Biggest hurdle of the past week: Tackling the dreaded "Vase" scene. It's one of those farcical romps where a very expensive prop is tossed around like a football between actors as they exit, re-enter, and run around the stage. Thank god we are working with a piece of Tupperware for now, otherwise my behind-the-head-hook-shot to (actor) Ted (Barton playing Bingham) would've broken the real vase a dozen times already.
Onstage moment that generated the most laughter: (actress) Maren (Maclean playing Pamela) pretending to pretend to be blind and bumping into random people and furniture.
Offstage moment that generated the most laughter: (Stage Manager) April impersonating Matthew as he broke down the essence of the competition between Gene and Ted's characters. (See YouTube Video "Wiener-isms")
Most embarrassing moment of the past week: This is a toss up between temporarily blanking on the title of the play in rehearsal and doing the "Kama Sutra" style stage smooches for the first time right after working up a healthy, gushing sweat practicing the opening chase sequence about 50 consecutive times.
Number of times I have been smacked, groped, or otherwise manhandled: About 87, in a good way, though. I think that's just about on par with the rest of the cast. Hehe. "On Par" get it?...never mind.
Biggest epiphany of the past week: Apparently you cannot be fired from Actors Theatre unless you show up drunk (more than once), hit someone, or sexually harass someone. So far we are good.
Biggest scare of the past week: We almost lost (actress) Johanna (Carlisle playing Muriel) in an airport in Charlotte as she was traveling back from a trip to the Bahamas to officiate the wedding of two beloved theatre people who hail from the AZ scene.
Other Random Discoveries:
1. Golf is a game played with actual skill and strategy, not just swinging sticks at little dimpled balls. (Actor) Gene (Ganssle playing Dickie) taught me how to use a driver for our photo shoot tonight. It took some serious concentration to get right - and I didn't even have to actually hit a ball.
2. Some of our cast attended graduate level acting classes, where apparently they teach you that reading the play is a good thing, and so is breathing. And that all emotions fit within 9 categories that can simply be used by actors like ingredients of a recipe. So when your director says "Give me a "1, 7, 6" you'll know what to deliver.
3. If the AriZoni Adjudicators adopt the same criteria as the anti-doping agency that retroactively stripped Lance Armstrong of his Tour de France medals, they are going to have to evaluate all of Matthew Wiener's prescriptions at the time of his AriZoni "Outstanding Contribution Award" for possible performance enhancement. OF COURSE he took risks people, HE WAS ON SLEEP MEDICATION!!
4. (Actress) Ashley (Stults playing Louise) makes me laugh. She just does. With the general goofiness of this play, it's going to be hard not to crack up as we make silly googly faces at each other on stage.
5. When empty bottles of liquor are needed for a bar scene in the show, this particular crew of actors is very anxious to step in and personally empty a few bottles of the hard stuff after rehearsal, just to get the props required. We are so generous in the name of our craft!
On to week two. Can't wait to see what's next......
