"We'll be looking for a girl who's just as fun loving but maybe not as free-wheeling" -Hairspray
Being home was a great way to spend my day off. I mostly slept and got some much-needed rest and felt pretty great after that. I tried to do as little as possible, but had to run and do errands at one point. It was a nice summer day to be driving around town, and just driving around Braintree again was really nice. As luck would have it, Greg was in town and he ended up at my house for a couple hours; always a pleasure to share a few conversations of insanity with him.
As always, the 4AM drive back to the playhouse sucked, but had to be done. I was exhausted but still ended up forcing myself up ‘til 1 the next morning to have a bonfire with Meghan, Ross, Dan, and Darcy. We ended up burning some set pieces from Crossing Delancey that Dave built last year: we took great pleasure in that.
The second week of Rent has gone about as good as the first week. Thankfully, the crowds are a tad but more into the show (not by much, but enough for it to be considered an improvement over the first week). The cast still manages to mess up in new ways every night, much to our dismay. Regardless, the show gives me some to do some reading between spotlighting numbers (currently on Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon). During the day we’ve been working hard on Hairspray, which came together at a pretty quick speed.
On Friday (august 14), the tech staff put together a wine and cheese party on the back deck. We set up rope lights for mood lighting, bought and array of cheeses and wines, and I supplied some a CD for background music (mostly smooth jazz or very mellow indie music- everyone loved the music selection). We all got dressed up and enjoyed the classy atmosphere we created, and the ResCo and equity actors loved what we had done with the place. It was also turned into my birthday half way through the party, and once again the entire company drunkenly sang Happy Birthday to me.
The next day was my birthday, and it was a very eventful day. First off, because one of the ResCo girls, Jess, now has her equity card for Hairspray, she couldn’t be in the last performance of High School Musical because of rehearsals (she played the drama teacher). So the director, Sarah, stepped in for the last show, and the tech staff watched the show to cheer her on. I forgot how much the children’s shows don’t have to work with, but the cast seemed to enjoy themselves and they got a kick out of the fact that we were in the audience cheering them on. After the show we finished work around 4, so we went on an adventure to explore and abandoned trailer ten minutes away from the playhouse. Abandoned places are always fun, minus the smell of course. Afterwards we went to the dam and took a walk down closer to the falls. It was a nice day out, perfect for picture taking.
That night my parents plus Jason came up to see the show and Cabaret. Rent had the best crowd it’s had, and probably will have here. No awkward pauses between songs, and lots of loud cheering after every number. Finally, the cast has some motivation to put on a good show. After the show I went to the cabaret to meet up with my parents, and who did I see sitting at the bar when I walked in: David Cross! Tobias Funke was at my theatre watching one of my shows! How could this birthday get any better I ask! I managed to say a few words to him before the night was over; he’s a very chill guy (as I suspected he was). A few of us got our pictures with him before he left. Definitely the highlight of the summer.
The changeover into Hairspray started off good enough, then quickly became the nightmare we had been dreading. The designer was falling behind and therefore his laziness made us all look bad and not ready for the show; none of us were happy with him. Sunday-Tuesday was such draining days I barely remember what I did. By Tuesday I was complete out of physical energy but still had to keep going. I don’t remember much of what I did; all I remember is starting work at 6AM on Tuesday and working up until show time. It was a very rough experience to get though, but we all made it out alive.
I really like Hairspray. It’s a fun show with some great dancing and excellent sixties style music. The cast is fantastic, and the audiences so far have been loving the show and laughing at all the right places (such a wonderful change from Rent!). “You Can’t Stop The Beat” is still my favorite song from the show, the build up through out the song is incredibly contagious. I also really love “Nicest Kids in Town” as well: both have great choreography and are very catchy. And not only is the show great, but the audiences have been loving it! Every crowd has been laughing at every joke in the book, and the cheers and applauses have been thunderous sounding. Definitely makes up for Rent.
The cabaret for this show is Burlesque themed (well, as burlesque as you can be at a theatre where all the patrons are too old for their own good). It’s a fun cabaret and the crowds have been going crazy for the show. The last song of the show is from Thoroughly Modern Millie, which I enjoy hearing every night.
Saw District 9 on my day light day off. I thought it was good and left the theater content with what I saw. It’s one of those movies where the more you think about it after the fact the more you realize how much you enjoyed that movie. My last equity Monday off was also spent in Middletown doing some shopping with the guys. I was very excited to see the new Modest Mouse EP on sale at Borders, and I found a copy of Flight 666 as well. It was a day of fantastic purchases. The day ended with most of the tech staff and some of the ResCo dinning at Olive Garden.
After the first Sunday matinee was Ross’s birthday party, which was horror movie themed. We turned the inside of the scene shop into a maze of black fabric for people to go through to get candy and drinks, complete with good hiding spots to scare unsuspecting victims. Everyone dressed up as zombies (or in my case, zombie hunter), horror-themed music playing, and horror movie classics like Sleep Away Camp and Nightmare on Elm Street were viewed.
The second week of Hairspray went just as good as the first week. It started getting darker a lot earlier, so parking was miserable as always. Things in the shop started to become more laid back, since Doubt wasn’t a big set to build. We ended up getting most afternoons off (of which we all spent napping).
The nights have been pretty quiet, except for the night of the last trip to Vino’s. I left early because Ron was being difficult and wanted us to load in the set for Doubt the next day so he could rehearse on the stage (this meant we had to start work an hour early, yuck). I get back to the playhouse, get ready for bed, and I spend about five minute lying in bed when I hear a rustling noise. Living in the woods, I assume it’s an animal outside trying to find scraps near the kitchen, so I just roll over try to ignore it. However, when I rolled over was when I saw a skunk rummaging through some of Ross’s things looking for food. I had heard stories of a skunk being in the area but hadn’t seen it around…until now. We both noticed each other at the same time, he burrowed farther underneath Ross’s bed and I left the room as fast as I could. Myself and Cully decided the best thing was to wait for the skunk to leave at its own accord for fear of getting sprayed. Around 2AM, Michael Bert, Darcy, and O’Connor come back from Vino’s and a group effort to get the skunk out of the room commenced (complete with a video camera documenting the hilarity of getting a skunk to vacate a room). Around 2:30 the skunk was finally coaxed into leaving the room and disappeared somewhere underneath one of the dressing rooms. Sadly, there was a vague repeat of this the next night at 5:45AM. We’re not sure how the skunk kept getting in. One theory is that our floor is so uneven there is enough space for the skunk to fit under the door easily when it’s closed. Also, our door doesn’t latch shut and is very easy to open. We took the necessary precautions by adding new locks to the door and barricading the places where a skunk could fit underneath the door...but that didn't stop him from coming in two more times. We had to lure him out with a trail of barbacue flavored chips. Fun fact: skunks love barbecue potato chips.
The load-in for Doubt was one of the smoothest we've did this season. It went so smoothly we were done by 10:15, and we all drove to the Deer Lodge to say all our goodbyes and reminice about the season.
I'm finally home and re-organizing all my stuff and getting ready to start another semestar. Time to start a new adventure.
CULLY: I need washers, do we have any washers?
ME: There’s one in the Sud Shack.
CULLY: Drag queens taught me how to fight: I need high heels to do it properly though.
MEGHAN: There’s fucking lights everywhere I need to be!
ME: What are the lights fucking?
O’Connor: I’d like to see you try and fight me, I’ve took six weeks worth of karate lessons.
CULLY: Oh yeah? Well I’ve watched six weeks worth of karate movies, and I’ve read Dare Devil: he fights a lot of ninjas.
SEAN: [saying goodbye] Time to go back to sleep, see you in the morning.
As always, the 4AM drive back to the playhouse sucked, but had to be done. I was exhausted but still ended up forcing myself up ‘til 1 the next morning to have a bonfire with Meghan, Ross, Dan, and Darcy. We ended up burning some set pieces from Crossing Delancey that Dave built last year: we took great pleasure in that.
The second week of Rent has gone about as good as the first week. Thankfully, the crowds are a tad but more into the show (not by much, but enough for it to be considered an improvement over the first week). The cast still manages to mess up in new ways every night, much to our dismay. Regardless, the show gives me some to do some reading between spotlighting numbers (currently on Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon). During the day we’ve been working hard on Hairspray, which came together at a pretty quick speed.
On Friday (august 14), the tech staff put together a wine and cheese party on the back deck. We set up rope lights for mood lighting, bought and array of cheeses and wines, and I supplied some a CD for background music (mostly smooth jazz or very mellow indie music- everyone loved the music selection). We all got dressed up and enjoyed the classy atmosphere we created, and the ResCo and equity actors loved what we had done with the place. It was also turned into my birthday half way through the party, and once again the entire company drunkenly sang Happy Birthday to me.
The next day was my birthday, and it was a very eventful day. First off, because one of the ResCo girls, Jess, now has her equity card for Hairspray, she couldn’t be in the last performance of High School Musical because of rehearsals (she played the drama teacher). So the director, Sarah, stepped in for the last show, and the tech staff watched the show to cheer her on. I forgot how much the children’s shows don’t have to work with, but the cast seemed to enjoy themselves and they got a kick out of the fact that we were in the audience cheering them on. After the show we finished work around 4, so we went on an adventure to explore and abandoned trailer ten minutes away from the playhouse. Abandoned places are always fun, minus the smell of course. Afterwards we went to the dam and took a walk down closer to the falls. It was a nice day out, perfect for picture taking.
That night my parents plus Jason came up to see the show and Cabaret. Rent had the best crowd it’s had, and probably will have here. No awkward pauses between songs, and lots of loud cheering after every number. Finally, the cast has some motivation to put on a good show. After the show I went to the cabaret to meet up with my parents, and who did I see sitting at the bar when I walked in: David Cross! Tobias Funke was at my theatre watching one of my shows! How could this birthday get any better I ask! I managed to say a few words to him before the night was over; he’s a very chill guy (as I suspected he was). A few of us got our pictures with him before he left. Definitely the highlight of the summer.
The changeover into Hairspray started off good enough, then quickly became the nightmare we had been dreading. The designer was falling behind and therefore his laziness made us all look bad and not ready for the show; none of us were happy with him. Sunday-Tuesday was such draining days I barely remember what I did. By Tuesday I was complete out of physical energy but still had to keep going. I don’t remember much of what I did; all I remember is starting work at 6AM on Tuesday and working up until show time. It was a very rough experience to get though, but we all made it out alive.
I really like Hairspray. It’s a fun show with some great dancing and excellent sixties style music. The cast is fantastic, and the audiences so far have been loving the show and laughing at all the right places (such a wonderful change from Rent!). “You Can’t Stop The Beat” is still my favorite song from the show, the build up through out the song is incredibly contagious. I also really love “Nicest Kids in Town” as well: both have great choreography and are very catchy. And not only is the show great, but the audiences have been loving it! Every crowd has been laughing at every joke in the book, and the cheers and applauses have been thunderous sounding. Definitely makes up for Rent.
The cabaret for this show is Burlesque themed (well, as burlesque as you can be at a theatre where all the patrons are too old for their own good). It’s a fun cabaret and the crowds have been going crazy for the show. The last song of the show is from Thoroughly Modern Millie, which I enjoy hearing every night.
Saw District 9 on my day light day off. I thought it was good and left the theater content with what I saw. It’s one of those movies where the more you think about it after the fact the more you realize how much you enjoyed that movie. My last equity Monday off was also spent in Middletown doing some shopping with the guys. I was very excited to see the new Modest Mouse EP on sale at Borders, and I found a copy of Flight 666 as well. It was a day of fantastic purchases. The day ended with most of the tech staff and some of the ResCo dinning at Olive Garden.
After the first Sunday matinee was Ross’s birthday party, which was horror movie themed. We turned the inside of the scene shop into a maze of black fabric for people to go through to get candy and drinks, complete with good hiding spots to scare unsuspecting victims. Everyone dressed up as zombies (or in my case, zombie hunter), horror-themed music playing, and horror movie classics like Sleep Away Camp and Nightmare on Elm Street were viewed.
The second week of Hairspray went just as good as the first week. It started getting darker a lot earlier, so parking was miserable as always. Things in the shop started to become more laid back, since Doubt wasn’t a big set to build. We ended up getting most afternoons off (of which we all spent napping).
The nights have been pretty quiet, except for the night of the last trip to Vino’s. I left early because Ron was being difficult and wanted us to load in the set for Doubt the next day so he could rehearse on the stage (this meant we had to start work an hour early, yuck). I get back to the playhouse, get ready for bed, and I spend about five minute lying in bed when I hear a rustling noise. Living in the woods, I assume it’s an animal outside trying to find scraps near the kitchen, so I just roll over try to ignore it. However, when I rolled over was when I saw a skunk rummaging through some of Ross’s things looking for food. I had heard stories of a skunk being in the area but hadn’t seen it around…until now. We both noticed each other at the same time, he burrowed farther underneath Ross’s bed and I left the room as fast as I could. Myself and Cully decided the best thing was to wait for the skunk to leave at its own accord for fear of getting sprayed. Around 2AM, Michael Bert, Darcy, and O’Connor come back from Vino’s and a group effort to get the skunk out of the room commenced (complete with a video camera documenting the hilarity of getting a skunk to vacate a room). Around 2:30 the skunk was finally coaxed into leaving the room and disappeared somewhere underneath one of the dressing rooms. Sadly, there was a vague repeat of this the next night at 5:45AM. We’re not sure how the skunk kept getting in. One theory is that our floor is so uneven there is enough space for the skunk to fit under the door easily when it’s closed. Also, our door doesn’t latch shut and is very easy to open. We took the necessary precautions by adding new locks to the door and barricading the places where a skunk could fit underneath the door...but that didn't stop him from coming in two more times. We had to lure him out with a trail of barbacue flavored chips. Fun fact: skunks love barbecue potato chips.
The load-in for Doubt was one of the smoothest we've did this season. It went so smoothly we were done by 10:15, and we all drove to the Deer Lodge to say all our goodbyes and reminice about the season.
I'm finally home and re-organizing all my stuff and getting ready to start another semestar. Time to start a new adventure.
CULLY: I need washers, do we have any washers?
ME: There’s one in the Sud Shack.
CULLY: Drag queens taught me how to fight: I need high heels to do it properly though.
MEGHAN: There’s fucking lights everywhere I need to be!
ME: What are the lights fucking?
O’Connor: I’d like to see you try and fight me, I’ve took six weeks worth of karate lessons.
CULLY: Oh yeah? Well I’ve watched six weeks worth of karate movies, and I’ve read Dare Devil: he fights a lot of ninjas.
SEAN: [saying goodbye] Time to go back to sleep, see you in the morning.