Rocky Horror so far

I have no idea why I'm in such a good mood right now!  But I did have fun this weekend.

Rocky Horror rehearsals are going well.  Music sounds good, and my cast really seems to be enjoying themselves--very aware, love the show, know all the callbacks.  After auditions we didn't have any viable Brads (Paul could've played Brad but he's not the strongest singer and Rocky is harder to cast than Brad so he's Rocky again).  Dave found someone who came in and auditioned--lovely voice although he's all over the place pitch-wise!  We figured it might be just nerves. (Dave said he smelled of alcohol--hmmm.  Well, I've been known to take a swig of vodka before an audition--but then I use vodka because it doesn't smell.  So, not sure what to make of that.)  Anyway.  When he came in for his first rehearsal, he tripped over a chair as Sean was introducing him and the entire cast chorused "ASSHOLE."  Brad (whose real name is, coincidentally, Brad) responded "well played, Rocky Horror cast, well played."

Dave's and Robert's schedules are sort of weird so we had to squeeze in blocking rehearsal around their needs.  Our first was yesterday--I blocked "Dammit, Janet" and "There's a Light" as well as the little half-scene when Riff Raff answers the door and the Narrator's first two monologues.  I have a concept for the show and I talked about it with the cast.  While analyzing the text I picked up on a theme of voyeurism and observation (the Narrator, the monitors, the opening number which is all about the movies).  So I expanded this a bit--my concept is that the Phantoms are all Rocky Horror groupies and do this every week.  During pre-show they'll be working the crowd as Rocky horror groupies--some will be hard core, some will be virgins, we'll see them putting on makeup and greeting each other.  Columbia is also a groupie (in fact she is listed in the film as "a groupie").  But she gets sucked into the story--she becomes her character.  As we all know--hell, the title of my journal tells you this!--I am crazy about the Romantics, and this is a very Romantic idea, this kind of transformation and identification with art.  See: basically everything Keats wrote, plus Philomel:

What is this humming?
I am becoming
my own song.

Magenta and Riff Riff are NOT groupies--they are actually their characters, as are Frank, Janet, Brad, etc.  So there are two worlds: the "real' world and the one in-universe.  Gradually everyone gets sucked into the second world--Columbia is of course destroyed, but the Phantoms and Brad and Janet are expelled at the end.  The party is OVER and none of them will ever be the same again (my favorite song in the show is "Super Heroes"--I just love the haunting lyrics.

And Super Heroes come to feast
To taste the flesh not yet deceased
And all I know is still the beast is feeding.

So to come back to the theme of voyeurism, there will be 2-3 "Observer" Phantoms, who sit with the audience and do shoutouts.  This will also help the audience relax and warm up.  The first group includes Paul, who is the best ad libber ever and was riffing with all sorts of great shoutouts.  When Brad and Janet sang "there's one thing left to dooo" he yelled out "FUCK."  We all died.

Susan annoyed the hell out of me on Friday.  I got this chirpy text from her telling me that she would be taking Sunday off for dinner with her family for Rosh Hashana (she had not listed this as a conflict on her audition sheet) and "I apologize for this but I really need to be with my family" and she'd "get the blocking from Sean."  Okay, first of all--do not text me shit like this, you need to email me.  Second, do not TELL me as a friend that suddenly you won't be in rehearsal in two days.  You need to ask me, the director of your show and your boss, if you may have it off.  I absolutely detest when friends who are in my shows act unprofessionally and don't respect the boundaries.  (I must say, in general Susan DOES have a problem with boundaries--she's said some inappropriate things in Pirates rehearsals that just made me cringe.  I'm a little worried that the Rocky Horror environment is only going to encourage it.)  Of course I understand this is an important holiday but if you'd thought you might miss it, PUT IT ON THE AUDITION SHEET.  And don't act as though the blocking is all that easy to get from Sean either.  For one thing, he already has to give the blocking to the others who were already cleared to miss that rehearsal.  And my blocking--as you know, since you "choreographed" Pirates (I put it in quotation marks because really, nearly all of that choreography was mine)--is not that easy to just "get."  It's usually very detailed and precise and demands a lot of spacing and awareness of the others around you so the group pictures look good.  I was thisclose to just cutting her from the scenes altogether but I decided it would make those scenes look lopsided.  However I did make her one of the Observer Phantoms for the "Light" scene and number.  THAT blocking is easy enough--just sit there and yell shit.

Also...

Sports!  I had a softball tournament plus two soccer games.  The tournament was the annual one for the alumni league--I played in it last year for the Duke team.  It was way the hell out in Red Hook again which I frankly find infuriating--Red Hook is a huge pain in the ass to get to (no direct subway line--you either take the bus or walk to get to the neighborhood) and it just takes forever, especially when you're lugging equipment as I was.  The last thing I want to do on a Saturday morning after a week of 13-hours days (work + rehearsal) is get up at 7 am to ensure I get to a damn softball game on time.  I get there late of course and find out we have four females (we have to have at least two on the field for the tournament).  One of them was at my position, 2nd base--I will be the first to admit she was quite good, better than I.  The other two were not as strong as I--one of them was  on the bench and the other was at right field.  As the innings went on it got a little embarrassing--I think that our obnoxious shortstop, who fancies himself as captain even though Ken does all the actual work, had actually forgotten there were two people who hadn't yet played--and one of them was a team regular.  Eventually I went in at right field--you don't see much action out there but it was fun anyway.  I did have a pretty good catch

We won the first game and it was all very exciting.  So we went on to the next round where the same thing happened, and then shortstop said something that really stuck with me--he said "oh yeah, we're definitely putting the subs in."

I have been playing with this team regularly--almost every Saturday--for three years now.  And Steve (shortstop) has been pestering me to play in the tournament for that long.  I deserve a hell of a lot better than to be called a "sub."

So, I don't think I'll be playing with the Chicago team next summer.  I may change my mind because I love the rest of them, especially Ken, and I am sad, but I just cannot stand Steve.  I cannot stand his condescension, his sexism, his hypocrisy at critizing everyone for their errors and never even acknowledging when he messes up (and he makes tons of errors in the field), the way he hits on waitresses when we're out, the way he thinks it's a huge deal when he gives me a compliment and his complete utter fucking cluelessness and lack of tact and social skills.  Oh yeah, and the 'roid rages but the whole team hates that.

Moving on--I played a soccer game that evening, full-field, and didn't do too well.  I napped for a bit between the tournament and the soccer game and sometimes that does a number on me--I'm slower, less energized.  But yesterday went better--my Dolphman team had the opening game of our fall season.  The team is getting smaller and smaller--we had only 1 extra player yesterday, and overall only 4.  (Three weren't there yesterday--2 because of Rosh Hashanah, and we're not sure about the other one.)  I mentioned this to Alyssa and she said yeah, we didn't take any free agents.  Oooh, we are an exclusive club!  Last season we lost Pete, our Totally Hot British Dude, because he was going to be out of the country--we wanted him back for this season and he wanted to play but it conflicted with his other team ARGH HULKSMASH.  Because in addition to being Totally Hot he is also (and frankly more importantly) an amazing player!  We hope to get him for the winter.

Anyway our first game was last night and we won, 3-2.  We were up 3-0 at the first half and I said grimly "great job--I want at least 4 more in the 2nd half."  Alyssa laughed and said "FOUR more?"  I said yep--when you relax you start making mistakes and that's when the window opens.  What happened?  THEY SCORED TWICE.  I'm just sayin'.  However I had a pretty good game--I was able to get around several players and even did a pretty cool trick.  Someone passed me the ball, kind of a bouncy pass, and I chipped it up and over the defender who was coming up behind me and then I picked it up behind her back.   Basically I passed it to myself.  Very pleased!

We all went to the bar afterwards--this is the same field where we played in the spring, so it's the same bar as then, and the barback recognized me and even remembered my name!  I had a really, really good time with the team last night.  Hard to say why--maybe we've just been together long enough.  Also the other teams who were there seemed really cool.  That's one of the better things about this league, that most of the the people involved (players and staff) are very friendly.  The captain of the team we defeated was telling me how the previous week they'd had to forfeit--not enough team members showed up.  I said if I paid $125 to be in a league and had to forfeit one game out of a 7-game season, I would be PISSED.  I told him if he ever needed subs and it didn't conflict with my game, I'd be happy to.

One the way home a couple sat next to me on the A, speaking French.  I was dying to say something but I am often paralyzed in these situations--I can be extremely shy around strangers plus I didn't want to bother them, plus the French have a rep for being very judgmental about their language.  In my head I was going back and forth over whether or not to say anything--finally I decided it's always nice to hear your language when you're in a foreign country.  I turned to them and said "Pardonnez-moi, est-ce que vous êtes français?"  Their faces lit up!  The man said "Oui, oui!"  I said "Parisien?"  "Oui, nous sommes parisiens."  "Je parle en peu--je suis conversationelle mais je dois parler avec facilité pour mes études à l'université." "Que-est ce que vous étudiez?"  "L'histoire médiéval." They nodded.  "Et je dois parler une langue médiévale--pas anglais, bien sûr!"  They laughed.  I was able to keep it up for awhile but I had to switch to English once or twice.  It absolutely made my night.  I have to get out of my head sometimes and not worry so much about striking up a conversation with perfectly decent strangers!

Very strange

WTF?  How sad.