So I leave Saturday to talk about today, and then so much happens on Sunday! Either this entry will be mother-long, or I'll just stay a day behind. We'll see when I get there what I decide.

O, it's all so exciting!! You know, or not.

So, Saturday was rehearsal for Clerestory.

Wait, have we gone back in time?! No, just something happened that I never mentioned because it was right before JournalCon and I got caught up in that extravaganza.

What happened was I got a call from my little Omar, telling me that a friend of his saw the show and thought that it would go well in this art show that is happening on the Chelsea Piers on the 25th and 26th, and did Kirsten and I want to do it. Now, we have a show on the 26th, but I didn't see why we couldn't just do one night, the Thursday, and Kirsten was free, so we decided to do it! I asked Patrick, of course, but knew that he would say yes, which he did.

Apparently, this art thing is all paintings and dance, we are the only play, but they thought that the theme of our show would work with the theme of the art show. Whatever that is. Connecting in a lonely world, perhaps, because that's certainly what I think Clerestory is about.

But I barely care why we are doing it, just that I'm going to get to watch it again! I love this show with my whole heart, I really do, and would be perfectly happy having Omar and Kirsten over to my house to perform it for me every night for the rest of my life.

So Saturday we went to Omar's to run the piece a few times, shake the cobwebs off, and they remembered their lines remarkably well. They were certain that they would have forgotten, but they didn't, though I caught a few mistakes, and I didn't even have my script with me, so I remembered it better than I expected myself.

I gave some notes like, "Didn't you used to do this at that moment?" and "Omar, you are conversing too easily again!" but all in all it just clicked back into place beautifully.

Then we went down to the Pier to see the playing space, which was actually in the hold of a boat! It was quite astonishing--there are a few boats down there that are just open to the public, and the one we are performing in is an old lightship called The Frying Pan that I just fell in love with on sight.

It's an old rusty hulk, but they use the hold as a disco and party space, and there really is a stage area, and we got really excited about the idea of working in there.

Then I had time to kill before the show, so I went to the first movie that I've seen since the weekend after the WTC. There are lots of things that I would love to see, Hearts in Atlantis, Mulholland Drive, From Hell, Focus, but I needed to see something that had been out for two weeks or I couldn't use a pass, so I ended up seeing Dinner Rush.

The movie fan at my office saw it and was recommending it to the skies, and I am most sad that I never followed his advice to see With a Friend Like Harry even though it was open for months, so I thought that I'd see this, especially after reading a couple of really strong reviews.

It's an absolutely wonderful film, starring Danny Aiello (a friend of mine said, "A good film starring Danny Aiello? Are you sure?") as a restaurant owner and numbers runner in TriBeCa and what happens in one night at his restaurant, during the dinner rush, not surprisingly. It's one of those films with several stories going on at the same time, and they all come together and affect each other, and it ends in a most satisfying way.

Then was the show, our second night, our first Saturday night. And boy did it suck ass!

Okay, no it didn't, the show was fine, it was the audience that sucked ass. There were very few of them (second night curse happens even when it's a Saturday night) and they were very quiet. When I heard barely a laugh during Leslie's section, which always gets the most laughs, I knew that I was in trouble. My goal was to get one laugh during my section--if I could just get one I would be happy.

Well, I got my one. There was another laugh in the piece, but that belonged to Chris. I got my laugh at the end, which is fairly fool-proof, but I'd take anything at that point.

Just realized that I never told you about Chris' quick changes!

He plays four different characters in my piece, and in each scene he needs to be dressed slightly differently, and even though there is sort of a base costume, it gets a little hairy at times.

In the first scene he wears a shirt and pants, in the second scene he puts a robe on over that and wears a grey wig, in the third scene he removes the robe and wig and adds a tie and jacket and carried a pad and organizer, and in the fourth scene he ditches the jacket and carries a backpack.

Sounds simple, no? But everything got confusing when he decided to remove his shirt for scene two so that it wouldn't get any soup on it, so at tech he couldn't make the change between two and three fast enough.

I grabbed Leslie and worked out what we'd do--if the shirt was half-buttoned, she could hand it to him, he could pull it over his head, she could help button, he could tuck it in, I could hand him the tie, she could help straighten the tie, I'd have the jacket ready for him to put on and hand him his props.

Before the show on Friday, we ran that, and it worked beautifully. During the show, when Chris changed into two, he forgot and unbuttoned his shirt all the way. "I have to tell Leslie that I unbuttoned the shirt!" he hissed at me, "Don't bother, she'll see it herself when she checks it!" I whispered back, then we went on to do our show.

I'm sure you see what's coming, Leslie not only didn't check the shirt, she forgot about the change altogether and had to leap across the room to help out as best she could. We got him onstage, and she apologized, and I told her how I didn't let him tell her about the shirt because I was sure that she would check it immediately, then I had a good look at her.

"Why are you in your street clothes?"
"I changed."
"Will you not be joining us for the curtain call?"
"O God, I forgot!"

So Leslie's mind just had dribbled out of her ears immediately after doing her scene, it was hilarious. Chris' changes have gone well after that, especially since Cynthia has joined us to help him wipe the soup off his face and hands before shoving him onto the stage.

So the answer to the question, "How many actresses does it take to change an actor in 20 seconds?" is three.

Today's horoscope:
Logic and common sense serve you best today. Don't get emotionally caught up in issues. Stay detached.

One year ago today:
I'm happy not to have him and his immense attitude in my show, he's a complete drip...

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Last Updated Sat 27 October 16:39:09 2001