Things were getting easier by the start of this second week – I could throw away cabaret music because it was over, I’d paid various people for various incidentals (rehearsal catering, the show DVD) so I didn’t have to think about that any more, and laundry has been did for the last time. (I’ll get into the whole packing debacle later.)

Rehearsal was good – we ran Act 1 in the morning, Act 2 in the afternoon, and cleaned up stuff. Some things got changed because, for reasons, a person who should have been in a scene isn’t any more. This happened a couple of times – we lost a chorus member to COVID (from the show, not from, you know, life) and other events happened, causing us to readjust. But we were in pretty good shape.

After our Act 2 run, we had a costume parade. I’d brought my own suit and various ties to match up with it. I’d bought a really nice dress shirt, and then our costumer reminded me that I’d be better of getting a thrift store shirt because it would get makeup on it. I did check out the thrift stores, but had ended up just ordering a cheaper version of the shirt I already had on Amazon. Well, trying it on, I realized the sleeves were too long. Arrrgh – except K said, ‘oh, no problem, we’ll make you a couple of elastic armbands to keep the sleeves shorter’. And that’s what we did. This was a constant pain, and I always found myself with one sleeve out way too far, and the other up the suit sleeve like a turtle, but I made it work.

I was also wearing the cufflinks from a stud/cufflink set given to me by my dear friend, the late great Vikki W. Vikki had worked with Savoynet many times, so it was lovely to have her represented in this little way.

We didn’t modify my outfit really at all, but I ended up with a bowler hat and, eventually, a pocket hankerchief. I also had my pockets planted with breath mints, a real handkerchief, and some notes to consult in case I forgot where I started a particular entrance.

Lots of other people had to deal with watch fobs and stuff, so I’m glad mine was simple and not particularly warm or uncomfortable. I did have to shave off my beard (so did everyone else who had one), leaving my weeny little moustache.

After rehearsal and chill time, I joined a whole bunch of us at the Pizza Express for another ring of pizza with salad in the middle. Then off to the theater for Savoy Company’s The Grand Duke. Savoy is Philadelphia’s premiere G&S company, and I’d auditioned for them once, and seen a show or too, although not in years. I was sitting way up in the rafters. They framed the show as a British amateur company performing it just after the Great War, and did some funny ‘play that goes wrong’ type stuff. It was quite well done, although almost everyone had trouble hearing the cast. But Grand Duke just isn’t that interesting and I was quite tired, and my sinuses were killing me, and I decided about 10 minutes in to leave at intermission, which I did.

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I was really worried about the sinus thing turning into something real, but it was just annoying – still there, but not really in my way when I woke up on Tuesday. But, as I said, I was not the only one struggling with health things in the cast.

We ran the show and blocked the curtain call. People were being dumb about the curtain call blocking, and our director was not being clear, and the musical director was trying to coordinate the music directly with the call blocking, which is a huge waste of time. I declined to put in my oar, but Andrew looked at my rictus and said, “Eric, you’re smiling about twice as wide as you usually do.”, knowing full well a smile is not what it was.

But the run went quite well and we were let go pretty early as they continued to work with the principals.

I decided to go get a fancy coffee so after dumping my stuff and grabbing my Kindle, I went downstairs and realized I could possibly just go to the hotel bar, which I had not yet been to. Yes, they could do a mocha, and I grabbed a seat out in a little courtyard. Didn’t get to read, though, Rick J showed up (not sure why, he wasn’t staying at the hotel), joined me and ordered a full tea of the sort I had a few days later at Fortnum & Mason, three tiers of goodies. We had a great chat.

I left him at what I thought was a half hour til dinnertime and then realized it was an hour earlier than I thought it was. Oh, we really got let go early. I’d been invited to join the gang at Lubers, up the steep hill from the Old Hall, right next to where the Columbine (lovely fancy restaurant) used to be. We had another great chat about everything, and I had fish cakes with chips and salad, then a chocolate cake with cream on top. (that last was overkill, which I realized too late)

Back to the room by 8:30, where I read and took it easy and drank tea. Sinuses still annoying.