Work Where You Live & Live Where You Work

Okay, The Cherry Orchard opened on Friday and I have finally been able to stop driving to and from Martinez. The one thing I realized during this process is that commuting to and from theatre is not fun, especially when you are the only crew and you are holding down another job.

This was my commute

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It takes 1 hour 14 minutes according to Google, but really, it's an hour. But when you add in traffic... one day it took me almost 2.5 hours to get there. And on the way home I had to stop at a sketchy gas station, at midnight, to get gas because I wasn't sure I would make it home otherwise. Not cool.

So, while it might seem great to get a professional gig and some extra money, I think when I factor in what I spent on gas and the amount of years shaved off my life from the stress, was it worth it? Probably not. And despite realizing this during the project, I had made a commitment to the show and what's done is done. So I put in my all, or as much of my all as I could spare as I got back to work at CTC and chalked it up to a lesson learned.

Next up: CTC's The Little Mermaid. I have had some trouble wrapping my head around making a touring set, but I'm going to make it happen. And it will be great! Pictures to come after final approval tomorrow.

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For those of you who may not have seen them on Facebook: Some photos from my phone of The Cherry Orchard & process for the cyc:

Raw Materials for the cyc.

One garland done.

Many garlands hanging in my window.

First part of the install... I did not have enough, even with the store-bought ones added in.

Not quite done, but you can see where it was going.

Pretty much done, though there was still work to finesse some stuff.