It is the shoes! It is the shoes, my sole...!!!

Thank you for indulging me in a little parodying of Shakespeare.

Maybe if I was playing Desdemona, I wouldn't mind suffering for my art. But getting a bad enough back to send me to the doctor because for less than an hour I appear onstage in high heels as Mrs. Holly in "Suddenly Last Summer" is not my idea of a good enough reason to suffer.

And all this for a role that the Albuquerque Journal reviewer described as being played as a "Dickensian" grotesque!!!!
Here, read the Journal article for yourself.

"Playwright Channeled Life..." ABQ Journal Review

I can't say I totally disagree with the reviewer, although it is my job as an actor to disagree with a bad review. But the truth is that I think that that's exactly how the director directed my "son" and me to act. As caricatures - down to very precise mannerisms. Fred Franklin wasn't wanting to make us caricatures - he says there are people he knows personally who act this way - but I'm afraid they play to the audience as caricatures.

Funnily enough, though, the night before the review came out - the first night (Thursday) of our second week of performances - I decided I could no longer keep my integrity as an actor and do what is false onstage. Without changing drastically, I toned down the "mannerisms" I thought were too fake and tried to play her - Mrs. Holly - as real as possible within the scope of the director had created. Although lots went wrong with the evening technically, it was my best night.

Then, last night, there seemed to be a subtle shift with all the characters in the play. We all seemed to be "more real."

The shoes are still killing me, though.

OPENING NIGHT!!!! Thursday, September 21, 2006

Suddenly Last Summer opens!

We've had an intense three weeks of rehearsals. We had a really great final dress rehearsal (one of the theatre superstitions I don't buy into is that a really bad final dress means a terrific opening night).

It's time for that big test - doing the show before its first audience.

Some of us are really tired -- coming straight from work and all. Some of us are really "up" despite a similar schedule. But we all get into the spirit of opening night as the stage manager calls "15 minutes to places."

Then "ten minutes."

Then "five."

Then "places."

Before "places" we've been chatting about anything and everything. One thing I love most about the theatre is the intense conversations you can get into backstage. We've also been giving and receiving opening night cards and gifts. (I've long since absolved myself of the guilt of not getting it together for opening night gifts. I give closing night gifts.)

But when the call of "places" comes, we all tune in to the stage. All but two of the actors have a good twenty-minute wait before we go onstage. So, although we keep up the backstage talk, very quietly, it dwindles to infrequent whispers as we each get closer to our cue to enter.

I have a very brief "through the window" appearance - a one-liner - before I actually go onto the stage. My "son" and I appear at the window, part the curtain, and call to "Aunt Vi," who is onstage. The two of us - mother/son team - try to part the curtain.

It doesn't part.

Hmmmmmmmmm. We weren't told that the curtain was now going to be unpartable, and we wouldn't be able to do that little bit of stage business.

Not to worry - a minor, technical glitch. No big deal.

About 8 minutes later, I make my entrance. The audience seems to like us (the mother/son team, going in to see the daughter/sister they haven't seen since she's been sent to a mental institution.)

We're in for a fun, somewhat comic, and meaty scene. But after this part, when there is another entrance and all seven of the play's actors are onstage, I have only a few lines more and then have to do most of my acting as an onstage observer.

The play seems to be going well. During the last quarter of the play, one of the two main actors makes a major shift in the emotion of her character, and the other main actor has to make an adjustment in her character that changes the shape of the ending a bit.

But it seems to all work out fine. Then, there is an accidental early blackout three lines before play's end. The lights very quickly come back on, and we finish the play.

What starts out as a play that provides the audience with a lot of laughs has them on the edge of their seat at the end.

But I don't get a chance to get an objective view from an audience member on this opening night. By the time I'm out of costume and in the lobby - quite a while later - the few folks around to talk to all have some connection to the theatre or show (mother of a technician, sound designer, etc.)

Perhaps tonight - the second night - I'll get a chance to get a objective view.

Will tonight play into the old theatre curse of "second night slump?"

I hope not.

For more information, pick up a copy of this week's Alibi. The Alibi published a very nice spread on FUSION Theatre Company and The Cell Theatre. Check out the links I just added.

We're having a WET TECH!

Sorry, that's not exciting as it sounds.

A wet tech is different than a dry tech.

A dry tech is what happens when the show is run with lights and sound and other technical aspects, but with no actors. The stage manager calls the cues, and designers and the director makes adjustments.

After that comes the wet tech.

Our wet tech is scheduled from 2 to 7 pm today. We'll be in costume, so that designers can see how the costumes look under the lights and the lights look on the costumes, the set, and the actor's faces.

We'll go "cue to cue." What that means is that we won't necessarily run the whole play, but just skip around from one lighting, sound, or technical cue to the next.

This may sound really boring, but it's a really good way for an actor to internalize the shape of the play and to get a better sense about how everything fits together.

If we do our wet tech in record time, we may then do a full run-through. We'll then have three more rehearsals - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - before the show opens on Thursday, September 21st.

Oh no!!! I'm sick!

Not sick of rehearsals. Not sick of the play.

Sick. I've got a cold.

How come this happens more often than it doesn't? What I mean is that I often get sick right before opening or during a show. The show opens in one week, and I really don't want to be sick. Waaaahhh!

Actually, I don't think it's a cold, really. At least I'm hoping it's not. I think it is a case of very, very bad allergies.

Many others in the cast are also sneezing. Hopefully, we're not just passing a virus among ourselves, and the allergens will die off soon.

After rehearsal, I will go home and sleep!

We're in Pretty Good Shape...

for a first run-through. We need to shave 17 minutes off the play. It's a one-act, and it can't be any longer than an hour and a half. That's about how much a butt-in-a-seat can endure.

Let me tell you a little about the improvisations. Up until two nights ago, we started every 3-hour rehearsal with at least an hour's worth of improv. The first few days, we did improvisations around events that have happened before the time-line of the play.

The first scene starts with an elderly woman talking to a doctor about the death of her son "last summer." The director had a improvise the scene where the woman is told of her son's death. Then he had us improvise the first time two of her relatives (Mrs. Holly, who I play, and Mrs. Holly's son, George) visit her after her son's death.

We also had very long "hot seat" improvisations. Each actor, as their character, was put into a "hot seat" and questioned by the other actors. Questioned about everything, from where we went to school to sexual preference.

The improvisations I liked the most were the ones done within an actual scene. For example, at the end of the the play, where my daughter describes the death of her cousin (the elderly woman's son), the director had the rest of the cast act as the band of street urchins involved in the actual death.

If you want to read more about the movie that was based on the play, check out the "Suddenly Last Summer" link.

Better late than...

never!!!

I owe some retroactive postings about the progress of rehearsals.

Let me first say that I'm off to rehearsal in a little while, and today we'll do our first run through.
We've staged the whole play, and today we'll put it together.

But first, I do want to tell about how improvisations have been used in the rehearsal process. I'll have to tackle that after I get back from rehearsal, though. More tonight, then!

While I'm away at rehearsal, be sure to check out the FUSION Theatre link!