A Night Off

Busy at work. More than usual, and the priority balancing is a challenge of it's own. It's nifty the way a work/life balance makes it easier, almost fun, to deal with. Today was my officemates 25th birthday, and I was just invited to lunch with her and the woman in the next office. A couple time sensitive fires, and I really couldn't leave. Damn.

Wednesday we had our rehearsal. I brought along my first pair of flats. Damn, but they looked better than I expected. The gap for the hinges looked bigger, but much less distracting than I feared. The big surprise was how well the hinged legs and sandbags worked. The wall is fairly sturdy, and looks to be standing perfectly perpendicular. That was my secret wish, I figured I'd next be trying to figure out a way to shim the walls to make them stand straight. Now, I'll be working to be as picky in my measurements and such on the second pair to see if I can repeat the feat.

In addition to tech directing (not much to do here), set design, and set building I'm stage managing the rehearsals. We were caught in the whole actor/director discuss towards the end of the first act, and taking about ten minutes a line. "Okay," I said, "Let's go straight through the last two minutes so we can break for a bit. I want to get something to eat." Paula told me I could go and get food. I don't like to leave a rehearsal, but more important is there was a method to my madness. We needed a break, and stopping right before the end of the act would leave a sense of not succeeding. We were at the point where one discussion was just a counterpoint to the last, because we were on a new line. Lost sight of the forest. I very rarely push hard, but I wanted people to have a sense of completion and to stop focusing on individual trees. Little things, but I believe I prevented some frustration. Once we were out of the over-analysis rut, there was a little, "Oh, now it makes more sense." I smiled to myself on that. I really was getting cranky.

I don't remember getting cranky when hungry. Not until a couple months ago when I started eating breakfast, breaking a habit which went back to junior or senior high school. Now I get impatient, even cranky, when the blood sugar gets low. Something about taking your body out of starvation mode.

Last night I saw Noises Off at the Seattle Rep. I'd seen a lackluster production in nearly four years ago at the Village Theatre. This time it was very well done, and four years of theatrical training and experience made it a very different show. I was trying to remember when I saw it, and did a search, finding an old issue of The Stranger. I noticed a number of other shows I saw, as this was my most active year seeing shows. It was a very good set of shows. For fun I'll tell you what I remember at a high level.

The Master And Margarita	Great! It was so good I lost track of the beautiful naked redhead who was on stage for a long time.
West Side Story	Great! A friend of mine was cast in this.
Hamlet	Very Good. The audience was not respected, and the cuts too deep.
Noises Off	Fair. The two worlds were not distinct.
A Raisin In The Sun	Great. This aged well, it wasn't as daring today regarding race relations, but it is still a powerful story of people.
Art	Great. A wonderful show done very well, with my favorite long (ten minute) monologue to date.
Killer Joe	Great! This was my first time at the Empty Space Theatre, and the set, direction, and acting were wonderful and innovative as I have come to expect from them.
Jet City Improv	Great. Though this old temporary venue was painful, literally and physically.
Return To The Forbidden Planet	Good Fun - I enjoyed it though the lead was painfully off-key.
*I Hate Hamlet	Very Good. I went because I'd memorized the closing monologue, and I still love that monologue.

*Okay, this wasn't playing at the time, it was an audition call for a show I saw later on.

So, back to Noises Off last night. It was a present for niece, but the day before the show her gymnastics team told her they had a meet the next day. So, I went with my sister-in-law Tonia, and her friend Mrs. Lee. We had a rushed dinner before the show, because traffic delayed us -- a lot. I loved the show from the opening line.

It had all the subtleties and hysterics I heard in the script the first time I saw it, and wished I could see on the stage. You may remember my recounting of being utterly lost at one point in the last show I did as a principle, in November. My little push to get things rolling in rehearsal on Wednesday, you better remember that. If not, go read the first few paragraphs of this journal entry again. I was constantly thinking of my stories, and those of friends through the whole show. Anyone involved in theatre owes themselves a seeing good production of Noises Off.

Now, I'm off to Bellingham for a bit. I'm in a hurry to leave, so I'll skip proofreading tonight.