Like Butter

The Intern blog has taken off once again and, as a blogger myself, I decided that today, the holiest of holy days, My Day Off (yes, it's a proper noun) would be the perfect time to hop on the bandwagon. I'm Dallas, Artistic Learning and Stage Management PIP, a kind of hybrid intern that may have just as easily hopped out of our Artistic Administrator's imagination as I did Florida.

I am one of the eight interns living in the intern house (you have read Carrie's entry, right?) and I could be known as much for my habit of singing Sheena Easton's "Morning Train" before work as for my love for baking. More dedicated Cal Shakes patrons could recognize our living room for being oddly reminiscent of last summer's Twelfth Night set, mainly because that's where a lot of the furniture came from. I've started the summer off on the Stage Management side, joining the brilliant team of ladies who make backstage at Romeo & Juliet the seamless and, might I say, highly attractive place that it is. Seriously, these ladies knows what it takes to make a transition run—and I quote R and J director Jonathan Moscone—"like butter".

There's more to it, of course, than moving chairs and locking the wheels on Juliet's bed; there's the side the audience sees yet never sees: the ridiculously clean moat. Yes, folks, this is like a backstage tour but without those pricey tickets. Let's review:

First, there's a stage to sweep. Easy enough, right? Wrong. It's textured and there's those darn stairs, not to mention backstage where actors lurk barefoot (a Stage Manager's nightmare, yet our time to shine). I won't spoil any details of the show for you, but let's just say it wouldn't be a daring Jonathan Moscone show if the actors simply stayed put on the stage. Mopping and vacuuming follow the sweeping, and a few groans follow thereafter. There's chairs to place, towels to hand off, props to set, torches to light, and a whole mess of other little details that go into making a show run night after night "like butter".