Here’s what I did today:
5:30 a.m. – Alarm clock goes off. (Note: today is Sunday.) I get up, eat breakfast, shower, etc. I dress in khaki slacks, a colored polo shirt, and brown belt and shoes. I also pack a bag with an all-black outfit (including black belt and shoes).
7:15 – I leave the house and drive to Cary.
7:45 – Arrival at Christ the King Lutheran Church , where I’m a member of the choir. Today is Reformation Sunday, and the choir of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is joining us to celebrate. I put on my choir robe.
8:30 – After some last-minute rehearsal, the service begins. We start out singing Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” (in the original German) up in the balcony and then process down. We sing two other pieces in the course of the service, one of which involves a trumpet and handbells.
9:30 – The service ends. I remove my choir robe and stuff it (along with my hymnal and music folder) into my bag and drive to Holy Trinity in Raleigh. (The rest of the CTK choir is doing likewise.)
10:00 – On arrival at HT, I put my choir robe back on. We rehearse some more with the HT choir.
11:00 – The HT service begins. We sing the same three pieces there, but everything else in the service is different, including the setting (tunes for the liturgy) that they’re using. This service also involves confirmation of five teenagers and communion.
12:30 p.m. – The service ends. I take my robe off again and shove it, the hymal, and my music folder back in the bag. I pick up lunch at a nearby Subway, then drive to Raleigh Little Theatre (which fortunately is only a couple of blocks away).
1:00 – I arrive at the theatre in time to meet Marie there. We are scheduled to usher for the matinee performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live.
1:30 – It’s time to open the house and start admitting audience members, but the house manager scheduled to work this show has not shown up. Marie has house manager experience (she house-managed for the first time the night before), so she fills in.
2:00 – The show begins. I’ve seen it half a dozen times already while operating a spotlight, but as an usher I get to sit with the audience. When you’re running a spot you tend to focus your attention exclusively on whomever the light is following, so you miss other stuff. It’s actually nice to just watch the show for once.
2:45 – Intermission. I spend it working with Marie and another volunteer at the concession counter, selling canned drinks, bottled water, candy bars, Moon Pies, and Mentos to audience members.
3:30 – The show ends. There’s a salad and baked potato supper at 4:00 for the cast, since they have another performance at 7:30 and don’t really have time to go out for food. Crew members are invited to join them, and Marie and I do so.
4:30 – Marie leaves to pick up Ruth and Ben from their high school, where they have been working at the final performance and strike of The Female Odd Couple (Ruth was stage manager, Ben was on the running crew). I have a whole two hours free, so I decide to make a mad dash for the State Fair, which I have not had a chance to visit yet and which ends tonight. I really need to go because the vendor who sells the shower attachments we use in our house (the only ones I’ve found that work well at Holly Springs’s low water pressure) is at the Fair every year, and I need to buy a replacement for a cracked plastic part. (They don’t have a Web site or an e-mail address, and my attempts to contact them by phone during the last year have failed.) If I don’t find them now, I’ll have to wait another year. I drive to the free parking area at the RBC Center (the nearby sports arena) and take a shuttle bus to the Fairgrounds entrance.
5:00 – I arrive at the Fairgrounds and, walking at my fastest pace, find the buildings housing the vendors, search for the specific vendor I want, find him, buy the part I need, and retrace my steps to leave the fairgrounds and get back to the bus stop. I take the shuttle back to the parking lot, find my car, and drive back to RLT.
6:00 – I arrive at the theatre half an hour before my scheduled call time for the evening performance. Ruth is already there, having been dropped off by Marie while I was gone. (Ruth’s doing props, I’m running a spotlight.) I change into my all-black outfit, then check both of the spotlights to make sure they’re working.
7:00 – The house opens for the evening show. I run through my usual pre-show routine: test my headset, then review the cue sheet to make sure none of the spot cues have changed since the last show I worked.
7:30 – The show begins. This is my last performance of Schoolhouse Rock Live even though the show has another week to run, because I planned my follow spot schedule so it didn’t conflict with Cinderella rehearsals, just in case I got cast.
9:00 – The show ends. I help Ruth put away props, then drive us home.
10:00 – I arrive home for the first time since leaving for church this morning.
10:30 – I write an e-mail to the CTK choir director, informing her that I have to drop out of the choir until after the holidays due to my Cinderella rehearsal schedule. I was going to tell her in person today, but I never got a chance. I also didn’t have time to return my music folder, hymnal, and choir robe. Marie will have to take those back to the church for me — probably on Wednesday, her normal day off.
In the course of this day, I attended two church services (singing six anthems and I don’t know how many hymns and litanies), worked at two RLT shows, and changed clothes five times (if you count donning and removing choir robes). If I can get through a day like today, I guess I can survive working a full-time job and being in Cinderella. But I’m going to have to make a point of getting as much sleep as I can manage. In fact, I need to go do that right now. My alarm clock will go off again in five and a half hours.