So yesterday I finally heard from Maggie! It turns out that she and Russ had to stay for an extra two days in Portugal on the movie (poor bunnies) and they emailed me to tell me so, but I certainly never got the email.

She was falling all over herself apologizing, but I was like, look, I would never have shot the Gates were it not that I had that extra time to kill, so it worked out fine!

The other day, I noticed in the calendar that we are doing Bubbling again at the end of this month, and thought vaguely that I have always wanted to play Big Shirley, and maybe one day.

Then I got a call from Anna, saying that she was out of town on a family emergency, that she had gotten a voicemail about Bubbling, but couldn't understand the phone number and could I possibly tell them that she couldn't do it?

I figured that she had been cast as Big Shirley, but since she obviously couldn't do it, I wondered who they would get? Well. I got an email that Le sent to the company entitled "We're looking for actresses willing to play BIG WOMAN":

"We have a play we are currently casting. I am looking for any actress who is interested and willing to play a very large woman, (You pad). The role is tragic comic and lusty. It's not for the faint of heart. She should be around 40, but if younger you just have to age yourself a bit, if older it's not a problem unless you look to be in sixties."

So I thought for a minute, then sent an email to Le saying that I have always wanted to play the role, and I knew that I didn't have time, since it opens only a few days after Fiddlin' closes, but maybe he could think of me the next time we do it (once every eighteen months or so, it seems). He emailed me back saying, hold on, let me figure something out.

Then he emailed Glenn and I, saying that if Glenn cast me then it would make the show that much better, because I am great and will be great in the role and am just so great generally, but that I had very limited time to rehearse.

Glenn emailed me back saying that he had actually requested me originally as someone he wanted to work with, so he was thrilled to be able to, but that someone else had been offered the role, and so he had to wait for her to hopefully turn it down first.

So I might get to play Big Shirley! I have literally wanted to play this role for 15 years, it's a wonderful character of this big woman who really fun and sexy and filled with joie, but she also has this monologue about how she was gang-raped, and I have really seen the character fucked up!

One actress actually played the gang-rape story for laughs, and as cheerfully as the rest of it. I remember trying very hard not to leap from my seat and strangle her. The best I ever saw in the role was Lori Brown, God knows how many years ago, who wasn't maudlin or whiny, but there was this stab of pain in her face that I have never forgotten.

I hope I get to do it. I want to be as good as Lori, and Glenn is not a heavy-handed director, so he will leave me the hell alone to do as I like. And the short rehearsal period is fine, since I know exactly what I want to do.

Please, other actress, please turn it down!

The song I've been singing all day:

"The Blue Lagoon" by Laurie Anderson

I got your letter.
Thanks a lot.
I've been getting lots of sun.
And lots of rest.
It's really hot.
Days, I dive by the wreck.
Nights, I swim in the blue lagoon.
Always used to wonder who I'd bring to a desert island.

Today's horoscope:
Don't wait for them to contact you -- even if that seems to be the right thing to do. You have something to say, a very big something, and you've been waiting for far too long already.

One year ago today:
We walked through the door, I sat down to fire up Mom's computer, and...it. Didn't. Fucking. Boot. Up. It waited to be the only computer in the house, and then it immediately dropped dead.

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Last Updated Thurs 10 March 16:34:09 2005