Do I wake or sleep?

So, yeah. Game of Thrones. WOW. Still processing that episode. I just HATE violence on screen, I cannot bear seeing people just get slaughtered, not to mention cruelty to animals. But it WAS great storytelling, and the acting and directing was also terrific. I'm not saying HBO or GRRM should have done anything differently, I'm just not sure if I'm the audience for it. I was talking about it with Tesse who was BURSTING with spoilers but was able to contain herself. I have to say, I'm very impressed that so many readers were able to sit on this and not spoil it for the rest of us. I was STUNNED, I had no idea that was going to happen. I have to be careful when I find articles about G of T online, because so many commenters include spoilers. I love Hitfix's reviews, but man, the commentariat--even though the reviewer explicitly forbids spoilers, people just do it anyway. So any article, any YouTube video, I watch or I read then but I do not scroll down. (Mad Men content online is much easier on the nerves, because Weiner NEVER allows a hint of what's going to happen to escape.)

I have to admit, this made me laugh:



Poor Arya. Poor Sansa. Bran at least is becoming a boss.

I did think of Glencoe, which is probably the most notorious breach of hospitality in history. I believe the Glen is referred to as the Valley of Weeping. Sadly, Scottish history is chockful of horrible incidents like that--read about what they did to David Rizzio, the private secretary of Mary Queen of Scots when she was pregnant (this parallel also occurred to me as I watched the Red Wedding). Shameful, the Scots didn't even need the English to wipe them out--we were doing just fine killing each other.

I can't imagine anyone will have anything to do with Walder Frey now--not only did he commit the worst kind of treachery, but it's obvious he doesn't give a crap about his wives. Who would willingly marry their daughter to that? The only thing that will redeem G of T for me is seeing either Joffrey or Walder Frey (IDEALLY BOTH) suffer painful, humiliating demises.

Going to Belmont Stakes this Saturday with Tim. I directed a reading of a new play, written by his friend, a writer for the NY Times. John has ambitions--he wants to take the play to Off-Broadway or even further (as I told the cast "it means--we may be goin' to Broad. Way"). We had some possible investors there. We'll see. The cast killed it--I had 3 actors with Broadway credits, and the other 2 were terrific as well. I was a little nervous about the whole thing because John had to be pushed to do ANYTHING--I was constantly having to explain to him yes, you need to pay for this, no, we can't do that. And frankly if an actual producer with $$ does take over and decides they should get a director with more of a name, I would understand that--that's a business decision. (Although I would push for being dramaturg!) That said, in my head I've already made some aesthetic decisions about what I'd like to do if the play goes further.

It was a lot of fun working with an all-guy cast--of course I adore Ryan (and oddly, this is the first time we've worked together since Virginia!) and it was great to work with Tony again. And Carlos just makes me laugh--he has such a genuine good nature, kind of a reformed rascal, and rascals always make me laugh. Matt knocked Stearns OUT OF THE PARK, did a fantastic job with some tricky dialogue, and Eric was terrific as well.

So, for the second Friday show, we had some unusual audience members--KIDS.  As in 12, 11, 10 years older and possibly even younger (one of them was genuinely tiny--she looked about 8, for realz).  They were in two groups in different sections of the house--during pre-show I approached one of the groups, consisting of girls about 12 years old, and tactfully asked them "have you ever seen the show before?"  (I certainly wasn't going to ask them if they were virgins!).  None of them had, so I briefed them on the basic shoutouts--Asshole/Slut, etc.  I said you can use these words ONLY during the show, they're not appropriate outside the show (don't want to give girls the message it's okay to call each other names like that).  I can't imagine taking such young kids to see a show like that (especialy the LATE show!), but whatever, I'm not their parents!  At places, Tactless Emailer asked me in front of the cast "there are kids out there, do we change anything?"  I said "Hell, no!  We will not pull our punches for anyone--this is not a kid-friendly show and the and the adults in charge of them must know that.  Nope, doing the show as directed."  During the silhouette scene, the kids were DYING, simultaneously horrified and screaming with laughter.  I doubt their parents heard any complaints :)

After the second show Paul and I, and some other cast members, went over to the apartment of Dylan (he was in Pirates and teched for Christmas Carol), who lives in Hoboken.  Dylan saw the show that night and was raving about it, saying he didn't think it was his kind of show but he loved it and now wanted to audition next year.  Then he was going on about how much fun he'd had during Pirates and how much he loved working with me.  He was a little tipsy but hey, I certainly wasn't complaining!  Then he started on Christmas Carol (which he worked on twice--once as a techie in 2008, and then as a performer in the staged reading version in '09)--and I am not exaggerating when I say he went on for about 45 minutes raving about my version of Christmas Carol, how much fun he'd had, how much he loved the language, the music, the feeling of the whole experience, thanking me for all of it.  I mean, he really went off about it!  I said well I can't take much credit for the language since my whole thing was to restore the original Dickens--I just shaped the structure a little bit, elaborated on some paraphrased scenes, dramatized it with the Readers, and then got out of the way.  But I *can* take credit for the music, which I chose very carefully.  He LOVED the music, most of which he'd never heard before.  He was going on about how haunting and mysterious it sounded--I started singing The Angel Gabriel and he was all "yeah!  What a great piece that was, I loved it!"  I said I chose it because 1) Angels are messengers and Gabriel visits Mary to tell her about her destiny, much as Jacob is about to visit Scrooge to tell HIM what's up, 2) it's a beautiful, haunting piece that sets the mood for Marley's visit, and 3) it's not as well-known and therefore not played out.  I told Dylan that I grew up hearing and singing all those pieces, that it's all English music and thus part of the Anglican tradition.  I also told him that Sting had actually covered The Angel Gabriel--he was astonished and I said well, he is English, after all!

Paul also made me very happy--he told me that both he and Jen weren't sure if they wanted to do Rocky again...until they found out I was directing.  Steven said the same thing--"if Clara's directing, I'm in."  This is especially touching because I didn't cast him as the Narrator--but he didn't care.  He said he knew it would be a great show if I'm directing.  Wow.  Honestly, that makes me feel incredible.  This was a great cast, altogether--so much love, so much fun, inventiveness.  Even Tactless Emailer wasn't bad at all--she just loves Rocky and wants the best show possible.

For our final two performances Saturday night, we had great crowds--and a standing ovation!!!!  Very, very proud of that--those are *rare* with TTC audiences.  I think the only other one I've gotten was for The Vagina Monologues.  And in one of the show I heard an audience member gasp when Janet walked away at the end.  LOVE IT.

After the last show the cast had put together care packages for me and some of the staff members--bottles of champagne and goody bags.  I got some very nice cards--one signed by everyone and a couple of individual cards.  We had a pajama party at Julia's (cast member) apartment in Jersey City--tons of food and drink and a huge living room.  At one point we were all gathered around the kitchen table and they wanted me to make a speech, and then Susan and Charlotte both made speeches about the show and working with me.  Susan got very verklempt :)  At one point Steven pulled me into the bathroom and we had a good ol' fashioned bitch session :)  And then at another point we were all rocking out in the living room to "Call Me Maybe."  Also Charlotte got VERY drunk and started making the moves on a cast member, in front of her BF who was there!  Then a few minutes later she ran into the bathroom and was sick for 20 minutes.  Good times :)  She is a bit of a mess but adorably so (in other words, she's not drama-queeny or annoying, she's just super-talented and makes age-appropriately bad choices.  We all love her and I would cast her again in a heartbeat).

The next day we all gathered in the East Village for a final gettogether--brunch at the Sunburned Cow.  My parents were calling me about Sandy which honestly had not registered much on my radar at that point.  Paul drove a bunch of us (crammed into the back) into the City from JC and we waited endlessly as the other cast members straggled up.  Had a great time of course and I ended up getting home around 4, well ahead of the subway shutting down.

Man.  WHAT fun.  I won't deny I am VERY very glad I have some free time now--after directing two straight shows in Hoboken, I'm exhausted--but this was a really special show.  The cast was great and I got to DO something with Rocky, I got to make it a little bit more than your typical replica-of-the-movie.  And the cast was behind me every step of the way.  I will admit, I was a little nervous about this show at first, wasn't sure how I was going to make it my own, especially since I'd been in it, in the same space, last year.  I feel great about it.

OMG.  The.  Show.  Is.  Going.  So.  Well.

We finished blocking it last night--when the cast saw some of the choices I made toward the end, a couple of people actually gasped.  LOVE IT.  When you can surprise even your own jaded cast, that is very gratifying!  And aside from that, it just looks so clean and pretty.  Nice framed actions, the important stuff is highlighted properly, no messy groups or straight lines.  (Sean quoted me in his rehearsal report last night (he has a Line of The Night) when I told Frank N. Furter "straight lines make the baby Jesus cry."  At the end of the night the cast cheered when I said, after praising them for their work, "and the baby Jesus has stopped crying.")

This is all especially great because we had drammer this week!  Sunday night, as I told, our Brad left the show and Dave sent out an emergency email Monday asking for suggestions of people who might be able to audition.  One of our actors, a talented singer but who is driving me a little crazy for reasons I'll explain, sent us a reply saying "I'll be the first and hopefully not the last to say this but why not Steven?  He knows the role, he's funny..." etc.  Okay, this would've been bad enough--I do NOT want to discuss casting with you, we just need names of OUTSIDE people, kthxby--but she hit reply all.  So the entire cast and crew, including Steven, read this fucking email.  I emailed Dave "OMG.  I'm going to kill her"--I was so angry on the way to rehearsal, I was shaking.  Luckily for her, halfway through rehearsal the door opened and a handsome man with a sweet smile said "uh, Dave sent me here to audition?"  The grin on my face could've lit up Moscow!  So that is our new Brad, and as I told Sean, "we've upgraded!"  After rehearsal I pulled Tactless Emailer aside and had a stern word with her.  I said I don't care what you say in private--I realize that casts talk about this stuff all the time--but it's not appropriate for a public discussion.  She was horrified--she didn't realize she'd hit reply all--but kept blaming it on her phone.  Then learn how your goddamn phone works!  When I got home that night I saw that another cast member had replied before rehearsal, saying "I agree, Steven would be great..."  *HEADDESK*  So Tuesday I sent out an exquisitely tactful response along the lines of "Guys?  Not appropriate" and got a few responses saying THANKS.  Carl emailed me "It's not a democracy!" and I replied "Indeed not--It's a Clar-ocracy (aka a benevolent dictatorship)."  He replied "Right on.  It's the only reasonable form of governance" which made me giggle.  Seriously people, do you really want to open up that discussion?  Let's start with why YOU didn't get Magenta before you want me to talk about why we're not using Steven as Brad.

Anyway Tactless Emailer has been driving me up the wall with constant suggestions, comments, etc. because she knows the movie so well.  I caught her writing down callbacks on another cast member's script after I'd specifically said the Voyeur Phantoms can ONLY say what I want them to say.  Because if the Voyeur Phantoms keep up an endless stream of comments, 1) it'll seem as though they're competing with the audience, and 2) it'll sound sloppy.  So after this, she's still writing down stuff in someone else's script--I caught her hand and said "No.  I said only the callbacks I've approved."  I also made an announcement (because of her) that we are NOT doing the movie, we are not recreating the movie bit for bit and no one is to say anything to anyone else like "that's not how they do it in the movie."  I said we are aligning ourselves with the movie at certain key points but we are doing our own thing.   And when I was blocking Charles Atlas (I have the Phantoms touching Rocky) she said "doesn't that make Frank jealous?"  WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN GODDAMN CHARACTER.  Stop thinking about the show as a whole and trying to compete--take care of your own shit (like the dance--she's not a great dancer).  She literally exhausts me in rehearsal because I constantly have to bat off her suggestions and comments, although I will say I think she's getting better.  She is a sweet girl when she's not annoying me.

On a better note, one of our cast members is the daughter of a Tony nominee!  Our Magenta, the lovely Charlotte, is the daughter of this guy.

Oh sweet Jesus, Pirates is over HALLELUJAH.

Not that I didn't love the experience but it took up an enormous amount of time, even after it opened.  I can play softball and soccer on the weekends again!  I have free time!  YAAAAAAYYY!  This weekend was especially time-suckalicious--we moved the show to the cemetery.  (The first two weekends were at the amphitheater in Frank Sinatra Park, the last was at Hartsimus Cemetery in Jersey City.  They do shows and events like this as a fundraiser for their cemetery--we're doing a couple of performances of Rocky Horror there as well, in October.)  The move sucked up time because I had to have a rehearsal on Wednesday adapting the blocking to the new space, which only about half the cast could attend.  Which meant that I had to get there very early on Saturday, to show the remaining cast members the space.  Then it rained--we held, then started again.  It immediately started raining again, so we held again.  Poor Taylor had to sing "O Is There Not One Maiden Breast" THREE TIMES (we had a hard time finding the place where he'd stopped on the track).  We finally finished the show and the audience loved it--they were really rooting for us by the end!

Sunday I played in my organized soccer league--we had been undefeated but we played one of the best teams in the league and lost.  Not by much (2-0) but still.  Kind of frustrating because we played pretty well, we just didn't convert our chances.  HOWEVER I played probably my best game so far--I was trapping very well, handling the ball, getting around defenders and wow!  I was thrilled, especially when not just once but several times the goalie warned the defenders about me.  Ooooh, I'm dangerous!  Very flattering.

After the game I went into Jersey City to the cemetery for our closing performance.  The show started off very hot and sunny (my hair is crazy-blonde today from all the sun) and then AGAIN during "Oh Is There Not One Maiden Breast" it started pouring.  We huddled under the tents for quite awhile--at least a half-hour, possibly closer to 45 minutes.  Finally it started to clear up and Paul (one of the ensemble pirates) and I were sweeping the bigger puddles off the "stage" and laying down carpet.  But now we had a new problem--Duncan and Michael (our Pirate King) both had to be gone by around 6, and we were well past 5:00 already.  I ended up having to cut two songs from the second act on the fly--thankfully the actors were all good sports about it, and Lauren (our sound designer) could figure out where to pick up.  We still went past 6:00 but Duncan had a ride to the PATH station and I told him to take a cab once he got into the city. It really was a perfect storm of inconvenience--when we started again it was still raining just a bit and Dave told me if it rains any harder than this, I should call the show (he had to leave so I was the House Manager).  But no, it stopped raining completely--which is a good thing, but I was also super-stressed about getting Michael and Duncan out of there in time.  Anyway it all worked out.

After we packed up everything, we all walked over to Dave's apartment for a cast party and I screened The Pirate Movie for the cast.  Melissa and Kristy LOVED it--they were glued to the screen the whole way through.  Dave's friend Christian loves the movie as well and he and I were singing the blow job song ("Pumping and Blowing").  If you're treadin' water and romance is on the slide/Don'tcha ya know you have to swallow/Something more than water/....It's your pride...  Ah, good times.  Such a guilty pleasure that movie is.  Afterward Dave and I were talking about Rocky Horror--we need to set the dates for auditions, they will probably be sometime in late August.  And I ended up being schmoozed by Tawni (who played one of the daughters in Pirates)--she REALLY wants to audition for Magenta.  Um--I'm actually not that crazy about Tawni.  She gave off major attitude during the Pirates rehearsal process (at one point she tried to correct me on my own choreography)--lots of attitude with nothing really to back it up.  (She's going for her MM, really?  From which school?  Because she really does not sound well-trained.)  She has her moments onstage but she's a very sloppy, fidget-y performer and DOES NOT take notes.  And frankly she's kind of lazy onstage--she's more interested in having fun than actually playing a character and being invested in what's going on.  She's complacent, which I detest in performers.  Several weeks ago I put her on my mental "will not cast again" list.  But she was all sweetness and light last night and we actually had a fun conversation about 19th century art music, specifically lieder.  She would be a good fit for Magenta, but I'd have to talk with her first and say "dude.  You'd better clean up your performances and DON'T cop an attitude.  Do not ever try to school me on my own staging."  Also if Kelly Anne comes back (last year's Magenta), she will have the first shot.  Dave and I are going back and forth about whether or not to flat-out offer everyone in the last cast their roles again.  I would be fine with doing so, but for one exception--Stephen who played the Criminologist.  He really misfired, IMO--I love Stephen but did NOT like what he did with that role.  Susan wants to audition and I can't come right out and say "you're in" but of course I'm probably going to cast her.  She's a fierce dancer and looks great in skimpy clothes, and I love working with her, it's a no brainer.  She was interested in choreographing but I really want Robert to do it again, I loved those dances!  So much fun.

I have to say, as much as I loved working with Susan this time, I wish she had been a little bit more on the ball.  I told her "I need you to choreograph this and this and this"--about 4-5 things (not even full numbers) all in all.  And we would get to rehearsal and she would sort of figure it out during rehearsal--girl, I need it AHEAD of time, you need to come with it already blocked for the most part.  In fact you need to show it to me beforehand so I can decide if it'll work.  And she kept saying "my" choreography--uh, no, *I* choreographed nearly all of the show!  This is why I added "musical staging by Clara Barton Green" to the program.  I'm very proud of my dances, I worked my ass off on them!

Anyway it was fun to look forward to Rocky--I NEED some time off (I am exhausted today) but am definitely antici....pating the fall!  And I must say, the extremely positive response we have gotten for Pirates makes me very happy.  It wasn't an ideal show (Michael never really worked as the PK--not sure what his deal is but he was a sinkhole of charisma, really bland.  I tried so hard but he flickered to life only a few times.  Also, Mara is a sweetie but has some major liabilities as a performer--for one thing she needs to look people in the eye!)  but it was a pretty good one, a very light, sweet, delightful show, if I may say so myself.  The cast did a great job and I loved the costumes (Roe did exactly what I wanted with the daughters) and the laughter from the audience was extremely gratifying.  And I know Dave was thrilled.

So I've been taking these adult soccer clinics on Saturday mornings, to help improve my ball skills--and it is working out very well, I am thrilled. My game has gotten better slowly but surely--I can really feel it during the pickup games. In addition to the clinic, I also played two hours of soccer Saturday evening with the full-field guys, and another hour Sunday morning. You definitely feel the heat but as I've been telling my fellow players, I grew up in Virginia. We had practice in heat and humidity worse than this every day in August. And what you always did was you froze a quart or so of water, brought it to practice and left it in your car, and when you had a water break you pulled it out. Voila! Lovely cool just-melted water. Anyway so although I'm sweating quite a bit, I am perfectly able to continue playing throughout the entire two hours or whatever.

Which is great because now that Pirates is winding down, I WILL HAVE FREE TIME IN MY LIFE AGAIN O YEA. Very, very happy about that, July 4 was the one day off I've had in weeks. And the show! Oh, the show is going so well--we had a runthrough yesterday, our first runthrough, and not just once but *several* times I was literally laughing so hard I was crying. They are AWESOME! There's still a ton of cleaning up to do but they're all so funny and they've worked so hard. The dances look great--my favorite is "When the Foeman Bares His Steel" which is SO MUCH FUN. But my new favorite is "Stay Frederic Stay" which Jen and Taylor are KILLING. We've restored the middle section and Mabel's disingenuous attempted seduction of Frederic is effing hilarious. And it's not just me laughing--the cast was in the wings dying as well, and several cast members were cracking up ON stage. Taylor is our Frederic--what a find! He has a gorgeous voice and takes direction so well--and he comes up with funny stuff as well! We all just love him. And I love his silly run offstage when he exits after "Stay Frederic Stay"--I have a couple of Silly Walks in the blocking and he came up with that one. He just looks so goofy.

I have several actors from The Vagina Monologues and they're all 3 killing it as well. Jessica is The Bookworm/Ethel (I gave all the daughters personalities)--the climax of "Climbing Over Rocky Mountain" is just such glorious, exuberant music (the run on the piano right after the Edith & Kate soli and before the final "Let us gaily tread the measure...") that I wanted them all to dance around in different joyous dances. So Kate is doing ballet, Edith and the Baby/Molly are dancing in a ring, etc. I decided The Bookworm would be dancing dorkily--so Jessica is just out there dancing dorkily full-out and selling it for all she's worth. So, so funny! She is just hilarious--so committed, so focused. I keep telling the cast--you MUST commit in comedy. If you pull your punches or if it's too naturalistic, it's not funny. I sometimes feel with the less experienced cast members, I'm serving as much of a coach and teacher as a director, but so many people don't understand how to do comedy. It IS hard; it DOES require certain elements for the alchemy, and discipline and timing. And different kinds of comedy are handled differently--slapstick vs. character-based comedy vs. conceptual comedy. So I will set up a bit or gag, and then when I'm giving them notes I'll say things like "you have to commit--that's what makes it funny." Or "you can't run it all together here, have to break it down a little more here--that's what makes it funny." Some people think you're either funny or you're not--mmm, I disagree, but maybe that's just my work ethic kicking in there (i.e., I want to believe that anyone, if they work hard enough, can be funny). But upbringing and culture have something to do with it. I was lucky enough to be born into a family that LOVES humor, and then I've worked with some really talented actors.

Another thing I love about comedy is how contextual it is in every way. It is structurally--on a single joke basis, you establish and expectation and then violate it. But then within the show itself, it's contextual---once you get the audience on your side, they'll start laughing more quickly as the show goes on. And then finally it's culturally contextual, in a couple of different ways. First, because tastes in comedy can change--this is why we find Jerry Lewis painfully unfunny now, but back in the '50s he really was a genius. But in another way, I LOVE that comedy is all about stealing gags--in Pirates I have cheerfully lifted from Monty Python, Star Trek, The Princess Bride, Airplane! and yes, I had an idea yesterday for a gag I'm stealing from The Empress of Sex! (Hope you don't mind, Duncan! :) I love the idea that I'm connecting with all of those clowns from generations past by recycling their bits, and if I'm lucky someone will use ME as an inspiration!

As I mentioned last month, TTC is remounting The Pirates of Penzance--we're doing it waterside at Frank Sinatra Park. We had auditions right after Memorial Day and are now in the full swing of rehearsals. Interestingly, even though we had fewer people come out this time, the cast is stronger. Our Frederic is TERRIFIC--although not *quite* as strong an actor as Marvin (though still great), he has an amazing voice, absolutely lovely. I cast the same Mabel as before, Jen Connor, who is terrific as always--gorgeous voice and marvelous comic instincts. Dave and I had decided we would open up all the roles (i.e., not automatically offer people their old role)--there were a couple of reasons for this. Mainly because when Dave first wanted to remount it last summer, he got a brushoff vibe--and then when he did a little research, apparently there was annoying backstage drama with some cast members. So whatever, we had open auditions and Jen was 1 of 4 potential Mabels--we had a lot of strong Mabels come out, more than last time. Jen probably had a slight edge since she knew what kind of Mabel I wanted, but still I gave a detailed breakdown of the kind of comedy I was doing, and what I was looking for, and she was definitely the strongest actress. So good for her, she rewon her role! But even better, we have FIVE, count 'em, FIVE pirates, including Paul (who was Rocky in The Rocky Horror Show last fall, total sweetie) and Dylan, (who did tech in Christmas Carol).

Dave is the music director and he ran the early rehearsals; the cast sounds pretty good so far, and of course Dave is so much better than that terrible MD we had last time (he taught them almost nothing--half the cast hardly knew the score after a week). Now we are blocking and teaching dance. Rehearsals are going VERY WELL--we staged "Pour O Pour" and "O Better Far" and they are going to look GREAT. I'm using a lot of the same staging as last time but improving it since I now have much more space and more performers. It is a lot of fun "building" a show with actors--you pre-stage as much of it as you can, but then you have to be open to new possibilites and suggestions. One of our pirates, a guy named Mike Wolff, wants to do a random Russian accent--I immediately said YES and you must also sing in the accent. I said the one person in the audience who will be close enough to pick you out will find that hilarious.

I've been leading the cast in the Pirates mantra--We are not proud. We will throw anything against the wall to see what sticks. As before, I talked to the cast about the two tone-inspirations for my version--Airplane! and The Pirate Movie. About the latter, I said yeah, it's definitely a guilty pleasures--I mean come on, the movie has a song about BLOW JOBS. But still, they will throw anything out there to make you laugh. Crotch jokes? Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark references? A food fight? Whatever works, man. I have to admire that kind of sunny willingness to debase oneself in the service of comedy!

Working with the daughters tonight--they're learning "Climbing Over Rocky Mountain" and "O Is There Not One Maiden Breast?" I just love this score so much. I really have to do my all-female version so I can sing the Pirate King!

I logged quite a bit of rehearsal time for Vagina Monologues this weekend and we're almost caught up.  I've worked with nearly everyone except for two whom I'll see tomorrow, and I think it's going really well.  We had an AMAZING rehearsal yesterday for the two-actor piece "My Vagina Was My Village" (about what Bosnian women experienced during the Yugoslav conflict).  This was the second time I'd worked with these two women--the first time, last weekend, we talked about the language (there's a lot of poetry in this piece), the structure, the sensuality.  All technical stuff.  Yesterday we revisited it.  The piece has two "sides," two voices--the first is a woman remembering all these beautiful good memories, "green forest," her boyfriend lying next to her in a meadow, that sort of thing.  I worked with her on loosening up her body--I said this stuff is so sensual, you can express that physically, you don't have to just stand there.  If you want to reach out or run your fingers up your arm, something like that, you can and should.  And at one point she talks about singing and songs--the previous week I'd said you can sing this, if you like.  So when she came back she sang through that stanza and then we decided to have her sing parts of it, rather than throughout the stanza.  It sounded really, really cool, very organic.

The other piece is MUCH darker--very strong, difficult language about the terrible things she experienced.  I had a hard time getting this actor to connect with what she was saying--she had a kind of monotonous reading (a lot of American actors sound like this, because our way of speaking is much less modulated than the Brits) and it was a little too "this bad thing happened and then THAT bad thing happened."  Too pat.  So I said I'm going to try an exercise with you--if you find it too cheesy, we'll do something else.  She started again and I jumped very close to her and bellowed. I kept dancing around and yelling at her, random phrases and gestures that she wouldn't be expecting.  And it WORKED--she was startled into actually connecting with the language and what she was saying.  She was actually trembling afterwards but she loved it and wanted me to do it again.  She also was connecting to what the other actress was saying when she did the singing bit--she found herself getting angry that this lovely innocence had been destroyed.  So we did it again and about halfway through I stopped jumping at her because I was riveted to the floor.  FANTASTIC reading.  Just terrific.

I also had a soccer game and was injured AGAIN.  I'm getting very tired of this.  Maybe it's a winter thing?  It is hard for me to warm up.   Anyway I turned on my knee and hyperextended it and now it feels like it'll buckle at any time.  Grrr!  Not like!  I honestly don't know if I'll be able to play this weekend--if I can't, I will make pan cookies or something like that.  I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be the mother of most of the rest of my team--I might as well act like a team mother!  But we spanked the other team, 4-1--and their one goal was scored by US!  (One of our defenders accidentally kicked it in.)  BUT they were still a pretty good team--I think they were outshooting us.  And one of our goals was a complete fluke--our goalie had the ball and kicked a big, long pass down the field.  It bounced once in the end zone of the other team and the goalie misjudged it and it went over her head.  I felt bad for her, that certainly sucks.  Still, I'll take the goal ;)

Saturday night I went to the TTC Season Announcement Cabaret. Dave had spoken to me earlier about directing The Vagina Monologues and remounting Pirates again next summer in Frank Sinatra Park. At the cabaret I found out that they were also bringing back Rocky Horror, which they'd done last winter and which was awesome and hilariously fun. And I found out that the actress who played Columbia isn't coming back (I guess she's on tour)--I would loooove to audition. I talked to Dave about it who seemed interested--I will pull my tap shoes out tonight and see about picking up a class at BDC (and of course rent the movie). I can tap a little, though I need time to get the choreography down. No wings though! Rocky Horror is such a damn fun show, I hope I give a decent audition.

Earlier on Saturday we had a rehearsal for Patrick and Lisa's Wedding, which I am remounting for Duncan (we did it first back in '08, for TTC when it was still DeBaun). At this point we are MORE than ready to go up, it's just tweaking and finetuning and shirring the edges to make it more real, less stage-y. All three of my actresses are great. Ashley is reprising her role as Heidi, but I recast the other two roles. Originally I'd asked back Courtney as the flakey bride Lisa but she bailed at the last minute for no really good reason which, frankly, really pissed me off and I will probably not use her again. But her replacement is actually better--Danielle is a naturally comic actor whereas Courtney, while talented, is more likeable on stage than actually funny. As for the third actor, I'd always intended to replace Francesca who has a certain amount of raw talent but whom I just could not get much out of. She never grew in the role, and really lacked energy. So I asked Anya to play Maggie, and she's doing a pretty good job so far, I'm very pleased. She has a harder time with the whininess at the top of the play (but who wouldn't, whininess is difficult to pull off) but does great with the interactions with Heidi and at the end. So, very proud of all my actors.

We have tech tonight (no actors called) and then rehearsal from 1-6 tomorrow. And then rehearsal for Michael's reading. It will be my eighth day in a row of Pirates rehearsing. AM EXHAUSTED. All this week I've been getting home and just collapsing. The runthroughs are going very well but I really have very little extra to give, and all I can say is everybody had better be on their game. I'm getting a little annoyed at actors who miss rehearsal, get the blocking and then stop dead in the middle of the scene "I haven't run this yet." Yes, well, you have the blocking, now go and execute it. If you have a question, you need to bring it up beforehand. Don't stop the runthrough for me to explain it to you.

And there is one person to whom I explained the extremely simple choreography for a scene...and then during the runthrough, it all went out the window. SIGH. This choreography is not difficult at ALL, guys, but if you have difficulty with it, PRACTICE IT AT HOME. Over and over, if necessary. Between people being out and people being lazy about the choreography/blocking I've explained some of these things so many times, it's really starting to stress me out.

I love my cast a lot--they're all great and there's a really good feeling with them. I'm just so tired. I can't wait until Sunday--NO rehearsal. I can just lie in bed and read and play with the cats.

Yesterday Anya and I made pumpkin pie ice cream--we have TONS left over, if anyone wants some please feel free to stop by and take some home. I made it with the old-fashioned recipe which uses eggs so it's really, really rich--we both could barely finish our bowls. As much as I love summer, I love autumn, and after the heat this summer, I am very much looking forward to a productive season. And on that note--

Today I start classes--yay!, can't wait to buckle down and get all academic and immerse myself in times and cultures past. I love school so much. All of you can expect to be treated to breathless updates of Eloise and Abelard's scandalous forbidden romance.

Tonight Dave and I have a meeting about Pirates. And hey! No one commented on that last week, by the way--

Attention! I'm directing The Pirates of Penzance for TTC's inaugural season at Monroe in Hoboken!

Maybe that'll get your attention ;) Anyway, am thrilled and going over the libretto now trying to figure out what I want to do with it. I have some ideas--I'm going to try to give it a slightly more updated, streamlined sensibility without it devolving into the mess that was The Pirate Movie. (I will restrain myself mightily and NOT include "Pumpin' and Blowin'." Although it IS tempting.) Fewer ruffles, more simple hotness, a more knowing quality without its being too campy or winky. More musical theater, less operetta. I just better have some decent actors coming out--you always get amazing vocal talent coming out for Pirates but as someone who's seen and done the show numerous times, I can attest you don't always get decent actors.

I'll post about the US Open later but it was fantastic as always.