Saturday, March 12

Unplugged Festival
The press release for the upcoming Unplugged Festival hit the internet today, so I think that means I am now allowed to announce my casting. The festival is to workshop new plays, culminating in readings.

I will be in Some of the People, All of the Time by Jamie Pachino. It will be directed by Artistic Director (he is also directing Las Meninas that I'm in, which opens this coming week).

The description in the press release is:
A priceless collection of Japanese art surfaces and two rival art dealers struggle to find out the truth about the collection's history. Nothing is quite as it appears in this compelling story of passion, art and double dealing.

The performance of this one will be Thursday, April 14 at 2:00pm.


Las Meninas
We had a rehearsal on stage with our set earlier this week (it's unusual to have that happen before tech here, because there are other shows in performing in repertory on the same stage). And as a result of that rehearsal, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be one of the craziest tech periods I've ever had.

The set is mechanized (which is REALLY COOL, by the way), so it might take some time to get the cues down. Also, the actors are moving the set, and several of the entrances onto the set are more narrow than we had been anticipating. Also, some of the wider entrances open up from hidden double doors to the set, and so each time we move large furniture (like beds) through them, there have to be two people holding the doors open so that they are FULLY open, or else the beds won't fit. Not to mention that we're doing all of this in period costumes and platform shoes (one of the main characters is supposed to be a little person, so the rest of us are in platforms to help make him look smaller).



Boeing Boeing
We were sold out for Boeing Boeing earlier this week. We've done it on Wednesday and Thursday, and we're doing it again on Saturday. After that (as a result of Las Meninas tech/opening week), we won't do it again for a long stretch of time.

Monday, March 7

SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT
Today, my theatre did its season announcement for next year. It's strange to think that I won't be around for that season. Three years is a long time to be somewhere. This is my home now. Today was the first time it really hit me that I won't be here for much longer. And that was a little hard to take.


LAS MENINAS
We've been rehearsing for 1 month, 6 days (according to an app on my iPod Touch called "Time Flies", which I love). We are going on the set for the first time tomorrow for a designer run through (which means we'll do the play in front of the designers for the first time, so they can see what the show is becoming). We start tech next week. Our first preview is on the 16th, and we open on the 18th. I think this is the longest rehearsal process I've been in since high school, which is a result of having to schedule our rehearsals around the performances in the Rep calendar.


BOEING BOEING
We had a string last week where I believe we got to do the show 5 times in 6 days, which was lovely. But now we haven't done it since Thursday, and we're not doing it again until Wednesday. Rep is so weird sometimes.

Despite the gaps in our schedule, we're doing quite well. We've been finding new things in the show, which is always a nice place to be. The two performances we had last week were particularly fun, I thought.

Also neat: I got to see the understudy run of the show! It was so cool! I've never been able to SEE a show that I've been IN. There are sight gags that the guys pull while I'm on stage with them that I've never been able to watch, so it was neat to see how they play out. It really is a delightful play. Congrats to our awesome understudies!


LAS MENINAS UNDERSTUDYING
We had our first official Las Meninas understudy rehearsal on Saturday morning. It didn't feel like the first for me, as I have gone on in my role many times in rehearsal. I'm understudying our Acting Professoressa, who plays both the Queen Mother and the Mother Superior. Whenever our rehearsal times conflict with her class schedule, then I have to step in for her. I believe that there's only one scene of hers that I have as of yet to do, which is a scene that is predominantly her character talking (so when she's unable to attend rehearsal, they skip over that scene instead of putting me into it). As a result, I'm mostly off book already, and I know most of her blocking. So that's nice.


DEATHTRAP UNDERSTUDYING
On Sunday, we did the first readthrough of Deathtrap with the understudies. I am understudying the role of Helga Ten Dorp, the Dutch psychic. Voice Professor gave me some materials so that I can work on the Dutch accent, but I haven't had time to work much with them yet. Right now, my Dutch sounds like a cross between German and Italian. It's not accurate, but it's pretty funny. I'm excited to work on this role.

Unfortunately for me, Las Meninas and Deathtrap rehearse at exactly the same times! There are people in both casts who are in Boeing Boeing AND there are people in both casts who are in Twelve Angry Men. As a result, whenever either BB or 12AM are performing, then NEITHER of the other plays can rehearse. As a result, the blocks of time that are open to rehearse for them are the same times as each other. This means that it's going to be VERY difficult for Wifey (who is understudying the wife), Thrill (who is understudying the lawyer), and I to attend any Deathtrap rehearsals until they're in tech. So we're going to have to try to get as off-book as we can, and then learn the blocking at the last minute. YIKES!

Boeing Boeing: Airline Slogans of the '60s

They filmed this in our dressing rooms during our performance last Saturday. :)

Monday, February 21

Las Meninas
The rehearsals for Las Meninas are going well. We have blocked the entire show, and run each act separately... and we don't open for another month.

I've been going on as an understudy for all or part of most rehearsals. I'm understudying Acting Professoressa in her two roles as The Queen Mother & The Mother Superior. Because of her teaching schedule, when we rehearse from 11-4 or 12-5, she has to leave at 1:30, and I'm her for the rest of the day. Also, she's been off on recruitment (auditioning students for the incoming class of 2014... oh my!), so I've been playing her roles while she was out of town. At this point, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I've been in her roles more than she has.

On the one hand, that's great: understudies don't generally get this much rehearsal, and I'm further along in learning the lines/blocking than I would be otherwise. But on the other hand, it's tough: because I'm playing my own character AND her two characters, I get confused a lot. I keep missing one entrance as the Mother Superior because I'm already on stage as my own role, a Lady-in-Waiting. (My understudy can't attend most rehearsals because she's in classes). I feel like I'm letting everyone down.

Wifey, Thrill, and Two-Shots-Up all have HUGE roles in this show, and they're rocking them. As the Artistic Director (who is directing this show) said, Las Meninas is the show this season where there are students in the main roles, and the Equity cast is supporting the students. It's neat to see. I'm super proud of them.


Boeing Boeing
The show has been a lot of fun. We only perform it about once a week, which is tough (quite a memory exercise). But I love it when we do perform it. Our audiences have been terrific, and we've been sold out or close to it for every performance we've had, which is awesome.

I have 5 assisted changes during the show, which I am making with the assistance of two lovely ladies named Deborah and Michelle. Deborah is our costume crew, and Michelle is wigs/hair/makeup. All of my changes involves hats/headpieces/wigs getting put on or taken off, so Michelle does that while Deborah helps me with costume pieces/accessories/shoes/props. It's kind of crazy. But the funny thing is, when I tell people who have seen the show that I have 5 assisted changes, they can't think of any of them! A couple of those changes are SUPER FAST, but the stuff happening on stage is so dynamic that the audience doesn't realize that I just changed out of my (incredibly complex) air hostess uniform and into a nightgown in 20 seconds.


Donor Brunch
The 3rd-Years had our annual brunch with donors this past weekend. It was lovely. It's amazing to be in a room with that many people who love and support you.

I mentioned to them that I'm working on moving to London, and I need a way to do it and be legally able to work. If anyone reading this has any suggestions or ideas, please let me know.


Showcase
We have chosen our scenes for our New York Showcase in April, and have started rehearsing them. I'm doing a scene with Two-Shots-Up and a scene with Thrill, both of which are comedic. I'm happy with what I ended up with.


The Thrill of the Chase
We did a free staged reading of a play my boyfriend wrote while he was visiting me from London. We had a great turn-out, especially considering that we did mostly word-of-mouth advertising. The reading was fantastic (and I'm not just saying that because I was in it). People seemed to be really affected by the piece (which is dark and twisted), and I'm STILL getting comments from them about it, and how glad they were that we did it. I'm glad we did it, too. :)


The Love Late Night
The 4th Annual Love Late Night was a huge success. I did a monologue that I wrote myself. D-Train and 1st-Year SB did a scene that my boyfriend wrote. We had a great time.

Boeing Boeing Scenes Video

A little video of Boeing Boeing. Can you spot me?

Interview with Artistic Director on Boeing

Interview with Boeing Director

Boeing Boeing Slideshow

Boeing Boeing Costumes & Set

I thought you might want to see the sketches of our Boeing Boeing costumes and a model of the set. I know it's hard to see, but it might give you an idea of the style of the show.

My costume is the green one on the upper left.


(Click to enlarge)

Hello from Tech

I'm blogging this during a 10-out-of-12 tech rehearsal for Boeing Boeing. In case you're not familiar with that phrase, it means that during a 12-hour period, we rehearse/tech for 10 of those hours. Today, it's 12pm-5pm & 7pm-12am.

I am currently wearing my "Alitalia" uniform. It's a short, tight, low-cut green dress. I also have patterned tights, a Pucci-style neck scarf, white custom-cut lace-up white high heeled boots, a black wig, green earrings, a green hat, and a cream-colored cape. In short, it's the coolest costume I think I've ever had. Ever.

I'm off-stage at the moment, and sitting in my dressing room. This season, I'll be sharing a dressing room with the 4 other ladies in my class. But as Newbie and I are the only students in this show, (and we're never on stage at the same time), the dressing room seems rather quiet and empty at the moment.

We're designing make-up for the show tonight. Luckily, I have more make-up than most people, so we'll probably end up using the make-up I already own for this role. And if there's anything else I need, then I'll acquire it. I like having a large stockpile.


(This photo was taken in August, after a major session of throwing out old make-up. I have acquired more since then. It's getting a little out of hand...)

The hardest part about this tech so far has been adjusting to working with doors. The play is a farce, so it is heavily dependent on doors opening and closing with precise timing. Up until yesterday (when we began tech), we had been in a rehearsal space where the doors were marked out in tape out on the floor. Having to physically open and close doors is a lot different from just walking through the door-designated spaces.

Also tricky: the doorjambs. I'm wearing high-heeled go-go boots. There is a doorjamb at every doorway. And I keep forgetting that they're raised and tripping over them. I'm kind of a disaster.

And then there's my hat. I have a hat as part of my costume. In rehearsals, we blocking that I take off and put on my hat in several instances (and at one point, someone else puts my hat on my head for me). But now I have the real hat (not just a rehearsal prop) and I have a wig on. The only way to make the hat stay on the wig is to affix it with hairpins. It's not easy to undo and redo hairpins on stage. I don't know if we'll end up re-blocking things so that I do less business with the hat, or if I'll just have to practice. The costume designer and the head of the costume shop suggested that they might be able to put a comb into the hat instead of pins, but it might mess up the style of the wig. It's all up in the air at the moment.

I also have to get into the habit of stepping into good lighting. Things get re-blocked by small degrees once you're on stage just because of where the lighting hits the stage. If you're a couple inches to the left, you might be in shadow. You have to hit every mark, which means the blocking gets more specific.

We're working through it. And it's already on the right track. We're a lot further along in the play than I thought we would be at this point. It's actually going really well, and is less stressful than most techs. But there's still a lot to learn.

Boeing Boeing Photo!

I know I've been away from this blog for too long. And I do mean to come back...

We're starting tech for Boeing Boeing tomorrow. I just saw this banner on my theatre's homepage, and I thought you might like to see it.



I'm on the left, Rep actress K.H. is center, and my classmate Newbie is on the right.

It's going to be a fun show. :)

Returning from Silence

I am typing this on my brand new computer. My last computer, the incredible Lady MacBook, passed away. But now that I have a new one, I figured today is a good day to catch up on blogging.


Antigone Now
Antigone Now was a crazy, crazy ride. In about 5 weeks, we did 41 performances of our show. We performed it all over.

Places like:
- high school gymnasiums
- college classrooms
- one high school classroom/hallway
- high school theatres/auditoriums
- college theatres
- our own theatre
- a botanical garden
- a museum gallery
- a museum courtyard (next to a manatee tank)
- a furniture store

I joked that when we started the tour, we were at "beginner" level, and the difficulty kept increasing. By the end, we were most definitely experts.

Challenges that were thrown at us included:
- Small spaces
- HUGE spaces
- low ceilings
- a set that was screwed into a high school stage, which we had to keep jumping over
- a REALLY loud air conditioning system in a high school gym
- a temperamental sound system that sometimes didn't work at the top of the show (which is when we have a sound cue of gunfire that we're supposed to be taking cover from... yeah, that was interesting)
- hot outdoor locations (and we were wearing trenchcoats)
- a tree that kept throwing nuts at us
- one transformative performance space with moveable walls (kind of like the theatrical version of The Room of Requirement from Harry Potter)
- audiences that meowed/laughed/yelled/heckled/texted/popped gum/etc.

And, one challenge that I faced:
Wifey got sick, and with about 40 minutes before call time, I learned that I would be playing her role. I memorized the lines in the van on the way there. I ended up playing her role for 5 performances while she recuperated. And I led the talkbacks for about a week or so past that.

All in all, the tour was a great experience. I learned a lot from it. I had touring experience. I had performed for young audiences. But what I really got a lot out of was the experience of fringe-style performance spaces. Having to adapt our show to each new space on the fly was really neat as a performer. It kept things fresh, even after all those performances.

For sake of comparison...
I'm going to be in Boeing Boeing later this season. It opens in January and runs through April. There will be a total of 28 performances (and I believe that's the longest run in the Rep this season). So 41 performances in 5 weeks? Intense.

I love my class. We did a great job of banding together and working everything out.


Talks
My program has been bringing in people to talk with us about the industry, which is awesome.

A couple of weeks ago, it was Steve Rankin, who got his MFA at my Conservatory and now has a successful career in Los Angeles.

This past week, it was a double header: Hal Linden (aka Barney Miller) and Tim Jerome, both of whom have had great Broadway careers.

Hal Linden graciously signed my 1962 Off-Broadway cast recording of Anything Goes, in which he played Billy Crocker. That recording was the first tape I bought with my own money, back when I was in 4th grade. I listened to it so much that I actually warped the tape. I can't tell you how many times I've sung duets with him on "You're the Top", singing along with the late great Eileen Rodgers.

It's interesting to hear people talk about the industry, although it also generally feels intimidating. So much of the positivity that has graced their lives seems to involve crazy luck. I'm praying that I fall into some of that luck myself.

But they've also had some good advice. Steve Rankin talked about how you have to mentally separate people who work in the industry into "buyers" and "sellers", which was enlightening.



Bonnie & Clyde
Last night was the opening of Bonnie & Clyde, which is a huge, Broadway-quality (and hopefully Broadway-bound) musical. I've seen it in rehearsals and previews. It's really fantastic. And the opening was a lot of fun.

Before the show started, the marketing department asked Two-Shots-Up and me to don period clothing from the Costume Shop and pose outside the theatre in front of some old fashioned cars. People occasionally asked to get their pictures taken with us. I had a good time.


Class
I brought a scene into class yesterday, but Head-Of-Program wasn't crazy about it. Several people have been bringing in scenes. I had one a few weeks back that seems promising, but the ending isn't great... Head-Of-Program said he'll look at re-cutting it for me.


Boeing Boeing
Rehearsals for Boeing Boeing, the next show I'm in, begin on December 14th. I have an Italian Accent lesson with Voice Professor on Tuesday. I've been listening to Paul Meier and trying to learn it on my own. But the Director (aka Head-Of-Program) says he wants my character to be adroit with English, and effortlessly multilingual... which means the dialect I've been working with is far too thick. Last year, I studied dialects as opposed to accents (which means I learned how native English speakers pronounce things in other areas, like NYC and the UK; I have not learned how people who learn English as a second language pronounce things...). Voice Professor says it's the same process of study, but it seems different in my head. It seems as though there would be greater room for variation. I guess I'll find out next week.