So yesterday was the continuation of my non-restful weekend, what with my 10a rehearsal and so on. Fortunately, it was at Omar's and he's right near the tunnel so it wasn't a long trip, but I still had to get up at 9a on a weekend, which is unthinkable.

Rehearsal was a bit less weird than Saturday's, and we finished blocking the show, then ran the second half, starting from the pageant. We tech tonight, we've never done it without stopping, and Alex cannot remember his cues, not to mention that he cannot stay still. Moira said, "Do you think he's a little ADD?" and I answered, "No, I think he's a normal, twitchy, nine-year-old boy."

I still believe with all of my heart that it will be a good show, even a great show. I might develop an ulcer before we open, but some things are even now so funny that I scream with laughter.

After rehearsal, Moira and I both went to the Samuel French Festival meeting, she as a stage manager, me as one of the participants.

I told Cynthia afterwards, I have been involved in the French since Love Creek started sponsoring it about ten years ago, and I have dealt with many idiot theatre companies, but generally it was one at a time. This meeting, it was all at once.

Every time she would say something, she would get three questions about what she had just said, sort of like this:

CYNTHIA
My skirt is black, my shoes are black and my shirt is blue.

IDIOT #1
But what about your shirt, what colour is it?

CYNTHIA
That would be blue.

IDIOT #2
Is your shirt black, like your pants and shoes?

CYNTHIA
No, my shirt is, in fact, blue.

IDIOT #3
I like green shirts, can your shirt be green?

CYNTHIA
Well, no, it is currently blue and it must remain blue as per Equity regulations. This was all explained in the information that I emailed you. Now, about my shoes...

IDIOT #1
(again)
But wait, what about your shirt! The colour, I must know the colour!

It was truly enough to make me want to strafe the place, but I could not because we were in the dark. Did I not mention that we were in the dark? Well, we were. When Moira and I got there, everyone was huddled in the dark on the stairs, because The Flakiest Theatre Manager in All the Land had let us into the building, then wandered away like a baby duck without opening the theatre or turning on the lights.

Cynthia started the meeting on the stairs, and very collected she was, too. She certainly made Love Creek look good, as though we are calm in the face of unexpected disaster, and since 90% of theatre is unexpected disaster, I think it looked as though whatever happened to anyone's play, we'd make it work.

Simone and Moira got into the theatre somehow, and jerry-rigged a couple of lights, since the fuse box was locked and that's where you turn everything on from, so the second half of the meeting was held in the theatre, with Cynthia holding a flashlight to her face like she was telling a ghost story. This was when most of the blue shirt discussion occurred.

Afterwards, Cynthia and I were going to see Kate's production of Midsummer, (you remember, the one that we had auditioned for and not gotten in), but there was some time to kill, so I went to Lee's Art Supply to get the easel and pad that I need for the show.

I was a little worried, since I know that easels can be a little pricey, but I found the cheapest one for $25, which was cool. The salesman wanted to make certain that I knew that it was a display easel, not something I could use to paint on, but I told him that I understood.

Then he brought me a bundle of sticks in a bag. I have to put this thing together. Dear God. I'm actually not bad at that kind of thing, but really, I can't spare the mental energy at this time.

Anyway, in addition to the kindling, I got a big pad and some markers and got out of there only having spent $50 or so, which was cool. Or rather, my mother spent $50 and I will pay her back.

I had more time to kill, so I went to the office and started making the drawings. You see, Sister Mary is giving a lecture, and she uses three drawings as visual aids, one of the earth, moon and sun, one of heaven, hell and purgatory, and one of limbo.

The first one was pretty easy, though I had to find a globe online to help me with the shape of North America, and all that colouring in of the ocean took some time, and the second one I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, but limbo was the bitch. I decided to leave it until later and hope that inspiration would strike.

Then it was time to go downtown to the pier to see the show.

I was a little apprehensive, because the last time I saw Shakespeare in an outdoor, urban setting, it was Annegrrl doing Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, and there were massive difficulties with volume, though the production was quite good. However, it doesn't matter how good you are if the audience can't hear you be good. For the record, though, our grrl Anne was one of the few who had no volume problems at all.

This show had no such difficulties. I was wildly impressed by that fact, that over the boat motors and the people and the horns, they were absolutely effortlessly audible, almost to a man. One actress was, if you were not in the front, very difficult to hear, but one out of a cast of seventeen or so ain't at all bad.

In fact, I was so impressed that afterwards, talking to Kate and the cast and the director, it was what I emphasized the most, and I was a little worried that they might think it was because I was avoiding talking about the quality of the show, ("How'd you like the show?" "Well, everyone sure was nice and loud!"), but I think I made it clear in my gushing that I thought that almost everyone involved in the production walked on water.

I just accidentally wrote that they "walked on walter", which I have no idea whether they do or no. I hope not. Poor Walter.

Anyway, this was an absolutely terrific production of Midsummer, the Shakespeare show that I have seen the most different productions of over the course of my life, I can't even remember how many, and this was the second best that I have ever seen, the best being at the RSC several years ago, and as I told Kate, there is no shame in coming in second to them!

The cast was almost uniformly terrific, there were only a couple of actors that I would have changed, (one of whom was the actress in the role that would have been mine), and because all of the expendable actors were mechanicals, "Pyramus and Thisby" was, instead of being the funniest part of the show, the dullest, (far too much Comic Bad Acting which was not only not funny, but painful to watch) but other than that, it was magical.

Puck was brilliant (and I'm so pleased I liked him, because I like him personally and I loathed him in the last show that I saw--I was pretty certain that it was because I hated the concept of his character in that show, and I was right), and the best at using the environment (once, after a boat blew its horn right before his line, he was able to point it its direction and say, "Fairy king, attend and mark, I do hear the morning lark!"), as were the young lovers, and Kate and Snug were the two mechanicals that saved those parts of the show (Snug played a Marilyn Monroe type, which really worked, and Kate was great not just because she is my friend, but because she acted truthfully, unlike most of the other mechanicals), but the best one was Theseus/Oberon, because he was just so damn sexy.

It was really interesting, because he wasn't conventionally handsome, though he was certainly reasonable looking, and he played Oberon with his shirt open, and his chest and stomach were good, but not all ripped or built or anything. I think it had to be his aura of confidence without arrogance. Also, I think he was spraying pheromones with a firehose.

Anyway, glorious afternoon at the theatre, I made everyone love me by being such a good audience member, I'm almost certain to get in their next show if there's a role for me, and the fairies had hedgehog purses, and I get to have one after they close since they have done the show three summers in a row and need to do something else next year or they will go insane!

Today's horoscope:
Emotions seem at war with logic as far as money matters go today, but a compromise can be reached. Use both your heart and head in dealing with finances.

One year ago today:
Once I was moving, it was fine, but I kind of wanted to snarl and wrap myself around the remote at first.

* Yesterday / Index / This Month / Tomorrow *

E-Mail

Graphics by the independent Saundra!

This page was written by hand. My hand. Only pussies use HTML editors.
Last Updated Wed 17 July 17:20:09 2002