid in high school. I never did theater in college. I don’t come from Theater People. I mean, I take that back I guess, my mother was big into drama in college and when we were kids she used to perform the Spot monologue from Lady Macbeth for us and we all still kind of have trauma from that. But by the time she had us, my mother wasn’t doing any of that any more. But I feel like I have started to become a Theater Person now. I walked in and saw Paul putting the lighting poles together and Bill with the big ladder and chains and the cast starting to collect in the space, and something in me just went AHHH! THE SMELL OF GREASEPAINT! THE ROAR OF THE CROWD! IT’S SHOW WEEK AGAIN!
Of course, being the props person, I get to sit at home in my nice comfy chair posting on the blog instead of working like a dog all week, which is what everyone else will be doing. All I’ve had to deal with since making Large Cake 2.0 is the gravy problem.
It is one of the tragedies of science: the slaying of a beautiful theory by an ugly fact. The fact is, my non-Newtonian solid solution did not work under rehearsal conditions. Left to itself, it turns out, that stuff separates very quickly, and there was no way to make it behave as needed on stage. Well, you know, I am aware have a slight tendency to overcomplicate, which my 30 years of postgraduate academic life have done nothing to mitigate; and this was perhaps a case of building a resplendent squid when a cardboard cutout would do. The Prop Agenda offered me nothing. Searches of “prop gravy” on Google turned up a lot of advice about how to make a proper gravy. It at last occurred to me that wet cat food might be a good gravy substitute. It’s like gravy, but more solid than liquid, and therefore makes a more containable spill. I got out our gravy boat and practiced tossing cat food out of it onto the kitchen floor and then cleaning it up. It makes a nice splat, and with enough paper towels I think it ought to be manageable. So good luck with the Science Diet Tender Chicken Dinner tonight, everyone. If it doesn’t work, we go to gravy 3.0, whatever that is.
I’m really looking forward to finally seeing the show on Friday. The little bit of rehearsal we got to see last week was really exciting. Everyone break a leg! But not by slipping on the gravy!
Susan Harris
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