Been in tech for In the Next Room. "Tech" refers to the week wherein all the elements of a show come together: set, lights, costumes, sound. We practice the show on the set, in the costumes, light and sound designers build the way the show looks and sounds, the actors get used to the new elements, the stage manager call the cues to make the looks happen, and the ASM logs a lot of miles truckin' to and from backstage.
Yesterday I walked 11,659 steps, roughly 5 miles going back and forth across the same 40 feet or so. Needless to say it can be tedious and exhausting.
Top it with a cold and a little tender tummy I have contracted and life just feels hard right now. But I'll take sickness and exhaustion in theatre over a day in pure health and rest back in my old job.
What worries me is that this is nothing compared to how I will feel once I get going at the next job. Especially when I'm pulling double duty. I'm thinking about it so much that I'm starting to psyche myself out before even getting going.
Have any of you ever done that? How do you deal with it? You see a massive challenge on the horizon and you start to panic. How do you keep your cool and just meet the challenge?
So my plan right now is just that: to plan.
I have a planner that I love. It's from MomAgenda and it's got all these little sections across the bottom.
My extra categories include "Food" "Workout" "School" and "Andy" <3.
I write in all my meals, my workout, school work and then, obviously, Andy's schedule. It helps a lot like this week in tech when I wake up in the morning, my eyes still crusted with sleep and my feet cursing at me in various languages, I just look in my planner and know what to pack so I don't have to do planning while my brain is only function at 25% capacity. (Let's be honest, it's closer to 10%)
This week's workout is blank. Boo. Next week includes some yoga and running. Woot!
And school is blank and will be until December. I'm delaying the next class until December so I'm not trying to balance school work and two jobs at the same time.
I can't plan Andy. But I can at least have some warning, right? I wish I could plan him. Hey, Andy, don't work so you can be a house husband. Seriously, he mops when he's not at the Rep. Awesome.
Anyway, back to tech. I swear I'm paying attention.
Would love your thoughts on surviving madness and how you keep yourself from panicking when you see big stuff on the horizon.
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