random

I'm about to go through a reading spurt again.  I can tell.  I have soooo much free time backstage during Morrie; all I'll ever do is read and knit.  So, I've got a pile of books ready to go, the one on top being, of course, A Feast for Crows, which I STILL haven't finished. 

This week (tech and first two previews) I read Lipstick Jungle, which Charlotte randomly gave me (along with the tequila, mozarella sticks, margherita mix, and single red envelope).  I thought, "ooh, fluff, that will get me through tech nicely", and it did, and it was indeed fluff, but it kinda pissed me off at the same time that I enjoyed reading it.  I mean, how does an author like her (of Sex and the City fame), become so highly regarded?  The characters were NOT very likeable, not believable, there was no plot, and in terms of a fluff book, the "romance" scenes weren't too interesting.  So why does she sell so many books?

Then I randomly got to thinking about GOOD books tonight, and thought of Robin Hobb, and how when I finished reading her final book in the Tawny Man trilogy I felt such a sense of loss that it was over.  I think I cried, not just because the end was touching and whatnot, but because I wasn't going to get to read any more about those characters or that world.  And she's such a good writer.  So I was depressed.  I need some more books like that to read.

Don Mackay has been lending out all his SAG "For Your Consideration" movies to us interns.  He's like a lending library.  I'm saving the really good stuff for later and am just trying to keep a steady stream going of movies that are worth watching just b/c they're free!  So far I've watched Proof (the play is better), Sexy Beast (disturbing), The Prize Winner of Definace, Ohio (random), and The Affair of the Necklace (not so great).  The ones I'm really looking forward to getting to are, of course, Munich, Syriana, and Squid and the Whale.  And Rent, I guess. 

Speaking of Don Mackay, it's a small world, because Jordan and I realized that he went to UCSD, which is where Devon and Jim went, so we asked him, and he knows Jim Peck AND Devon Allen AND Beth Schachter.  Welcome to the social circle of theatre, where anyone slightly successful must know all the other slightly successful people out there.

Anyway, got to take my sick body to bed.  Tomorrow's opening, and I'm looking forward to yet another opening night party.

"It's all tequila and penis." - Lauren

Go to Wikipedia and search for your birthday. Pick three events, two people who were born on your birthday, and person who died on it.

On December 31st:
1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.
1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

The following people were born:

• 1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1954)
• 1937 - Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

The following person died:
1384 - John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator

nope, not an update

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are flying on
Air Force One.
The President looks at the Vice President, chuckles, and says, "you
Know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make
somebody very happy."
The Vice President shrugs and says, "Well, I could throw 10 $100 bills
out the window and make 10 people very happy."
Not to be outdone, the Secretary of Defense says, "Of course , then, I
could throw 100 $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people
very happy."
The pilot rolls his eyes and says to his co-pilot, "Such arrogant asses
back there.  Hell, I could throw the three of them out the window and
make 190 million people really happy."

Morrie is going great; we had our Invited dress tonight.  I'm currently the sickest bunny - thank you for the farewell present ;)

another short day

Home from work early again, surprise surprise.  I need to clean really badly, since housing inspections are on Thursday, and I don't want them to think I live in filth.  Which I don't, for the most part ;)
Sunday night was, as I expected, great fun, and rather unexpected as well.  My horoscope that day was completely right, but of course not in the way I thought it would be.  That always happens.  Damn ambiguous horoscopes.
My plan for the rest of the day is to clean and nap (I'm way tired.)  And call Mom, cuz I didn't talk to her yesterday.  Aside from that, I think I'll nap some more.
Exciting.

Thus far, today is great, and I feel like it's going to continue to be great.  Just a feeling I have :)
Both today and yesterday I got out of work really early.  It's not that we're slacking off in rehearsal, but we're just doing so well.  Every day we come in, talk quickly about things to think about in our run-thru, do a run-thru of the show, have notes, and work notes afterwards.  To do another run would just be exhausting and pointless; no need to kick a dead horse.  So, then we go home.  It's in good shape, and we don't go into tech until NEXT Tuesday.  We've got time to spare.  In fact, this upcoming Tuesday we're not even going to have rehearsal.  Don will be in LA shooting a few episodes of Passions (yes, seriously), so we're just gonna take two days off!  Hooray.  Although I'll go into work on Tuesday anyway...  There's a production meeting, as well as a post-production review for Sueno and Bad Dates.  And I'll get some paperwork done - update my preset checklist, create a shift plot and perishables list, and begin the tech checklist.  Just 'cause I can.
Last night Lauren and I rented Crash.  I was NOT IMPRESSED.  Good acting, great ensemble in general, good camera-work, but... come on.  You're telling me this won over Brokeback?  I shake my head at you, Academy.  This movie is...well, it's like a bunch of people decided they wanted to make an "Important" movie.  They read the script and went, "Wow, this film is Important." With a capitol I.  But that's the problem with it.  They got so caught up in Theme or Idea  that they forgot to write an actual script that makes any sense.  Yes, prejudice is a problem.  It's a problem that so many people are prejudiced.  That's what this movie said, but it's ALL that it said.  It didn't offer any interesting insights into it, and didn't leave us wanting to discuss anything ABOUT the problem.  And the redemption scenes, if that's what they're meant to be, or perhaps they were meant to be Recognition scenes - ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING.  Great, so asshole cop saved the life of a woman.  That does not erase the fact that on the previous night he inappropriately GROPED her in a gross abuse of power.  And did he realize that groping her had been wrong?  I certainly didn't get that.  Bottom line is, the entire movie made me feel like the were hitting me over the head with a frying pan, with no point.
So, let's see.  Brokeback Mountain - great script, great acting, great cinematography, great music.  HEARTWRENCHING story.  Subtle.
Crash - unrelaistic script (do people really talk like this?  Um, no.), great acting, nice cinematography, okay music.  STUPID story.  Frying pan.
What else is new?  Wednesday night was great fun, Thursday night I saw Failure to Launch (I would have liked this movie in 8th grade), Friday I saw Jimmy Kaplan, and yesterday was Crash.  I also watched part of My Best Friend's Wedding on TV last night; it's dated.  It's weird to see something that I remember going to see in theatres and looking at her cell phone and e-mail and thinking how dated they are.
Tonight - out for Whitney's birthday to Wolski's...I've never been and I hear it will be fun.  Tomorrow - major cleaning and seeing the interns do a staged reading of Pygmalion at Ten Chimney's.
Life is good at this moment.  :)
Also, this will make sense to no one but me, but I'll say it anyway: the carousel is going 'round again.

Sad news from my favorite author (since 5th grade, I might add...) 

I just felt my life change.  Did you feel it?

highs and lows

I've definitely been having a highs and lows kinda week.  I seem to always be having a really good fun time, or a really yucky not happy time.  Not really any in betweens.  I'm trying to stay as ositive as possible and just enjoy the time I have left here this season, but it's hard having evenings off when others are at work, and I sit at home twiddling my thumbs much more than I should.

So, exciting as it is to finally have 6-hour days...I'm not so much excited about them.  Evenings aren't much fun for me, and I wish I was working 6 hours in the evening rather than in the afternoon.

I can tell people are starting to have the "I'll be leaving soon" mentality.  From this point on it's one big stream of goodbyes..  Charlotte leaves tomorrow, Intimate Apparel closes this Sunday, then after next week Becky and Kyle and Jenna will leave, and Mike, and George, and Amanda, and Jeanine, and Moth the kitty, then Chris and Stacy... I don't particularly like this part of the season.  I hope the people I've developed close friendships with will remain close friends, and if not close, at least keep me updated on their lives as things progress.

Work continues to be great, though.  I really enjoy working on this show and feel proud of myself for the good work I'm doing on a daily basis.  I can tell I've grown a lot this season.

At the same time, I'm getting excited about warm summer weather, being home with Mom and the puppy, and especially seeing people on the East Coast again. 

Tonight: a kareoke party for Charlotte's farewell and a new episode of LOST.  What more could a girl ask for?

"But...eyes are the windows to the soul.  I don't know what color your SOUL is!" -Briana, to me

"Who's 'Becca'?  Oh, you mean 'LEGS'." - Velma

Things that make you go hmm..

My horoscope today: A past friendship or relationship that fizzled actually could reincarnate as a business relationship. You might just find that whatever it was that didn't have you two working on a personal level makes you great work partners.

 

Okay, the fizzling happened, now where's my business opportunity?  hehe

we're Tuesday people

This (the Subject) is so true of Theatre people. 

Tuesdays with Morrie rehearsals are going really great.  We've been doing short days but getting TONS accomplished.  We began staging yesterday...and FINISHED staging today.  Umm, I have never seen a play be staged SO quickly!  The actors are great.  Bobby has done the show before, so he's completely off book, and Don wants to keep up with him, so he's already 90% off-book too.  Paul, the Director, really prepares for rehearsals in a big way, and Sahba and I are *so* on top of things. 

In summary, this week has just made me feel really great about myself and what I'm doing.  (Not so great about myself in other arenas, but..it's okay.)

"You're, like...the MacGuyver of ASMs." - Don Mackay, to me in rehearsal today ;)

another article, life update

Regarding Intimate Apparel: http://www.mkeonline.com/story.asp?id=1391323

Life update:  Lydia's visit was great.  I'm so glad she was able to come when I had four days off in my life.  We went to the opening of A Month in the Country (no, I didn't work on that show), wandered around town and ate quite a bit, went to the art museum, saw a movie at the Oriental Theater, watched the Oscars, etc.  Oh, and I took her to see Intimate Apparel as well.  I've determined from her visit that I'm GREAT to visit, because of all the free stuff I provide:  a place to sleep, towels, groceries (thank you Wisconsin), two plays, $22 off our dinner at Mader's, beer at the opening night party, 1/2 off our art museum tickets, a cab ride, wine, internet service, cable...all of these things were free.

Today I got an e-mail from Troy Dwyer saying he wants to work with me this summer.  This made me both VERY happy (to hear from him, who I haven't spoken to since sometime before graduation, and that he thought of me as the person to SM his play despite the fact that I havenm't spoken to him since last May) and also rather sad (I couldn't say yes to working with him because I don't know that I'll be back from Milwaukee yet when rehearsals for his show begin). 

Tuesdays with Morrie prep is going great.  I'm excited to be working on this show.  Everyone just gushes about the director, Paul Barnes, non-stop.  It's just a two-person show, in the Stiemke, I'll be acting as ASM both throughout rehearsals and through the run, and Mark Sahba, the SM, will definitely let me do my thing without looking over my shoulder or doubting my skill.  Plus, he's fun.  And we MIGHT be doing 6-hour days, which I have NEVER done and I think it's about time!  For those of you not in the know, six straight hours of rehearsal (with ten-minute breaks and one twenty-minute break) tallies up under Equity rules as the same amount of hours as an 8-hour rehearsal day (with ten-minute breaks plus a two-hour dinner break).  So, when doing 8 hour rehearsal days (the standard in my life), it goes something like this...

10 - 11:30 am Meetings, rehearsal set-up

11:30 - 4:30 pm Rehearsal

4:30 - 5:00ish pm Dinner break (aka paper-work on the computer)

5:00ish - 5:30ish Dinner break (eat some food)

5:30 - 6:30 pm Dinner break (more paperwork, set-up for rehearsal)

6:30 - 9:30 pm Rehearsal

9:30 - 11:30ish Paperwork, etc.  So, 8 hours of rehearsal = 13 or so hours of work.

Now, let's look at a 6-hour day!

10:00 - 11:30 am Meetings, set-up for rehearsal

11:30 am - 5:30 pm Rehearsal

5:30 - 8:00ish Paperwork, etc.  So, 6 hours of rehearsal = 10 hours of work.

That's three less hours of work!  Now, how amazing would this be in my life?  (Says the girl who has been a bit bored this week with her evenings off..haha)

Anyway, I'm done with that now.  In other news, I have recently turned into a female again and it's really quite annoying!  Grr.  The end.