Jimmy Dean Antics
About a week ago I posted about being busy, and it's really only gone downhill from there. Last Saturday I made a point of making a huge pot of soup (lentils, barley, split peas, rice, various veggies) and baking some bread to get me through the week. Pretty much all week long I have had literally no clean dishes; today I washed as many as I had space to dry, and cleaned up my living room and clean clothes. I feel good!
My show, "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," had a good opening weekend. I spent almost every day last week at the theatre. Opening night was a little shaky, but that's to be expected. The post-opening-night party at an actor's house was excellent; I had three glasses (not full glasses) of wine and we played several hilarious rounds of Catchphrase until 2 AM.
As a result of this, the cast and crew were tired and grumpy on Saturday, but it was still a good show, and I hung around at the theatre drinking and snacking afterwards. Yesterday, everyone was in a good mood, and we had a good show (except for one messed up cue and one case when an unavailable prop needed INSTANTLY led to me lending my handkerchief to an actor--I was a little embarrassed but I didn't know what else to do), though the audience kept talking. We went out for dinner afterwards and it was delicious and fun.
That's right, I had drinks three nights in a row. WHAAAAAAT. Also, one of those drinks was red wine, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.
Now I have a nice three-day break from the theatre; I took the holiday off work and got a little bit of work done at home and then watched Once Upon a Time with Elyse and played the BTTF computer game.
So pretty much my whole life has narrowed to time spent at theatre and time not spent at theatre, which is also time spent being tired and/or sleeping. I read a couple of books (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making was really good and Daughter of Smoke and Bone ended up being really compelling and well written, despite my reservations about the romance), but seriously, that and theatre and watching TV is all I've done this past week. Also being bored at work and getting some exhausting tasks at work (moved all our files to a different temporary location, to be moved to a new permanent location tomorrow), listening to music and drawing Back to the Future constantly and also listening to "The Train" (parts 1, 2, and 3) from the Back to the Future III soundtrack. Hooray?
So the theatre has been fun. It's kind of weird to think that a little more than a week ago I had never called a show because now it is all I do. It's not as hard as I'd been afraid it would be (except for two sticky awkward spots). Before performances, I spend a lot of time sitting in the dressing room doing the anxious leg-jiggle thing and checking the time on my iPod roughly every three minutes. And eating ginger and bread. And sometimes joking with the cast and/or crew.
Opening night was a little scary; we held the house for a few minutes and I stood there with the director and then he said, "I'll go whenever you're ready." (He does the pre-show speech thing off of my cue.) And I stood there going, "Okay. Okay. Okay," wondering if I should go and cue the actors first, and he stood there looking at me and I'm pretty sure he knew I was freaking out a little bit inside, but then I just cued him and everything was fine after that! He paces around the theatre during performances and sometimes comes up behind me to watch through the window, which is disconcerting and even moreso if we're in one of the long breaks with no cues and I'm doing stretches.
But people keep telling me I'm doing a good job! It feels so weird; I'm glad to help out (and SOOOO glad for the learning experience; just being around them has taught me a lot) but it just feels natural. I know it's useful and everything, but it feels strange to be thanked for just hanging around the theatre writing down blocking and checking the time and telling people when to turn on lights and sounds (with mixed results).
(If you are interested in seeing what the show is like, here is a link to some clips from the movie on YouTube. To me, it seems terrible and emotionless!)
It's been terribly exhausting but I feel pretty good about life, especially after yesterday's good show and today's nice break. I am hoping that I'll be able to run at least one show without a major flub this weekend.
My show, "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," had a good opening weekend. I spent almost every day last week at the theatre. Opening night was a little shaky, but that's to be expected. The post-opening-night party at an actor's house was excellent; I had three glasses (not full glasses) of wine and we played several hilarious rounds of Catchphrase until 2 AM.
As a result of this, the cast and crew were tired and grumpy on Saturday, but it was still a good show, and I hung around at the theatre drinking and snacking afterwards. Yesterday, everyone was in a good mood, and we had a good show (except for one messed up cue and one case when an unavailable prop needed INSTANTLY led to me lending my handkerchief to an actor--I was a little embarrassed but I didn't know what else to do), though the audience kept talking. We went out for dinner afterwards and it was delicious and fun.
That's right, I had drinks three nights in a row. WHAAAAAAT. Also, one of those drinks was red wine, WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.
Now I have a nice three-day break from the theatre; I took the holiday off work and got a little bit of work done at home and then watched Once Upon a Time with Elyse and played the BTTF computer game.
So pretty much my whole life has narrowed to time spent at theatre and time not spent at theatre, which is also time spent being tired and/or sleeping. I read a couple of books (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making was really good and Daughter of Smoke and Bone ended up being really compelling and well written, despite my reservations about the romance), but seriously, that and theatre and watching TV is all I've done this past week. Also being bored at work and getting some exhausting tasks at work (moved all our files to a different temporary location, to be moved to a new permanent location tomorrow), listening to music and drawing Back to the Future constantly and also listening to "The Train" (parts 1, 2, and 3) from the Back to the Future III soundtrack. Hooray?
So the theatre has been fun. It's kind of weird to think that a little more than a week ago I had never called a show because now it is all I do. It's not as hard as I'd been afraid it would be (except for two sticky awkward spots). Before performances, I spend a lot of time sitting in the dressing room doing the anxious leg-jiggle thing and checking the time on my iPod roughly every three minutes. And eating ginger and bread. And sometimes joking with the cast and/or crew.
Opening night was a little scary; we held the house for a few minutes and I stood there with the director and then he said, "I'll go whenever you're ready." (He does the pre-show speech thing off of my cue.) And I stood there going, "Okay. Okay. Okay," wondering if I should go and cue the actors first, and he stood there looking at me and I'm pretty sure he knew I was freaking out a little bit inside, but then I just cued him and everything was fine after that! He paces around the theatre during performances and sometimes comes up behind me to watch through the window, which is disconcerting and even moreso if we're in one of the long breaks with no cues and I'm doing stretches.
But people keep telling me I'm doing a good job! It feels so weird; I'm glad to help out (and SOOOO glad for the learning experience; just being around them has taught me a lot) but it just feels natural. I know it's useful and everything, but it feels strange to be thanked for just hanging around the theatre writing down blocking and checking the time and telling people when to turn on lights and sounds (with mixed results).
(If you are interested in seeing what the show is like, here is a link to some clips from the movie on YouTube. To me, it seems terrible and emotionless!)
It's been terribly exhausting but I feel pretty good about life, especially after yesterday's good show and today's nice break. I am hoping that I'll be able to run at least one show without a major flub this weekend.