Before the doors opened: On The Boards NWNW Festival 2010

It’s been maybe 8 years now, I’ve been working at On The Boards theatre.  This season is close to being over, the NWNW Festival is the last blast.  Perhaps you can allow me this moment of nostalgia?  Looking around, it’s maybe the middle of my life, a time of grandparents and sometimes parents passing, of kids I remember being born now going to school, big changes and little.  Also it’s finally the transition from what we call “spring” in Seattle to what we call “summer.”  Which begs the question -   “What have I been doing with my life?”  I have a good answer though, read on.

I’m sitting in the theatre now, listening to the HVAC and the bass from the show downstairs in the Studio, while the dancers performing later up here warm up. Dancers stretching is pretty calming, quiet conversation and occasional laughter drifting up over these familiar blue seats.  It’s one of my favorite times in this business; I know what I have to do for the show, my cue list is ready, I’ve eaten dinner, and it’s time to get in the calm headspace I need to do my job well. The On The Boards technical team is superb – Illvs Strauss on lights and Mark Meuter on the deck – we’ve done this before.  Oh – and I’ve mopped the marley.

For those that don’t know, the marley is the dance floor we lay on top of the dance floor – it rolls out like pieces of linoleum over the sprung floor (layers of fancy plywood with compression pads in between).  We literally tape it down with gaff tape.  The one out now is white on one side, and on the side facing up at the moment is a sort of dark charcoal, basically its black.  Before each show we sweep and mop the marley.

I love mopping, getting into a rhythm, the sound of the mop on the floor, the clear progress.  I prefer to do it without music playing.  I have my mental geographical markers for rinsing the mop.  I keep the mop pretty dry.  I work slowly, knowing that in this case, mopping doubles as an inch-by-inch inspection of the floor.  The aforementioned dancers will be barefoot and balancing here. Their connection to the choreography is the marley. Timing matters too, this warm-up I’m watching out of the corner of my eye is thankfully after it has dried.  We can’t control what bits of debris from the outside get carried in, but the effort has been made, the marley is clean.

The doors open in an hour, the public will come to see the results of years of training and hours of rehearsals.  The show may not work.  The people may not like it.  The critics may disparage.  Or maybe I’ll hear a standing ovation tonight.  I know the fear; I feel it when I play music, the doubts about technique, the questions of composition, the terror of performance.  I know the joy of earned respect and acclaim that may come after.

I look up and see friends and artists - brave performers beginning to move across the floor.  I’ve been watching them create, grow, change, fail, and succeed.  I’ve been here for years.  What have I been doing?  I’ve been trying to help them.  Oh – and I’ve been mopping the marley.