Woke up at 0900, a luxury after maybe 3 weeks of early mornings. We're pumped, opening night of 'Oz' being quite a hit with our crowd.

As a club NYeDC 05 pulled together and focused on getting our show out. Whether in training, rehearsal, technical, handicraft or artistic activities, everyone found a niche and gave everything they had and more. Every rehearsal found a new angle, a new toy, or a new gag with improvisation and seat-of-the-pants ingenuity; necessity being the mother of invention.

Right down to opening night, the cast and crew still found new ways to play, and last night the Timekeeper and the Wizard came into their own as characters in the show. Must credit Timekeeper who was sensitive enough to notice he was stealing limelight away from the main action and sensibly stopped his antics so focus could go back to centrestage.

Having a competent 'live' band to support the action is definitely the way to go. Our musicians have very little to do with the club but they found a way to believe in the show enough to ask to be a part of it. We left them to improvise on their own and kept the soundtrack flexible. Result: action, underscored with music and effects, that would otherwise have fallen flat.

If there were any problems on opening night, it would have been from the soundboard. Condenser mikes not picking up well, actors sounding soft in ensemble, in contrast to the loud, clear sounds of our individually miked up solos. Need to balance the sound better, and avoid feedback, which was another nagging problem.

The house last night was larger than I had been mentally prepared for. Last night sold well and let's hope tonight's show will be just as good. Must thank 'sif, HT, Ramzi, Shariffah and Durga of 04 for their time and for creating a gorgeous front-of-house set with fabrics, a couple of fedoras and a ruby red shoe (shaped phone). Must also thank the AV guy for hanging around in the sound booth giving me a hand with a twitchy soundboard.

Tonight is closing night. Let's avoid complacency and let the success of our previous night get to our heads. NYeDC 05, let's go and break some legs!