Not Without Some Pressure

The run of Me and My Girl is underway and I'm currently wrapping up our brief break before starting it up again tomorrow. It's gone well enough, though not without its flubs. I collided with a set piece when exiting into a very dark wing on the first night. I'm sure the audience saw me run off and then heard, Crash! Smash! Bang! Bang! Badum-Bum-Bash! followed by a little voice saying, "Are you okay?" I wasn't hurt, having spent all of the smashing time staying on my feet, but my shiny patent shoes were a bit scraped up. Ug.

Of course, my friend John, who plays the lead, is immensely funny, so that's really all that matters. I just have to wander on and off behaving like a spoiled brat. It's all good.

I'm currently bogged down with paperwork for work, once again, and trying desperately to muster up the motivation to get it all done. Of course, it will get done because it must get done. That's really all there is to it.

Finally, here's something I've found amusing for some time. Some of you may already know about it. It's the Material Safety Data Sheet for Softsoap Antibacterial Hand Soap that hangs in the staff bathroom at work. Remember that it's for soap. If you look closely, you'll see that it's Flash Point is "Not established". I figure, if your soap has caught fire, you have much bigger issues to deal with. My favourite, though is that, under the heading of "Exposure Controls / Personal Protection" it says to "Avoid skin and eye contact", and that "The use of safety goggles and protective gloves is recommended for potential exposure to product". Yes, we should wear gloves and avoid skin contact with our SOAP. Hahahaha! What are these people thinking?

So there you have it. Another oddity I've discovered in my travels.

Briefly, When Said

Okay, here you go. I'm going to slam out a post in three minutes or less. Rocky Horror went remarkably well. The audiences were full and full of energy and seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. I expected to have a good time doing the show, but it was far more fun than I had forseen. What a blast. Riff-Raff turned out to be a very physically demanding role (don't even think about Richard O'Brien in the movie, because I wasn't much like that at all). The theatre has this staircase that runs up the centre of it from the main floor up to the balcony, and up and down this staircase I threw myself with alarming frequency. After doing double shows (with a mere 20 minutes or so between) on both Friday and Saturday nights, I was pretty much aching in every muscle group. Still, completely worth it!

Now I'm a few days from the opening of Me and My Girl. Tonight, my friend Tracy and I wound up in gales of laughter backstage because of a running and rambling dialogue we tend to have these days when we're working together. Be not mistaken: I do not use the term "gales of laughter" lightly. Both of us were aching in the gut and tearing in the eyes from our laughter. Don't ask; there's no way I could explain it in a way to make it seem funny to anyone else.

There. My time is up. You've got the basic scoop. Now I'm going to bed.

Jumping to the Left

I figured I should make a quick entry, for anyone who cares.

Tonight was opening night for The Rocky Horror Show, and we had a great audience who seemed to have fun. It's mighty high-energy, though, and I'm a bit ... um ... howshouldiputit? ... daunted at the thought of doing the double shows on Friday and Saturday. If tonight's any indication, there's only going to be 20 minutes or so break between the first show ending and the second starting, so yikes, I'm likely to be drained by the end of the weekend. Of course, then it's back to rehearsals for Me and My Girl the very next day.

Now, though, it's off to bed for me. It's back to work tomorrow morning, bright and early. (Let's hope I don't have to dig myself out again. Today, of all days, I made the unfortunate and horribly frustrating discovery that my car isn't shifting into 4-wheel drive when it says it is. That made it pretty useless when I got stuck on my side street. Let's get that fixed in a hurry, shall we?)

Yikes!

I know, I know. I'm a bad, bad weblogger.

I believe I've said that before.

Things have been hopping madly. Rocky Horror rehearsals are going well and, with the show opening in just over a week, they should be! I expect it'll be good fun, so long as my voice holds out alright. (I've come down with a touch of a cold, but so far it's not taking me down for the count.) Well, if my voice doesn't kill me, the heels probably will.

I'm also in full-swing rehearsals for Me and My Girl, so that'll keep me jumping betwixt and between. It's rather amusing, really, to be rehearsing the two parts simultaneously, especially since one requires the worst posture I've ever had on stage and the other will require the opposite. Hahaha! (And if you know me, my posture's pretty sloppy to start with!)

In any case, my bed doth call me.

My Crazy Life: An Update

So it's been a busy weekend. Not only did our rehearsals for The Rocky Horror Show start, but I also auditioned for another show, Me and My Girl. I won't go into the boring details, but I'm happy to report that I've been cast as Gerald, a snooty English fellow who should be great fun to play. I've seen the show once before (starring a good friend of mine who will again be reprising the lead role role this time around) and I must say it's a fun and funny show. Light and fluffy, but quickly-paced and witty. A good old English class farce. I'm looking forward to it immensely. Gerald will also be quite a contrast from Riff-Raff. Of course, that means that for the next month, I'll be juggling rehearsals (and performances) between two shows, plus working a full-time and a part-time job. I really am a sucker for punishment, am I not?

In other news ... I've been too busy to have any other news. The other day I bought some new socks. Oh yes, my life is rolicking, indeed!

It's a Wrap

Today was the final performance of Chicago which was, of course, bittersweet. It's been great fun to do the show, and the audience responses have been great. Although I was scattered throughout the show dancing and singing here and there, one of the most fun things was playing the Jury in the courtroom. The director gave me a very long leash and set me off to create the characters from scratch. In the end, I think we figured I played eight different people if you count "just me" at the beginning. And, as always, it's always tough leaving the cast and crew, some of whom I've spent almost every night with for the past five weeks or so. Of course, crazy little me has already signed on for Rocky Horror, so I'll be back again soon (with Melanie, my Razzle Dazzle dance partner, too) in the thick of things.

On the flip side, of course, it'll be nice to have time to get some things accomplished. I haven't even started Christmas shopping, apart from a few scattered gifts picked up here adn there, so I've really got to get that going. Work will just be gearing up madly from here to Christmas, too, so my focus will be pulled in there.

Finally, and on an unrelated note, I must reiterate how much I'm loving Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I'm terribly disappointed that it is apparently on the verge of cancellation when it's such a smartly-written and well-performed show. Yeesh. Just like the smoked ricotta ravioli at Lina Linguini's, so much of what I love seems to disappear before its time.

Overdue

So, I'm sickish.

Yes, in the middle of Chicago's run, I'm sickish. It started with those tickling, rasping hints of impending laryngitis last week. This time of year is bad for allergies, but I managed to stave off any outright voice loss through the weekend. Then it came. That nasty "Is is allergies or is it a cold now?" feeling that has left me with wretched sinus pressure, the awful voice, and the inability to keep hydrated. I've been sleeping excessively, whenever possible, to try and get it over and done with. I'm hoping I can be reasonably together for the show tomorrow, though I'm a little worried about blowing out my voice before I finish the weekend.

In other news, I've officially accepted the role of Riff-Raff in The Rocky Horror Show. It should be fun, in a loose and freewheeling way. The director wants it to have a ... well ... loose and freewheeling feel to it, keeping it as spontaneous as possible, so the rehearsal period should be interesting. I'm used to audience involvement and heckling from the dinner theatre (where it's part of the show), but it will be interesting to see how it goes when it's on a the Rocky Horror level. ("Bo-o-o-o-ring! Bo-o-o-ring!")

So that's the brief update.

Have a nice day.

Consider Me Chastised

I knew it was going to happen. Sooner or later, I knew someone would give me a stern talking to about my lack of posting, and tonight it happened. So here I am. (If you're reading this, there's about a one-in-four chance that you were the one who chewed me out -- very summarily and with minimal malice, I should say -- so I hope you're happy.)

Suffice it to say, by way of self-defense, that I didn't want to be one of those people whom Keltie abhors who says, "I'm tired so here's my post saying just that."

The show opened this weekend and so far audiences are enjoying it, as far as I can tell. Tech week was a bit ... um ... rough at times, but we've managed to get it together. I have to say that the band for the show, who perform onstage atop a platform, are pretty much rockingly good. It was so great to have our first full-orchestra rehearsal just over a week ago and to feel the whole energy of the musical numbers jump up a notch or ten.

I'm also up to my eyeballs in paperwork and with deadlines looming quickly, the level of exhaustion is running a little high. (Hence be being tired.) It'll all get done because it must get done, but there's a further complicating matter.

Yes. Here it comes. The icing on the proverbial cake.

My parents are coming for a visit this weekend.

Don't get me wrong, I love my parents dearly. Really. I lucked out in the supportive parental front. But the catch is that, in the midst of being in a show and having enough paperwork to plug the hole in the ozone later, my parents are coming to visit. At my house. My house where I've been working madly for months now, always having some project or other on the go. I'm not exactly unpacked. Or well-organized. Right now, there's paperwork spread across the floor and coffee table in front of me. The office upstairs (I've moved onto the more-comfortable couch area for the past two days) is frightfully messy and has never been properly organized yet. I've only unpacked things as I've needed them, so the place still looks like I'm moving in... Yes, I've had to start the clean-up in honour of my parents' arrival. It's just rough timing for such things.

Of course, I could have a whole crew of disaster-relief workers come in and work around the clock until my parents arrive and they'd still say, "That's okay. We understand you haven't had time to clean."

Oh well. It'll be nice to see them. Plus, my dad's going to tune my piano, so that's a bonus.

Finally, before I sign off and mosey along, I've been offered the part of
Riff-Raff in The Rocky Horror Show, going up in February. I haven't officially said yes yet, but I reckon I will. It'd be fun, I am sure. It's a short rehearsal period and a brief run (though I'm a little concerned about doing two shows a night...) so it should be a mad dash of a project. It'll be performed in a tiny little theatre down here so it'll all be garters and fishnets right in your face. I'm not sure I'll invite my parents to this one...

Anyhoo, I'm off. Hope you're all well and that I'm well-forgiven.

(Edited to add: Okay, when I published this, it suddenly had all sorts of weird spacing issues from out of the blue. I've tried to fix them. If any slipped through, know I'm sorry and move on.)

Stop-Gap Measures

I know, I know. It's been ages since I posted. I'm not gettin' paid here.

Basically, I've just been a bit exhausted and didn't particularly want to fill page after page (okay, one long page, really) with entry after entry which basically said the same thing.

With Chicago opening in two days, we're in that awful crunch where every hour brings another, "Wait a minute..." moment. You know, "Wait a minute; what am I supposed to be wearing here?" and "Wait a minute; what happened to the space on stage?" and "Wait a minute; who thought this would fit me?" and "Wait a minute; where are my props?" and "Wait a minute, I'm trying to get onstage, but I feel like a salmon swimming upstream against a current of people making their exits."

Oh well. It'll all be ready for Thursday, because it must.

In any case, I'm dying of thirst so I'm off for a drink and then it's time to pack it in. After all, these early morning - to - late night days aren't going anywhere soon ...

But on Saturday, I'm sleepin' in.

Ug.

This day must end.

No, really. It must end.

Let me give you the nutshell, quick-and-easy blow-by-blow of the day's lowlights.

First, as mentioned in an earlier entry, I was slated to put in a guest appearance as Wizard Whadzisname at pair of little charity shows today. My costume was to arrive with one of the other performers. So I was sitting there waiting. And waiting. And waiting a little bit more. At 12:15, a mere 45 minutes before the first show was slated to begin, I got the number of the aforementioned performer and gave it a call.

He was not home.

Fifteen minutes later (do the math -- just half-an-hour before curtain) he called me back with "Sorry, I just woke up. I won't get there for an hour." Yes. An hour. As in half-an-hour after curtain.

In a whirlwind, I drove madly back to my house, picked up a couple of my own costumes from other characters, raced back to the theatre, arriving at 12:55 to combine bits and pieces to create a replacement character, one Fredrick (with a long e, thankyouverymuch) Spitewhistle.

In the end, the other performer (and his character) never did show up with costume, character, or any word. You can imagine my level of impressedness.

Then I headed home, took a brief nap (far too brief for the way my day had gone and would yet go) and ran out to pick up a few grocery-like items to get me through the next few days before a planned marathon of paperwork which has been piling up from work for some time. I grabbed drive-through, so that I could scarf and get down to work.

I was about 30 seconds in the door (hadn't even brought groceries in yet) and the phone rang. It was Sarah, who works with me at job number one calling from job number two, the dinner theatre, where she also works with me, asking me to come in and work. It seems that the audience numbers had gone up and they were understaffed. Couldn't get anyone else. Please please please and all that jazz. So the paperwork sat (still in the back of my car, the groceries were in the front) while I drove in to work.

My drive-through? I ate it along the way, and they even messed that up, so it was a dissatisfying meal all around.

The dinner show went fine overall, but let's be honest, I'll be paying for it since I STILL have not caught up on the work in my car. Given that tomorrow I have:

a) crew photos in the morning; followed by
b) a production meeting just before lunch; followed by
c) an afternoon rehearsal; followed by
d) an evening rehearsal

it's pretty safe to say I'm not getting much done. Ug. My new plan is to stay after work on Monday until about 9:00 pm and just get as much done as I humanly can.

And you know darn well the director's going to make us do those cursed crunches, just to spite me.

Don't even get me started on the newly-scheduled rehearsal on Hallowe'en, right at candy-distribution prime-time. Yay. I can be the house on the corner that's not giving any candy out since I'll be IN REHEARSAL! Yeesh.

On the upside, about three minutes after I press "PUBLISH" on this, I'll be passed out in my bed.

Here goes...

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Oh. I completely forgot to add that after work I dropped by ye olde Boston Pizza to grab a Spicy Perogie Pizza for Betsy and I to share and surprise! they got that order wrong, too. Today was simply NOT my day.

Assorted Affair

I stink at keeping a Fount of Wisdom Located Online.

There. I said it. I've thrown it out into the world for all to see. Judge me if you wish.

Things are a tad hectic, due in part to my apparent inability to say "No" to people, and let me assure you that sounds much more exciting than it really is.

I'm in the midst of rehearsals, which are going well, but are a tad tiring. Remember those crunches? Yeah. Fun. Then yesterday, we were working on a number that involves singing while literally jumping up and down. Over and over and over. Hour after hour. Singing. And dancing. And jumping. And doing all three at the same time. Ug.

Then there's the fact that (due to the aforementioned inability to say "No") I'm the program designer for the show. So, I'm in there yesterday before the rehearsals for the cast and crew photo shoot. And I'm collecting / hounding people for bios. At some point I actually have to sit down at the computer and work out all of the layout and start typing everything in, to boot. In my wealth of free time, of course. "No" would have been so much less demanding.

This Saturday, I'm supposed to put in an appearance at a charity show. Again, why didn't I say "No"? Beats the heck out of me.

I won't even get into the committees and such that I'm on with work. Three more meetings this week. Yeesh.

Now that I've whined and griped, let me focus on more positive things. I watched HEROES tonight and am really enjoying it more than expected. I'm also officially a fan of STUDIO 60. An obnoxious couple was eliminated from THE AMAZING RACE last night, so that was just icing on the cake.

I also read THE END, the end of the Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm not sure how I feel about the way things wrapped up. There are a few things to which I would have liked answers, but I'm sure I'll survive. In any case, I feel like I should now go back and reread the whole series to see what I notice, pick up, and remember, since I read them all in such a spread out timeline. I also made the mistake of going to Chapters again the other day, so I bought more books. My "To Be Read" list is VERY long already, so I'm just wholeheartedly digging my hole a whole lot deeper by making new purchases.

On one final note, you've heard me whine periodically about the Subway experiences I've had. (That's Subway as in sandwiches, not Subway as in an underground mode of transportation.) Well, my thought for today in regards to the old Subway is not about the quality of my service (no Alternate Girl mention anywhere in this entry ... oh wait ... darn!) or of my sandwich (which was made without any creepy scoop incident, for a change). It is rather about the troublesome slogan they employ, which has bothered me for some time. Subway likes to toss around the phrase, Eat Fresh! like candy at a scramble, but anyone visiting their handy little counters will see piles upon piles of pre-cooked meat products waiting to be slapped on a bun and reheated in their high-speed ovens. There they are: pre-cooked steak and chicken strips in little paper trays, and rectangles of chicken (?) wrapped in paper. What's so darn fresh about that? I'm thinking their slogan should be Eat Fresh Bread with Assorted Things, Some of Which are Also Fresh, On It!. (Go ahead. Imagine Jon Lovitz saying that. Imagine it. I'll wait.)


*************


Quite frankly, I've even had a few unfresh bread experiences I could write about, but I won't. Still, the whole Eat Fresh! is just a bit of a misnomer.

Hey. I just realized that I shouldn't have had a sub today anyway. Since I didn't have rehearsal, I was supposed to eat the lasagna in my freezer so I'd have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Darn.

Yeesh!

I used to bug Keltie about the lengthy gaps in her weblog. No longer, my friend, no longer. Between work and rehearsals, I'm running around quite a bit and I am just lacking the energy and drive to write in this every day. (Plus, once you get work and rehearsals in there, there's not much time for anything else noteworthy on which to report.)

I will say this: REHEARSALS ARE KILLING ME! Okay, that's not quite true. It's not the rehearsals, exactly, that are killing me; it's the pre-rehearsal warm-up that's killing me.

The director has decided to beat our spirits down by having us do 240 crunches at the start of every night.

Read that again, and pity me.

240 crunches.

Plus this "table" thing where you have to hold your back flat while balancing on your elbows and toes.

That's right. Killing me.

I will say this: I'm getting better at making it through the frequently-aforementioned crunches (240 of them a night) with less vocal agony. Still, it's a bit deadly. Thankfully, tonight he only made us do 210 of them. Nice guy.

And on that note, I'm off to bed since the alarm rings early. Well, technically the alarm speaks to me like a morning show early.

Random Thoughts

Okay, so I've completely fallen down in my blogging duties. If I'm not careful, I'm going to lose my readership -- both of you. In any case, here I am ready to share a few scattered thoughts.

I'm tired. I had a little run of rehearsals for CHICAGO and, not being used to that these days, was feeling a little weary come Wednesday. I also discovered one good scratch across my back, amid several bruises, from when we had a slip-up or two when rehearsing Velma's using my spine as a staircase. I'll survive, I'm sure. I've also got a smack of laryngitis and *surprise* have a show to do tomorrow night. Take that, add the fact that Saturday I'll be wandering around and chatting with people in character as a 105-year-old wizard, and I'll pretty much be mute by Sunday.

That aside, what else can I tell you? I'm sure I had something to say earlier... I'm officially addicted to Line Rider, though I'm hard pressed to say exactly why. I've made it my own personal goal to see how long a route I can create for the little sled-riding fellow. I had a smashing one going a few days ago, complete with jumps and precarious almost-fall-offs but sadly I had to restart my computer and goodbye to my smashing tour. Still, I've got a decent one going now, so I'm feeling good again. I'm officially a geeky whack job.

I watched Ye Olde Survivor tonight and think that they should hire me to create some challenges for them. How often can they use the "you'll be tied to a rope and you'll have to go through a course" thing? That's almost as tired as me. I was pleasantly surprised by how completely overthrown JP was, though, complete with two of his guy buddies voting for him. Hahahaha!

Finally, and just as randomly, I picked up Beck's new CD today and am giving it a first-listen-through even as I type. So far I'm approving.

Anyway, I must run along. I'll try to be a bit more relevent next time.

Anatomy for Dancers

Having had my first dance rehearsal last night, I'm now being reminded of some things. Namely muscle groups.

Today I am ... aware of the work done in some areas, but I know that tomorrow will be far worse. Why? Because let's be honest, doing the types of movements that I was doing last night aren't all that common in everyday life. How often do I have to go from being slumbed over forwards with my hands on the ground into an arch backwards to lay across somebody else who is also arching backwards? How regularly do I walk with my arms flung back behind me and my feet far ahead of me, requiring that my beleagured abs support my upper body in this crazy position? Not often, that's how often. Even when I went to the gym and actually worked out, I'm not sure I worked as many muscle groups as I did last night.

Still, the choreography is going to be great (I've already warned my parents to be ready for it). I've also discovered that I'm the oldest dancer in the show (so soon?) so I figure I'd better not let myself be shown up by them youngsters.

Mercifully, I've got until Friday to recover before I'm back at it again...

Nervosity

I am a person of contraditions. I know it, my friends know it, but there it is. I'm outgoing, friendly, I work in jobs with very high levels of human interaction, yet I have a shy streak when off of my own turf.

I also perform regularly in plays, musicals, and a dinner show. Slap me in a show in front of an audience and I'm fine. I've yet to have an episode of stage fright in my performance career. Ask me to sing in church, though, and the nerves appear.

And then there are auditions. I hate auditions. I'm fine before I go in. I'm fine when I come out. In between, though, I'm pretty much a freak.

On Saturday I had a vocal audition for Chicago and, although I felt good about the singing itself, my body was uncooperative and I was more than a bit noticeably quavery. Since it was a director with whom I've never worked, I was worried, of course, that he would believe I might be a wreck on stage.

Then this morning I had a dance audition. You want to talk stress? Picture me in a room packed with dancers (some of whom are dancers to the hilt), and ask me to learn the choregraphy (with no clear sightlines to the choreographer's feet) in a hurry. Yeesh! Still, I was doing reasonably well until the tap part. YIKES! Humiliation ran rampant. I have a little tap experience but there was NO WAY I was going to identify the sounds/steps/sequences/routines at full-speed on the fly. HUMILIATION, I say.

In the end, after a lengthy and nerve-wracking callback period, I've wound up as a dancer/ensemble member in the show, which should be wicked fun. Based on the short Fosse-esque routines we worked on as part of the audition today (do NOT include the horrendous tap segment in that), methinks it's going to be mighty pickin' fun to do.

Let's be honest, though. If you'd asked me a couple of years ago, "Do you expect to be cast as a dancer in a show anytime soon?" I probably would have responded, "No, no, no. Be not so very silly ... " (I spoke quite dramatically a few years ago, apparently) "... though I will likely be dancing in a show, I don't foresee being considered a dancer exactly."

All I can say is that I'm going to be Fosse-ing all over the place for the next while. Jazz hands in the produce aisle. Rolling shoulders while taking out the recycling. That sort of thing. I'll likely be unbearable.