you could drive a person crazy
I'm well into Company rehearsals now, which means I will be doing my best to title any and all posts over the run of the show with appropriate lyrics. Or inappropriate lyrics, as the case may be, as we discovered in music rehearsal yesterday that the version of the libretto MTI issued the cast contained the original 1970 lyrics to one particular song that are, um, incredibly offensive by 2012 standards. (Every revival since has updated that particular line to be less awful.)* But anyway. I'm having very, very mixed feelings about this production. On the one hand, the cast is fairly talented and the script and score are fantastic (duh, Sondheim) and I'm sure it'll be a good show. But there have been a lot of...behind the scenes difficulties already, and the director is kind of getting on my last nerve already, and believe me, less than a week into the process is WAY to early for that to be happening. This theater company is already displaying a STRONG resemblance to my Least Favorite DC Theatre, and just, ugh. Apparently any show I work on in the autumn is destined to make me miserable. But while I'm of course stressing out about it, I'm somehow...much less stressed than I was in this situation last year. I guess I have more confidence in my own abilities as stage manager or something, because while I'm irritated, I'm far less worried about the prospect of "failing" somehow. Like, I know this process is going to suck, but I also know I'll get through it and not make a fool of myself, because none of the problems that have been cropping up are in any way caused by me, and I've been rolling with the punches pretty damn well so far. So, yeah.
I've found an apartment! In Brooklyn, which I'm less thrilled with -- nothing against Brooklyn, just that it's a bit inconvenient to my life at the moment. But it will make my commute for Company WAY shorter, and I'm not way out in the far reaches or anything. The apartment itself is really quite nice -- smallish bedroom, but it's in a lovely townhouse and it's very well maintained and my roommate-to-be has lived there for ten years already, so I have a lot of confidence in the situation. She's also basically a clone of my favorite roommate from DC, personality-wise, which is awesome. And it's less than a five minute walk to the subway on an express line. The neighborhood itself is kind of lower-middle class, VERY diverse and family-oriented, so a bit shabby but very safe -- lots of grandmothers chatting on stoops and kids playing on the streets, which is so very stereotypically old-school Brooklyn. And the rent is...much, much cheaper than I was expecting to have to pay in NYC, which definitely makes up for the commute. I move in October 1. Here's hoping it works out.
And I've made it to the final interview stage for two different jobs, both as resident stage manager for children's theatre companies. I'm a HUGE fan of Theatre for Young Audiences and will rant at length about the importance of arts education for hours at a time, so either job would satisfy my inner bleeding-heart-liberal leanings far better than working in commercial theatre does. One pays significantly better (like twice the salary for roughly the same amount of hours per week), so realistically, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one; but the other does arguably more important work (within the NYC public school system), and their hours would enable me to pick up additional gigs in the evenings/weekends, which the first would not. So they both have their pros and cons. Of course, now I'm sure I've jinxed myself and will be rejected from both. We'll see.
I've been utter rubbish at keeping up with fandom lately -- well, I do read my flist/dw-circle regularly, but tumblr's been far more sporadic, and I haven't been working on anything creative at all. Once my life settles into a routine rather than a whirlwind, hopefully I'll be able to get back into a fannish mindset. I did watch the latest Doctor Who, which I felt entirely MEH about, and the new Downton Abbey, which I have not seen a single post about which DISPLEASES ME GREATLY because it made my heart go all a-flutter and Branson is my new favorite and why is no one else squeeing about this?
*The lyrics in question: in the original version -- "I could understand a person if it's not a person's bag / I could understand a person if a person was a fag"; now updated to "I could understand a person if he had to go away / I could understand a person if he happened to be gay." Oh, 1970. (The composer/lyricist who wrote it, Stephen Sondheim, is himself openly gay. I don't know if that makes it better or worse. Mostly, oh, 1970.)
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Comment wherever you'd like.
I've found an apartment! In Brooklyn, which I'm less thrilled with -- nothing against Brooklyn, just that it's a bit inconvenient to my life at the moment. But it will make my commute for Company WAY shorter, and I'm not way out in the far reaches or anything. The apartment itself is really quite nice -- smallish bedroom, but it's in a lovely townhouse and it's very well maintained and my roommate-to-be has lived there for ten years already, so I have a lot of confidence in the situation. She's also basically a clone of my favorite roommate from DC, personality-wise, which is awesome. And it's less than a five minute walk to the subway on an express line. The neighborhood itself is kind of lower-middle class, VERY diverse and family-oriented, so a bit shabby but very safe -- lots of grandmothers chatting on stoops and kids playing on the streets, which is so very stereotypically old-school Brooklyn. And the rent is...much, much cheaper than I was expecting to have to pay in NYC, which definitely makes up for the commute. I move in October 1. Here's hoping it works out.
And I've made it to the final interview stage for two different jobs, both as resident stage manager for children's theatre companies. I'm a HUGE fan of Theatre for Young Audiences and will rant at length about the importance of arts education for hours at a time, so either job would satisfy my inner bleeding-heart-liberal leanings far better than working in commercial theatre does. One pays significantly better (like twice the salary for roughly the same amount of hours per week), so realistically, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one; but the other does arguably more important work (within the NYC public school system), and their hours would enable me to pick up additional gigs in the evenings/weekends, which the first would not. So they both have their pros and cons. Of course, now I'm sure I've jinxed myself and will be rejected from both. We'll see.
I've been utter rubbish at keeping up with fandom lately -- well, I do read my flist/dw-circle regularly, but tumblr's been far more sporadic, and I haven't been working on anything creative at all. Once my life settles into a routine rather than a whirlwind, hopefully I'll be able to get back into a fannish mindset. I did watch the latest Doctor Who, which I felt entirely MEH about, and the new Downton Abbey, which I have not seen a single post about which DISPLEASES ME GREATLY because it made my heart go all a-flutter and Branson is my new favorite and why is no one else squeeing about this?
*The lyrics in question: in the original version -- "I could understand a person if it's not a person's bag / I could understand a person if a person was a fag"; now updated to "I could understand a person if he had to go away / I could understand a person if he happened to be gay." Oh, 1970. (The composer/lyricist who wrote it, Stephen Sondheim, is himself openly gay. I don't know if that makes it better or worse. Mostly, oh, 1970.)
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth. Comment wherever you'd like.