Tech, The Return of Brian, and a Ribeye Steak As Big As My Face

Tech rehearsals are awesome/painful. awesome in that you get to see how everything works, and looks, and everyone is focused on getting the exact right look for the show. it's really very cool...

painful in that it took 10 hours to tech 40 minutes of the show. but this is normal, and all part of the process, so we knew it was coming.

i really wanted to take lots of pictures and photodocument the whole damned day, but i was feeling a little overwhelmed this morning, and decided i'd have plenty more chances once things settle down. but the lights are so very cool. and with the costumes and feel of being in a real theater (oh yeah, by the way, we moved across the street to THE STRAND theater for a week of tech/dress rehearsals).

ok, back to the overwhelmed part...we have all been given assignments on tour; costumes, lights, props, set. we are responsible for setting up, taking down, maintaining, and generally knowing our shit. i totally lucked out getting the costume gig, and i'm happy to do it...but i am the LEAST domesticated person on this tour...ok, counting zach, i'm the second to least domesticated person on this tour. i'm terrible at picking up after myself or others, i can't sew, i know nothing of these costumes (including my own) and/ or what to do with them, and i have to force myself to stay calm, or at least internalized the maelstrom of nervous tension i can build up so as not to hurt some innocent bystander. but i think all will be well with time and repetition, end of rant. :)

BRIAN RETURNS!!

after 2 days away from us, brian came bounding in this morning to rehearsal, all smiles, and seemed well rested. brian has been down in the trenches with us from day one, and we are coming to the end of our time with him (since he doesn't go on tour with us). :( but now is not the time to be sad. now is the time to think of the happy times...like brian drawing cartoons of what he imagines our characters to look like. this one is of 2 characters. the one on the top of the page is my character, amelia, from THE MONKEY'S PAW, and the bottom is zach's character, brom bones, from THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. oh brian, the likeness is uncanny! ;)

this one is so obviously scot in JUMPING FROG. he really captured scot's essence in this one i think. be the frog. be the frog.

here we have steven's character, mr. white, in THE MONKEY'S PAW. steven is such a talent, that he projects the image of his character having hair, even though he himself is bald. kudos...to both the painter and his subject.

this is also scot...look closely, you can see it. here, he's the factory man in THE MONKEY'S PAW. i think the thinking behind this is that he and amelia come from the same creepy family! :)

here was have meagan as mrs. white, also in THE MONKEY'S PAW. far less sinister looking...in fact, i'm getting a mrs. wilson (from dennis the menace) vibe from this foxy lady.

this work of art is brian's interpretation of scot as the old man in THE TELL TALE HEART. yep, that's right folks, that poor son of a bitch gets his eye gouged out...nothing spared for children's theater!

last but not least, we have this one. not so much a characterization, as an acting note to yours truly. apparently the pause i took during 2 of my lines was so lengthy...a mac truck could have driven through the gap i left. and he proved it by having the time to DRAW A TRUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NOTE HE WROTE!! (jesus, what the hell was i doing??)

A RIBEYE AS BIG AS MY FACE


after today's 10 hour tech, i felt strange. having not really exhausted myself from physical labor, i couldn't figure out why i was so dead tired. i realized, once i started to feel my teeth itch, that i needed real food. triscuts and cheese for dinner and a banana and coffee in the day ain't gunna cover it. so i went shopping and bought a steak for dinner. i barely cooked that son of a bitch, slapped it on a plate- still bloody and mooing- with some veggies, and ate the shit out of it. and no lie...it was as big as my face!

i've come to the end of today's entry, and looking back at it, i feel i've wasted everyone's time by having nothing of any substance on the page. jesus christ i BLOGGED ABOUT WHAT I ATE FOR DINNER! i have become something i hate (but seriously, that ribeye was as big as my face)...... if you're still reading this, hoping to get something interesting out of it...sorry, i got nuthin'.

Sanford Meisner is Rolling In His Grave

whether you be of the Uta Hagen school of acting, a Stella Adler follower, or a mindless drone of lee strausberg, you won't be using your training with us in boston. here at CTP, the use of layers, the 12 guideposts by michael shurtleff, finding your "moment before"...are not permitted. it's shocking really. everything we do is all on the surface. there is never a discovery to be made within the text...no, no! and why would there be?? it's been working fine the way it is for 30 years, and if it ain't broke...well, you know the rest. everything we do on stage; every word, every step, every look, every gesture, must be BIGGER, LOUDER, FUNNIER. and that is the only concern. oh yeah, and always always always face out front completely (i'm starting to feel a bit 2 dimentional). as much as i (and i assume everyone else) wants to "feel it" on stage, it ain't gunna happen. and i guess i'm becoming ok with that.


THIS PAST WEEKEND...


saw the movie IDLEWILD with my cast...awesome, if you care to know. go see it. it's a bit predictable, but still very enjoyable, and outkast in a 20's funk/soul/romantic/musical is pretty cool...just beware old men snoring in the front row. ;)

i also got to see some a my kin!! i have family from the flaherty side of the family up here, and they were more than thrilled to come scoop me out of dorchester and take me out to lunch on sunday. my aunt pat was so excited she jumped out of the car and waited for me on the street curb. my aunt elizabeth wasn't far behind, which left my uncle Dennis to babysit the idling car. they bombarded me with 8-10 years of questions (it's been a while since i've seen them), and we went to "the fishbone grille".






they tried to stuff me full of everything on the menu, not believing that i was full...and we walked around the harbor. it was a cold rainy day, but that meant that all the boats were in their slips, so in my opinion it made for a better view.

this weekend i also gained 2 new housemates. rhonda, the electrician for the 2nd tour, and lil, an actor in the 3rd tour. rhonda is a veteran at this, and a cool woman. lil, who i just met 20 mins ago seems very nice. a 32 year old canadian, she's going into her first day tomorrow like i did- knowing almost nothing. i'm hoping she tells me all about her cast tomorrow night...just because i'm nosey. :)

tomorrow is the last day in the rehearsal space for my cast and me. we load out the set tomorrow afternoon, and wednesday we're over in THE STRAND theater- a real theater with a huge house, tech, makeup and costumes (shit, this is really happening isn't it?) so at least that will inject some much needed positive adrenaline into my performances...

tomorrow's blog, my director, brian, the cartoonist!

"I Pooped In The Pee Cup" - meagan

5 HOURS FOR A 5 MINUTE TEST...

today, meagan and i had to get our Department of Transportation physicals at some health center all the way out at logan airport. we rehearsed til around 12:30, then left the boys to run the 17 minute version of "the tell-tale heart" for the next 5 hours. i bet their day was as fun as ours. meagan and i ran for a bus in the rain that ended up being 20 mins late. then had to transfer to the red line on the T (boston's subway), transfer to the orange line, transfer to the blue line, transfer to the shuttle bus, to end up at the health center.

after what seems like a ridiculous amount of paperwork, and a rather long wait (which i was expecting), i'm called into the back. after a urine sample, eye test, and check of the blood pressure, i'm told to strip down and get into one of those backless hospital gowns. (oh goodie). then left to wait...and shiver.

the doc comes in, has me bend and touch the ground, raise my arms, walk on my toes, and checks my hearing. done with exam. nice.

then i sit out in the waiting room and wait for meagan who was right behind me during the eye test and blood pressure part. instead of meagan, out comes nick (the sound guy for the other cast, fellow redhead, with my same birthday, and lived in my former town of northbrook, IL...hurray! instant new friend.)

we continue to wait for meagan...and wait...and wait. we're getting a little punchy, and loud- which of course everyone else in the waiting room REALLY appreciated (psych).

i get a text message from meagan who is still in the exam room. she hasn't even been seen by a doctor, and is starving for food and starbucks. i text her back and ask what she did wrong to deserve this...she replies with "i pooped in the pee cup" obviously joking, but which sends nick and me into hysterical laughter in the quiet hospital waiting room. (people hate us). but we still have to wait another 15-20 minutes until meagan is freed. ri-di-cu-lous.

then on the way back, we're stuck at an outdoor bus stop in the rain for another 25 minutes, then there are massive delays with the trains because of "an earlier incident" (good, boston has the same generic explanation for transport delays as new york does), then we get stuck in a traffic jam on the last bus we had to take, and didn't get back to rehearsal until 5pm, without having eaten. we scarf down a slice of pizza each, and jump back into the swing of things, tired, still hungry, wet, and cold. after 27 minutes of rehearsal, brian calls it a day.

the cast decides to try out a not-so-scary looking restaurant that's just down the street. it's a little pricey, bar sucks, as does the service, but no one cares. beer, decent food, and we can all sit down and relax. glad that the day is over.



THE UPSIDE
the good news is that i found out we have 2 days off right before we head out on the road!! so everyone (for separate reasons) is going to new york! so i'll have 2 days back home with friends (laura no rumbles right before we hit the road...promise?). so clear your calendars- or at least pencil me in- cuz i'm comin' back for 2 days!! also i got no place to stay since i sublet my apt, so who wants me offer me a place to crash??! :)

Drama or No Drama? That is the question.

years ago, i did a play at university theater called "the women". it was a large cast of all women (adult women), and my friend laura bassett and i were in it, and talked about how much drama we would probably witness during the course of the show...alas, there was none! we really and truly thought there would be hair pulling, or at least some decent cat fights. we decided we would have NONE OF THIS!! we were anticipating drama, and drama we would have!! so we started our own. every thursday during the show, we hated one another. we would send each other hate mail, burn the other's good reviews, write lines from Macbeth on the other's dressing room mirror...the works. this was all in good fun, and we enjoyed it so it carried on to every other show we did together. what made me think of that memory, is the lack of drama so far here in boston. i'm sure there will be plenty on the road, but so far, my blog of juicy juicy gossip BLOWS. i have nothing but smiley, fun frivolity to report on thusfar. i am sorry.

MY NEW PLAN OF ATTACK

i will still tell the truth, but i want to start infusing my own version of the facts (or just resort to blatant lies). in any case, it should make for better stories...at least until the REAL drama creeps in. and yes, tim, i realize my world has shrunk to an alarmingly small size, but that's why i gots't a blog! so you can keep me in check. :) although, the idea of my castmates vs. the university theater kids would be interesting...LB, your next assignment is to organize THAT event. i'm thinking a knife fight in a back alley somewhere, like in west side story!







once upon a time, at rehearsal today...

for the sake of scot's tendons in his legs, we didn't work on "the celebrated jumping frog of calaveris county" (he plays a very active bouncy frog). for the most part, we worked on "the monkey's paw". this requires a lot of melodramatic emoting, but no running bouncing flipping hollering...we were thankful. we often break character during this play, with it being so tragically depressing and unfunny, we add in bits here and there, and joke about the powers of the paw...but today, an unfamiliar presence was in the room. and every time someone handled the prop paw, tragedy struck!


i was the first of it's victims. after holding it in my hand, and wishing aloud, i felt the paw twist. the next thing i knew, the walls were dripping with blood. (which was weird, because i had wished for an ice cream sundae).

immediately i dropped the paw. in a flash, the room returned to it's normal state. we continued to run the same play over and over again. the next the handle the paw was zach. in a flash of fire and lightening, zach's body twisted in pain on the floor as if under the "crucio" curse from harry potter.


it wasn't until he dropped the paw that he returned to his original place on stage and could continue the scene. brian was good enough to put up with what he thought were just our childish antic's. for the majority of the play meagan and steven mourn the loss of their son, zach. once the 2 of them were left alone on stage with just the paw, the hallucinations began. both started speaking in tongues, and cried.


we lost zach in the afternoon while he went off to get his Dept. of Transportation physical (required by law for anyone driving on the tour). it's very easy (and fun) to push his buttons, so we do. we teased him about having to get felt up by the doc, during the "turn your head and cough" portion of the exam. with zach out of the picture, we took lunch, and bonded with the encore 2 cast (same shows, same blocking, same parts, but COMPLETELY different people). they seem very nice, aside from the cult-esque ritualistic virgin sacrifices but i'm glad to be on my tour with my people. we are all so disfunctionally perfect together...so far. after lunch, we worked on "the necklace" and some of "the legend of sleepy hollow" when zach finally rejoined us around 5. at about 5:15 we started to get a little punchy, and brian, sensing a lack of mental alertness from his actors, decided to call it a day.

all in all, a pretty average day...but there is a lesson to be learned...






beware the monkey's paw!!


oh, yeah, and R.I.P. Pluto :(

Feelin' The Groove

we've been at this long enough that everything is starting to settle down. the early mornings, long rehearsals, lack of free time, being outside of our comfort zones have all become part of our new "normal". the up side is that we're becoming more comfortable around each other. some of us got off to a splendid start; lanny and steven i felt comfortable with right away. meagan i liked but i couldn't get a good sense of her, zach was likeable but again, there was that wall, and scot i could see a closeness with...but it was a ways off.

now of course, the walls are coming down...Boundaries are being tested, and a level of comfort is being established.

SECOND IMPRESSIONS

lanny is the "mother hen" type of the group. he hates to see any of us in pain or discomfort (and this show can cause both). he sings to himself and us before rehearsal and on breaks, takes videos of us during funny moments, passes me notes during scene changes, and keeps me laughing all day. here, lanny and meagan are boppin' along to the ridiculously awesome mix lanny has chosen on the jukebox.


steven is still my go to guy, but the questions have changed...it's now more like "does this get better when we're on the road?" and the answer has been "yes" so far. he's also introduced us to nicole who will be joining us on tour as our electrician. she's good people too...but this will be her 3rd tour in a row with chamber theater, and i'm afraid that girl make crack...which will also be fun to witness. (don't laugh, he got stuck this way).


scot is the sensitive straight male of the group and is also wise beyond his years. he seems to know more about me than i could ever even guess about him...but i guess that goes along with him being older, and deeper than i am. :) also, we met his lovely wife, steph (hi steph!!) this past weekend. she's WONDERFUL! what a breath of fresh air!! it was kind of them to hang out with us during her brief visit to boston. (she came with us to see SOAP and THE ILLUSIONIST) but hopefully we'll be seeing more of her, at least at thanksgiving in arizona, if not sooner. he should have arms and legs of steal by then...these frog legs aren't all that lightweight.



zach is loosening up a bit. but i don't know if i'm his kind of people. i hope i am, seeing as we're in this together til december, but also because he's a really fun guy. he reminds me a lot of my friend frank sarnie from college. on the outside he's uber straight, not all that sensitive (but not in an a-hole way), keeps you at a distance by poking fun or teasing you...but there's a whole lot under the surface i'm hoping we get to see. i'm betting he's got a sensitive streak...just gotta dig deep. he's starting already with the hugs.
every wednesday scot and zach get excited about the new comics that are coming out that day, and make a plan to go to harvard square and buy 'em. (they are kind enough to try to clue me in as to what the hell they're talking about).

meagan, is hysterical! she and i have to go to our Dept. of Transportation physicals together this friday, and (hopefully hopefully) we can sneak in a pedicure in the afternoon! girl bonding!! she's got a face that can make you laugh from across the room, or stare into your soul if she so chooses...i'm hoping she uses her powers for good. :) she's had a hard week this week with the line load and having to be off book for the "early run"(more about that in a bit). but she hasn't once bitched about it, or taken in out on anyone, even when she was uber frustrated and i'm sure wanted to kick something/someone. and apparently, as you can see from this picture, she plays a perfect Gollum. :)


THE EARLY RUN (AKA BLACK TUESDAY)

during the rehearsal process, there is a run-through of the entire show where the super producer, spring, comes in a observes and takes notes. it is during (but not limited to) this rehearsal that she decides whether she made the appropriate choice in hiring you in the first place. at any point in the rehearsal process, she reserves the right to either switch you with another actor in your tour ,or just flat out fire you. the first chance she got to do this to us was yesterday. it was originally going to be later in the week, but they moved it up. yay...not at all. we all made it out of there with our jobs intact, and keeping our same roles, but it's not always the case. (we were very relieved). it's exhausting to feel that you're constantly auditioning over and over again for someone. i guess the freedom comes when you're out on the road...kind of. after yesterday's hellish rehearsal, we all decided beer was needed. so we headed over to the quasi sketchy bar across the street and order round after round of liquid relief.


ONLY IN BOSTON...

oh yeah, and this morning started off with a hit and almost run accident involving a city bus, and a duck tour bus! cops, vulgarity, an attempted quick getaway by the duck tour bus driver...all very exciting. bet you've never seen THAT in new york. :)

"Snakes on a Plane is the 'Citizen Kane' of our Generation."

so blah, blah, blah, we rehearsed all saturday long...i could bitch about that...but talking about SNAKES ON A PLANE is way better, so that's what i'm a gunna do.

SNAKES ON A PLANE IS MOTHER (expletive) AWESOME!!

during our costume fittings today, we as a cast decided we wanted to go see a movie. it came down to either THE ILLUSIONIST, or SNAKES ON A PLANE. i made the point that, yes, THE ILLUSIONIST will be a very good movie, and i do want to see it, but SNAKES ON A PLANE required our immediate attention. it's the kind of movie that needs to be seen on the big screen, and on it's opening weekend to get the full audience participation that a shitty B movie needs to be enjoyable. i was right.

also our sound techie, beth, saw it last night with her boyfriend and loved it so much, she wore her hair in a special hair-do tribute to the movie...snakes in her hair!


there is nothing better than a packed auditorium full of people KNOWING they paid money to see total cinematic trash, awaiting the infamous line from samuel l. jackson..."i. am. sick of these mother f**kin' snakes, on this mother f**kin' plane!" (there's more of a backstory as to what makes this line so great...but you really had to have geeked out to get it.)

the movie crosses every single line you think it's gunna cross without being offensive (NOTE** older generations will not find the humor in the movie...sorry mama) and had the entire audience roaring with laughter, bonding together in one giant lovefest.

and as soon as the movie let out, the jokes started..."hey, snakes on a bus!" "snakes on the bar!" "snakes on a shirt!" (although, my friend evan kessler of has a good start on that one).

this is also going to lead to a whole new wikepedia definition of awesomely bad. for example; that backstreet boys song is so 'snakes on a plane'!

we were all so pleased that we enjoyed the movie so much, that we decided, despite our level of exhaustion, that we needed to grab a beer. so we did!! where we continued the "snakes on a plane" jokes, and bounced around with joy.

TGI PAYDAY!

so very happy we got paid today! also, it's opening night of SNAKES ON A PLANE so everyone get your tickets!! since the cast has to be off book and at rehearsal tomorrow morning, we're planning to see it tomorrow night after we get out...but we ARE seeing it, and that's the important thing.

today was much better than yesterday for other reasons too. scot's wife is flying in today to visit him for the weekend from new york, meagan's boyfriend will be here later this weekend, and zach got new comic books yesterday. plus, having just cashed our paychecks, we all had enough money for all the pizza we could stand for lunch!

also, we used the van for the first time today. with all our moneys burning holes in our pockets, we took a trip to target, and stop & shop for sundries and groceries. this made us very happy











the convenience of the van is great...







but we quickly realized that this was THEE van that we will be living in and with only each other, for the next...4 1/2...months.


today was also the last day that we had the rehearsal hall just to ourselves. tomorrow we'll have to start sharing with the next tour. just as long as they keep their hands away from our coffee...i won't have to shank anyone.


ALSO...
here is a link to scot's blog. http://www.scotontour.blogspot.com/ he's not only an amazing talent onstage, but quite a good writer (as opposed to me who throws this random crap up on a blog). he can give you an alternate perspective of life on this tour...and a lot more eloquently i might add!

and lanny, our stage manager, has a blog too!! http://bustonacurb.blogspot.com/ his is like mine, with better pictures. he's a wonderful member of our group, and when shit starts to hit the fan, and drama breaks out...this will be a good blog to get the 'other side' from!

THE HONEYMOON'S OVER...

so today was tough. i'm not sure why, maybe the adrenaline from the newness is wearing off, but today sucked. i haven't slept for the past 2 nights, and i can only drag ass through rehearsal for so long before it starts to show.

everyone is starting to feel the lethargy creep in a little earlier everyday, and today's earlier than usual break for lunch didn't help. Usually, we take lunch around 1:30 or 2, and break for an hour. this leaves us with roughly 3 hours left in our rehearsal day, and our 2nd and 3rd winds kick in around the same time, so we can push through with a fair amount of ease...but after eating carbo loaded lunches at 1pm, NO ONE was ready for a solid 4 hours of tweaking painfully precise blocking. we held it together rather well, until steven asked what time it was, and when i responded "it's a little after 3" he looked like i kicked his dog. (he really thought it was closer to 5).

then some time later,
after draining the coffee pot for a second time, and not feeling it's effects, i lay out spread eagle on the floor of the set with scot during a 5 minute break, at which point someone else askes the time, and scot replies with "it's forever o'clock". i think this is rather funny, and giggle...which turns into a hardy laugh...which turns into hysterical fits of laughter...which borders on tears. this is the beginning of the cast meltdown.

sometime around 5pm,
meagan and scot share a rather intimate moment of flatulence which prompt us all to laugh, beaver jokes are made regarding a dead animal stuffed prop and zack blocked to present it while spreading his legs on the bench...this also leads to more sexually explicit, wildly inappropriate humor having NOTHING to do with the rehearsal material (did i mention our level of immaturity?)

5:30pm
rehearsal has gone to hell. tears are welling up in my eyes from laughing, no one is taking much care to memorize/ remember lines, blocking, or notes that poor brian is attempting to give us. also, we have onlookers- sound board operator (beth), the new stage manager from the next tour (erica), and super techie (elizabeth)- are all watching in what i can only imagine to be entertained horror, at what can happen to a cast after only a week of being trapped in our new finite little world.

5:40pm
i can't remember a single line without calling for it. zack can't look me in the eye without convulsing with laughter, meagan is back on book (no longer attempting her lines without it) and covering her face with the script when she gets the giggle fits, my characterization is shot to shit, scot is reenacting his flatulent moment from earlier and making penis jokes regarding smoky robinson (i think?), lanny (our SM) has mentally checked out, and brian...oh brian...bless his heart, gives us the option of calling it quits for the day and picking up again in the morning. i think we all felt bad, because he was completely within his right to yell (but he didn't), and ask for professionalism from us...because after all, we were being paid to fuck around. we decide to pull it together for the last 20 minutes, and finish out the day with some sort of dignity.

apres rehearsal...
i really need a beer. zack really needs comic books. meagan really needs to memorize lines. scot really needs to rest. steven really needs to get the van back to the other side of town. and brian shoots out of there like a bat out of hell.

there's a bit more gossip from today that i'll share at another time...it's juicy enough to warrant more energy than i have to give at the moment...guess you'll have to stay tuned...

ON AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT NOTE...
i've got some possible doppelgangers in my cast. can you see it? or is it just me? (**NOTE** to be fair, i don't have very accurate photos of the NC people seen here...i did the best i could, so suck it.)






zack from chicago by way of north carolina and cali, and will from north carolina

scot from nyc by way of arizona, and seph from college in north carolina




meagan from nyc by way of virginia, and collet from north carolina