Paint all over the place beats being on stage...

Cast, block, rehearse. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Paint. Repeat.

The Curse of the Shadow Creature is seven pages long. It includes two fight sequences, a journey underwater to Atlantis, and, of course, a happy ending. We have a mermaid, a fairy, a dog, a wolf, two Grim Reapers (they're brothers), Sir James of Bond, three dragons, a mouse, and, of course, princesses, to name a few. And it seems, for the most part, that everyone is happy with their part...except for our principal characters, who were upset that they spent the whole day on stage and didn't get a turn painting the backdrop. If only all of us theatrical types could be so excited about what is done off stage. Never in your life have you seen actors so thrilled to do "tech stuff."

Which is what I spent my day doing (of course, I am a closet techie). I did get to use my well-honed craft skills and creativity in the creation of several backdrops and decorative elements. By which I mean, I painted all day (one of my hands is still blue). And tried to keep the children from killing each other. Or throwing paint. They were actually pretty awesome about the painting part. And the more excited they get, the more focused they are. Which is probably true of all ages--I had rehearsal tonight and I was not excited to be there (read: exhausted), therefore I was not focused. Even I behave poorly from time to time.

Tomorrow we look at creative costuming, amongst other things...