This morning some nervous meetings at the Mustang Cinema immediately after a rushed breakfast as Hotel Pro Forma measured and re-measured the stage to see if their screen for Relief would fit. After some scratching of heads and climbing around in the fly tower the decision was made to go ahead. Bravely done. After assembling the frame the screen was lifted by 12 Bulgarians drafted in from the local theatre by Nikolay Iordanov (director of the Varna Summer Festival, our hosts). Then it was manoeuvred delicately into position, as Ralf Strobech the Pro Forma artistic director said, “like parking a car in Paris”.
Then to Signa’s “house” where there are concerns about the physical structure of the building – will the floor collapse? A Structural Engineer is found who walks around for a while and then shrugs and says “It’s OK”. You can tell he is clearly wondering why on earth these northern Europeans want to hold an international theatre event in a wreck like this.
Both shows have postponed their openings by a day in order to get over the technical bumps.
Strange experience for me this evening – one of the Varna Summer Press people hands me the Festival Bulletin Paper in which is carefully transcribed the text of the press conference Chris and I gave yesterday. Reading in print what you have said on the spur of the moment in a meeting is always a little disturbing – print seems more permanent than the spoken word. And whenever I read transcriptions of what I have said I always think I sound like a jerk.
Tomorrow the official opening in Balchik -the mayor, speeches, ribbon cutting etc etc.