Welcome to Crunch Time: Tenara Gets Grouchy

A week from tomorrow.  A WEEK, PEOPLE, A WEEK.

In all honesty, I'm not freaking out as much as I expected to be.  It may have to do with the fact that my actors are so FREAKING GREAT or that they all know their lines or that the Israel trip overshadows Scene Night stress.

Unfortunately, Wednesday was a rehearsal Daryon and Keihin both missed.  I was ready to rip out my hair.  Or theirs.  Or both.  How about rip out their HEADS?  Keihin called to tell me that neither he nor Daryon could make it, but I wouldn't let him get off the phone without speaking to Daryon personally first.  I believe I used a lot of: "This can't happen again" and "I can't make you take your job seriously - YOU have to do it", to which they replied with "No, of course not, this will never happen again" and "I realize that, I promise, we're all yours for the next week and a half."

GOOD.  Despite their absences, Wednesday's rehearsal was really productive.  I started incorporating the sound cues.  I think that excited all the actors, that it was finally coming together.  I also worked on action again with Sierra for her scene with Daryon - even though Daryon wasn't there, we made some REALLY GREAT progress with Sierra.  When Whitlee made some comment about how she hadn't even seen the show's opening date creep up on us like that, I assured them that I totally believe that they're ready.  They are.  The stuff I'm giving them now is just icing on the cake.  More like powdered sugar on the icing, which is really weird to think about.  How about the cherry on top?

Today, we ran the scenes, top to bottom.  It took about forty-five minutes all together.  Since the dressing rooms are still being used for The Importance of Being Earnest (this is the last weekend), I didn't post up the list of the scenes yet, so often I would start the sound cue for the next scene and then shout out from the booth what the scene was.  Something I've noticed that I have to rid all these hooligans - THEY KEEP TALKING AS THEY'RE GETTING INTO PLACE.  Everyone seemed incredibly surprised when I shouted out of the booth, "BE QUIET OR I WILL CUT YOU!"  Hey, whatever gets the job done is whatever I care about.

I still worry about Saved!, though.  Not that it's bad - the scene itself is being performed wonderfully by my actors.  I just worry that no one will think it's funny.  I mean, I crack up when I watch it, but I don't really count.  So, I think I'm just going to keep repeating THIS over and over again: my intention as the director is not to make fun of people's religion or to produce some stupid shock value, or to make light of what's important to some people.  I simply want to take a subject that teenagers have to deal with in their everyday lives (like sexuality, religion, spirituality, absurdity) and to make people laugh about it.  That's not to say that it's not important - just that it doesn't always have to be treated with such severity and seriousness.

I think I'll mention that in my curtain speech, as well as in my note in the program.  I just hope people think it's as funny as I do, religious people and non-religious people together.

So - my Israeli passport, army deferment, extension, and my new American passport are all in.  I have been contacting people in Israel about times to see and visit them, I've copied the numbers from my parents' Israeli phone book into my new notebook I got from my mother for my birthday, I know who's picking me up from the airport (Udi Avital, an old family friend.  I will be staying in his house with his partner for the first weekend - Udi and I will take care of all the logistical stuff, like getting minutes onto my Israeli SIM card for my phone, etc., etc.), I know who I'm having passover with (Rena Abadio), and my internships are...well, they're there.  My mentors have both expressed to me to just show up and then it will be easier to see what I would be able to do to help them.  

Oh - one last thing I guess I should mention - Amber, Wes, Whitlee, and Bailey performed today in front of the school as a sort of trailer, doing The Chumscrubber scene.  It went well - I don't think Amber and Wes were projecting to the size of the room, more just keeping their voices the way they do in the theater.  I also didn't catch Amber in time to tell her to censor her language - but when she said "That's why you get so much shit, right?" I actually think she pulled in a lot more people's attention.  Bailey had the real mouthfuls.  Her "just kiss him already" was replacing something much more blunt and the "before I beat you up" was also a tad nicer than the script reads.  Either way, I thought it went really well, and hopefully people are enticed to come see the show.  Next week we're doing another trailer.


Tomorrow my mother and I are shopping for gifts at Easton for my host families in Israel.  Then I have another rehearsal (much to Keihin and Daryon's grumbling, WE ARE REHEARSING TOMORROW).


I'm trying not to think of exactly what's bothering me about Israel - I don't even think I know.  One thing I did notice that I found utterly ridiculous was the color of my nails.  I looked down and saw that, not to my surprise, my nails were black, as I had painted them that way.  Then I realized they would be black in Israel.  And probably chipped - but still black - when I got back.  For some reason, that made me insanely nervous.  My nails are black now and will be in two weeks when I leave, unless I use remover...why does that drive me insane?  I don't know.  Oh well.