ceebeegee | Entries tagged with rocky horror show

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.

Rocky's second weekend (and third performance) was at the Strand Theater in Lakewood NJ where we performed last year. I had to be there much earlier than the cast so I got a ride with our sound and lighting designers. Smartly I brought along a pillow and just craaaashed in the back seat--slept all the way to Hoboken and woke up marvelously refreshed, especially once Dave brought me a huge thing of coffee! We teched and had our dress rehearsal and then enjoyed dinner (sandwiches and soda). At one point we started talking about sex tips and I ended up reading to my cast from a Jezebel article on terrible sex tips from Cosmo. We were fucking DYING, the whole cast was completely cracking up.

Last year at the Strand was a rather quiet show for several reasons, the main being that it was the day of that freak snowstorm in late October. This depressed turnout and small houses tend to be quieter. NOT THIS TIME. OH MY GOD. They came prepared to PAR-TaY. There was a group, about 2-3 rows, who had pre-gamed, gamed during the show, and continued to game during intermission! And they were LOUD. Mad, mad props to Jen and Tim who suffered constant callouts and managed to stay very focused and in their moment. I'd worked with them, saying you will get tons of shit during those last scenes, don't let it throw you. (And there are some truly hilarious shoutouts during Super Heroes. My favorite one is during Brad's emo verse:

I've done a lot (of anal sex)
God knows I've tried (anal sex)
To tell the truth (about anal sex)
I've even lied (about having anal sex)
But all I know (about anal sex)
Is deep inside I'm blee-ee-ding (.......from anal sex)

But I told them--don't let it throw you. Stay in your moment, stay in your beat--you will have earned it, and there will be those in the audience who appreciate it.

Because I didn't want to do your standard let's-just-throw-this-onto-the-stage Rocky. Super Heroes was always my favorite song--I found it so haunting and melancholy--and I decided between that and the music box quality of the reprise of Science Fiction, Double Feature, that the show underwent a major tonal change in those last two numbers. And I didn't want to waste that, or the other interesting stuff in the text. And this was my "vision," if you will, of Rocky: first, as I discussed before, I noticed a theme of observation and voyeurism. They're always watching each other on monitors, and the Narrator watches them, and the opening number is about watching movies. So I decided to expand this and add what I called Voyeur (or Observer) Phantoms, and assigned them specific shoutouts, and the opening number was staged according to this theme--binoculars, 3-D glasses, remotes, etc. and I had various slides on the slide screen of eyes watching at various times. Now what is the flip side of voyeurism? Exhibitionism, of which Frank is the quintessence. I talked to the cast about the observer effect, and how we all act differently when we know we're being watched--which led me to Janet and Touch-a Me. It took me FOREVER to figure out what I wanted to do with that number--it was the last one I staged, I kept telling the girls just give me a few days, it's percolating. Finally I figured it out--Jen KNOWS she's being watched, she figures it out when she watches Brad on the monitor. And that's why she decides to hell with it, I'm going to jump off the pedestal (yes, I literally had her on a pedestal) and embrace this journey--and so Magenta and Columbia are cheering her on, not mocking her.

This led me to the floor show which is where Janet really blossoms--she sings:

I feel released
Bad times deceased
My confidence has increased

What does Brad sing?

It's beyond me
Help me, Mommy
I'll be good, you'll see
Take this dream away

So with that in mind, I couldn't stage Super Heroes any other way than how I did--after Janet's verse, during the long ah-ah section, I had her turn and look wonderingly at the castle as Brad reaches a tentative hand out to her. He just wants to go back to the way things were. He wants to forget it ever happened. But as Thelma says "something's, like, crossed over in me and I can't go back." Janet can't go back; she's not that Janet anymore. So I staged it that she walks away from him--this is what made some of the cast gasp. I didn't think it was that big a deal--as I said, it's all right there in the text, I can't be the only one who's staged it that way--but I heard an audience member gasp as well and Eric (our Riff Raff) said it was "brilliant." And Tesse made me so happy--she said who ever saw a RHS where Janet actually experiences character growth? Feminine empowerment through sexuality--which was a huge thing in the '70s, the birth of the feminist movement, and of course RHS is very much a product of the '70s! I love my sexually empowered, strong-ass Janet! Jen approved as well--she specifically told me she liked the feminist Janet :) And she played that moment beautifully, with this look of regret and resolve and love and goodbye all at once. Jen's such a great actor.

With all that, and tying into the theme of observation and voyeurism, I decided to take a side trip into exploring the fine line between art appreciation and objectification--a dynamic that usually targets women, but in RHS, our eponymous character himself is the objet d'art who is objectified (and yes, I had him up on the pedestal as well). I underscored this mainly with slides of Greek and Renaissance male sculptures, plus I had Rocky executing classical art poses on the pedestal during Charles Atlas. (Also at the beginning of The Sword of Damocles, when Frank first touches him, I posed them as God and Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling--appropriate since Frank is the creator of life. I also found out that the real Charles Atlas himself used to pose for sculptors!) At first the Phantoms are in awe of his beauty but rapidly they start pawing him, and taking pictures with their cell phone, and slipping bills into his trunks. It's a fine, fine line...

So 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!

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.

My soccer team, Dolphman, had a bye this week so the ladies of Dolphman organized a girls' night out. We met at Tortilla Flats in the West Village (stop smirking, Paula :) and started off with a pitcher of Sangria (them) and margaritas (me). Our waiter was adorable--at some point we were talking about pop culture and he said he'd just started watching The X Files. I said Oh, I envy you--one of the best shows ever. I told him that seasons 3-6 were the best but all the seasons through 8, are terrific. And I told him especially look out for the beginning-of-season-2 arc Duane Barry/Ascension and culminating with One Breath, which is one of the finest hours ever crafted for TV. That cinematography!

Amazing episode. Our waiter was gay, though (I surmise--we didn't actually discuss it but my 'dar was pinged) so sadly I could not score a round of shots for my table by making out with the waiter, as happened at Paula's bachelorette festivities.

However Tortilla Flats does trivia in Sunday evenings--this was awesome! One of our teammates, AWalks (Ashley), and I SMOKED the competition, blowing everyone away. We earned four shots each for the table, and Haruko and Alyssa also won one each. So every person at the entire table (there were five of us) had two free shots! I was so, so proud--I felt like a hunter-gatherer who had provided for my family! So much fun. I told them the story of Paula's bachelorette festivities, which they found hilarious. After we left there we went to a place on Greenwich Avenue, a kind of dive-y place. We hung out there for a bit--at one point I was chatting up an English couple who were really, really sweet. We talked a LOT about English history and culture--they were very touched when I told them that visiting London felt like coming home. There was a sketchy, grabby older guy, drunk as a lord, who kept squeezing past us (we were seated on stools in a corner--naturally I was the one sticking out) until finally I elbowed him, hard. Then he kept trying to pull up a stool to chat with us and I kind of ran interference--cockblocking for good. A guy at the bar noticed what was going on (at one point the bartender was trying to call off Sketchy Older Guy) and bought us a round of drinks, apologizing to us.

In other news, while we were at Tortilla Flats I received a call from our Brad who told me this somewhat convoluted story about how his manager brought down the boom--either the show or your job. And of course he can't give up his paycheck. He said that he'd cleared the schedule with him and the guy was fine, or maybe it was another manager--I don't know. I know managers can be jerks but the whole thing sounds shady. On the phone I handled it pretty well and was understanding but now the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. He auditioned drunk, he's already missed a whole week of rehearsal (he was out of town last week), I worked my ass off Saturday incorporating him into the blocking that he missed, and now we're less than two weeks before we perform at the cemetery and he pulls this? Say it with me--ASSHOLE. I called Dave immediately last night but he didn't get the VMs--he emailed me this morning and I was like--uh, did you get my VMs? THAT was a wakeup call for Monday!

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.

Lots of soccer this weekend--two games Saturday and one yesterday. I had very little downtime between the two on Saturday so I was pretty much exhausted for the second game (I even napped on my way to the field). But I killed it in the first one--of our team's four goals scored, I scored two of them! One of the guys on the other team said admiringly "player of the game!" (This was during a very windy game--and the wind was against us, and we had these ridic tiny popup goals.) And the best sign was that the guys consistently passed it to me. YAY MY BALL SKILLZ ARE IMPROVING. SO HAPPY. The clinics I took have *really* helped my game. I got to the game yesterday a bit late (fuck the MTA, haaaaaaate, I waited TWELVE MINUTES for a train) so I had to sit out the first part. When they put me in, it was at halfback--normally I play forward but I can play back if necessary. It was fun actually, it's nice getting a break from constantly trying to score--sometimes it's nice to cockblock them for a change. Again, one of the opposing players was very complimentary, telling me "you have got this section SECURED, man!" Afterward we all went for a beer.

My Dolphman season is starting up again--first game is this coming Sunday. This may be my last season with them--I've had a lot of fun but it really does irritate me that we don't play as a team. We could do so much better--we could and should support each other so much more, by passing and supporting. We shall see.

We had auditions for Rocky Horror--it's mostly cast but we're still looking for a Brad (we have a candidate coming in on Wednesday to sing). Several returnees, including Stephen (tho' not as the narrator--he's ensemble), Paul as Rocky, Jen as Janet and Muslimah in the ensemble (and me of course as Columbia). And Tawni is NOT Magenta--she had no shot anyway, after her shit during Pirates but luckily she didn't audition that well anyway. An adorable preppy/goth type named Charlotte is Magenta, and the guy who played Riff Raff in 2005 (so Jason knows him) is coming back. And our Frank! He is absolutely amazing--incredible voice and just loves the role. Mateo wanted to auditon and emailed me, asking me to "keep him notified" or something like that--but he never came to the audition. I hope he wasn't waiting for me to email him personally! I'm sure he was emailed by Dave and got the Facebook invite but it's a little weird. But regardless, as great an actor as Mateo was, he really cannot sing :( And the new Frank definitely can!

Roland showed up to audition and typically managed to drive Dave and me absolutely insane with irritation in under 5 minutes. He came shuffling in with a goofy grin and was asking us "what is this about? Are you having auditions? Should I sign up? I don't have anything prepared..." YOU CAME IN HERE. We did not seek you out, you moron--you came in here, don't take up our time with your unprofessional behavior and your inane drivel! Oh my God, he is so unbelievably annoying. I told Dave about his nonsense during A Christmas Carol 2007 (he casually told Gina and me that he couldn't be there for most of tech week--dropped this little bombshell the day before). He just DOESN'T GET IT. He is a perfectly nice guy but sometimes that's just Not Enough. I can't believe that Caley ever dated him!

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.

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!

So we had two shows on Friday, at 8 and 11, and then the Saturday show at the Strand in Lakewood. Thanks to New Jersey Transit's stellar service, I got there much later than I intended to again. Some genius decided to rip up 14th Street which brought traffic going over the bridge to a complete halt. I finally got off as soon as we made it past the bridge, knowing I could scooter faster--much faster--than the bus was going. Everyone on the bus was pissed off about it.

But since I'd left even earlier on Friday, it could've been worse--I got there in enough time to have a more relaxed warm up session, and skank up even better! The 8pm show went well--Susan was there and loved it. She was talking about me to Kelly Anne, who plays Magenta, saying I was the hardest-working, most disciplined performer she knew. Kelly Anne was all "I know! She came up with a back story for her character! Who DOES that for Rocky Horror?"

I finally got used to the stage--it's still not ideal for tapping (can't hear the sounds at all) but I felt very comfortable on it, and stayed in the moment and just enjoyed it. LOVE my tap solo, I am sad not to be doing it any more!

The 11pm show went even better than the 8, and we had the biggest crowd for that one. Chris was still resistant to callbacks; at one point, he was talking about how he would race through that incredibly dense chunk of text where he is expositing about the transducer.

With callbacks, the dialogue should go:

Dr. Scott: This Sonic Transducer, it is I suppose, some kind of audio-vibratory, physio-molecular, transport device?

Brad: You mean...?

Audience: A VIBRATOR?

Dr. Scott: Yes Brad, it’s something we ourselves have been working on for quite some time. But it seems our friend here has found a means of perfecting it.

Audience: A PERFECT VIBRATOR?

Dr. Scott: A device which is capable of breaking down solid matter and then projecting it through space and who knows, perhaps even time itself!

Audience: A PERFECT, PORTABLE VIBRATOR?

Okay, properly done, this is hilarious. But Chris just raced through it, cutting off the callbacks. Dude, this is FUNNY. Have fun with the show. This is not Shakespeare, it's the Rocky Fucking Horror Show. There's no point to doing it without the callbacks! It almost makes me want to do another role (Columbia doesn't get much yelled at her) so I can roll with the punches. Certainly Jennifer (also a virgin, played Janet) never let it bother her!

We got out of the 11pm show at 1am. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long for the bus and a train, but still, I got home at close to 3 am. I dragged myself out of bed the next morning at 8:45--I had to be at Port Authority at 10:30, we were all going to catch the 11:00 bus to Lakewood. I tried to sleep on the bus but it made a LOT of stops and sleep was impossible. The snow started almost as soon as we left the city but didn't stick.

The Strand Theater is HUGE. I think the house holds a 1000 seats! Robert had mapped out an agenda which turned out to be over-ambitious. We were supposed to do a cue-to-cue from 2-3, then have a bit of a break, eat dinner, then do a runthrough, then relax before our performance. Oh no--we didn't finish the cue-to-cue until close to 5. Robert tried to call a full runthrough and he nearly had an actor mutiny--we were all starving by then. So we went through only the first act and then chilled backstage. At one point Kelly Anne and I were talking and she asked me what the plot of Twelfth Night was (it came up somehow, and I told her she was the right type to play Maria). We talked about that and other Shakespeare--she's done some straight theater but no classical, I don't think.

Check out our head mikes!

The audience at the Strand LOVED us. It was more than appreciation--they were grateful. At one point we had an emergency--during "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" the stage lights and music were cut and we were told to go backstage. A board member came backstage and told us that they'd had a slight emergency and were holding the show briefly. Then the board member started raving about how good we were, so professional and talented, the best they'd ever had...very nice to hear! She actually touched me on the shoulder in a very sincere gesture, this is what I mean about seeming grateful. Very sweet. The audience was raving about us at intermission as well, I had several photograph requests.

I was able to get out in enough time to catch the 10:30 bus back, which arrived much quicker than I antici------pated. 12! I was expecting 12:30 so yay for a whole half-hour! I crashed and have been crashing ever since--SEVERE sleep deprivation last week and have slept upwards of 11 hours a day the past few days. The cast has been sending gooey, mass "aw, you guys, I loved working with you so much!" emails and Kelly Anne is planning a cast party.

Last night went soooooo well. We had a nice big house--not full but the center section was packed and we had spillage on the side sections. It seemed loud to me (i.e., lots of callbacks) but Duncan said it was just a few people--him (of course) and 1-2 others. I wasn't fazed but then Columbia doesn't get that much yelled at her. Poor Chris (Eddie/Dr. Scott) was terribly spooked though--he went up on a lyric during the intro to "Eddie" and was muttering backstage "those fucking guys will NOT SHUT UP, I couldn't think, I just lost it!" I said to him gently "well...that's Rocky Horror. That's expected, you can't let it get to you." I mean, what did you expect? This isn't Lear! ♪ [singsong] I warned you virgins...I tried to set up a field trip to see the movie......[/singsong] ♫

Again, Steven's performance is just weird. He's a doll, I hate to dog him but he doesn't get it. He did this patented shoutback to the audience the first time someone yelled about his no-neck (for the virgins out there, the actor who played the narrator in the movie looks as though he lacks a neck--

--and audiences have riffed endlessly and hilariously on this topic. My favorite line last night--Narrator: "There are those who say that life is an illusion..." Audience: "Like your neck!" ). Steven stops and says in this yew-go-grrl voice "lissen, this is a LIVE show and I can HEAR you and I GOT a neck." Dude, it makes you sound as though you're taking it personally. You can't respond like that--you're essentially saying NO and you can't do that, If you respond, it has to be clever and build, you have to say YES. Kelly Anne (Magenta) and I were backstage for her change when we heard him do it last night, and she muttered to me "why does he do that? It isn't funny." Later on he had another laboriously unfunny bit when he commented about having to fetch a prop. Ugh, I just want to DIRECT him out of that.

Getting there was another NJT-sponsored fucking nightmare. Again with the lines going all the way down the hall and to the escalators, again with the regular 126 line going much faster than the Willow Ave spur. (We stood still, again, for 15 minutes.) When we got into the tunnel, we just inched through it. It's a miracle I didn't crash the scooter when I finally got off the bus, I was so pissed off. I got there at 7:40--you can imagine how that made me feel. Luckily Tatum preset what she could and, again, I raced through hair, makeup and costume, and the fastest dance warm up EVER. I must've looked like a rabbit backstage, rapidly batting my legs back and forth! They ended up holding for a bit because of the weather so in the end, all was well.

Duncan, Tesse and Chris were in the audience, as was a friend of mine from work It was so exciting having an audience finally, and they seemed to LOVE it! I even got applause on my tap solo! EEEEEEEHHHHH!!!! My very own applause! Am I a rock star or what?! The audience really seemed to enjoy themselves--at the risk of sounding cheesy, there was a lot of love out there, which is CRUCIAL for this show. If they don't come in wanting to have a good time, we're fucked 'cause Lord knows, the book is a joke!

Afterward some of us went out to get a quick drink--we went to the slightly-sketch-looking place on 8th St. that's a couple of blocks away from the theater. I walked in and said "oh, a honky-tonk!" It's rare to see them this far north!

Off to do two shows. "Touch-a Touch-a Touch-me" will be interesting tonight!

Note--try to buy tickets early as Dave is expecting them to sell out. Currently the most sold is tomorrow night's 8pm showing--there are more tickets for tonight's and the late Friday show.

The show just keeps getting better and better. We moved into the space Monday night--the actual floor on the stage takes a little getting used to. It is a little gritty and rough, and so is great for most of the dance we do but NOT so great for tapping! But I've been working on it as much as possible. Last night's runthrough was the best, both for tap and everything else. Especially for the tap, I was enjoying it, I was in the moment, I heard what people were saying *and* hearing the music. It makes me want to do a bigger tap role! Maybe Joan in Dames at Sea or something...

We had several people there, including Billy who directed the last one and also played Frank. (During my solo, Billy yelled "I'd tap that" which made me laugh.) Tonight we will have an ACTUAL audience, yippee!

I actually got to the theater quite late--I try to get there around 7:00 so I can pre-set everything and have lots of time to warm up but that didn't happen thanks to the ever-competent and customer-friendly NJ Transit. I got to Port Authority at 6:30 where I cooled my heels on line for FIFTEEN MINUTES. Seriously, the line did not move for fifteen minutes. The line next to us, the one that runs along the same route for much of the time, moved, but not us. Did anyone explain anything to us? Make an announcement? Apologize? Of course not. It's the New Jersey Transit, and they don't give a flying fuck what we go through. AWFUL agency--they're as bad as the MTA. So I got the theater at 7:30 and had to FLY through makeup, hair and costume and warm up super-fast. This seems to have worked, as I did fine on the solo.

The next few days will be packed--we get out of the show around 10 tonight and tomorrow around 1 am. Yikes! Then we meet at 10:30 Saturday morning at Port Authority to make the trek dwon to Lakewood. Really hope I can sleep on the bus!

Can't wait!

We had Friday and Saturday off from rehearsal. I welcomed the opportunity to forget about the show for two days, but I wanted to work on the tap solo and NAIL that entrance, so I booked space at Ripley-Grier for Saturday afternoon. I've also been sick the past week--Friday night was brutal, I could not stop coughing--so dragging myself out of bed Saturday morning wasn't fun! Susan and I drilled the hell out of the solo and by the end I was nailing it AT tempo. Triples and everything. Yay! So I think the key is to warmupwarmupwarmUP every night. Run that thing over and over and over, and then run it listening to my iPod.

I dragged myself back home and curled up in bed, pausing only to email regrets to a Halloween party. Ugh...

Yesterday I felt a little better. We had a clean up rehearsal and went over a lot of the music and much of the dance. Vocally there was a decent amount to clean up--there are a LOT of discrepancies among 1) what we were taught by the music director, 2) what he notated in the score (he wrote many of his own arrangements) and 3) the vocal tracks he recorded for us all. Kind of annoying, mainly because he's a bit of a dick, one of those guys that is brittle and will not take well to any pointing out of mistakes. The mistakes are a bit more apparent to me than to the other two altos (I'm singing alto on this) because I read music and see the mistakes he's made--uh, what I'm hearing on the vocal track is NOT what is in the score in front of me! His arrangements are great though, I'll give him that, I especially like the last number.

Singing alto is weird for me--I enjoy the opportunity to sight-read (sopranos usually just get the melody) but the parts are always a little low for me. I can hit the notes but they're not terribly comfortable. And I'm not used to hearing the alto line, I'm trained to hear the soprano line. So I had to work harder than normal on the score for this.

I gotta say though, I'm a little nervous about two performances. I have a strong suspicion that the guy who plays Frank N Furter is tone-deaf. This is not a death knell--Tim Curry talks his way through much of the score--but if that's what he needs to do, then DO it. Don't massacre the score by trying to sing what you can't, just commit to talking it. I'm not sure how familiar he is with the score--I don't believe he's seen the movie as he didn't want to go on a cast outing to see it, he was afraid of being influenced by Curry's performance. (To which I say--man, you need to develop stronger acting instincts. I've seen the movie many times, and my take on Columbia is nothing like Little Nell's.) Anyway, I guess he doesn't know the score but in that case, LEARN IT. Get the soundtrack and listen to these songs, even if it does influence you. The Sunday before we open is a little late to be stumbling over the Charles Atlas song. It's a good thing he's a good actor--his performance (other than the singing) is pretty decent.

The other performance is Steven as the Narrator. Again, don't know if he's seen the movie but his take on the Narrator is all wrong. The Narrator is the CONTROL character--he (like Janet and Brad) is quote-unquote normal. He's not a freak, he's commenting on the freaks. He's supposed to show up how weird this whole journey through his normality. Steve's playing it almost like he's excitedly gossiping on the story. Noooooo! Deadpan, controlled, sober--THAT'S the Narrator. Not giddy and excited, it undermines his function. And this is small but it gets on my nerves nonetheless--he sings the last verse of Superheroes instead of speaking out. Now Steven does have a lovely voice but the way he delivers it, he's all soulful and sad, NOOOOOO! Again, that's not the Narrator. This didn't happen to YOU, you're the messenger. And I know he's singing it not because it's a character choice but simply to show off his (yes, lovely) singing voice--but it's not appropriate for the character or the show. Ergh.

We have tech/dress tonight and tomorrow, and then an invited final dress for Wednesday.

Oy. Very tired lately, the commute is hard on me. Leaving work, I hit the ground running at 7:00, take the train to 42nd & 6th, scooter as fast as I can down the two long blocks to Port Authority (through Times Square!), take the bus to Hoboken and then scooter REALLY fast to Monroe Arts Space. I have been warming up ON the bus, and even on the scooter--it is essential that I warm up physically for this show.

The tap combination is not difficult but I've been a little stressed about it because I haven't nailed it yet in a runthrough. The main reason is that I can't hear the track when I start it, because the rest of the cast is supposed to be cheering me on. So I get ahead of myself. I've been working on it with the track at home but there are a couple of problems--for one thing, I'm terribly self-conscious about making too much noise and annoying the neighbors below. So I can really only tap during the day. Another problem is that there seems to be a sound problem on my computer--the sound is kind of low and the extra speakers I have don't seem to be working. So I can't really hear it there either! So the best solution is to try to work through it anyway, jack up the sound as much as I can and just drill the combination over and over, to get the pace into my body. I mean, realistically even if I do get a little ahead, I doubt the audience will notice, there'll be too many bellowing "2-4-6-8, show us how you masturbate!" But still, I want to get it perfect.

The good news is that with all the obsessive drilling, my triples have never been better! The sounds are clean and right on rhythm--very happy, because something occurred to me. If you're dancing a tap solo, as opposed to a group number--your sounds had better be clean! You can't hide behind anyone :) And I've been doing the combination very fast, much faster than the tempo on the track. I have to warm up like crazy to get to that point, though. And I tend to tap lazily on my left side--the more warmed up I am, the less this is a problem but still, have to correct it. I guess I'm not an ambidextrous tapper! (Which is odd, since I am an ambidextrous kicker.)

It's funny, this show isn't that difficult, certainly not musically but the dance isn't difficult either, there's just a LOT of it. ("Time Warp" in particular is FULL of dance--I'm exhausted by the end of that number! Lots of fun but stuffed with 'ography.) I am an enormous perfectionist as a dancer, because I'm not nearly as strong a dancer as I am a singer, so I compensate as much as I can. I go home and drill these dances and now I have probably the strongest grasp of the dances of anyone in the cast besides the dance captain! She's even asked ME about stuff! And the cast seems to think I'm this amazing tapper--I've had several comments along the lines of "so amazing, I wish I could tap....I'm so impressed by people who can tap..." Uh, I am NOT really a tapper, per se! I have some experience and I can do basic steps and am always trying to improve myself, but compared to REAL tappers? They'd eat me alive! Vera Ellen's ghost is safe :) (Although I tried to stutter-tap a few days ago--it's not actually that hard! I was sort-of doing it anyway :)

When I was preparing for this audition, I talked with Susan about my sense of myself as a dancer. I was brought up as a singer first and foremost--my mother and brother were both opera singers, I was singing in our professional-quality church choir from a very young age, I was always in chorus in high school, etc. Mom was utterly uninterested in dance--she put me in a ballet class for a while when I was in third grade, but I had no more training after that. And that's kind of a shame. I LOVE dancing. It's not easy for me, but I really love it. I'm an athlete, of course I like to move! I think if I'd had more training as a kid, it would come a little quicker for me. But anyway, because I had such a strong identity of myself as a singer, I had a kind of anti-identity as a dancer which was only reinforced when I started working in theater after graduation and coming up against really GOOD dancers, of whom Susan was one. So I've always been very humble, and realistic, about my dance abilities. And when I talked with Susan about going for Columbia I said "I feel almost--arrogant about going for this dancer role but the thing is--I know I can do it. I know I can do it. Watching her in the movie, I know I can learn that combination. I won't get it right away, it'll take me longer than a real dancer, but I know I'll get it...and I KNOW I can sell the shit out of it." Susan will argue with me about this--she thinks I'm a better dancer than I admit, mainly due to my work ethic. It is a great pleasure to master something through sheer dint of hard, meticulous work.

Of course during rehearsals those of us who know the movie will be muttering responses under our breath, or even out loud. It's hilarious how many responses I didn't realize I knew! The other day we were running the climactic scene and Branan as Riff Raff waves his gun and says "So...say goodbye to all of this..." and I blurt out "Goodbye, all of this!" Branan: "...and say hello to...oblivion!" Me: "Hello, oblivion! How's the wife and kids?" Honestly I haven't thought about that response since HIGH SCHOOL!

I am loving the score. Right now my favorites are "Science Fiction Double Feature" and "Over at the Frankenstein Place."

I'm confused--will Netflix still be offering DVDs? Because that's all I want--I generally do not stream movies, as then I'm stuck sitting at my tiny laptop with no extras, instead of watching the movie on my huge TV, wandering around the apartment if I need to, with the option of the commentary track.

Told Tim about Rocky Horror, he is thrilled. He looooves musicals and is always wondering when I'll do one--since I've known him, I've mostly done straight plays. We are getting together this weekend so I'll have to explain to him exactly what kind of show Rocky Horror is so his mind is blown!

We had the RH sitz probe on Saturday, although they'd sent us the tracks the night before so I was prepared. Afterward a bunch of us went to East L.A. in Hoboken to eat--I found out that the guy playing Brad was gay and the guy playing Frank is straight. I really must recalibrate my gaydar, I was very surprised about the Brad-guy. Mateo (Frank), not so much--I was surprised more because, as I said to him, "I guess I just assume that whoever's playing Frank is gay." He responded "Tim Curry isn't." Me: "You...have an excellent point, that's a stupid assumption on my part!" We hung out for awhile and then Steven and I left for Marie's together. On our way there I stopped at a new candy store and bought a big bag and shared it with everyone at the piano. I wasn't sure if Franca recognized me, but not only did she, but she was mock-annoyed that I even dared to remind her who I was (I came into Marie's saying "I'm Duncan's friend?" because I don't go to Marie's all that often and I thought she might not remember me!). Lots of fun, at one point she was playing songs from Rocky Horror, so when we did "Time Warp" I changed into my tap shoes and did the number right there on the Marie's floor, everybody loved it!

We've learned the choreography for the four big numbers ("Time Warp," "Sweet Transvestite," "Hot Patootie" and the Floor Show) and this week we learn blocking and the staging for the other numbers. I am loving the dance numbers for this--they are very cute. Not difficult technically but a LOT of little, cute steps that I have to drill over and over.

On the subject of Duncan's post yesterday about a Facebook-friend-of-a-Facebook-friend who tried to shame everyone into giving large amounts of money to help their mutual friend whose laptop had been stolen...a friend of mine posted last week begging for everyone to send him money. The original comment read:

I NEED EVERYONE'S HELP. This is an experiment/ test to see if I can rely on friends in a time of need. I would like everyone to see if they could send me $5. (10/ 20?) I'm not kidding. What's $5 (10/ 20) to you? But, collectively, it could help save me in a time of desperation. I am moments away from being evicted, filing for bankruptcy, and being homeless.
My address is:
[Name]
[Address]
This is not meant to be a "pity party." This is not a joke. This is the reality of the situation. Something major happened late in 2008 that forever altered my finances. Now I'm at the end of my rope and there is no hope for a solution without the help of friends or a job that pays decent money. Please, help me save my house. I am desperate and don't know what else to do. Forward this to anyone who might be able to help.

This is an experiment? In other words, you're just trying to see how people will react, under controlled conditions? Because that makes it sound hypothetical, whereas the rest of the post makes it sound like a dire emergency. Second, the blithe tone of "what's $5/10/20 to you" sits ill on me. $20 is PLENTY. You don't get to make assumptions about my finances like that. Third, the "something major" that happened was...well, let's just say he made a bad choice and suffered the consequences. As much as it sucks to lose your home, and I know he's trying, but this didn't just "happen" to him.

I have strong feelings about people who try to shame other people into giving them money (or anything) like that. In 2008 someone who was on the R&J team (who'd asked to be on the team) suddenly and dramatically had to quit because they were "about to be evicted" but if I could lend them $2000 (they promised to pay me back) they could stay. Oh, barf. I hardly know you, dude, how dare you put me on the spot like that? You ask your family and close friends for that kind of help, not just anybody. This guy (FB guy) is an okay person, has a good heart, but he is sort of a drama queen. Ryan and I know him from the dinner theater circuit, and when he came out of the closet (shocking absolutely no one), he made a pass at Ryan who declined. The guy tried to shame Ryan into reciprocating saying it was really hard for him to come out, and Ryan should feel sorry for him and he was all in tears, saying "I won't take no for an answer" and oh my Lord. Dude, that is not how sexual attraction works. Pity is pathetic, a total anti-aphrodisiac. In the arena of sex, you gotta deal from strength.

And just analyzing the effectiveness of this plea--sending it to everybody, and then asking them to forward it to anybody....not a good idea. A mass appeal like this dilutes its impact. And forwarding it isn't going to help at all--no stranger is going to help such a vaguely worded plea for money. Close friends and family, dude. He reposted the original plea again this morning.

I want to be compassionate and help people who really need help--this is why dramatic people annoy me, because they abuse people's compassion.

So I've been reading about how badly Irene hit upstate New York, so I definitely want to plan an apple-picking/pumpkin-patching trip sometime soon, so we can give them our money! Gotta look after our agrarian brothers and sisters...

Rocky Horror Show auditions--as I mentioned, I heard a couple of weeks ago that they'd be bringing it back, minus a few cast members. I told Dave I would be very interested in auditioning for Columbia--I said I could tap some, but my weakness was picking up choreography quickly. This is because of my training--I'm hyperliterate (started reading at a very young age and read voraciously), and as an actor and as a classically trained singer, I've been taught to look at the page first. But dancers don't learn this way--they learn with their feet. Even with my athletic background, it's not as easy for me--there's a whole extra step in the learning process for me that trained dancers don't have, which really slows me down at auditions. When I was in rehearsal for my ship contract, we ran up against this with our choreographer when Aly and I were taught the Land of a Thousand Dances combination. One of the easiest combinations ever--just the dance steps that are outlined in the song (Pony, Chicken, Mashed Potato, etc.)--but we didn't know some of those steps and after an already exhausting day, not much was sinking in and it took us forever to learn the sequence. I was begging the choreography (Stacy?) to just STOP and let me write down the steps--I kept trying to explain to her that singers learn differently. But she didn't understand and just kept drilling us.

I make up for this lack by working my ASS off in rehearsal. No one who sees me dance in a show will ever see anything less than the most polished performance I can give. Susan can tell you, when she and I did shows together, I was constantly pulling her aside and making her breakdown sequences for me. Since I'm not nearly as strong a dancer as I am a singer, I can't get away with anything--I have to work TWICE as hard. At any rate, Dave seemed interested...then the following week I saw the audition notice go up on Facebook. Columbia was not listed, so I thought gee, I guess the other girl is coming back, and I emailed Dave. He said no, I was still in the running and Robert needed to see me tap.

So I did my homework. I hadn't tapped in over ten years, so I took a couple of classes at Steps on Broadway. They have Basic Tap on Saturday and Sunday mornings. (I cannot get over how inexpensive dance classes are--$17 a class! Susan thinks it's a ripoff but I'm comparing it to voice lessons which are easily $80 and up in NYC.) The one on Saturday was with an older black woman and there was just me and on other dancer in the class, so it was almost like a private session. She certainly knew her stuff but it was very, very detailed, small, micro-teaching, focused on technique. We didn't learn any combinations. The class the next day was more like a traditional tap class, with a lot more people (at least 25) and a guy at the front showing us the steps, breaking them down, and then combining them together. He went kind of fast but I'm proud to say I was able to keep up, although I was fudging some of those steps at the end! (Although it helped that I already knew how to do a time-step.) I really enjoyed the Sunday class and found it more helpful--what I need most is to build my tap repertoire and learn steps like back essences and the waltz clog.

The next day I called Susan and asked if she could help me--originally I asked her to make up a tap combination and teach it to me quickly, under audition conditions, so I could get back into that mode. This evolved into my learning Columbia's combination from the movie. I found a breakdown of the steps online and then we compared it with the few clips of the combo that are on YouTube. (Richard O'Brien obviously polices his show quite thoroughly! Clips of RHPS are not easy to find online.) I learned it and was even able to do it a tempo after a couple of days--it wasn't pretty but I did learn it! Most of it looked fine but the chaine turns--turns are NOT my forte! I don't spot very well...

Robert has been sick at last week but was finally better for the weekend and we set up an audition appointment at his place, for Sunday evening. Saturday was my first volunteer shift for RightRides which was fun but EXHAUSTING. I did not get into bed until 5:30 am! So rehearsal for the reading of The Empress of Sex was not easy, because I was trying VERY hard not to fall asleep. After rehearsal I went over to Susan's apartment and tarted myself up good with fishnets, dance shorts and lots of glittuh eye makeup. And I did my hair in messy ponytails--I was going for the "kid who's stayed a little too long at the rave" look for my Columbia. I warmed up at Susan's place and on the train (which naturally took forever). When I got to Robert's place (his apartment is adorable, nice little restored ground floor place in the Heights), he got right to work and tested me on a battery of steps, including double-time steps, back flaps, and various shuffle and ball-change mini-combinations. At one point he asked me "can you do [ describes lunge-shuffle step]" I said "do you mean maxies? Sure." *execute right and left maxies* He asked if I could do wings--I said No! He asked if I could fake them--I hesitated and then, figuring the fake would be most convincing the closer my feet were to the ground, relaxed my legs from the knees down and then whipped out a fake wing. He said, good! Can you do two in a row? Sure. *does so, then does 3 in a row* He said to me in amazement, who knew you could tap?! I said well, I haven't done it in a while but yes, I have tapped in several shows. I was trying to remember them all--I started with Me and My Girl, then The Boyfriend ("Perfect Young Ladies" which technically was not tap as I did not have on tap shoes for that number since I was in the preceding scene but the technique was all tap and the other dancers, when they entered, all had on tap shoes. I *still* remember that combination!), Lucky Stiff ("Welcome back, Mr. Witherspoon!" *stomp, STOMP* "MIS-ter WITH-er-spoon...we always knew you'd be...BACK..." *stomp, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, stomp, ball-CHANGE*). I know I did another tap show as well but it's escaping me right now. ANYWAY, Robert said you've got the part. YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

So so excited!!! I love it that this is a DANCE role, my very first one! (That is, my very first dance principal.) I mean, it's not Anita or anything but it's a by-God DANCE role. And I wanted it and I worked for it and I got it!

Robert told me where to find a rehearsal video of the combination so I looked it up--other than the wings, it'll be easy!

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.

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Page Summary

...The Late Night, Double Feature....Pic-ture...Shooooow... (RHS Wind down Part 2)
I feel released, Bad times deceased, My confidence has increased...(RHS Wind down Part 1)
Saturday at the Cemetery
The Show
Sunday
Rocky Horror so far
This and That
Yes, yes, let's talk about the weather!
Pirates So Far
More Salacious RHS Pics For Your Viewing Pleasure
I wanna go...to the late-night, double feature...pic-ture shoooow
Antici----------PAtion
We OpEN at MONroe...
(no subject)
Rocky Horror rehearsal
Le Weekend--RH rehearsals, Marie's drama
RHS Audition
Saturday

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Entries tagged with rocky horror show

...The Late Night, Double Feature....Pic-ture...Shooooow... (RHS Wind down Part 2)

I feel released, Bad times deceased, My confidence has increased...(RHS Wind down Part 1)

Saturday at the Cemetery

The Show

Sunday

Rocky Horror so far

This and That

Yes, yes, let's talk about the weather!

Pirates So Far

More Salacious RHS Pics For Your Viewing Pleasure

I wanna go...to the late-night, double feature...pic-ture shoooow

Antici----------PAtion

We OpEN at MONroe...

(no subject)

Rocky Horror rehearsal

Le Weekend--RH rehearsals, Marie's drama

RHS Audition

Saturday