OMG I'M LIVE BLOGGING AGAIN.

On Leigh's computer of course. I'm not bringing mine here. What if I dropped it or someone stepped on it in their haste to get onstage? It's already a hand me down I don't need to make it more pathetic.

Leigh says to tell you she is so cool. Don't worry I'm not being distracting right now, we are on break. And we are getting a new cast member up to speed. Our Lepidus had to drop out this week so we got a very brave replacement so we are mainly focusing on helping him today.

I finally memorized the one little speech I couldn't remember! Yayyyyyy.

I was starting to get concerned. I feel like in every show I do there is always one section that causes me intense stress and then when I actually am able to do it I'm like wtf why was I freaking out about that? So unnecessary.

So I'm a bit less stressed today in my life. Probably because I got an adequate amount of sleep last night which had not happened in about a week and a half. I really am just so disgruntled when I don't get enough sleep.

We are going to start a run through of the show soon, which I am finally looking forward to because I know my lines. Though I wish we had the whole cast, we are missing Christine tonight. Which isn't terrible because usually we are missing more than one person. Stupid jobs. If only we got paid to do this we wouldn't have to work around our jobs that give us money. Hopefully we will all be together soon.

I am going to give Leigh back her computer now because she is being pouty. But don't worry, I am going to share my cheese with her in exchange for use of her computer. If something interesting happens during rehearsal later I will come back and tell you about it. But probably not. Though i did find a microwave in the dressing room. That was pretty sweet.

Live Blogging from rehearsal.

Apparently there is wireless internet at the theater! What a lovely treat.

I am using Leigh's computer since I had no idea and did not bring my own. I just ran one of my scenes and am now hanging out waiting to rehearse another scene. Right now the cast is running one of the final scenes where there is a mild verbal confrontation and pretty much everyone on stage has a sword or spear. But for some reason Lovelle doesn't have one yet and instead has a large chop stick sticking out of her pants. When she points it she looks like Harry Potter with his wand.

People keep glaring at me because I type loudly.

I'm off book minus one little paragraph that for some reason I just can't force my brain to learn. Every time I start to read it and try to memorize, I fall asleep like some kind of narcoleptic. It will be done this afternoon. Or I may have a delicious nap.

I can't believe we open so soon!

untitled.

Now that i am officially done with the roller skates I am seriously considering having a ceremonious burning. It could be nice, at the beach or something. I could roast marshmellows over them and it would be delicious and cathartic. No?


Had two pretty successful runthroughs of Caesar this week, though they were obviously very rough. I am more off book than I thought I would be with the extremely limited amount of rehearsals I have been having but definitely still have alot of work to do in terms of getting myself where I want and need to be by this weekend. Unfortunately, everything has piled up in the same month, professionally and personally, so I am feeling like a chicken running around with it's head cut off most of the time and as a result I am worried i am not putting 100% in everything I do. Which is definitely not what I like doing.

Luckily my cast is so supportive and wonderful, I am having a great time with Leigh and Lovelle, and getting to know everyone else is just the best part of doing a new show.




I just need to pull it together in time for this weekend, but my brain feels like it is being pulled in about a hundred different directions by at least a hundred different people. At least now I am starting to see what my limits are as well as the limitations of my schedule and that pesky business of there only being 24 hours in a day. Makes things difficult when one has three jobs, two plays in one month, apartment hunting, a puppy friend, and so much more.

But I promise I am trying to focus. I was in a pretty shitty mood tonight though. But i really did try to focus. It was everyone's first night with no scripts on stage so there was lots of line calling and the sweet nice girl who was giving us our lines was just being waaaay too quiet and not giving us the full line which resulted in lots of time being wasted and irritated the fuck out of me because everyone had to ask over and over what the line was. Word of advice to anyone who's job it is to call lines, speak loudly, clearly, and say the whole lineeeeeee. pleaaaassseeee.

this girl is very sweet and we so appreciate the help so i feel bad but i wanted to cut her tonight.

I must say it was helpful to be violently murdered about 15 times onstage tonight. While my throat does hurt I do feel like it let out a shit ton of stress I was holding onto and suppressing.

At least Maeby likes me again. She has been mad at me for being away so much, but she is actually deigning to sleep with me tonight instead of the couch like some scorned lover, which is what she has been doing all week. Speaking of which...

quick question: would it be so wrong...if i did this to Maebelline?

(photo courtesy of Sea of Shoes)

Jokes.

Maybe sleep now? Probably not.
xoxo.

Holy Crap

I can't believe I still haven't been able to write about my closing weekend!

I got a call on Saturday saying I got a job and that I started on Monday so basically everything in my life has been put on hold so that I can train for this new job and that includes Caesar rehearsals, of which I am missing both this week. It sucks. I'm really disappointed because I have always made my rehearsals a priority and I hate letting directors and other actors down but unfortunately I have been looking for another job since April and I am not in a position to turn anything down at the moment. I think that the next few weeks will be ok though. Just this one blows.

Anyways. Closing weekend of bobrauschenbergamerica was AMAZING. We really hit an amazing stride with the show this past weekend that we were not able to get the first one. It was incredibly gratifying and immensely fun. We were finally able to just play and it helped to have really wonderful audiences all three days.

I am going to miss working professionally with my dear friends. It has been a privilege. I especially need to thank Josh Heisler and Tracy Woodward for the insane amount of work they put into the show and for their support and love and trust. They made this a great experience and I hope to work with the Theatricians again in the future.

I should also thank Will and the McFadden family for giving us the use of their home that was so conveniently located by the theater. Thank you for the lemonade, pickletinis, taco bell, and self esteem boosters.

Also thanks Mariana for being our lovely house manager.

Hmmm. My feet really hurt from working today. First time working in a restaurant. So far so good. But very different. Only time will tell how this one works out! I feel like a real L.A. actress now though. Maybe I should get a fake tan...

La La La Lashes

Had rehearsal for Caesar last night finally.

I felt so out of the loop because I had missed so much and I am so glad to finally get in the game.
I mainly rehearsed scenes with J.R. who is playing Brutus, and also with Eliza who is playing Portia.

I was starting to feel anxious about developing my characters when I wasn't really sure of what was going on in the play as a whole, but now I have a pretty good idea what I want to do with them, thanks to my incredibly helpful director Erwin.
Only wish I had been able to rehearse with Lovely.

Tomorrow I have another round of performances for bobrauschenbergamerica. I hope that everyone who wants to go has bought their tickets at www.theatricians.com!

Yesterday when I wash washing my face a huge chunk of eyelash glue finally fell off my eye that had been there since last week's performances! It was beyond gross. All the girls and I are putting falsies on for the show and they look so rad, but my contacts and eyeballs hate them. I had to opt out for the Sunday show because my eyes needed a rest. But I think I will resume tomorrow now that the final vestiges of residue have fallen off.

Three Shows Down

Weekend 1 is finished.

Given the panic of last week's tech, opening night went pretty smoothly.

The technical problems that seemed glaring to us went pretty much unnoticed by the audience. And I am just glad I did not trip.

The only misstep I had was on Sunday night when my prop umbrella fell into a trash can from where I set it. So when I went to places and felt around for my umbrella in the black darkness I couldn't find it and had to do my first skate without it. But no one who hadn't seen the show would know. We are still trying to figure out the space backstage and there are some noisy movmements that can't really be helped because it's an old theater.

I got a cold from my girls, of course. All I wanted was to stay healthy this week but for some reason parents seem to not understand that when their kids are sick, I will get sick, and then I won't be able to work for the next week and both of us are fucked over. I know this is a difficult concept to grasp. So needless to say, I am not going to work tomorrow.

And doing a show while sick is great too. I couldn't decide if it would be worse to do the show with dayquil and be high and lightheaded or to just suck it up. I chose the latter and spent the whole show sniffly and trying to not sneeze while in the wings or onstage. Both of which failed.

On another note, I am pretty sure I got cast in the Vampire movie, which should be fun, regardless of the quality of the script. Which, from what I heard, seems dubious. It should be fun to be a vampire though and I know that it will be awesome visually because I know the DP.

Now I am going to nyquil myself.



Some production stills for you. I will put up more later.

Amy Gumenick and Melissa Dixon



Charlie Faith and Will McFadden



Brennan Kelleher

Opening Weekend

Finally here.

And it's always too soon. I tripped twice in our final dress rehearsal yesterday.
But I'm hoping it's that "bad final dress, good opening" superstition.

Tech problems that were really stressing us out on Wednesday seem to have mainly cleared up by now.

I am trying to get caught up today on all the computer stuff I was unable to do this week but I keep feeling like I am still behind.

And I'm feeling guilty for not going over my part in Caesar yet.

Get your tickets for our opening weekend!!!

www.theatricians.com

Tech Week

Tech week is always rough but tonight and last night have been cue-to-cue so it's been unbelieveably long and strenuous.

Being in rollerskates for 5-6 hours a night is really not fun. My feet and back are killing me.
I so old.

Buuuuttttttttt these past two nights have actually been pretty fun and lighthearted.

Most of us work all day and then go to rehearsal all night so we're so exhausted and cracked out that weird stuff happens and most of it is hilarious. But going through the cues so so slowly is difficult.

Yesterday, for some inexplicable reason, I fell like 4 times for the first time in weeks.
I just could not find my balance and what was weird is that I didn't fall hard, I just kind of would slowly melt to the ground. Once during the dance which is actually my worst nightmare.

I feel like if I fall during any other part of the play there will still be that question of whether or not I meant to fall and I can play it off and it won't be so clear for the audience.

But if I fall mid dance it will be painfully obvious that I just lost my balance and I really don't have the level of self-esteem necessary to survive that kind of mortification. Most of the other times I fell just when I was standing around backstage waiting for hours to go on and I would just not be focusing so I'd lose my balance and fall.

No falls tonight, thankfully, I actually just got home a bit ago from the tech, and I got back here early. The poor rest of the cast and crew is still there working. (It's 2am.)

The amazing Bryan Forrest was there decorating the set and painting and hammering and building shit. The guy is incredible. There is seriously nothing he can't do. I can honestly say there is no one better than him. He leaves no detail behind, the set is exquisite and the amount of work and energy and detail he puts into every single setpiece is unbelieveable. I have no doubt he will be there til 4 am working on it and I know I will see him there tomorrow working all night as well. Seriously though. Hire this guy.

Tonight we moved incredibly slowly while the light and sound cues were being set.

There was a freaking long ass waiting period at the end of one scene where we all stand onstage and we literally stood there for 45 minutes while the lights were being set and I guess I was scratching my chest and I didn't even realize it because out of nowhere Brennan just looks at me with this horrified look on his face and is like wtf is on your chest and I reach to my collarbone and my hand is COVERED in blood. Like copious amounts. Sweet Brennan ran and got me a paper towel and I literally bled profusely for like 15 minutes! And I didnt even feel anything! AND the cut is the size of a pinprick! It was really weird. Like someone threw a miniature dart at me and I didn't notice. It was weird and bleedy and gross.

I'm tired. We work with the special surprise guests tomorrow. There is a whole segment of the play we have never done before. So that will be exciting for everyone involved. And I think my sister is going to house manage for us which will be fun to have her around and boss her around per usual. Though it will probably not be me bossing her around since I don't really know what house managers do and she does. hmmm.

Will's dad videotaped us while we were practicing dances at his house the other day and here is a little clip! I'm barely in it seeing as I could not rollerdance on their wooden patio.





This post is brought to you by Brennan Kelleher's Dance Face:



Have you ever seen such joy?

As We Prepare To Go Into Tech

I can't remember what I wrote about last.

Rehearsals are getting more and more stressful as we get closer to opening. Between that and either working or being obsessed with getting another job it's starting to weigh on me.

But I can't wait to open this play, I know it's going to come together fantastically and that the work we have put into our parts will come through.

I'm bummed I am missing my first cast read through of Julius Caesar this week but I'll be in tech.

And once again here is the info for the show:

bobrauschenbergamerica by Charles Mee

Directed by Tracy Woodward

Cast
Amy Gumenick
Melissa Dixon
Alexa Kahn
Lourdes Uribe
Ty Foster
Josh Heisler
Charlie Faith
Brennah Kelleher
Will McFadden

Place: Class Act Theater
5345 Wilhelmina Ave
Woodland Hills CA

When: August 7, 8, 9 and 14, 15, 16
8pm on Friday and Saturday
7pm on Sunday

Tickets available on at the Theatricians webpage as well as info about the cast and crew.

Proceeds go to benefit the Class Act Musical Theater Children's Shows.