After

The run of the show went well overall...bigger crowds than I'd expected (esp. since there were few to no roles for younger children and that seems to be what really puts asses in seats here)...but I am seriously glad it's over. More time for my own life and I can tend my garden which is getting rebellious on me.

~*~

Dreamt this morning that I woke, looked out the window and saw it raining. Never realized it was a dream at all until it was pointed out to me that it was dry outside. It's raining now though. Slow and drizzly.

~*~

Bought and finished the last Harry Potter this weekend and I'm left with a "this is all there is?" sort of feeling. Not wholly negative, not wholly positive, either.

~*~

Catching up on comments from the last couple of days here...feel free to skip this lot.

Peter: Excepting Saturday's night from hell, the run of the show was excellent. There was some sort of total cast meltdown Saturday--no one could focus and the audience was just useless...totally low affect and near-t0-unresponsive. Hard to generate energy if there's nothing to work from.

Aaron: It's not so much I'm secure...it's more I've hit this sort of Zen about things...I just don't give a feck.

Radish: This show has grown on me as I've done it...and it's all due to the music. I'm still wandering around singing tunes from it.

Tha Good, Tha Bad and The Ugly

Opening night was a success...overall. A few minor problems, but the crowd loved the show. A little shy of capacity, which surprised me...I wasn't expecting much in the way of audience numbers. The weather's supposed to be really temperate so I'm hoping we keep pulling in people.

The girl who's doing our tattoos for the show is phenomenal--she freehands the craziest stuff in just a short amount of time. By the time she was done with me I looked like I could be on Cops. I know some people were snapping pics as she worked and after she was done, so I'm hoping to get some of them. My favorite tatt is the topless hula girl who looks like Lucille Ball.

On to the disasters: oddly, about 4 of us had moments early on where our throats just seemed to lock up on us and we fought to sing at capacity the rest of the night. In Act II I have a line that's supposed to be belted out in full falsetto--I opened my mouth and it just wasn't there. I'd never had that problem before in rehearsal; I'd always just open my mouth and blare it out. So today is a lot of vocal rest, water and an herbal tea that's gotten me through other shows in the past. Additionally, my coconuts came untied in the middle of "HoneyBun." I made it through...the audience had no idea, but they got a good laugh from it. It's a pity that trying to do something like that intentionally never seems to work....

Here's a couple of pics from the final dress rehearsal. More to follow

Bloody Mary and I seem to be channeling Norma Desmond here...no idea when in the show this takes place


The less said about this the better


The kickline from "Honey Bun"

Forgot to mention--these photos are courtesy of my friend Nancy.

Tales From the Make Up Chair

A compendium of things said to me or that I've overheard while getting ready each night. Check back--I'll update as the show progresses.

Keith (to me): Be sure to rouge your nipples. Not too much though; you want them looking perky-- not puffy. Puffy nipples could mean there's an infection.

Jerry (to me): What's wrong with your chest? Do you shave it? Chest hair's not supposed to look like that.

Some Random Girl: I wish I had to stuff my bra.

??(Can't remember who to me): Your dove tattoos look much better tonight. Last night it looked like you had a map of Texas above each tit.

Update from 7-19:

Nurse: I've ruined my boobs. Where's Anthony? He's really good with my boobs.

(I've realized that I'm essentially 12. Boob jokes always amuse me.)

T-Minus 8 and Other Things

In a little under 8 hours, we'll have opening night. Last night was the final dress rehearsal and it went really really well...too well for my liking. Just about the only superstition I have about how the run of a show will go is "bad final dress, good opening night." I dropped and transposed a couple of lines last night...nothing we didn't manage though...so...at least I did something wrong.

Regarding actor superstitions...this is perhaps the grossest I know of...a former castmate always wore the same clothes to the theatre from first dress rehearsal to closing night...Everything..shirt, pants, undies, socks...never laundered any of it. I'm glad I was never particularly near him in past shows.

Hopefully Tuesday will bring some production photos. My outfit for "Honey Bun" in Act II is particularly good. Tassles, camo, coconuts and heels.

~*~

We had a scheduled power outage this morning...god knows why....but it was nice. I perced some coffee on the stove top and sat around finishing up What's Written On the Body. I've been reading through it before bed at night as a little treat to myself for not murdering people during rehearsals. It's made me want to write. I love reading work by people with a different aesthetic and relationship to language than my own...always so much possibility there.

While the power was out I had the back door open to let in some breeze and to hear the rain. I was running around in a pair of boxers just enjoying my day off, talking to the cat, idly scratching when I heard voices outside. Mens' voices. Apparently today's the day that the power company dudes came to read the meter. I was standing in the doorway looking out when they walked by. So close to a scene from a porno...well..maybe bear porn. They seemed a little hostile to my immodesty.

Snippets

We open in two days...and it finally feels like we have a real show. I left rehearsals early last night because it felt like I was coming down with bronchitis. I took some Mucinex and ended up falling asleep on the couch last night about 9:30 and slept there until 7:30 this morning. Woke up feeling fine.

~*~

The rest of this week should be easier--all the print design stuff is finally done and at the printer's, so I don't have to deal with that or last minute design meetings or any of that stuff. I can just concentrate on acting and singing and all that jazz.

~*~

There is a little girl in the show who is inarguably the rudest child I've met in my life. She reminds me of Samara from The Ring. Perhaps that's only because I want to throw her down a well.

~*~

Brian got his exam results yesterday, he passed both. I'm thrilled for him. He also gets to go to a special screening of Hairspray on Thursday (I'm only a little jealous...the John Travolta thing really makes me want to avoid this movie like the plague. Part of me hopes that since it is Baltimore that John Waters will be there...) Saturday he's driving in for the weekend and to see the show. It's almost obscene, getting to see him twice in one month.

~*~

Harvesting like crazy at work right now...tons of squash, cukes and green tomatoes.

The Phone Call

I had a tanning session yesterday before rehearsal to try and coax my lunescent torso into something resembling a flesh tone. Let me be honest--I'm scattered and exhausted right now, so I'm not at my best. I'm practically witless. So I'm getting ready to get into the tanning bed and I notice the little sign about removal of jewelry. So I took out my nipple ring and got into the bed. I get through the session, get dressed, go to rehearsal. I realize about an hour after I left that I neglected to retrieve my nipple ring. So I call the tanning salon. This is how it went.

Me: Um, hi. I was in bed 3 for a tanning session at 5:30?
Employee: Mhmmm.
Me: Well, uh, I left my nipple ring in the jewelry dish and I was wondering if someone could hold onto it until tomorrow when I have my next session.
Employee: Nip-ple ring.(long pause). Ok. (strangled, repulsed quality to her voice at that moment.)

Sigh. It's the little things.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Midway on life's journey, I found myself
On stage, the right line lost. To tell
about last night is hard--so tangled and rough...

(with apologies to both Dante and Robert Pinsky)

Last night's rehearsal was from hell. Production staff pissing contests, freak outs, hissy fits, the whole nine. On top of that we had to have EMS come and take a cast member to the emergency room. Truly, exhausting on any number of levels. How will tonight go?

South Pacific and Other things.

The show opens in 10 days...it doesn't seem possible. I'm supposed to be off book tonight, but I don't think it's gonna happen...I'm crap at memorization. I'm one of those types that really learns more from repetition of the lines tied to action than from sitting and reading. I'm going to do my best though. In my favor is the fact that a) I've got the songs cold and b) I've got the choreography down as well.

Spent all day yesterday designing publicity materials. The initial poster design was going to be influenced by the WW II homefront propaganda posters but it just didn't work. Too dark, too dreary. So I went with something more in line with the era's painted postcards. I'm pretty happy with the finished results. It's different than how I usually design, much more pretty and lyric, but it seems to serve well. I consulted with the printer this morning and just finished the final tweaks about an hour ago. A larger version of the image can be found here.

~*~

We had our first harvest from the hotel's garden today, two nice pie pan squash. There's going to be tons more...the squash and tomatoes are loaded and full.

The home garden's just as crazy. The tomatoes have had to be tied twice in the past week.

~*~

So much poetry to catch up on and more books coming. I've flipped through J. Allyn Rosser's Misery Prefigured over coffee the last couple of mornings and I can't wait to sit down for a good close reading. Beautiful stuff. Elaine Equi's Ripple Effect also came in the mail and I'm looking forward to it as well. But before that I have to a) free up some time and b) get through all the other stuff in the bedside stack. The delirious tyranny of options.

(I don't even want to think about when I'm going to be able to actually write.)

And Lo

The skies broke and the rains came down...kept having flashes from the Wasteland running through my head yesterday afternoon.

Very productive morning in the garden for me--transplanted and separated purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, nicotiana and hibiscus. Even got the newest bed weeded, watered and mulched. Got everything fertilized and now don't have to worry about being gone the next several days. I still need to get the beetle traps out...they seem particularly heavy this year.

~*~

Rehearsal went very well last night--we now have more than enough men to fill out the chorus! Every year it's a fight to get men involved and I was more worried this year than most (we can't really recast sailors, marines and seabees as women), but we managed to recruit some excellent singers who can move well. The songs last night sounded really full...we're having a crash course in the parts tonight but I'm really excited.

I remembered my choreography for "Honey Bun" much to my (and the choreographer's) delight. There's a bit with a passe and then a step ball bit that had given me trouble tuesday...we're running it again tonight so hopefully I'll have it all locked in.

Took twice as long to get home last night as usual...there was an accident on my way home. I'm not surprised...there were a lot of stretches of standing water, heavy rain and mist. Sitting in traffic with the strobing lights of the responders' vehicles lighting the trees, the rain and dark made me feel very anxious. I was really aware that a panic attack could exert itself if I wasn't careful.

~*~

Lots of last minute errandy things to do today...run to the bank, renew my car license, clean out the car (with the rain this might just have to be a slapdash effort) making sure I have everything on my list. I only hope I remember all my stuff and don't show up without my underwear and toiletries like last time. Or forget Brian's birthday present like I did last time he was in town (it's only 3 months late at this point.)

Enervation

It is unseasonably hot and humid here. It's not usually this muggy and stifling until mid-July or August. Everything else I've wanted to do with the gardening at home and the beds at work has gone by the wayside. The main thing now is just keeping it all watered. The tomatoes, those contrary things, love it.

~*~

I'm a bad sleeper even under the best conditions and this old farmhouse just sucks in heat and holds onto it, making getting deeply asleep impossible. The heat's also irritated Fletcher who's taken to running about and yowling to be let out each night, usually about half an hour after I'm asleep. Shorter version: everyone here is cranky.

~*~

We choreographed the big dance number I'm in last night. It went well enough--even in the heels. After 3 hours though, I was ready to go home and ceased being such a cooperative camper.

In related news, the original director for the show quit last week. Things seem to be going better without him.

~*~

Brian's going to see Kathy Griffin tonight at a theatre down the street from his apartment. I'm frankly jealous and wish I could go, but my rehearsal schedule won't allow it. I'll be heading east to see him Saturday, though and staying until July 5th. I'm ready to go now.

~*~

Big Ups to C Dale and Jacob. I got the Amazon gift certificate and finally figured out what to order. I'm looking forward to even more book shopping while I'm out of town. There's so much I want to get my hands on right now it's not funny.

~*~

I bought a hula hoop today. Sad that what one could do easily at 10 is nearly impossible now.

Shoes, Shoes, Little Black Shoes

the Capezio 650 character shoe

Years ago, I was a Kit-Kat girl in a production of Cabaret at my alma mater (and yes I did wear them with black fishnets like those above). The director wanted a man in drag and she asked me if I'd do it, since she didn't think any of the college boys would be comfortable. I wasn't particularly comfortable with it either (there's a reason I'm not a drag queen...I'm one uuuuuuugly woman.) But I said I would--it seemed like a lark. I knew I could walk and dance in heels but had never tried it in a real pair of dance shoes. So I ordered a pair like those pictured above in an 11. They were remarkably comfortable, I just need a little bit of moleskin at the heel to prevent blisters.

I dragged them out of storage over the weekend for a number I'm doing in South Pacific. They need some polish and edge dressing to cover scuffs from that production; they also need to be stretched a little in the toe but are still remarkably comfortable (yes, I've been wearing them around the house today to reacclimate myself.) Dance rehearsals start next week...I'm oddly excited. They make my calf muscles look great.