There's a line in The Lower Depths, where Yegor the labourer says something along the lines of "no matter how well you think your life is going, at any moment it can fall apart..." My life hasn't fallen apart, but theatrically-speaking the last 48 hours have been bumpy. Firstly, the morning after all the publicity for Loss was completed and put online, one of the actors (Who Shall Remain Nameless) realised that he hadn't told the rest of us that he was no longer available on one of the dates. Which meant several hours rejigging the timetable, checking with the rest of the cast, redrafting the publicity and putting it back online. The silver lining to the situation was that we were behind schedule and had not yet sent out press publicity.
The other problem was yesterday's performance of Depths. For some reason, my mind was not on the play and I began badly, crashing Mark Forester-Evans's lines. I recovered and think I did well for the rest of the first act, but new blocking of a key scene in the second act threw me and I forgot prompts or lines in three places. Twice, after a brief pause, I recovered and Mark covered for me the third time, but I was annoyed with myself for my unprofessionalism. Luckily, friends who were in to watch the play (the ever suave Todd and the ever lovely Narinder) hardly noticed and said it didn't matter, and Mark and other actors accepted my apologies afterwards, but it was a mistake that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
This morning life is back to normal. The new Loss timetable is now online and I will start contacting the press this afternoon. Last night's cast get-together, fuelled by several cocktails each, went very well and left me with almost no hangover. Things seem to be on track, but Yegor's remark is still resonating at the back of my mind. Just when you think all is going well....
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