Ethan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning

So, this week is our "local week," meaning that we live at home and do shows, starting this past Sunday, that are within easy driving distance (typically an hour). Which means that our call times up at the vans have been around 6ish. And, for me, that means I get on the subway around 4:45am, which means my first (of five) alarm goes off around 4am. We return, exhausted, by about 3pm, return home, crash, rinse and repeat. And Tuesday, it seemed should have be the same. Before settling in for the night, I plugged in my cell phone (bearer of 3 alarms), checked my computer (1) and my alarm clock (1), sang "Goodnight Shnoozie" to myself (it's a Max & Ruby reference) and crashed. Immediately.

This morning, I woke up, rolled over, and asked myself, "Why is it so bright outside?" My alarm clock offered the answer: 7:15am.

Frantic, I grabbed my phone to discover missed calls from my free wake-up call service. My computer was also blinking. It appeared, despite all the best efforts, that I managed to sleep through five alarms! The show was scheduled for 10am in Newark, so I speed dialed my stage manager. "Where are you?" she asked. When I explained my circumstance and apologized profusely (something I would up doing a lot), she told me to hop the PATH train and take a taxi to the venue. They were on the road (as of when I woke up) and would meet me there. And we were already 45 minutes late. I confirmed, threw on a sweater, tossed on my shoes (without socks) and ran to the subway.

I arrived at our venue five minutes after the van, and was greeted by my cast and stage manager (very enthusiastically, which helped a ton) and a full crew of IATSE members, who had already unloaded about half of the van and were well into setting up the set. I hopped into set-up, and, collectively, we pulled the sucker together in enough time for our scheduled half hour. Which is probably a record. The show went well (kids were great, as per normal), nothing went wrong on our end, we struck fast (again, extra hands rock!), found lunch, ate, returned and crashed. Actually, during lunch I went back to the venue to pick up something we'd forgotten, and the company was nice enough to call me to check in on what I wanted for lunch.

Now, this is a pretty bad offense. A very, very, very bad offense. Equity actually has a whole page in the rulebook to which our contract is referenced covering lateness. (Actors aren't always the most punctual people.) I won't bore you with the details, but lateness is a much larger issue in the entertainment world than in other businesses, and is not tolerated. So, as I have stated a few times already today, this WILL NOT become a regular occurrence. And, as a company, we discussed contingency plans should something like this happen again. Which, after my example, I doubt will. Which is good. Because, no matter which end of it you're on, it can make for a rough day.

Kid quote of the day: When I entered as Gracie (my female bunny scout character), a little boy informed me, "You're a boy." Suspension of disbelief, anyone?

Call time tomorrow: 6am, Manhattan parking lot near Columbia. And, yes, I WILL be there at 6am. Maybe 5:45am. I "slept in" today, after all.