week 1

so week one is done. and it's been quite the week. aside from rehearsing a bigger chunk of a day and more days a week than i'm certainly used to, stray cat closed a show this weekend (4.48 Psychosis - which actually featured kerry mccue - one of the actresses in Augusta.) closing went well - exCEPT - and this is the first time this has ever happened with us (that i know of)...we basically had hecklers in the audience. really more like 2 drunken idiots...but...you say tomato......

the gentlemen in question felt the need to not only CAT call the actresses (and in an intense show with a good deal of silence - evocative of a psychotic breakdown - i'm hard pressed to think why anyone would think that's even remotely appropriate....or warranted.) - giggle loudly at the mention of the word "genitals" (and i mean LOUDLY! like...you'd almost wonder "have they been planted here just to tick us off?" loud.) and supplying a boisterous "YYYYEAH!" whenever the actresses 'kissed'. so closing night felt like a closing night with some refugees from a roller derby. good times. it even prompted a member of the press to get up and MOVE in the middle of the show.

*sigh*

at any rate...that has nothing to do with Augusta. except it put me in a mood before sunday's rehearsal.

we're through almost 1/2 of the show thus far (with preliminary staging and work)...and i have to say...it looks like this thing is gonna be damn funny. biased? of course. but i'm also a wall of insecurity...so typically right around now i'd be more likely to think "this will NEVER BE FUNNY everevereverandmatthewsgoingtofireme" at this point...and i don't. yet. so that has to be a good sign, right?

we'll see, i guess. (if it's funny. and if matthew fires me. :)

i've learned a bunch this week, though.
cliff's notes:
--apparently really expensive silver (like the kind they reference in the script) can NOT be thrown down violently. it would disfigure, warp and bend the silver. who knew? screwed up my blocking, but...oh well.
--prop apples that have buckwheat hulls in them to weight them so they have the 'feel' of normal apples are inadvertantly funny when an actor picks one up as if it's real and it sounds like a maraca.
--kerry mccue has the metabolism of a hummingbird. she can eat the worst junk food on the planet and not gain an ounce. so not fair.
--drawings can be devious. what something looks like in a drawing in regards to 'how much space there is' is not always what the actual case may be. it may look like you could fit the cast of les miz parading through a certain entrance...when in fact...all that may fit is the cast of thom pain.
--richard trujillo's delivery of the line "let me say that again...i'm not going to DO anything" is one of the funniest things i've ever seen in my life.
--patti davis suarez improvising at a photo shoot makes me want to give her a one woman show. she rules.
--when you're used to rehearsing 4 hours a night, your internal clock at about 4 1/2 hours starts to scramble your brain a bit.
--breakaway glass - even when they say it's made out of sugar - should not be eaten as if it were rock candy. it's clearly not.

tonight is the first rehearsal party - a kind of 'baptism by fire' where season subscribers and friends of actors theatre come to chat with matthew and me and the designers (who knows, maybe i'll see some of you there?) - and see the first 10 minutes or so of the show...then chow down on sam's cafe goodies. nerve wracking to be sure. i've never been on this end of a first rehearsal party so it should be interesting.

if you're there...please come up and say hi.

i'll probably be the one nervously shaking in the corner.

- rm