(no subject)

This week has been literally exhausting. I've had rehearsal every day or night since Saturday, staging the musical numbers, and the weeknight commute in and out of Hoboken is terrible. It's not just the time, it's also carrying the scooter on the train so it doesn't whack people in the shins, and standing on the bus as it jerks around. Also we're rehearsing at the Howe Center which is at the top of a STEEP hill. So, so tired--when I get home all I want to do is collapse. My general routine when I get home is to put on a movie and go over the blocking, cleaning it up in my script. This can take a while as I am a little OCD about notating my blocking neatly. Very glad tonight I get a break--most of the numbers are staged by now, we just have a few left and then the book scenes. Much (though not all) of the heavy lifting is done. Exhausted as I am, I am really enjoying working with this cast--they all seem very positive and friendly. Yay, happy casts! Part of that is Susan, I think--she is one of the friendlist people I've ever known, as she sets a good tone. But also we have Dave and not our horrible incompetent music director we had last time.

We staged Poor Wand'ring One and How Beautifully Blue the Sky last night--one thing I love about Jen as Mabel is how dead-on her comic instincts are. We have so much more rehearsal time this go-around than last time, that I have more leisure in which to add more comic bits. So I ended PWO with Frederic passing out (he's so overcome with joy at Mabel's voice)--she helps him up, and then I had the two of them go upstage and make out really obnoxiously. It is HILARIOUS. They look like the cover of The Postman Always Rings Twice.



I would have loved some tongue action--not actual tongue action but tongues hanging out, a la Jeff Mancuso in Cellular Biology. But they're a little too far upstage for it to read, I think.

Of course this weekend will be just as busy--I have rehearsal tomorrow and Sunday, and then a production meeting Sunday afternoon. And tomorrow morning I am doing an adult soccer clinic to improve my ball-handling skills and then I go from there to rehearsal. SO excited about the soccer clinic! I really want to dribble better.

Tonight going to see The Empress of Sex. Looking forward to not thinking about Pirates for a change!

Keep Pumpin' (Blowin'!)

I've been telling the cast they really should watch The Pirate Movie (and we're planning a viewing party! Thanks to Chris, I own the DVD :) I checked out the imdb entry--you have to love a message board posting whose subject reads ARE YOU PEOPLE HIGH??? (Clearly I'm not the only fan!) I also checked out the "external reviews" section and found this hilarious entry on the site cinemademerde.com.

In the dream we’re back in the 1880s and Kristy is the rich daughter of the major general. The pirates lurk just offshore, a dancin’ and a singin’ like pirates apparently do. This movie was shot at the time, 1982, where if you needed pirates for your movie you just put a flyer up at the local gym, which turns out to yield unexpected benefits for viewers of my persuasion. Yes, the pirates are all muscle guys with mustaches and developed arms and chests, wearing shirts open to their waists, if they wear a shirt at all. This led to a great deal of pause-button use on my DVD remote, all of which was amply rewarded. This is all accompanied by a mildly homo vibe [pirates, hello], and lots of attention to male crotches, noticeable in the bejeweled codpiece of the pirate king.

Ah, the Pirate King's codpiece. I'm getting all happy just thinking about that silliness again. And Fredric's diaper/loincloth...

If you're treadin' water and romance is on the line
Don't you know you have to swallow
Something' more than water
It's your pride!

Ah ha, a-huff and puff
Just to keep love goin'
Ah ha, I've had enough
Of pumpin' and a-blowin'...