Reality and Life Continue

To do:

1) Make cookies for the show
2) Wash costume
3) Clean room
4) Re-print list of scenes plus notes from last night to post in the dressing room
5) Call Rich about programs
6) Acupuncture appointment
7) Run Sid and Cassie scene with ringtone sound cue
8) Run Skins 1 with Damien's sound cue
9) Run 10 Things again
10) Get all actors in costume by 6:45 for Bailey's mom to take pictures
11) Shepherd actors into dressing room by 7:40
12) Am I running house?  Must call Britt
13) MAKE THANK YOU CARD EXTRAVAGANZA FOR BRITT AND RICH


No matter how many other things I put on this to-do list, I always feel like I'm missing something.  The problem is I never write anything down, so I never remember it.


As everyone can read, I HAVE A LOT TO DO.  It's currently twenty to one in the morning, and my not sleeping is certainly not going to help the stuff I have to do for tomorrow (although some of it is less important, like my room and the thank you card - there is time to do that).


Today's run-through went really, really well.  Because of the set for CCT's NEXT show, The Price, today the interns and I worked on painting all the walls around the stage this off-white color.  Paired with the gray primer of the floor, the stage looks very bare and uniform.  I like it, especially for our scene night - it's so plain, which works for the nine different scenes in nine different settings that we're going to be using.


The second part of the day was using Rich's car and rushing (NOT SPEEDING) all around the city looking for two RASTAFARIAN HATS.  Damien and Keihin need them for the 10 Things I Hate About You scene.  Sierra and I first went to Costume House over by Bethel.  They were out of stock.  On a whim, we tried Rag-O-Rama.  They also did not have any in stock.  The woman working at Rag-O-Rama suggested we check at Puff & Stuff Smoke Shop down by campus.  I have to say, I was quite excited to finally have a reason to go in there.  I find it hard to believe that someplace so shady could actually exist in broad daylight of high street, although that makes me sound SO naive and sheltered.


Sierra and I parked in a dinky little parkinglot behind a trash-covered apartment building on Chittenden (OSU ATTACK CENTRAL), and walked to the Smoke Shop.  As soon as we walked in we were hit by a wall of 'incense', while bongs and bowls hung from the wall.  Classy.  FORTUNATELY they had the hats we were looking for!  I had CCT's card, and when I gave it to the studnet behind the counter, he asked for I.D. (it says Richard Albert on the card).  I had anticipated this being a problem at maybe the Costume House.  I said it was the company card and that I worked with Columbus Civic Theater.  He gave me a dirty look, but then ran the order.  I stopped myself from retorting outright to him.  Really?  He works at a Smoke Shop that sells perephenalia (for tobacco use only, I'm sure) and that reeks of pot, and he's worried about a semi-shady business exchange?  Sierra was wearing her smiley-face shirt and I was in a black skirt and black tights and leather strappy boots.  We did not quite look like we belonged there, although that may have been the problem.  Oh well.


After rushing back to the theater (rushing, not speeding), we helped with what painting there was left to do.  I have to say, those were the last props we needed for my scene night, and I am very happy we found it just in time.


ON THE SIERRA FRONT - she said she is 98% sure that she could do the show!  She couldn't come to rehearsal today, but she told me she thinks she'll be able to make it tomorrow.  This is good news - the show is very Amber heavy right now (she's in four scenes in a row and practically every other scene before that).  It's not that I don't love Amber or think she is wonderful and talented and all of that - it's just that with Sierra, there's a little variety.

The third part of the day was spent at school.  My actors were performing 10 Things (Damien and Keihin look really spiffy in their new hats), but I couldn't actually be there for the performance, as I had a meeting with the Women's Assistance League about money for my walkabout in Israel.  I talked with them for about five or ten minutes in Tom's room under the watchful and doting eye of Mary, and then I left to go back to town meeting.  At four, right when I had to leave, I re-entered the room (Yong-Sung and Aharon [Aaron?] were also presenting their walkabouts for money) and they told me they're going to help me out with my requested $500!  This is such fantastic news.  They told me all the ask in return is to send them a thank you letter when I get back (OF COURSE) and to come talk to the organization in whole about my experience in either the summer or the fall.  This is so exciting.


The fourth part of my day was the run-through.  After yesterday's rehearsal, which was slightly ridiculous just because that was the first time we were pairing technical stuff with acting stuff, so things were bound to go wrong, the run-through went SO SMOOTHLY.  I was so happy.  Improv was freaking hilarious, and no one forgot their lines or freaked out or anything!  Yesterday I gave my actors a pep-talk.  I told them that the last couple days are supposed to look like crap, because it's when you pair the acting (something very tempermental that you've been working on for about a month and a half) and with the technical light/props/set stuff, which has only just been strung together and is still shaky.


What I realized today as Bailey's mother gave me a ride home is that at this point, the show's really not about the audience.  I mean, yes, I hope you all enjoy it and laugh and cry at the right moments, but I realized that I have given the actors some really great experience that not a lot of them would necessarily have the chance to do, going to Graham, which is unfortunate.  Amber is a different story - she started acting when I started acting, so I was 11 and she was 7.  And she's also in a show right now in addition to mine.  And I'm not saying that my actors are totally bad and that this was a good experience for them because I'm perfect and I took pity on some hooligans or anything.  I'm just saying that this is way different than what we did last year because it's in a very professional setting, being in an actual theater and all.


Maybe I'm totally wrong, and I shouldn't be thinking ANY of this as a director.  I don't know, Rich always seems very very concerned with the audience, which he totally should be, so now I kind of feel bad for what I'm thinking.  And Rich isn't really concerned in the way that he's afraid to take risks or something lest the audience doesn't like it.  He just always wants to make the theater experience a really good one for every patron who comes in through the doors.  And I COMPLETELY want to do that too.  I don't know, maybe I'm rambling.


As I was watching the show today, uninterrupted, I realized that while I'm very proud of what I've done, I kind of wish that I had the resources and the people who could put forth the comittment to do an actual SHOW SHOW.  Like, not a scene night.  My dream show to direct is A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller (it also happens to be my dream show to star in).  For right now, however, this is good.  And while everything is coming together and it looks great, a part of me can't help but feel disappointed.  Am I disappointed because it's soon to be over?  Or was I so engrossed in the drama of directing that I missed something and now the show looks weird?  I don't know.


It doesn't matter.  I wonder if every director feels this way before a show.  Also, I don't really have the time to get misgivings now.  Everything is finally falling into place.


After rehearsal today, I went to Thomas Worthington and watched the final dress rehearsal for My Fair Lady, which my best friend Candice is Eliza Doolittle in.  I realized that I don't really like musicals anymore.  Or maybe I don't like musicals with dull music.  I don't know what it was - maybe it was just freaking Henry Higgins, the mysoginistic stupidhead.  Anyway, Candice looked beautiful and sang beautifully.  I've never seen a show at Thomas Worthington that wasn't in their blackbox theater.  This was the first time I was in their giant theater.  They do one really big name musical a year.  This year Candice is starring in it!  The guy who plays Henry Higgins is a friend of Candice's who I know from way back, and he did reallyreally well too.


As I was watching, I decided I would never want to direct a show that huge - at least, in such an enormous theater.  That place was GIANT!  The Shedd Theater at the Davis is smaller!  I like having theater be an intimate experience for everyone involved.  I like being right up in the front row and being able to see the sweat on the actor's brow - that way when a beautiful moment happens, like when Keihin punches Daryon and it looks like it's real, or when Sierra gets up and leaves after kissing Daryon dejectedly or when Wes is betrayed by Amber or when Bailey chases Wes around Whitlee and they're all screaming - you forget it's acting and you get lost in it.


THE POINT of bringing up Candice (I am such a rambler) was that she and a friend of hers from Linworth are penpals during Walkabout - they write actual physical letters to each other.  I want to do that so bad.  Who will be penpals with me?  I wish I could have set that up with Tristan before he left.  He'd be an awesome penpal.  DO ANY OF YOU ADVISORS HAVE TRISTAN AND JON'S ADDRESS IN WASHINGTON?????


Tomorrow is the show (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) and then also on Saturday.  I think I'll probably end up writing a blogpost on Sunday talking about the shows.  It would make sense to devote one blogpost to each performance, but Myca Preest is coming home from Kent to spend the night with me and Maria DiSabato tomorrow after the show, and so I'm sure my concentration will be elsewhere.


WISH ME LIMB-BREAKING!