Pursuit of Happiness - Blog 2 - "Gauntlet o' Blogs" by Joseph Kremer (Spud)

October 19, 2007 2:05pm

Well here we are, exactly one week before opening. My name is Joe Kremer and I am an actor in The Pursuit ofHappiness. We are just now beginning a "stumble thru"which is a technical theatre term to describe a"stumbling through the whole show". Ha. It's really neat to see the whole show come to fruition. It never ceases to amaze me how these "shows" which is a technical theatre term to describe "the show", come together. I am getting ready to begin my first scene. Am I nervous? Nah...I know my lines. I got my costume. I got my props. We made tremendous strides in the rehearsal last night and I made a breakthough in a scene that was certainly my weakest one. That's a feeling that is very hard to explain, this feeling of "making a breakthrough". But now I'm going to try and tell you how it feels: Try not going to the bathroom for like three days. And then finally the next morning, go. That's about it.


Ok, my scene is getting close. talk to ya in a bit!

October 19, 2007 2:47pm

Okay, all done. My Act I scenes are now done and I'm feeling pretty good about them. I'm watching the rest of Act I now and it is very entertaining. This is the stuff that's entertaining to me, watching the whole Act I and seeing all the things that we've changed and added since the first day. If you've never done a play before this process is very intriguing. It's one of the reasons that stage acting is so addicting, why actors quit their day jobs, why actors leave their spouses and try to do this full time. Ummm...but I digress. When you see a play on stage it is certainly not the same play that was being rehearsed in the first week. Really incredible to watch. Right now Kyle (Sorrell - playing Tucker) is cracking me up in his scene. I usually don't laugh out loud during rehearsals, but I can't help myself with this one. I love this rehearsa ltoday, it's going very well so far. For those of you that don't know how our schedule is, let me break it down for you:

- We arrive at the Herberger at about 2pm and start rehearsing until about 6pm or so.

- Then we break for dinner for an hour and come back at 7 and rehearse some more.

The other day Ron asked me how it was on our side (as an actor) working for eight hours.

I thought about it for a second and said it wasn't hard at all...rehearsing for eight hours is not like working across the street at a consruction job for eight hours. Believe me, I know, I've worked those jobs. When you do what you enjoy doing the time you spend doing it doesn't feel like work. For me rehearsal is always over too soon. That's what I really meant tosay.

More later.