Lord Delton: Heilige Scheiße! We open in one week.

We open in less than one week. Gulp.

Yesterday's rehearsal felt a bit tense. At least it felt tense from where I sat, but I'm feeling pretty tense at the moment. So, there could be some distortion in how I view things.

We ran through everything from start to finish in the running order that we'll most likely use for the show. We ran it complete with songs, props, and sound effects -- oh my!

This also marked the first rehearsal since last week's bloodletting in which three sketches were cut. The casualties were: Relation Shipwrecked, Anointing of the Sickos, and Therapy (aka "the talking penis sketch"). We had to cut things for time. Chopping off the penis sketch was an easy call. I can say that because it was mine. It had a very real danger of confusing the audience, and you can't have that.

We spent the first several minutes of class concocting an opening choreographed sequence with freeze frames from each sketch. Seeing this on stage with the lighting will be pretty cool.

We then ran through every sketch. At this point, we've been running through some of these sketches several times a week for eight weeks. I think the tension comes from the fact that we've rehearsed some the pieces so many times, that everybody in that theater isn't laughing too much. The lack of laughter -- I think -- makes people nervous that something that was funny several months ago no longer is. Sitting here a day later, I know that's not true. Still, we need to get the show in front of an audience to let others laugh at what we've created.

On balance, things appear to be in good shape. Some kinks need to be ironed out, and that will be the point of our tech rehearsal and a few final walk-throughs.

Opening Night: Friday, June 30, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. at Donny's Skybox in Piper's Alley (North Ave. and Wells St.).

Yesterday's footage.