Grey

Today was gross. I was looking forward to going to the beach as it's the only day I have off all week and of course I wake up and it's the greyest day in the whole world. It makes me all squishy inside and I just want to lay around all day and be thoroughly unproductive and melancholy.


And I hate being melancholy in the spring because it's supposed to be light and beautiful outside but it is not. Maybe I still have a sadness hangover from the Supreme Court's ruling on Tuesday.

That and I haven't had an audition in a couple weeks. That's a major bummer especially since the show is wrapping up in about a month. It seems like most people I know have a major case of the sads this week so maybe it's something in the air.

I am really looking forward to Bollywood Dance class tomorrow though. Jai Ho will make me feel better for sure. Then i have a line through and then performance. My friend Zach who is in the show as well made a video promo for the play, I think for fun, but it looks pretty great. If i knew how technology worked I would post it here.

So instead I post Devendra. He makes me feel light. I want to have his chinese children.

This week.

A couple of reviews came out for our show, mainly positive, which is lovely to hear, with lot's of praise for the acting which means the most.

www.playshakespeare.com

www.tolucantimes.com

We are having a line-through before the show on Saturday which I think is a good idea, it takes a while to get used to only having one show a week so it's probably a good refresher.

Beforehand Mariana and Zoe and I are going to Heartbeat House to take a Bollywood Dance class, I am so excited, I love Heartbeat House and cannot wait to take all their classes. They have an awesome schedule.

I need to get more auditions for the summer, I'm totally annoyed that I haven't had more.

And.

Well..

I don't really have the heart to discuss anything other than the fact that I am devastated by the Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Proposition 8. I thought it was their job to protect and uphold our constitutional rights. It's mortifying and disheartening and so incredibly hurtful. There is no reason that people should have to wait to receive the rights that they are entitled to as citizens of this country. The only consolation is that I am confident that history and time is on our side and that marriage equality will happen across the entire nation.

I am blessed to have been a part of this last night:

Finally

We opened last night after about a month of an insane rehearsal schedule and even crazier rehearsal locations. It went much smoother than I had anticipated really, I was very worried about tech coming together but there were not any problems that I noticed and the play flew by. I was frantically trying to help poor Megan do all her costume changes because it always seemed we had more time in rehearsal. The only mishap I noticed was when Kerry was waiting behind a curtain before she entered onstage and for no reason the curtain just fell and everyone saw her standing back there waiting. But those are the hilarious things that happen in live theatre that make it better I think. Definitely more entertaining at the very least.

I thought I could have hit some of my own beats better, to be honest I didn't feel comfortable until about halfway through the play which of course is when my part is essentially finished. But I am feeling like next week is going to go much better in terms of my own performance. But too bad for me that there were two reviewers in the audience. Hopefully they didn't take notice of little me.

Sometimes I think that going out and hanging iwth the cast after a show is the best part of performing.

I have effectively slept most of today away, which was my goal. Now I must engtertain Maeby because she was a trooper and laid with me all day. Best dog ever.

Meltdown Central.

Yesterday was just too long and hot. And i forgot to eat so I was on the verge of a meltdown the entire day. We rehearsed at the Gardner Stage and funny enough, there was some kind of violent assault happening outside of the theater right as we arrived. Apparently some woman was beating up a car with a baseball bat and the said owner of the car (a man) tried to beat the crap out of her.

So while we were all trying to get into the theater there was a swarm of cops trying to diffuse the situation. I'm pretty sure the woman fighting had a baby in a stroller watching. It was pretty ghetto.

No meltdowns today because I had no work and made sure to remember to eat food. Always helpful.
I just want to open!

And I want my manager to send me on more auditions. I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt that it's the economy and not that she is not working. right?


Oh and because I am an idiot I posted incorrect directions in my last post. You exit highland, make a RIGHT on Franklin and a LEFT on La Brea. Again, I blame the exhaustion and general meltdownyness.

tireeeeed

This whole not having a weekend is not fun. But I'm glad that the play opens this Saturday. I'm just so tired and my sleep schedule is so messed up. Mainly because I had social commitments all weekend that I had to attend to as well as rehearsing at 8 am. Homeless friend still lives under the stage. I wonder if they make him leave for performances. I mean , he doesn't bother me so I don't mind much. It is kind of funny though that his giant airhole is in the dressing room so he can pretty much just stick his head out at any moment and see us changing our clothes. But I don't believe he would be so audacious.

Here's the play info:
As You Like It
at The Next Stage

8pm every Saturday from May 23 to June 20

you will definitely want to make reservations ahead of time by calling 213 926 2726 or emailing declanadamstheatre@yahoo.com

allow time for parking.

From the 101 South exit on Highland. Make a Left on Franklin. Make a Right on LaBrea. go down about two blocks and you will see it in a little shopping center on your right hand side, I think just past Hawthorne. It's above a laundromat.

see you thereeeeee

Live Under a Stage

The following post is approved by Bathtime Maeby:



I didn't realize that on Sunday morning while we were rehearsing for the play at The Next Stage, which is where it is going to be performed, that there were three homeless men sleeping under the stage the entire time. One of the producers, Jeff Hirbour, went under the stage for some unknown reason and saw them all sleeping down there and after discussing it with Jeff Morris, the director, (I know, too many Jeffs in my life) they decided not to tell the cast which was probably a wise decision. They told me last night while at rehearsal and it's one of those horrifying, hilarious ocurrences in life that says so much of one's current state. I mean, I'm guessing shit like that don't happen at the Ahmanson or at the Disney Concert Hall. I love it.

I think I might actually know all my lines! I mean, it's not like I was mocked by a six year old because I still hadn't learned my lines after having my script after a month when she had her script for a week and had learned all her lines for her play "I Look Ridiculous" opening next week at St. Matthew's Elementary School. Le sigh.

Audition tomorrow for a Verizon Commercial. I feel like I have been to this casting director at least three times and each time I go they tell me I am too white to play a hispanic girl. Let's see if it happens tomorrow. Only good sign is that this is the third time I have auditioned for Verizon, who really seems to like me, the other two times I have auditioned for them I have gotten callbacks and avails. Fingers crossed. I'm broke as shit.

I think i forgot to mention that on Saturday Checkmate was screened and I think it was well received. It looked really great and I can't wait to get a copy. It was very fun to be able to go to the screening and see people's reactions. Definitely weird to see my 8 foot face. It's really unnatural and probably goes against the natural order of things and will in some way make me slowly start to go insane from the complete unnaturalness of it. Maybe that's why all actors are crazy. We are doing something inherently contrary to nature by being so overly conscious of ourselves and being able to watch ourselves. Barf.










peace.

Weekend

I can't possibly be the only person who finds it deeply wrong that we have 8 am rehearsals on the weekend. It's just criminal. All our brains are just completely turned off and it's just miserable. I've had 8 am rehearsals yesterday and today. It wasn't pretty. And we had to be off book for reals which means that both Friday and Saturday nights I was up until 3 am frantically trying to make sure I knew my lines. And at that point, even if I know them, I am so freaked out and tired that I think I don't know them and stay up way later than necessary. This leads to inevitable meltdowns and all around crankiness the next day.

But all in all the rehearsals are going very well I think. We are going to have plenty of run-throughs which is always fantastic and everything is coming together really nicely.

I'm getting antsy about getting new headshots. But I have so many things I need to pay for that I just don't know when I'm ever going to be able to do it. Sigh.

Lots of rehearsal this week but I am looking forward to refining the show.

Heat

The heat makes me angry. And it makes me eat ice cream and be too hot to work out which is a really bad combination.

I'm gonna finish memorizing my lines tonight as soon as it becomes cool enough to focus.

I was poking around youtube earlier and I came across this video that my friend Zoe Di Stefano made with Michael Rappaport when they were both on the t.v. show The War at Home. It's hilarious and makes me crack up so I thought I'd share.



also make sure you watch Grey's Anatomy tonight and see Amy Gumenick!!!

Geesh

It's hot. Not conducive to still be MEMORIZING MY LINES. FML. I'm actually not doing too badly at the moment, it's just the thought of having to sit and finish that is draining. Eternally procrastinating. It's kind of crunch time now so I have no choice in the matter.

Lots of real life work this week. Good for my bank account, bad for learning lines and playing with Maeby. She is overheating. Eskimo's aren't supposed to live in Los Angeles. I'm missing the all nighter's at Greenberg. Not so much because I love extra work but because I know that experience probably won't be replicated. It was the perfect storm of good crew, good friends, easy job and Zoe's bungalow.



Another Zooey I love. Can't wait for this movie in July.

Watch Grey's Anatomy tomorrow for guest star Amy Gumenick! So glad she is working tons.

Rehearsal last night went really well. First stumble through for the first half. We finished just in time. Knew more lines than I thought but I still had my script with my for the last part of the act when I wasn't so sure about them. Rehearsing at the offices of the Gay Men's Chorus is fun, though i do wish we could get the actual theatre space. Can't complain though. That's the life of low budget theater!

Mondays.

Since I usually have Monday's off I don't usually hate them, even though I have been feeling an impending sense of anxiety for the past few days because I am starting to get backed up on work and the more performing I do the less I do work that actually pays me. So that stress never really leaves.

But today was mainly lovely, Justin Gillman was in town with Danielle Martino, both of whom I did the BFA program with at UCSB. Last night we went to dinner (paid courtesy of Columbia University, thanks!) and today I went to the 3rd year Showcase for Columbia University MFA candidates which Justin was managing.

It was pretty underwhelmed for the most part by the acting and felt that the majority of their pieces were ill-suited for their audience. There were some standouts of course, one of which was a monologue written by Naomi Iizuka which was great because she was the head of the playwrighting department at UCSB while I was there. I babysat her son once. Well, I went and watched TV with Chris Pena while he was watching the baby. So I guess it counts.

The best part was spending time with Justin and Danielle and Shaun Hart, who also had the decency to show up. He is at the USC acting MFA program so I never see him anymore. It's great to see everyone is doing so well.

I checked my eligibility on the SAG website and I am officially eligible. Woohooo. now if I only had those two grand....

The rest of the night I have been memorizing lines like an insane person. Sometimes I just don't have the brainpower to do so. Especially the prose, which is what the majority of my lines in the first half of the play consist of. But I have those down now and when I am finished watching 24 I will go memorize the verse lines. I promise I will. I have to. It's the deadline tomorrow and I have work all day. Le sigh. I can't believe we open in 3 weeks.

Didn't get cast in Agamemnon, sad because I would have loved to do such a cool site specific play, but good because Ty and I have decided there was a pretty janky feel to the overall project. Not too professional. With the exception of the choreographer, Sarah Silkin, who actually seems pretty cool. Oh well. Move on to the next.