Tomorrow’s Evita at the Hippodrome, part of the season ticket package MB and I bought. I hope it’s a good production. Evita was my favourite musical growing up, I think, because it was the first professional production I saw (the second was Fiddler on the Roof, and I fell asleep during it. Don’t judge me! It was the tail end of a long day of school field trips and I was tired!). Next weekend BU and MCC both have productions going up, Bye Bye Birdie and Anything Goes respectively. We already have tickets to Bye Bye Birdie, and she also wants to go to Anything Goes. I don’t really know much about either of those two shows (although I’m familiar with some of the songs), but I think it’ll be fun. The weekend after that is the Producers, also part of the season ticket package at the Hippodrome. And then the following week are auditions for Nunsense at the WCT. Phew!
Category: theatre Page 4 of 6
So, not much new going on. I had fun at that workshop in Austin. Our meeting room was a computer lab, so there was plenty of hands-on time. We were at UT, and the Bullock Texas State History Museum was right across the street, so I went there one night. Other than that, I didn’t get out much. I asked Darryl when I got back what we actually use XSLT for here, and he could only think of one example off the top of his head, and that project’s done (though it may need tweaking at some point). So, though I was glad to learn the stuff, I don’t know when I’ll get to use it.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is just over a week away from opening (a week from tomorrow’s our preview performance) and it’s coming along nicely. Yesterday was the first night the actors weren’t allowed to call for lines (except for Big Mama, who only started about a week ago, due to an injury to the original Big Mama) and they did pretty well… except they were concentrating so hard on lines that they tended to lose energy. Tennessee Williams is a depressing enough playwright when the energy is up, so last night’s run-through just dragged in places.
I got a bunch of recording done this weekend. I had the time on Sunday, and I was in the right mood, so I just went for it. I got all my collaborative chapters done (a couple of the Arabian Nights [in French] and a few chapters from Kilmeny of the Orchard [which the BC asked me if I’d be willing to do]), and a monologue for the latest Shakespeare Collection, plus several chapters from my solos. I may get some more done tomorrow morning. I’m taking half a day off from work to get new tires for my car, so I may have some time before they open to get some chapters done. That’s one thing about doing shows, my evenings are pretty much gone. I have time between work and rehearsal to get a bite to eat or take a little nap (not both), but that’s about it. So I usually only get to record on the weekends.
The Man Who Came to Dinner has finished. I got lots of compliments on my character, and lots of “it took me a second to realize that was you when you came on stage” type comments. During the course of MWCtD my friend Tredessa applied for and got the directorship of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which is the next show coming up. I hadn’t been particularly interested in auditioning for that show (I find Tennessee Williams terribly depressing), but I enjoy working with T, so I checked to see if they had a stage manager for it yet. They didn’t, so I signed up for the job. We’ve had auditions, but rehearsals don’t really get started until the New Year, so there’ll be a bit of a break. As much as I enjoy doing stuff at the Civic, it’s nice to know that, for this gig, I actually do get paid a small stipend (yay, crew!).
I’m heading off to CA on Friday to spend Christmas with mum and Paul’s family. I just learned that Alondra’s sister and her two sons will also be there during that time. That is going to be one crowded house. I think I may be asking to go to work with mum more often than I would otherwise have done. I know she wants me to play Santa to all her friends one day at least.
I’ve been knitting frantically for the past few of weeks to finish Christmas presents. I’ve made a purse for my sister-in-law. I finished the actual knitting a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that I got around to sewing up the seams and putting in the lining (which I think I made a little too big, but by the time I figured it out, I was so far into it that I couldn’t bear the thought of starting over (again – the first try was too small)). My other project was a scarf for mum’s friend Natalie, which I also finished last weekend. I took both patterns from my “knitting pattern a day ” calendar. I’ve been pulling out the patterns I like and storing them in one of my notebooks. I was pleased to be able to use a couple of them. I’d post pictures of them, only I haven’t been able to find my camera for several weeks now.
I’ve finished both the projects I was working on for LibriVox. I finished Pride and Prejudice over Thanksgiving weekend, and Novelas Cortas the following week. Now I’m working on another of the Scarlet Pimpernel books, The Elusive Pimpernel. At this rate, I may end up doing all of them (that are on gutenberg, anyway). I got the new MCC continuing ed schedule in the mail last week, and I saw that one of the seminars they’re offering is about doing voice over work. I’m seriously considering signing up for it.
I went to see August Rush and Enchanted around Thanksgiving. I really liked them both. I’ve gotten to the point where I usually just wait for a movie to come out on dvd before watching it, but there are a few that intrigue me enough that I’m willing to shell out five bucks for a matinee.
I’m in the middle of rehearsals for The Man Who Came to Dinner at the WCT. I got cast as Lorraine Sheldon, bombshell. The thought still makes me giggle, because I so don’t think of myself as the bombshell type. I wasn’t actually up for the part originally. The director only had one person read for it the night that I auditioned; but when she got up there and started to read (in the same normal voice she had used for all her other readings), I happened to glance at the director and saw her shuffling her papers, shaking her head and muttering to herself in reaction. Well, based on the description she’d given us of the character and the fact that her first word in that scene was “Darling” I had a decent idea of what she was looking for, in the voice, at least. So at the end of the night, when she asked if anyone had wanted to read for a part and hadn’t gotten to, I raised my hand and asked to read for Lorraine. The producer told me later that the director cast me in the part as soon as I started reading. It’s been a fun show, quite apart from playing a vamp, because Tredessa’s in it too (as the female romantic lead), and it’s always fun to play with her! Plus in this show we play rivals, so even more fun.
I’m working on two projects at LibriVox right now; I’m still working on Pride and Prejudice (on the sly, so to speak). I’m more than two thirds of the way through it. And for my “public” project I finally decided on a compilation of short stories by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. I have one left to go, and it’s the longest in the bunch, so I’ve broken it into three sections, to keep the file sizes manageable. I’m thinking of going back for more Scarlet Pimpernel after this; specifically, the Elusive Pimpernel, which is the book that comes between the two I’ve already done. My output has dropped lately, though, as I’m spending my evenings at the theatre and can only record on the weekends.
I went out to CHS with MB last Saturday to see Mandy’s production of Seussical. It was fun to compare similarities and differences in the costumes, because Mandy costumed the production we did at the WCT a few years ago. It was lots of fun, anyway. And Mandy played Mayzie; I’d always wondered how she would have played the part if she’d auditioned for our production (because I’m pretty darned sure she’d have gotten that part), and it was fun getting to see.
I spent part of the weekend finishing my Hallowe’en costume. I had wanted to go as Tigger, to co-ordinate with MB’s Pooh, but, although I was able to find a pattern that would work to make the costume, I couldn’t find fabric in the right colours that wouldn’t kill me from heat exhaustion. So, I had to find something else instead. I went with a Regency period dress – I’m going to be Lizzie Bennet. 🙂
I found a fabulous dark purple cotton fabric with sort of roses (or some other flower) in lilac all over it. All I have left is to tack down the seam between the bodice and the skirt, wash it (it’s stiff and itchy from the sizing they put on the fabric) and iron it! I’ll post a pic from the Masquerade Ball next week. I think I want to change the sash a little bit too – it’s a little too wide for my taste right now, and I think I might also sew it onto the front of the dress so that it just has to be tied at the back. I just had another thought for it… maybe I’ll do some gathers on it to narrow it, rather than cutting it down. I’ll have to see how that looks.
It was a very busy weekend, quite apart from sewing. I went to a Barrage concert on Friday night with Eileen. This is the group I got to see at Disneyland with Pabis. He was mesmerized by them, and is going to be horribly jealous when he finds out I got to see them again. I think I’ll get him one of their DVDs for Christmas. On Saturday I went to look at houses during the day, and ushered for and watched Amadeus in the evening. Good Gad that show was long – three, frickin’ hours!!! It didn’t help that I kept wanting the guy playing Salieri to turn into F. Murray Abraham (not his fault, he did a decent job… but he’s no F. Murray Abraham). 🙂
I’m considering auditioning for the Christmas show tonight. It’ll be the first time I’ve acted in one of the Christmas shows (though I stage-managed last year’s). I’ve heard conflicting accounts of what it’s like to work with that particular director, which is why I’m only “considering” right now… but I probably will, because I don’t expect to do any of the other shows until the spring musical, Nunsense. The director for Steel Magnolias asked me to audition for that, but it’s right before the musical, and I hate overlapping shows.
So after everything I said about the WCT being somewhat picky about casting the leads of plays, I have to take it back. I watched Annie the weekend it opened, and ended up leaving during intermission. Like Once Upon This Island, the casting of the leads left much to be desired. I will say that the three people cast as Miss Hannigan, Rooster and Lily St. Regis were fantastic. They were the only leads who seemed confident onstage and with their lines, songs and choreography. They were also the only leads who seemed to be having fun with their parts (not really difficult with those).
My main objection was to the poor child who played Annie (well, the one I saw that night… the role was shared by two girls). It’s not her fault. I’ve worked with her before and heard her sing, and know that she has a very nice voice, but someone made the decision that she should belt all her songs… and they just weren’t in her belting range, so the result was that she sounded strained and painful.
I decided not to audition for Amadeus after all. I’d only just regained enough energy (after the stress of adjusting to the new job) to get back into my LibriVox project, and I’m on a roll with that, so I wasn’t willing to give up my evenings just yet.
I’m still working on El Dorado, but I’m not as blocked as I was before. The focus hasn’t been on Armand as much as it was in the beginning, so he’s not driving me crazy like he was. I’ve also started two other projects – A Little Princess and Pride and Prejudice. I’ve been wanting to do both for a while, and doing chapters in those was a good motivation to deal with Armand. 🙂 I haven’t put P & P into the catalogue yet, I’m just working on it on the side for now, but I’m five chapters each away from finishing El Dorado and Little Princess , and I’ll be taking it public once I do finish them.
I learned of a knitting group here in Waco a few weeks ago. I’ve been thinking of visiting it. I’m a bit shy of going because I only know one person… and also because I don’t have anything particularly interesting on the needles just now. I’ve got that scarf I started for Ethel last winter still going; and a hat for the Dulaan project. I had bought a whole bundle of a particular yarn… ooh, probably two years ago that didn’t turn out to be how I expected (it said worsted, but it’s much thicker than that), so I figured I could use it up making hats and things for the Dulaan project.
And now I’m off to eat lunch in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. 🙂
Life’s been pretty busy since my last post (hence no posts since then).
So, first off, I started the new job. It’s been fairly quiet for these first few weeks. The whole first week and part of the second all I did was read, because they’d ordered me a new computer (a nice, shiny new macbook!) and we were waiting for it to arrive. The rest of the second week I spent trying to install Windows and Linux on it (some of the things I’m going to be working with run on Mac, some on Windows and some on Linux, so I have to have all three OS’s). Then I went on vacation for a week, but I did finally get the various operating systems running when I got back. Since then, they’ve slowly been getting me started on some of the things I’m going to be dealing with. Oh, and kind of cool coincidence, one of the first things I worked on was a problem a professor was having with his website, which he was running with wordpress… so this blog? Not just for fun! Actual work related learning experience gained from it! 🙂
Now back to the vacation. I went out to Mum’s for ten days. This is the first time I’d been out there since she moved to Palmdale and Paul brought the family up, so I got to see the new house, and of course, all the family. The times at home were fairly quiet. The boys are sort of between activities right now, so they spend most of their time online or playing video games (sometimes both). Mum and Natalie and I had fun though. Mum and I usually try to get out to the Hollywood Bowl whenever I visit during the summer, and this year Natalie came with us. We got to see South Pacific, with Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell. It was awesome! Then a few days later, we went to see Wicked. I’d been wanting to see this since I first found out that the book was being turned into a musical, so I did a quick search to see if the touring company might happen to be in the Los Angeles area during that week, and found that there’s a permanent (well, probably semi-permanent) production at the Pantages! I treated Mum to both shows for her birthday present. Natalie came with us to this one too. They didn’t know anything about Wicked, but they were excited to be getting out of the house for something other than work. On the Friday before I came back Natalie’s daughter Debbie was playing in the orchestra for a community college production of Once Upon This Island, so we went to that too. Needless to say, after South Pacific and Wicked, this was a bit of a letdown. Maybe if we’d seen that one first. 🙂 I mean, it wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely an amateur performance (I like to think that we’re a little pickier about our lead roles at the WCT… but I’m terribly afraid we aren’t always).
I haven’t been doing much outside of work since I got back. Though yesterday was my birthday and I did get taken out for lunch. Apparently, the Preservation people adopt whoever works in the office across the hall from them, regardless of what department they’re in, so Eric and I get included in all they do. It’s fun, and I’m enjoying getting to know that group better. I used to see them some when they were on the first floor, but we’re in much closer proximity here and it’s easier.
Annie opens next weekend at the Civic. I got cast in it, but then I found out that Linda had cast about 60 kids! I told them that I’d just started a new job and we were starting a big project and that I wasn’t sure how much spare time I was going to have in the evenings (all of which is true), so thank you but I was going to have to turn down the part. I will be ushering, though. Beth is playing Miss Hannigan and I’ve heard that she’s hilarious, so I’m looking forward to watching her.
I’m still working on El Dorado for Librivox. It’s an interesting story, but I keep putting off recording because Armand, from whose perspective most of this story is told, is driving me spare. He’s being such an absolute infant that I keep wanting to smack him upside the head. This one’s longer than the other Orczy book I did too, much longer. I originally picked it because it’s the other book they generally use when they’re making a film adaptation, so I know parts of the plot.
I got the job!!!
Yes, yes, I know I usually agree with PTerry on multiple exclamation points, but this is a special occasion. 🙂
They finally called me Wednesdy evening to offer me the job. The HR lady who likes me had told me to expect the call, and to pretend to be surprised. So I pretended, and needless to say, I accepted! I’ll be starting Monday week, but I still don’t really know what it’s going to involve… other than some amount of programming. I suppose they’ll get to that eventually.
I went to see HP5 Tuesday night with some friends from the theatre. MB bought the tickets ahead of time, and at the last minute a couple of people had dropped out, so I invited Eileen to come along with us. It was pretty good, considering it was the shortest movie so far – and based on the second longest book. They left out ridiculous amounts of stuff, but what was there was good.
In other news, I’m going to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) at the Hippodrome this Saturday. It’ll be the first time I get to see the Cachinnator act; Don Boscoe is also going to be in it, plus a third guy I don’t know. I’m going with MB… Sherry was up for it, but was going to be out of town that day. Also, we’re finally going to have our Music Man intervention this coming Tuesday. Huzzah!
So, I still haven’t heard back on the job I interviewed for over a month ago. There’s a lady in HR who likes me and is rooting for me, so she’s been keeping me up to date on where they are. She asked me for one final piece of paperwork this morning, and said it was the last thing they needed before they can make an offer. Needless to say, I had the form in the mail within five minutes of getting her email (I’m just ready for the waiting to be over, either way). She said I might hear by the end of tomorrow. Please, God, let me hear (preferably a job offer and not a “thanks for applying, but…”).
In the meantime, it’s time for One Acts again. Carlos is directing alone this year, as Mark has moved. He asked me to assistant direct for him, as he’s taking classes. I agreed, as long as I get to do lighting design again (I had fun with that last year). I’m going to be in one called For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls, which is a parody of The Glass Menagerie. There were enough women who tried out (who were good) that he didn’t have to double cast, so that’s the only show I’m in this summer. Some of the men did get double-cast, as (as usual) there were fewer men who tried out than women.
No sign of Kelita this year, though Carlos said Jack knew auditions were coming up; if he hadn’t said that, I would have guessed that she hadn’t checked her email in a while. But we’re getting some old friends back – Mandy (for sure) and Larry (if he can). Yay! Haven’t worked with either of them in a couple of years at least.
The show ended last Sunday, and now I’m feeling at a bit of a loose end. This is normal; it’ll take me at least a week to get used to it. This is the first show I was in where we had to have stand-ins for three different actors (as opposed to understudies, who are prepared to take over from the beginning of the run). In each case, it was illness in the family of the actor that pulled them away from the show. There was a rumour running around that someone mentioned the name of the Scottish play early on in rehearsals, and that’s why we had so many problems; others said it hadn’t actually been mentioned, just talked about without using the name. Lise mentioned something about “reverse luck” or “reverse superstition”; I can’t remember her exact phrasing, but the idea was that we’d been really careful to observe all the usual theatrical superstitions, such as not whistling in the theatre, not mentioning the name of the Scottish play, etc, and still ended up with awful luck.
We had one fabulous audience the second weekend, that was everything one could wish for in an audience; responsive, not afraid to laugh aloud, enthusiastic… and, of course, every audience after that seemed a let-down (though there was one that would have seemed dull even without that comparison. Good grief, it was like pulling teeth to get any sort of reaction out of them!).
I’ve pretty much given up trying to find a grown-up job in Waco. I heard back (unofficially) on one of the two remaining applications I had in at Baylor, that it had been offered to someone else. So, since most of the family is now in So. Cal. (Alondra and the boys moved up to join Paul and Mum last weekend!) and not planning on moving to OK, as they had been for a while, I’ve started applying for jobs in the Pacific states, to be closer to them. I’ve been looking at jobs in universities in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. I always did say that if I ended up leaving Waco, I’d like to move somewhere with a cooler climate. I’ve got four applications in so far, and that’s just in Washington, some in teaching and some in IT. We’ll see how it goes.