A Busy, Sleepless Weekend
Oct. 13th, 2003 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeThursday evening after rehearsal Sue, Jason, Paul and I went to a real divy place on 9th Avenue, between 42nd Street and Port Authority. Jason said the last time he'd gone there, they saw a drunk guy passed out on the floor who was being tossed out. Sounded good to me. The drinks were strong and relatively cheap, but no food so I trekked next door for some chips and Oreos. We chatted for awhile. Interesting--the more I get to know Sue, the more I can see the need in her to be...sort of "the one who knows," if that makes sense. She was name-dropping all over the place.
Friday morning I took the 9:30 shuttle down to DC and immediately had lunch with David Weinraub, of DC area dinner theater. He's gained weight, and his wife, Catherine, is pregnant, due in February. We had a nice chat about people we haven't seen in awhile and various shows. David cracks me up because he always says the right things but in this nasal, flat, unconvincing tone: "It's great to see you...I'm so glad you could do lunch..." You have to imagine this in a monotone. It's truly funny.
After that I napped, and then Mom and I went into Georgetown for dinner at the Old Europe, to celebrate Oktoberfest. The Old Europe is this ancient German restaurant that's been around since Mom was a teenager--all the waitresses dress in dirndls and there are stags' heads and coats of arms for various German principalities and towns all over the walls. Lots of bratwurst and dumplings and beers in steins (shipped especially from Munich every year for Oktoberfest). Mmm...
The next day was the only day I could sleep in, and I slept until 11:00. Eventually we left the house around 1:30 to hit Cox Farms, where I ran around jumping off piles of hay, eating hot, chunky, spicy applesauce, painting my face (with pumpkins, of course), riding on hay rides, sliding down slides, and jumping off the rope swing. I don't ever want to get old. There is nothing as much fun as jumping around on things. Eventually we went to the market, got our pumpkins and some other stuff (I also got a sour cherry crumb pie) and left. I love that about Virginia--the country is so close, it's so easy to drive down a country road and see the leaves and gaze at a newly-mown field.
Saturday evening I hooked up with Cami--we chatted about this and that. Good to see her.
Of course I had to wake up at the crack of ass the next morning, in order to make the 8:30 shuttle. There was no 9:30 shuttle (they often eliminate times on the weekends) and I thought the 10:30 was cutting it a little close in order to be at Ripley-Grier by 1:00 pm. I slept a bit on the plane, and then some more when I got home but I was still pretty wiped out. Rehearsal went--well, I wanted better. I should've had better. They knew they were supposed to be off book by Sunday and a few were not, to the extent that they had to hold their scripts. Huge surprise here...the worst (all factors considered) offender was Ehud *gasp*. He has the fewest lines to learn and made a fetish of appearing off book as soon as possible early in the rehearsal process. But that wasn't most annoying. Throughout rehearsals I've told him, several times (at least 4), to stop moving around in the blocking. Don't stray from the blocking, don't shift from leg to leg (he's pretty tall so it's very distracting)--just hit the mark and stay there. Well, yesterday I think he took some kind of anti-blocking drug, or maybe he has OCD. He was, literally, all over the place. Wandering here, wandering there...if this were January, he could bring a whole new meaning to Schubert's Die Wintereise. I wrote several times in my notes "STOP MOVING," my handwriting getting more and more violent. The best (worst?) was when he literally stepped in front of Elizabeth to greet Paul. Or maybe the worst was when he extended an arm in front of Sami's (?) face to offer the gnocchi. I'm starting to wonder if he made up his resume. I can't believe anyone with so little knowledge of basic stage technique actually made it through Stella Adler.
So after I gave them notes and I came down pretty hard on him. I said something like "I'm going to give this note one last time and I expect you to remember it. Stop moving. Stop wandering all over the place. Stick to the blocking I give you and don't move. You make the scene look like crap when everyone else is in these neat formations and you're all over the place." I hate embarrassing people like that but nothing else has worked. He was pretty taken aback although he still--still--tried to justify himself by saying "You should stop me in rehearsal when I do this." I said "No, I've given you this note several times--I am not going to stop a runthrough to give it to you again. We'd never get through it." After I finished with notes, he came up and again tried to make excuses--"I am sorry but you should give me these notes in rehearsal." I said, "No. Once I've given you the note--several times--it is your job to go home and remember it. [You know--like everyone else does.] I don't have time to go over this again and again." Jesus. What a fucking idiot. Get off my stage.
After that Duncan, Jason and I went back to my place and hung out. Duncan had brought his CD of potential music selections for the play, and I listened and discussed them with him. Tatiana was being her usual flirty self with them. While we were there Elizabeth called--she was supposed to be in the preview bit for the Festival we were doing, and was feeling very sick (which had been established at rehearsal) and could I do the lines? I agreed and then got dressed up for the preview. The three of us went over and hung out for awhile at the theater before we were to go on. It was actually really fun. Sami, Paul, Sue, Duncan and I were in the scene, and Jason was just watching us, and we were drinking wine and snarking on the other acts. There was one women who looked like a man--in fact, I corrected Sami because she called her a woman, and then as soon as she sang (badly) I knew it was a female. The witching hoooooo...ooooour... Duncan ran into Diana from As You Like It outside and dragged her in. We got a great reception from the scene--we had to hold several times for laughs. Always great to hear.
Friday morning I took the 9:30 shuttle down to DC and immediately had lunch with David Weinraub, of DC area dinner theater. He's gained weight, and his wife, Catherine, is pregnant, due in February. We had a nice chat about people we haven't seen in awhile and various shows. David cracks me up because he always says the right things but in this nasal, flat, unconvincing tone: "It's great to see you...I'm so glad you could do lunch..." You have to imagine this in a monotone. It's truly funny.
After that I napped, and then Mom and I went into Georgetown for dinner at the Old Europe, to celebrate Oktoberfest. The Old Europe is this ancient German restaurant that's been around since Mom was a teenager--all the waitresses dress in dirndls and there are stags' heads and coats of arms for various German principalities and towns all over the walls. Lots of bratwurst and dumplings and beers in steins (shipped especially from Munich every year for Oktoberfest). Mmm...
The next day was the only day I could sleep in, and I slept until 11:00. Eventually we left the house around 1:30 to hit Cox Farms, where I ran around jumping off piles of hay, eating hot, chunky, spicy applesauce, painting my face (with pumpkins, of course), riding on hay rides, sliding down slides, and jumping off the rope swing. I don't ever want to get old. There is nothing as much fun as jumping around on things. Eventually we went to the market, got our pumpkins and some other stuff (I also got a sour cherry crumb pie) and left. I love that about Virginia--the country is so close, it's so easy to drive down a country road and see the leaves and gaze at a newly-mown field.
Saturday evening I hooked up with Cami--we chatted about this and that. Good to see her.
Of course I had to wake up at the crack of ass the next morning, in order to make the 8:30 shuttle. There was no 9:30 shuttle (they often eliminate times on the weekends) and I thought the 10:30 was cutting it a little close in order to be at Ripley-Grier by 1:00 pm. I slept a bit on the plane, and then some more when I got home but I was still pretty wiped out. Rehearsal went--well, I wanted better. I should've had better. They knew they were supposed to be off book by Sunday and a few were not, to the extent that they had to hold their scripts. Huge surprise here...the worst (all factors considered) offender was Ehud *gasp*. He has the fewest lines to learn and made a fetish of appearing off book as soon as possible early in the rehearsal process. But that wasn't most annoying. Throughout rehearsals I've told him, several times (at least 4), to stop moving around in the blocking. Don't stray from the blocking, don't shift from leg to leg (he's pretty tall so it's very distracting)--just hit the mark and stay there. Well, yesterday I think he took some kind of anti-blocking drug, or maybe he has OCD. He was, literally, all over the place. Wandering here, wandering there...if this were January, he could bring a whole new meaning to Schubert's Die Wintereise. I wrote several times in my notes "STOP MOVING," my handwriting getting more and more violent. The best (worst?) was when he literally stepped in front of Elizabeth to greet Paul. Or maybe the worst was when he extended an arm in front of Sami's (?) face to offer the gnocchi. I'm starting to wonder if he made up his resume. I can't believe anyone with so little knowledge of basic stage technique actually made it through Stella Adler.
So after I gave them notes and I came down pretty hard on him. I said something like "I'm going to give this note one last time and I expect you to remember it. Stop moving. Stop wandering all over the place. Stick to the blocking I give you and don't move. You make the scene look like crap when everyone else is in these neat formations and you're all over the place." I hate embarrassing people like that but nothing else has worked. He was pretty taken aback although he still--still--tried to justify himself by saying "You should stop me in rehearsal when I do this." I said "No, I've given you this note several times--I am not going to stop a runthrough to give it to you again. We'd never get through it." After I finished with notes, he came up and again tried to make excuses--"I am sorry but you should give me these notes in rehearsal." I said, "No. Once I've given you the note--several times--it is your job to go home and remember it. [You know--like everyone else does.] I don't have time to go over this again and again." Jesus. What a fucking idiot. Get off my stage.
After that Duncan, Jason and I went back to my place and hung out. Duncan had brought his CD of potential music selections for the play, and I listened and discussed them with him. Tatiana was being her usual flirty self with them. While we were there Elizabeth called--she was supposed to be in the preview bit for the Festival we were doing, and was feeling very sick (which had been established at rehearsal) and could I do the lines? I agreed and then got dressed up for the preview. The three of us went over and hung out for awhile at the theater before we were to go on. It was actually really fun. Sami, Paul, Sue, Duncan and I were in the scene, and Jason was just watching us, and we were drinking wine and snarking on the other acts. There was one women who looked like a man--in fact, I corrected Sami because she called her a woman, and then as soon as she sang (badly) I knew it was a female. The witching hoooooo...ooooour... Duncan ran into Diana from As You Like It outside and dragged her in. We got a great reception from the scene--we had to hold several times for laughs. Always great to hear.
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Date: 2003-10-13 04:23 pm (UTC)You didn't really answer my question about Christmas, though :P My favorite holiday, by far. Though Halloween can be fun, too :)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-13 04:34 pm (UTC)