prev # Monday, Mar. 01, 2004 4:50 p.m. # next

Is it spring yet??? Getting closer....

Red Herring closed yesterday. I'm more sad to leave this show behind than I have been about any show in years. It was such a positive experience, and I felt so at home on that stage. I really felt like I was in the right place. Our director, Martin, came back to see the last two shows (he teaches in Massachusetts) and I think he was pleased. Our final show, a matinee yesterday, was PACKED and fantastic - the audience was totally ready to laugh, not like for example Friday night when they seemed to be saying, "Come on, MAKE me laugh...Can you do it???" In general the audiences were great, and I think this show made some good money for the theater. I was so proud of it.

Now on to TIC. I adore the Native American drumming we've been doing - it's very therapeutic and spiritually satisifying. I'm getting to know the songs well enough now that I can relax into it, let it work on me. The stories are fun, for the most part - I got some nice juicy roles. It's been an unusual process - we spent the first couple weeks just exploring, figuring out how to make stories into theater, establishing our scripts. We were had as much input as we could give on what the stories became, it was by no means a directorial dictatorship. This week we finally got cast in our roles and have scripts in hand to memorize. My favorite is probably "Old Man Winter" in the story of the Coming of Spring. Jeremy plays the same role on his team, which I find amusing (there are two teams of 4 and they split us up so we wouldn't end up killing each other). Either that or the Warrior Maiden, where I get to play a strong, brave woman who sacrifices herself to save her tribe. One of the more dramatic stories, nice and noble. I also play a thrush, a partridge (channelling old goofy singing teachers for that one - I'm teaching the turkey how to sing), a fox chasing a rabbit ("I am Ongwe Ias, the one who eats you! You cannot escape me!" *insert war cry here*), the colors Purple (yay!) and Yellow, and various narrator types. It's mostly fun, just not yet as satisfying as the last show was. I just miss that fabulous cast. Yeah, I know, it's completely different - and I think playing for the kids will be lots of fun. It's much less formal, and more interactive than the children's theater I've done before. So we head out next week. Yee haw.

NETC auditions in Boston are in 2 weeks. We have times, and hotel reservations, and all that worked out. I haven't attended these auditions with friends in awhile (since 2001); I think it'll be nice to have that support again. Jeremy's going, and we're sharing a room with Will (fellow intern) and BU senior Molly. Should be fun. The other day I helped Jeremy pick out a song - I miss having pianos readily available, but we just headed up to the university to snag a practice room. I felt good being able to help him out, though as always I'm neurotic about my teaching skills. I think we picked a good one though - it'll be super cute. Today I settled on my "package" (monologue & song). A mono from Red Herring, actually, though not mine - I didn't have any. And the song "Don Juan" from Smokey Joe's Cafe, which fits in my voice well and I can vamp it up. I haven't been singing lately, but this is one that I can belt out with no worries. I'd been toying with the idea of switching to "acting only", instead of a musical audition, but I'm gonna stick with what I know this year. I'm vastly more confident as a performer in general than I was at this time last year - this internship has been great for me. I feel like I know how to "sell" a song, and have the freedom and creativity to play with it that will make me stand out. So I'm excited. Plus the stakes aren't too high, since I'm not too attached to the idea of summer stock this year (more attached to the West - I can't stop thinking about mountains lately!) - so I probably won't get so nervous. PLUS - again - I've been vastly healthier over the past year (in terms of what I put in and do with my body) than I was for most of college, so even though my singing voice is a little underworked, it's actually in good shape. YAY.

What else? On my nights off I've been watching some great movies lately (thank you Netflix). All About Eve, amazing script, and I heart Bette Davis forever and ever. I already mentioned American Splendor but I'm just gonna say again how fabulous it was. It shoulda won best adapted screenplay instead of that Oscar-gobbling fantasy epic that I will not mention by name. I saw The Passion of the Christ with Jeremy, which was an interesting experience. Perhaps I'll write more on that later. It was intense, but what was more fascinating was imagining how different our reactions were to the whole thing, coming from such completely different points of view. Then the next night we watched Rosemary's Baby (never seen it before). The lovely irony of that combination did not escape me.

Finally, the weather here's been FABULOUS! Like 60 degrees today. Apparently North Carolina got like a foot of snow last week, while it was in the 50s here. Crazy. Makes me anxious for real SPRING though....

back in the day # onward and upward