Zombified

So, today marks the end of my time with The Desert Trail. And, naturally, now that I am off work I am busier than ever.

Preparations for Exit The Body continue apace. Only now do I realize how much work mounting one of these shows really requires. The set is eating as many man-, woman- and monkey-hours as we can throw at it (I'm told it's used up more flats than any show previously done at the theatre) and I've had to ride herd on our somewhat green cast rather more than I'd like to. Being onstage is nothing compared to a full-on production role as far as sheer white-knuckle stress goes. Carrying the lead in the next show is gonna be a cakewalk compared to this.

Well, that's the good thing about stretching yourself – sometimes it shows you where your limits are. All in all I'm happiest when I'm left to my own devices, free to do my work without having to worry about whether everyone else is doing theirs. I haven't ruled out directing my own show one of these days, but all evidence would suggest that I'd be an utter tyrant. I would rather let my work do the talking for me.

Case in point: The "Haunted Wax Museum" walk-through the theater did last Halloween. A hard show to pull off? Unquestionably. I got the final script ten days before we went live at which point I had to find and mix sounds for no fewer than nine separate and distinct environments. These then had to be mixed on the fly, by hand, for four hours each night the attraction was open. It was hell sometimes, but in the end I loved every minute of it. We put on a great show, made a tidy profit for the theater, and scared the ever-loving crap out of a few hundred people. Good times, good times.

It's hard to pick a favorite track from this show. I like them all for different reasons, and they were all fairly labor-intensive. However, I do have a certain fondness for this one (2.3 Mb download). It's not the most varied track, environmentally speaking, but cranked up to full volume and set among the ravenous zombies and smoking car wrecks that made up our awesome closing scene, this is the one that truly gave me chills. Still does .

Ten days is not a lot of time however, especially when your sound effects budget is zero and you're limited to whatever you can scrounge up. I was feelin' fairly deceased myself by the time opening night came around, and I wasn't the only one.

We're already planning for this year's Haunt. I'll appreciate having the extra time, but I wonder if I won't miss the adrenaline rush of getting so much done in such a short time. Either way, it's good.

'Til next time, keep your nose out of the coffee grinder.