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Saturday at the Cemetery
Oct. 18th, 2012 07:35 pmSo we had two performances--our first two in front of any kind of an audience--on Saturday at the cemetery and they went VERY very well. I got there bright and early, ready to help set stuff up and dressed for the chilly October day in loose jeans and a sweatshirt. I took the cast through a very rough "this is where this entrance will take place and we're not using these props" kind of thing about two hours before we went up. The idea was full costumes and makeup but few props or set pieces.
The first performance was cold--I had to wear gloves a few times. Bob had provided most of us with these Michael-Jackson-looking jackets that helped a bit. We had an honored guest--the sister of a guy named Sal Piro, who was a big participant in the early shadow casts of Rocky, back in the '70s, and who is the current president of the RHPS fan club. His sister was there at the show because their parents were actually buried at the cemetery, very coincidentally. Eileen, the woman who is in charge of the cemetery and its restoration, was kind of slopping all over us ("you guise are SO GREAT, thank you SO MUCH, you're all so talented..."--she interrupted me in the middle of an Address to the Troops to say this and I think my expression must have been forbidding because she quickly backed off). Before the show she introduced the sister to the audience only it was more of an homily--she talked for something like 5 minutes as we shivered backstage, waiting to START THE SHOW. Like, wrap it up already. But the show went fine--I was very proud of my ducklings because cold can be incredibly debilitating and after the first show my feet were like blocks of ice. But they all dealt with it like troupers, no complaining at all. Right after we went down I grabbed my clothes and ran to the house on the grounds where we all huddled and chattered and warmed up. Eileen had ordered pizza for us--it was kind of gross (why are so many local pizzerias in the northeast so terrible? It's not that hard to make a good pizza! If I can do it, you can, just use good cheese and add some olive oil (and don't cut the tomato sauce with sugar)) so I only had half of one piece. But it was fun hanging out with the cast--Stephen wanted to know how to analyze poetry so I talked with him at length about various poetic techniques. Then later Christine and I talked about my favorite old school romance novelists--she's read a lot of Jude Deveraux (we both agree--not bad but her writing is so embarrassingly childish and simplistic) but NO Rosemary Rogers! I was shocked--gurrl, Rogers invented the industry! I told her she HAD to read Sweet Savage Love. I also recommended Jennifer Blake, perhaps my favorite.
The second show went even better--even though the sun had gone down, we had lights and they actually warmed us up quite well. For both shows, of course, I had to "air" tap since we were performing on top of turf, on top of concrete. Both audiences loved us and were quite enthusiastic although very quiet (i.e., not that many shoutouts). Still, lots of fun and both shows were clean and high-energy. Can't ask for more than that! We dragged ourself off and I went home and crashed. And slept until 2:00 the next day! Sunday was very relaxing--I had a Dolphman soccer game at 6:15 and then the game after us needed female players so I played two games! At the bar afterward my team was talking about how they're coming to see Rocky next week--yay!
Eileen friended me on Facebook and I kid you not, she has been posting CONSTANTLY about the show, sending direct messages to all the cast members, everyone involved, posting every day about how "compliments are STILL coming in..." She seems a little...off, somehow, like she might be bipolar or something, she just seems a little manic with her constant expressions of gratitude. Frankly I would've just preferred some decent pizza!
The first performance was cold--I had to wear gloves a few times. Bob had provided most of us with these Michael-Jackson-looking jackets that helped a bit. We had an honored guest--the sister of a guy named Sal Piro, who was a big participant in the early shadow casts of Rocky, back in the '70s, and who is the current president of the RHPS fan club. His sister was there at the show because their parents were actually buried at the cemetery, very coincidentally. Eileen, the woman who is in charge of the cemetery and its restoration, was kind of slopping all over us ("you guise are SO GREAT, thank you SO MUCH, you're all so talented..."--she interrupted me in the middle of an Address to the Troops to say this and I think my expression must have been forbidding because she quickly backed off). Before the show she introduced the sister to the audience only it was more of an homily--she talked for something like 5 minutes as we shivered backstage, waiting to START THE SHOW. Like, wrap it up already. But the show went fine--I was very proud of my ducklings because cold can be incredibly debilitating and after the first show my feet were like blocks of ice. But they all dealt with it like troupers, no complaining at all. Right after we went down I grabbed my clothes and ran to the house on the grounds where we all huddled and chattered and warmed up. Eileen had ordered pizza for us--it was kind of gross (why are so many local pizzerias in the northeast so terrible? It's not that hard to make a good pizza! If I can do it, you can, just use good cheese and add some olive oil (and don't cut the tomato sauce with sugar)) so I only had half of one piece. But it was fun hanging out with the cast--Stephen wanted to know how to analyze poetry so I talked with him at length about various poetic techniques. Then later Christine and I talked about my favorite old school romance novelists--she's read a lot of Jude Deveraux (we both agree--not bad but her writing is so embarrassingly childish and simplistic) but NO Rosemary Rogers! I was shocked--gurrl, Rogers invented the industry! I told her she HAD to read Sweet Savage Love. I also recommended Jennifer Blake, perhaps my favorite.
The second show went even better--even though the sun had gone down, we had lights and they actually warmed us up quite well. For both shows, of course, I had to "air" tap since we were performing on top of turf, on top of concrete. Both audiences loved us and were quite enthusiastic although very quiet (i.e., not that many shoutouts). Still, lots of fun and both shows were clean and high-energy. Can't ask for more than that! We dragged ourself off and I went home and crashed. And slept until 2:00 the next day! Sunday was very relaxing--I had a Dolphman soccer game at 6:15 and then the game after us needed female players so I played two games! At the bar afterward my team was talking about how they're coming to see Rocky next week--yay!
Eileen friended me on Facebook and I kid you not, she has been posting CONSTANTLY about the show, sending direct messages to all the cast members, everyone involved, posting every day about how "compliments are STILL coming in..." She seems a little...off, somehow, like she might be bipolar or something, she just seems a little manic with her constant expressions of gratitude. Frankly I would've just preferred some decent pizza!
