By Teddy Lavon, Cast ’16
Last week marked the culmination of months of preparation for our annual Fall Show. An Eye for an Island ran for seven performances between Wednesday, October 15 and Saturday, October 18. It always amazes me how thousands of cumulative man-hours come to fruition and then come to a close within a roughly 72-hour period. To be honest, I had been a little concerned with how everything would turn out.
In addition to my nervousness over the second Thursday show, which was added this year for the first time in over a decade, I was worried about our material. When the Cast pitched the bits we’d written to the rest of the company back in September, I felt a palpable sense of uneasiness. Some of my favorite jokes weren’t landing, and several bits appeared to need some major adjustments. The next day, we got to work and cut our list of over thirty sketches down to about twenty based on the rest of the company’s reactions. From there, we began editing, shortening bits that seemed too long, adding in lines that were guaranteed to elicit laughs, and even transforming a video bit into a hardly-recognizable version of its former self.
During Fall Break, after the Clubbies had agreed upon a revised and re-revised running order, I looked over the finalized document again and felt a little reassured. I realized that I truly loved all of these bits. I was also finally able to see which fillers the band had decided on, a list that included some seriously kick-ass songs. I was still worried, though. The Business Staff assured us that we’d have a solid audience for opening night, which was a concern every year, but what about the other six shows? How about the musical and lighting cues that we hadn’t perfected during rehearsals?
Despite my concerns, the show opened – or, let me rephrase that – the show killed. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Biz Staff, we sold out five of the run’s seven performances. The Crew nailed their cues, even with a couple technical curveballs thrown their way. The Band, as usual, melted faces, and I jammed out to their renditions of hits like “My Own Worst Enemy” and “YYZ” from the wings during every performance. As for the Cast? Well, we’ve never had to pause for laughter as much as we did this year. Most importantly, we all had a blast entertaining our audiences. I realize now that with such a talented group of guys and the incalculable number of hours of hard work we put into this show, it was destined to be a success.
Looking back, I don’t know why I was worried in the first place.
