So you know I'm doing this play, right? Well, we've gotten hooked up with this outfit called Network for Good, which is an organization started by Kevin Bacon to promote grassroots philanthropy, and I've added this nice little HTML badge to the side of the page here to help promote people clicking through and giving money. If we raise a big pile of money in the next two weeks, Kevin will give us even more money! Yeah, if we're one of the top six donation-getters by March 31, Kevin will give us $10K!
So click the banner on the side of the page and help me raise money to do this show!
Please, and thank you.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Into the fire...
Yeah, this is the week from hell. I got back from SETC, sick as a dog. I have no idea how I managed to present my three workshops, but I'm sure it was funny watching the feverish, stoned fat guy meander around a topic while trying not to fall over. I spent most of the conference in bed when I wasn't teaching. I had no idea there were that many variants of Law and Order and CSI, and they're ALL available on hotel cable!
Then I get back to finish focus and programming for Crucible. I get everything written, the SM and I get the director in to look at things, and he starts CUTTING cues! I love that! Usually they want a ton of extra stuff that I haven't planned for and that no one has told me about, but Matty decided instead to take out a bunch of spacer blackouts that I had put in for set changes and just let things flow better. It was great. There was still some tweaking that had to take place as I went through tech Sunday night, but nothing huge. I also still haven't seen Act IV, although I've designed looks for it and written cues for it, so that's a touch worrisome. If it turns out to look good without me ever seeing the play, I'll be even more insufferable. I also found out that my Les Mis schedule isn't as hellish as I thought - I'll be able to get back over to Crucible tomorrow night for touchup and things, so that leaves me in a much better place than I thought I would be.
My place in the universe is further improved by the fact that a check for the first half of my fee was waiting for me when I walked into the theatre Sunday. It's always nice to be paid promptly.
Les Mis focus was tonight, and it went pretty smoothly. The house plot in that venue is very flexible, and I've worked within it enough times to get a lot out of it, so I changed out a little color, called the front of house focus, threw a bunch of patterns in the air and called it art.
One thing I'm really doing a lot with in this show is patterns for texture, just out of focus breakup gobos to keep away any impression of smooth lighting. The France of this play is a very dirty, shaowy place, and I'm working with lighting to enhance that mood even more by breaking up the light every chance I get. I think it will add a lot to the show, and give it a very distinctive look about the play. I've also got some neat projection things going on in Crucible that I'm very pleased with, and some great play of light and shadow on scenic elements and actors.
Tomorrow moring I go in from 8AM - 1PM for a cue writing session, and hope I'll be able to get most of the show written in that length of time. We then break for lunch, come back a 2PM for a 3PM rehearsal, and theoretically are finished at 7PM for the day. That's a pretty hard number, since it's a union house and anything over 5 hours with the crew goes into serious overtime charges.
So at 7 I'll boogie over to Crucible and see what's shaking there. I might take a few minutes to eat first, though. I think any touch-up focus I do will happen Wednesday night after our rehearsal, as Crucible should be done with me by then and I'll have a more complete idea of everything that needs be done to make Les Mis as good as I can make it.
It's more than the money, although it's very nice of these places to throw me a few bucks to play with lights on their behalf. It's about pride at this point. I've taken plenty of gigs that noone ever sees or notices the lighting, but a big musical like Les Mis, expecially the first local production of the show ever (even if it is by a high school, it's a good high school) requires everything I can give it. I decided a long time ago that if my name's in the program, it doesn't matter if it's community theatre, high school, professional theatre, volunteer theatre or the highest paid gig of my life, it gets everything I can give it. I just don't think it's fair to give anything less.
When I directed Much Ado About Nothing, a production that was thoroughly adored by audiences and loathed by critics, one of my actors asked me on opening night (when we were all out drinking and celebrating the opening) how I knew when I "got it right." I told her I never knew if I'd gotten it right for anyone else, but for me, I knew I'd gotten it right when the show opened, and I felt a profound emptiness inside myself as I watch my actors take the stage, like there was absolutely nothing left of myself to give to the process.
That's how I know I've gotten it right, when I'm empty on opening night. The joy of watching the show to fruition fills me back up again and then some, but when I feel all hollow inside right before curtain, I know I've done my best. I try to feel that way about every show. Sometimes I get there, sometimes I get in my own way and I don't get there, but it's good to just give it everything you've got. Because that's my measure of success. If I've held nothing back, then I've done a good job, no matter if anyone in the world sees it or likes it.
I don't really know where all that came from, but it's all pretty true. I've felt more energized about theatre in the past month than I have in the past two years, so I guess I'm blaming Chris and that merry band of degenerates we've assembled down in The Rock.
Then I get back to finish focus and programming for Crucible. I get everything written, the SM and I get the director in to look at things, and he starts CUTTING cues! I love that! Usually they want a ton of extra stuff that I haven't planned for and that no one has told me about, but Matty decided instead to take out a bunch of spacer blackouts that I had put in for set changes and just let things flow better. It was great. There was still some tweaking that had to take place as I went through tech Sunday night, but nothing huge. I also still haven't seen Act IV, although I've designed looks for it and written cues for it, so that's a touch worrisome. If it turns out to look good without me ever seeing the play, I'll be even more insufferable. I also found out that my Les Mis schedule isn't as hellish as I thought - I'll be able to get back over to Crucible tomorrow night for touchup and things, so that leaves me in a much better place than I thought I would be.
My place in the universe is further improved by the fact that a check for the first half of my fee was waiting for me when I walked into the theatre Sunday. It's always nice to be paid promptly.
Les Mis focus was tonight, and it went pretty smoothly. The house plot in that venue is very flexible, and I've worked within it enough times to get a lot out of it, so I changed out a little color, called the front of house focus, threw a bunch of patterns in the air and called it art.
One thing I'm really doing a lot with in this show is patterns for texture, just out of focus breakup gobos to keep away any impression of smooth lighting. The France of this play is a very dirty, shaowy place, and I'm working with lighting to enhance that mood even more by breaking up the light every chance I get. I think it will add a lot to the show, and give it a very distinctive look about the play. I've also got some neat projection things going on in Crucible that I'm very pleased with, and some great play of light and shadow on scenic elements and actors.
Tomorrow moring I go in from 8AM - 1PM for a cue writing session, and hope I'll be able to get most of the show written in that length of time. We then break for lunch, come back a 2PM for a 3PM rehearsal, and theoretically are finished at 7PM for the day. That's a pretty hard number, since it's a union house and anything over 5 hours with the crew goes into serious overtime charges.
So at 7 I'll boogie over to Crucible and see what's shaking there. I might take a few minutes to eat first, though. I think any touch-up focus I do will happen Wednesday night after our rehearsal, as Crucible should be done with me by then and I'll have a more complete idea of everything that needs be done to make Les Mis as good as I can make it.
It's more than the money, although it's very nice of these places to throw me a few bucks to play with lights on their behalf. It's about pride at this point. I've taken plenty of gigs that noone ever sees or notices the lighting, but a big musical like Les Mis, expecially the first local production of the show ever (even if it is by a high school, it's a good high school) requires everything I can give it. I decided a long time ago that if my name's in the program, it doesn't matter if it's community theatre, high school, professional theatre, volunteer theatre or the highest paid gig of my life, it gets everything I can give it. I just don't think it's fair to give anything less.
When I directed Much Ado About Nothing, a production that was thoroughly adored by audiences and loathed by critics, one of my actors asked me on opening night (when we were all out drinking and celebrating the opening) how I knew when I "got it right." I told her I never knew if I'd gotten it right for anyone else, but for me, I knew I'd gotten it right when the show opened, and I felt a profound emptiness inside myself as I watch my actors take the stage, like there was absolutely nothing left of myself to give to the process.
That's how I know I've gotten it right, when I'm empty on opening night. The joy of watching the show to fruition fills me back up again and then some, but when I feel all hollow inside right before curtain, I know I've done my best. I try to feel that way about every show. Sometimes I get there, sometimes I get in my own way and I don't get there, but it's good to just give it everything you've got. Because that's my measure of success. If I've held nothing back, then I've done a good job, no matter if anyone in the world sees it or likes it.
I don't really know where all that came from, but it's all pretty true. I've felt more energized about theatre in the past month than I have in the past two years, so I guess I'm blaming Chris and that merry band of degenerates we've assembled down in The Rock.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Working Act I
2-rehearsal day for me, as I had an afternoon run-through of Les Mis to watch. At some point I should listen to the soundtrack, since I'm one of the very few theatre people with more than a decade's experience who has never seen or heard the soundtrack to Les Mis. The arts magnet school has hired a new scenic designer this year, and the set is way farther along than it usually is at this point. It's a good-looking set, too, with the giant turntable to rotate the set, some neat cut drops, and a bunch of shit all over the barricade. It's still a high school show at heart, though, so there are some things not done, some kids don't know their lines, and there's a pretty high potential for disaster between now and opening night, but I think it will turn out to be a good show.
Then our first real working rehearsal for Shrew was tonight. It felt good to get on my feet and try some things. I'm working on posture and balance right now, trying to feel what this Petruchio walks like and moves like, and that'll take me a little while to figure out. Things like character development and movement will develop slowly over the next few weeks as I try to learn all these damn lines. I think the next thing for me to work on is improvising in iambic pentameter.
Southeastern Theatre Conference is this weekend, and as State Representative for North Carolina, I forgot that I'm on the board. I'm also presenting three workshops - one on troubleshooting a lighting system, one on selecting a new light board for your theatre, and one on new lighting products. I've done these workshops before in different formats, and actually wrote up an article on choosing a new light board on my church lighting website, so they won't be too bad. I'll have to do a little outline work for those, though.
With SETC and tech for Crucible and Les Mis, I'm going to miss the next week and change of rehearsals, which I hate, but SETC is a work thing and the shows I'm designing pay for my summer vacations, so they're pretty damn important as well. So that's life here for now.
Then our first real working rehearsal for Shrew was tonight. It felt good to get on my feet and try some things. I'm working on posture and balance right now, trying to feel what this Petruchio walks like and moves like, and that'll take me a little while to figure out. Things like character development and movement will develop slowly over the next few weeks as I try to learn all these damn lines. I think the next thing for me to work on is improvising in iambic pentameter.
Southeastern Theatre Conference is this weekend, and as State Representative for North Carolina, I forgot that I'm on the board. I'm also presenting three workshops - one on troubleshooting a lighting system, one on selecting a new light board for your theatre, and one on new lighting products. I've done these workshops before in different formats, and actually wrote up an article on choosing a new light board on my church lighting website, so they won't be too bad. I'll have to do a little outline work for those, though.
With SETC and tech for Crucible and Les Mis, I'm going to miss the next week and change of rehearsals, which I hate, but SETC is a work thing and the shows I'm designing pay for my summer vacations, so they're pretty damn important as well. So that's life here for now.
Crucible
Had a little help from Phil and Tresa working on Crucible this weekend, which allowed me to get a lot more done than I would typically have been able to accomplish in one day. Also, a kid named Andrew who was my spotlight operator for Chorus Line came by and did yeoman's work for me as well. It's way mo' better when I have help and don't have to haul my fat ass up the ladder all the time. It's better for me, and better for the ladder, too. I got most of that show created and complete, so that will help a bunch with tech next week. If I can get that show pretty much finished on Sunday, I can focus on Les Mis the rest of the week and both directors will be happy. Well, as happy as directors get.
Rehearsal tonight for Shrew and we actually get to start working on things, so I'm looking forward to that.
Rehearsal tonight for Shrew and we actually get to start working on things, so I'm looking forward to that.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Ghosts in the hall...
Driving back to Rock Hill I can see them. One southern, one Oxford proper. Both gone, but not forgotten. One standing, coffee mug in hand, foot propped up on a chair with his cowboy boots on and motorcycle helmet sitting on the floor beside his chair, starting every answer with a "Weeeeelllll," The other, sitting in the back of a darkened theatre, occassionally piping up with "Ahem. Michael? Ahem. That's a dick joke," in the crispest, most proper British.
Dennis Kay was the assistant director and dramaturg the last time I came off acting hiatus with The Taming of the Shrew. He was a warm and caring man and made everyone feel like their part was important, even if you only played the drunk guy in Act 5. He had time to teach you what those tripping words meant, and never condescended. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during our opening week. He made it out of the hospital to see the last performance, but died soon after that. In my too-brief time working with Dennis I got to see a love for Shakespeare, and a love for language, that I'd never known in another person.
Blair I knew longer, and better. He was my college advisor, my directing professor, my mentor. He helped me get sober when my head was fucked my junior year and I couldn't get it straight without getting straight. He'd battled those demons already, and was winning, so he knew the fight I was fighting. He kicked my ass, yelled at me, cajoled, persuaded, and generally rode my ass through four years of college. The entire department called him "Daddy B," and for good reason. We were his kids.
We kept in touch a little after I graduated, and I renewed that contact when I started Off-Tryon. I realized how much of his teachings stuck with me when I could laugh and hear my voice giving his directing notes. He could do it all - design, act, direct, tech - and he instilled the value in that in me. He was a cantankerous old bastard, and made me stronger and more stubborn by fighting with me. He was a loving man, and I miss him every time I drive down I-77 to rehearsal, because this will be a show he'd be proud of. Three of us in this show are his kids, and we always will be, even though his pack-a-day habit finally caught up to him.
These are the ghosts in my rehearsal hall. Most of the time they're smiling. But I haven't tried to get off book yet. I have a feeling they'll come back to kick my ass in about three weeks. I feel these guys in this play, Dennis because he was part of it the first time I did it, and Blair because I haven't acted in Rock Hill since his death, and he was such a part of the Winthrop and Rock Hill Community. Somewhere, I think they're looking forward to opening night even more than I am.
Dennis Kay was the assistant director and dramaturg the last time I came off acting hiatus with The Taming of the Shrew. He was a warm and caring man and made everyone feel like their part was important, even if you only played the drunk guy in Act 5. He had time to teach you what those tripping words meant, and never condescended. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during our opening week. He made it out of the hospital to see the last performance, but died soon after that. In my too-brief time working with Dennis I got to see a love for Shakespeare, and a love for language, that I'd never known in another person.
Blair I knew longer, and better. He was my college advisor, my directing professor, my mentor. He helped me get sober when my head was fucked my junior year and I couldn't get it straight without getting straight. He'd battled those demons already, and was winning, so he knew the fight I was fighting. He kicked my ass, yelled at me, cajoled, persuaded, and generally rode my ass through four years of college. The entire department called him "Daddy B," and for good reason. We were his kids.
We kept in touch a little after I graduated, and I renewed that contact when I started Off-Tryon. I realized how much of his teachings stuck with me when I could laugh and hear my voice giving his directing notes. He could do it all - design, act, direct, tech - and he instilled the value in that in me. He was a cantankerous old bastard, and made me stronger and more stubborn by fighting with me. He was a loving man, and I miss him every time I drive down I-77 to rehearsal, because this will be a show he'd be proud of. Three of us in this show are his kids, and we always will be, even though his pack-a-day habit finally caught up to him.
These are the ghosts in my rehearsal hall. Most of the time they're smiling. But I haven't tried to get off book yet. I have a feeling they'll come back to kick my ass in about three weeks. I feel these guys in this play, Dennis because he was part of it the first time I did it, and Blair because I haven't acted in Rock Hill since his death, and he was such a part of the Winthrop and Rock Hill Community. Somewhere, I think they're looking forward to opening night even more than I am.
Day 2 - read it again
In the second read-thru, people mostly know how to pronounce things, although we have a couple of folks who are shaky on some of the names, and my Latin is nonexistent. A few character things can start to be glimpsed, and occassionally people will get up and move as the spirit moves them. It's starting to get interesting.
One of the neat things our director has done is gender-bend the role of Grumio, Petruchio's manservant. Now she's Grumia, my portable wench. It adds a different layer to the interaction of the characters, and I think that will be fun to explore as time goes on. It also adds a couple layers to Grumio(a)'s interactions with Kate, which is also fun. It's good to be having fun doing this again, and it's really good not to be in charge of it all. I can't help but interject myself, because I'm a mouthy bastard, but the ultimate responsibility isn't mine, and I'm happy 'bout that.
Here's some photos to let you check out the cast.
<------Nick plays Tranio, Lucentio's manservant that masquerades as Lucentio to help him win the fair Bianca (or fair Binaca as one of the script typos reads).
Jimmy plays Gremio, one of the many other----> suitors to Bianca. He ends up with no booty at the end of the show. Poor bastard.
<----Our Fearless Leader, Chris will also play the role of Baptista Minola, father to Kate and Binaca.
The prettiest Kate in all of Christendom---->
Randal and Nicole play Vincentio and the Widow. Yeah, there might have been a little drinkin' after rehearsal last night. It's always a bit hazardous to your health when there's a pub directly across the street from the rehearsal venue.
I'll have more photos tomorrow, and I'll dump a bunch onto my flickr here in a few minutes.
One of the neat things our director has done is gender-bend the role of Grumio, Petruchio's manservant. Now she's Grumia, my portable wench. It adds a different layer to the interaction of the characters, and I think that will be fun to explore as time goes on. It also adds a couple layers to Grumio(a)'s interactions with Kate, which is also fun. It's good to be having fun doing this again, and it's really good not to be in charge of it all. I can't help but interject myself, because I'm a mouthy bastard, but the ultimate responsibility isn't mine, and I'm happy 'bout that.
Here's some photos to let you check out the cast.
<------Nick plays Tranio, Lucentio's manservant that masquerades as Lucentio to help him win the fair Bianca (or fair Binaca as one of the script typos reads).
Jimmy plays Gremio, one of the many other----> suitors to Bianca. He ends up with no booty at the end of the show. Poor bastard.
<----Our Fearless Leader, Chris will also play the role of Baptista Minola, father to Kate and Binaca.
The prettiest Kate in all of Christendom---->
Randal and Nicole play Vincentio and the Widow. Yeah, there might have been a little drinkin' after rehearsal last night. It's always a bit hazardous to your health when there's a pub directly across the street from the rehearsal venue.
I'll have more photos tomorrow, and I'll dump a bunch onto my flickr here in a few minutes.
Tags:
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The Crucible
Did I mention that I'm a bit of a masochist? In addition to taking the leading role in this little Shakespeare thing going on in April, I'm also still doing the whole freelance design thing. So last night I went to watch a run through of The Crucible, which is my next project. Or one of my next projects, rather, as I'll be bouncing between rehearsals for the Arthur Miller masterpiece of depression and Les Miserable, that Victor Hugo ode to a loaf of bread.
They open the same night.
I mentioned that I'm a bit of an idiot on top a masochist, right? So my plan is to get Crucible hung and focused this weekend, and maybe even programmed, so that lighting can be completely done before I leave town next week to attend the Southeastern Theatre Conference, where I'm teaching three workshops that I know nothing about and freaking out over the ridiculous number of words I have to remember while doing more situps than Jack Lalane for I'll be more Petruchio than Pe-tubby-o in April.
I might be freaking out a little.
They open the same night.
I mentioned that I'm a bit of an idiot on top a masochist, right? So my plan is to get Crucible hung and focused this weekend, and maybe even programmed, so that lighting can be completely done before I leave town next week to attend the Southeastern Theatre Conference, where I'm teaching three workshops that I know nothing about and freaking out over the ridiculous number of words I have to remember while doing more situps than Jack Lalane for I'll be more Petruchio than Pe-tubby-o in April.
I might be freaking out a little.
Monday, February 26, 2007
First read-thru
So the good news is that I think I can probably still do this acting thing. The better news is that it's a good cast. And even better, it feels fun again. It's been a long time since theatre was fun, and that's what I've missed.
I enjoy lighting, and I get satisfaction out of making pretty pictures with lighting, but it's not what I'd call fun. It's also largely solitary, with input really only from the director and the other designers. I never really feel like a part of the ensemble as a lighting designer, because I'm not. Those people have been owrking very closely together for weeks to build something that I'm coming into at the last minute. Even the tightness of the crew is something I don't experience, because I'm not on headset with them and not in there every night working to make it happen. I do my bit, get my check, go on my merry way.
This is different. I'm going to spend the next two months with these people. Roughly five nights a week. I'm in the middle of this, not on the edges. It felt good to be there again.
I enjoy lighting, and I get satisfaction out of making pretty pictures with lighting, but it's not what I'd call fun. It's also largely solitary, with input really only from the director and the other designers. I never really feel like a part of the ensemble as a lighting designer, because I'm not. Those people have been owrking very closely together for weeks to build something that I'm coming into at the last minute. Even the tightness of the crew is something I don't experience, because I'm not on headset with them and not in there every night working to make it happen. I do my bit, get my check, go on my merry way.
This is different. I'm going to spend the next two months with these people. Roughly five nights a week. I'm in the middle of this, not on the edges. It felt good to be there again.
Tags:
It all starts again
I was three years ago the last time I walked across the stage as an actor. It was more like 16 the last time I carried the leading male role in a show. It's never happened in a Shakespeare play. To say I'm a little concerned with my ability to pull this off would be an understatement. It's not the acting that I'm sweating. If I can pull off a $100 bluff on the river with nothing but a busted Queen-high flush draw I can handle the acting part of it. It's more the looking retarded because I'm old, fat and out of shape and here I am supposed to be Petruchio.
You're welcome to follow along and see how it goes. I'll try to document the process the best I can.
Day 1 - Fuck me, that's a lot of words.
You're welcome to follow along and see how it goes. I'll try to document the process the best I can.
Day 1 - Fuck me, that's a lot of words.
Tags:
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Opera fini
And after another two-a-day rehearsal that saw me at least leave the theatre prior to the clock turning on a new day, I am done with the opera. It looks really pretty. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. There is one 3-minute scene that I really wanted to tweak a little, but there was so much going on in the room that it was never really feasible to get the lift out and refocus for that scene. There's an upstage corner that's darker than I want, but that's about all I can get out of it with the three days time I had.
I think overall it's pretty. This shot is from near the end, before Dido offs herself.
I'd really like another week to tweak and touch up things, but it's very pretty for the time allotted, and most of my touch up stuff last night was just timing and incremental level stuff, so I was happy. Hopefully I'll be able to get a photo up here or on PokerStage before too long.
Now on the next three things. I've got a theatre conference that I'm teaching three workshops at in two weeks, and then two shows opening the week after, all while I'm starting rehearsals for Taming of the Shrew. It's a busy spring, to say the least. The funny bit is that I have practically nothing lined up for summer, and only one show lined up for late spring. Who knows, some stuff will probably fall into place to keep me busy.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
It's been a long time...
Since I spent 14 hours in one day working on a show. Shit, most of the gigs I get nowadays, 14 hours is about all I spend on the entire thing! I exaggerate a little, but yesterday was a long fucking day.
I still think this director is pretty damn cool. She's got big ideas and isn't afraid to take risks. Unfortunately she has no real production experience, from the technical side, and the opera has received practically zero support from the UNCC Dance and Theatre Department, which is a shame. Yeah, I know it's a music department production. Yeah, I know it runs concurrently with a theatre department show. But just the simple help of offering up some practicum student assistance or even making working on the opera an option for the theatre kids woulda been nice. But in academia, there be turf wars. And this be one of them.
So we rehearsed from 7Pm to midnight last night. Which sucked ass for an hour-long show, but really wasn't that bad when you consider everything that had to happen. We had to get lighting integrated into the show. We had to get the orchestra in place and integrated. We had to get video integrated. A lot of video. Like four projectors and a roving camera lot.
I may have mentioned before, but video is hard. And frequently people that work with video don't often work in theatre, so there's a vocabulary gap there as well. The impressive thing last night was that all the technical folks remained relatively calm, even when the viola player got smacked in the head.
Yup. A chain that was part of a costume flew over the edge of the stage and clobbered the viola player. She wasn't even bleeding, but freaked out all over the place and threatened to quit over it! Geez, if I threatened to quit every time I got hurt on a show I'd never work anywhere! And like I said, she wasn't even bleeding...
But anyway, my lights are in good shape, and there are some very pretty looks in the show, so I'm pleased with it overall. I'd certainly love to have 3-4 more nights of touchup and cueing, but I don't. So tonight is final dress and it will be as good as it gets when I leave. Then on to the next thing.
I still think this director is pretty damn cool. She's got big ideas and isn't afraid to take risks. Unfortunately she has no real production experience, from the technical side, and the opera has received practically zero support from the UNCC Dance and Theatre Department, which is a shame. Yeah, I know it's a music department production. Yeah, I know it runs concurrently with a theatre department show. But just the simple help of offering up some practicum student assistance or even making working on the opera an option for the theatre kids woulda been nice. But in academia, there be turf wars. And this be one of them.
So we rehearsed from 7Pm to midnight last night. Which sucked ass for an hour-long show, but really wasn't that bad when you consider everything that had to happen. We had to get lighting integrated into the show. We had to get the orchestra in place and integrated. We had to get video integrated. A lot of video. Like four projectors and a roving camera lot.
I may have mentioned before, but video is hard. And frequently people that work with video don't often work in theatre, so there's a vocabulary gap there as well. The impressive thing last night was that all the technical folks remained relatively calm, even when the viola player got smacked in the head.
Yup. A chain that was part of a costume flew over the edge of the stage and clobbered the viola player. She wasn't even bleeding, but freaked out all over the place and threatened to quit over it! Geez, if I threatened to quit every time I got hurt on a show I'd never work anywhere! And like I said, she wasn't even bleeding...
But anyway, my lights are in good shape, and there are some very pretty looks in the show, so I'm pleased with it overall. I'd certainly love to have 3-4 more nights of touchup and cueing, but I don't. So tonight is final dress and it will be as good as it gets when I leave. Then on to the next thing.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Opera
Tonight I begin designing an opera for a department at UNCC that has never produced a fully-staged performance before. I don't read music. And I've never designed an opera before.
At least it's in English.
Should be interesting. And in the "God, just what I think I didn't need another one of" department, a buddy emailed me today asking me to light his musical. Next week.
It's my dark week. It's feasible. It's $500. I'm probably gonna do it. Because I'm fucking stupid. And greedy.
At least it's in English.
Should be interesting. And in the "God, just what I think I didn't need another one of" department, a buddy emailed me today asking me to light his musical. Next week.
It's my dark week. It's feasible. It's $500. I'm probably gonna do it. Because I'm fucking stupid. And greedy.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Dance fest - fini
So I'm done with the NC Dance fest, and damn, are my legs tired. That joke never works. so over the course of six days I saw and designed or semi-designed better than 20 dances, many of which I saw for the first time the afternoon that they were to perform.
It was yesterday that I kinda took stock and realized that this is one of the hardest gigs I do each year, because I have so little time to tweak and adjust anything. It's talk through the piece with the choreographer once without hearing the music, then run the piece once with lights, and if we have enough time in their tech slot, make changes and run the piece again with lights. Usually we don't have enough time so I get to see each piece once, sometimes marking through the piece instead of dancing full our and about half the time not even in costume, then run it for an audience later that evening.
Without screwing anything up that the choreographer may have mentioned in passing three days ago.
All the choreographers were very gracious and understanding of the constraints we were all working under, some of them just didn't have the vocabulary to communicate with technical personnel. I find that incredibly frustrating, as we as technicians are expected to understand the nuances of their world, but they frequently don't take the time to even think about learning ours.
As I said more than once this weekend, I want to work with directors and choreographers that fall into one of two camps. I either want to work with people like John Gamble from Greensboro, who has a great understanding of lighting and how to achieve the effects he wants (it doesn't hurt that he was a lighting designer before becoming a choreographer) or I want to work with people like Justy Turnow of [project incite] in Charlotte, who doesn't pretend to know much about lighting, but cuts me loose to be creative and trusts my artistic capabilities.
Most of the choreographers fell into the second camp, and that made them fun enough to work with, but a couple simply couldn't form complete sentences when talking to me about what the piece should look like. That adds time to the process that we don't have to spare in this environment. If you don't have a picture in your head, how did you design the dance to begin with? And especially if you're a touring artist, how can you not know what your dance has looked like other places?
But it was overall a pleasant enough experience. I don't know if I'll do it again next year. There's never a guarantee that I'll be asked, but it's even mor up in the air now, as the woman who has run the tour stop in Charlotte says she's burned out and doesn't want to do it next year. So we'll have to see if it even happens next year before we think about whether or not I'll be part of it.
Strike was after the show, and some of the dancers stuck around to help. I always appreciate volunteers, because there are plenty of things at a strike that just require hands, not necessarily trained hands. We had to strike the upstage two booms on each side of the stage so that the opera that I'm lighting this coming week can load their set in tonight and tomorrow.
A boom is a piece of pipe screwed into a heavy base with lights mounted onto it. At UNCC, these booms are around 15' - 20' tall and have a rope that ties off up to the grid. So we send someone up about 80' to the grid, have them untie the boom, and then try to control the descent of a 20' pipe with about an extra 60 lbs of lighting attached to it. It takes about 4 people on the ground and one in the air. The we strip the lights off the pipe while folks are holding it, and unscrew the pipe from the base. Lather, rinse, repeat four times.
Then we put all the lights on a rack and take them down to storage, then we put the booms in storage, the bases in storage, the cable in storage, then we take up the dance floor. See, dancers, especially modern dancers, can't dance on a wooden stage floor. It's too rough and they'd end up getting splinters in places nobody wants a splinter. For ballet, it's more about traction than splinters, but still no wood floor. So on top of the stage floor for every dance concert you lay down a second floor called marley.
Marley is a thick, two-sided (usually) flooring product that comes in about 5' widths and spans the length of the stage. It's also ridiculously expensive. The dance floor to cover the stage at UNCC is probably upwards of $25,000.00 to replace. So we take up all the tape holding down the marley, and roll all that heavy shit up onto rollers. A single panel of marley once it's rolled up for storage is usually 100 lbs. or so. Repeat eight times to cover the whole depth of the stage. Then move the marley cart into storage.
I left before the marley was done. I was off the clock by then and the UNCC work-study studentia had that bit well in hand. They'll probably find a way to get back at me this week as I do the opera, but I'll take it. Me and my busted-ass toe that I dropped an empty boom pipe on. Owie.
It was yesterday that I kinda took stock and realized that this is one of the hardest gigs I do each year, because I have so little time to tweak and adjust anything. It's talk through the piece with the choreographer once without hearing the music, then run the piece once with lights, and if we have enough time in their tech slot, make changes and run the piece again with lights. Usually we don't have enough time so I get to see each piece once, sometimes marking through the piece instead of dancing full our and about half the time not even in costume, then run it for an audience later that evening.
Without screwing anything up that the choreographer may have mentioned in passing three days ago.
All the choreographers were very gracious and understanding of the constraints we were all working under, some of them just didn't have the vocabulary to communicate with technical personnel. I find that incredibly frustrating, as we as technicians are expected to understand the nuances of their world, but they frequently don't take the time to even think about learning ours.
As I said more than once this weekend, I want to work with directors and choreographers that fall into one of two camps. I either want to work with people like John Gamble from Greensboro, who has a great understanding of lighting and how to achieve the effects he wants (it doesn't hurt that he was a lighting designer before becoming a choreographer) or I want to work with people like Justy Turnow of [project incite] in Charlotte, who doesn't pretend to know much about lighting, but cuts me loose to be creative and trusts my artistic capabilities.
Most of the choreographers fell into the second camp, and that made them fun enough to work with, but a couple simply couldn't form complete sentences when talking to me about what the piece should look like. That adds time to the process that we don't have to spare in this environment. If you don't have a picture in your head, how did you design the dance to begin with? And especially if you're a touring artist, how can you not know what your dance has looked like other places?
But it was overall a pleasant enough experience. I don't know if I'll do it again next year. There's never a guarantee that I'll be asked, but it's even mor up in the air now, as the woman who has run the tour stop in Charlotte says she's burned out and doesn't want to do it next year. So we'll have to see if it even happens next year before we think about whether or not I'll be part of it.
Strike was after the show, and some of the dancers stuck around to help. I always appreciate volunteers, because there are plenty of things at a strike that just require hands, not necessarily trained hands. We had to strike the upstage two booms on each side of the stage so that the opera that I'm lighting this coming week can load their set in tonight and tomorrow.
A boom is a piece of pipe screwed into a heavy base with lights mounted onto it. At UNCC, these booms are around 15' - 20' tall and have a rope that ties off up to the grid. So we send someone up about 80' to the grid, have them untie the boom, and then try to control the descent of a 20' pipe with about an extra 60 lbs of lighting attached to it. It takes about 4 people on the ground and one in the air. The we strip the lights off the pipe while folks are holding it, and unscrew the pipe from the base. Lather, rinse, repeat four times.
Then we put all the lights on a rack and take them down to storage, then we put the booms in storage, the bases in storage, the cable in storage, then we take up the dance floor. See, dancers, especially modern dancers, can't dance on a wooden stage floor. It's too rough and they'd end up getting splinters in places nobody wants a splinter. For ballet, it's more about traction than splinters, but still no wood floor. So on top of the stage floor for every dance concert you lay down a second floor called marley.
Marley is a thick, two-sided (usually) flooring product that comes in about 5' widths and spans the length of the stage. It's also ridiculously expensive. The dance floor to cover the stage at UNCC is probably upwards of $25,000.00 to replace. So we take up all the tape holding down the marley, and roll all that heavy shit up onto rollers. A single panel of marley once it's rolled up for storage is usually 100 lbs. or so. Repeat eight times to cover the whole depth of the stage. Then move the marley cart into storage.
I left before the marley was done. I was off the clock by then and the UNCC work-study studentia had that bit well in hand. They'll probably find a way to get back at me this week as I do the opera, but I'll take it. Me and my busted-ass toe that I dropped an empty boom pipe on. Owie.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Scary shit
One of a technician's greatest fears is that something goes wrong and somebody gets hurt. Last night, during the dance concert, it did, and someone did. I wasn't involved and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it, but I was the most experienced technician on the show, so I feel a little responsible anyway.
Here's what happened. UNCC has a cyc lighting pit, a trench in the back part of the stage where the cyc lights are recessed into the floor. It's about 4' wide and bout 4' deep and runs most of the width of the stage. There's a shitload of lights in there, usually very hot, and a buttload of electricity, so between the fall and the shit you land on, there's a huge potential for serious injury to someone falling in there.
And that's exactly what happened. Between the 3rd and 4th numbers of the night, a dancer fell into the cyc pit. I'm still not sure how he managed to do it, since we had put shit in the way to try and block off the pit from people falling into it, but he managed. And this wasn't some clueless kid, this was a faculty member from the college, an experienced dancer who was very familiar with the space, so I'm really confused as to what happened.
Fortunately he's okay. Banged up, bruised and scraped, but nothing broken. He has to dance tomorrow, so we'll see how well that goes, because the piece he's scheduled to perform in is very athletic, and he really beat the shit out of himself. But there's really nothing more terrifying than hearing over headset "a dancer fell into the cyc pit." It made me go cold all over, because I knew something bad had happened and there was nothing in the world I could do about it.
Here's what happened. UNCC has a cyc lighting pit, a trench in the back part of the stage where the cyc lights are recessed into the floor. It's about 4' wide and bout 4' deep and runs most of the width of the stage. There's a shitload of lights in there, usually very hot, and a buttload of electricity, so between the fall and the shit you land on, there's a huge potential for serious injury to someone falling in there.
And that's exactly what happened. Between the 3rd and 4th numbers of the night, a dancer fell into the cyc pit. I'm still not sure how he managed to do it, since we had put shit in the way to try and block off the pit from people falling into it, but he managed. And this wasn't some clueless kid, this was a faculty member from the college, an experienced dancer who was very familiar with the space, so I'm really confused as to what happened.
Fortunately he's okay. Banged up, bruised and scraped, but nothing broken. He has to dance tomorrow, so we'll see how well that goes, because the piece he's scheduled to perform in is very athletic, and he really beat the shit out of himself. But there's really nothing more terrifying than hearing over headset "a dancer fell into the cyc pit." It made me go cold all over, because I knew something bad had happened and there was nothing in the world I could do about it.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The word is VAGINA, you fucking pussy.
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Dance, monkey, dance!
Kinda. This week the NC Dance Festival has its annual stop in Charlotte at the UNCC theatre, and for the second year I'm their lighting guy. It's a little bit of a stretch to call myself the lighting designer, because I'm working with someone else's light plot (the Liz Lehrman dance company just came through) and for half the pieces I'm not even picking out what the lights do. But it's a fun gig and the people are nice, not to mention the extra scratch is always helpful, so I'm working two jobs this week.
What I mean by someone else's light plot is that the touring company that just came through set up the lights for their show. Well, we decided that since they were a dance company, they'd probably have most evrything going on that I need for this gig, so I'd just use their design, with color and pattern changes as needed. So I did recolor most of the rig, and all the gobos are different, but the positioning and front light is all someone else's stuff.
But it's all in how I adapt it to my show. I'm using the same basic plot for the opera next week, but it will end up looking completely different, because I'll change some colors and the cueing will be completely different. Frankly, the dance festival runs over three nights, and if you came to the show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday it would look completely different because it's all different dances and thus different cues and setups.
Some of this is when I do my best work, when a choreographer comes to me and says "just watch it and make it look good, I trust you." So I get to interpret their movement and music and color the stage and the dancers accordingly. I've said it before, I'm not very good at lighting sets, but give me an open stage and some sidelight and I'm gold, Pony, gold!
What I mean by someone else's light plot is that the touring company that just came through set up the lights for their show. Well, we decided that since they were a dance company, they'd probably have most evrything going on that I need for this gig, so I'd just use their design, with color and pattern changes as needed. So I did recolor most of the rig, and all the gobos are different, but the positioning and front light is all someone else's stuff.
But it's all in how I adapt it to my show. I'm using the same basic plot for the opera next week, but it will end up looking completely different, because I'll change some colors and the cueing will be completely different. Frankly, the dance festival runs over three nights, and if you came to the show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday it would look completely different because it's all different dances and thus different cues and setups.
Some of this is when I do my best work, when a choreographer comes to me and says "just watch it and make it look good, I trust you." So I get to interpret their movement and music and color the stage and the dancers accordingly. I've said it before, I'm not very good at lighting sets, but give me an open stage and some sidelight and I'm gold, Pony, gold!
Tags:
Auditions...
I was surprised when I pulled into the parking lot and saw so many cars. Surprised, and a little nervous. I haven't done this in a few years, and hadn't really done it in closer to eight or nine. I figured I'd be a little rusty, but I did have a slight edge over my compatriots in this endeavor.
I knew the director. Of course, so did half the other people auditioning, but I didn't know that from the parking lot.
So I got in, got my audition form, got my sides and sat down next to an actress I've lit a couple of shows for. We made small talk, caught up with each other for a bit 'cause it's been a couple months since we've seen one another, then it was time to get started.
Herr Director did his informational spiel about the show, what the concept was, where rehearsals and performances would be held, all that jazz. Folks seemed pretty excited, and I was surprised to see fifteen people show up on the first night of auditions for a play that we're not getting paid for and that performs in the next state over.
I was more surprised that most of them were good. Usually auditions are hit and miss, especially for unpaid theatre, but most of these folks could act. And quite a few of them were people I'd never seen before, something that would have been unheard of two years ago.
I did my bit, read a few times, knocked the rust off, and I feel good about the audition. Chris and I have worked together several times, he's directed me, I've directed him, and we're the best of friends, so we get along well when we work together. I have a better facility with the language than most of the folks I auditioned with, a by-product of simply having done more Shakespeare, so that gave me a bit of a leg up. I'll know in a couple of days whether or not I got the role I want, but it felt pretty good just to get up there with people I'd never worked with before and act again.
I hadn't realized that I missed it.
If I get the part, this will turn into my rehearsal journal. That will at least give me the excuse to post here regularly.
I knew the director. Of course, so did half the other people auditioning, but I didn't know that from the parking lot.
So I got in, got my audition form, got my sides and sat down next to an actress I've lit a couple of shows for. We made small talk, caught up with each other for a bit 'cause it's been a couple months since we've seen one another, then it was time to get started.
Herr Director did his informational spiel about the show, what the concept was, where rehearsals and performances would be held, all that jazz. Folks seemed pretty excited, and I was surprised to see fifteen people show up on the first night of auditions for a play that we're not getting paid for and that performs in the next state over.
I was more surprised that most of them were good. Usually auditions are hit and miss, especially for unpaid theatre, but most of these folks could act. And quite a few of them were people I'd never seen before, something that would have been unheard of two years ago.
I did my bit, read a few times, knocked the rust off, and I feel good about the audition. Chris and I have worked together several times, he's directed me, I've directed him, and we're the best of friends, so we get along well when we work together. I have a better facility with the language than most of the folks I auditioned with, a by-product of simply having done more Shakespeare, so that gave me a bit of a leg up. I'll know in a couple of days whether or not I got the role I want, but it felt pretty good just to get up there with people I'd never worked with before and act again.
I hadn't realized that I missed it.
If I get the part, this will turn into my rehearsal journal. That will at least give me the excuse to post here regularly.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Go ahead...
Order the new Harry Potter
book. You might as well, everybody else is, and you don't want to be stuck in line at Borders at midnight AGAIN.
book. You might as well, everybody else is, and you don't want to be stuck in line at Borders at midnight AGAIN.Tags:
Monday, February 05, 2007
Transference
Isn't that what they call it when you move anger or love or whatver feeling you have from the real target to a surrogate? Well, that's sort of the theory here. I don't think transference is really the right term, but more like filling the void.
We got two new cats. Suzy wanted to wait, but I prevailed. I think the emptiness of the house was actually bothering me more than it was her, and she wasn't really 100% ready to get another kitty, but after an hour or so playing with the cats up for adoption at Petsmart, we brought home a boy and girl, both fixed, to try and help heal the hurt that Bela's passing left us.
She is a 2-year old big fat black medium-hair kitty with a patch of about 12 white hairs just uner her throat. Suzy's decided that she must be Ophelia, because she's a very pretty cat, and Suzy's always liked the name Ophelia. I argued that there isn't a good diminutive of Ophelia, and said that I feared calling the cat Ophelia would create an unhealthy predisposition toward rosemary and lakes. I lost. Ophelia she is.
We haven't renamed the boy yet. He's 8 months old, with long black and white hair. No, I didn't want a longhair after Grizabella, but he's so funny that he won me over. Hamlet is the obvious choice, but he's not morose enough. He may end up being called Guildenstern, because so far he doesn't seem too bright.
So they spent last night wandering around the den getting accustomed to us, and hopefully they will become more affectionate as they get familiar with the surroundings. That's at least what the adoption lady told us, anyway. They were plenty affectionate in the store, so I think they'll be good additions to the family when they get used to us. They'll never replace Bela, but they can fill the void a little.
We got two new cats. Suzy wanted to wait, but I prevailed. I think the emptiness of the house was actually bothering me more than it was her, and she wasn't really 100% ready to get another kitty, but after an hour or so playing with the cats up for adoption at Petsmart, we brought home a boy and girl, both fixed, to try and help heal the hurt that Bela's passing left us.
She is a 2-year old big fat black medium-hair kitty with a patch of about 12 white hairs just uner her throat. Suzy's decided that she must be Ophelia, because she's a very pretty cat, and Suzy's always liked the name Ophelia. I argued that there isn't a good diminutive of Ophelia, and said that I feared calling the cat Ophelia would create an unhealthy predisposition toward rosemary and lakes. I lost. Ophelia she is.
We haven't renamed the boy yet. He's 8 months old, with long black and white hair. No, I didn't want a longhair after Grizabella, but he's so funny that he won me over. Hamlet is the obvious choice, but he's not morose enough. He may end up being called Guildenstern, because so far he doesn't seem too bright.
So they spent last night wandering around the den getting accustomed to us, and hopefully they will become more affectionate as they get familiar with the surroundings. That's at least what the adoption lady told us, anyway. They were plenty affectionate in the store, so I think they'll be good additions to the family when they get used to us. They'll never replace Bela, but they can fill the void a little.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Coming home...
I lost my shit when I walked in the door.
It was quiet. I was alone. There wasn't anyone hopping down off the bed upstairs to see if it was time to be fed, or to see if he could escape into the great outdoors. There wasn't anyone perched on the back of the sofa in the den glancing at my imperiously as I reached for a beer in the little fridge. There wasn't anyone peering guiltily from a burrowed spot between the piles of clean laundry, or yawning languidly in a sunbeam on the laundry room floor.
I sat down on the steps leading into the den and loudly, with big, wracking sobs, lost my shit. I'd been holding it together loosely all day, when I told folks at work what had happened, when I called my sister, who I knew would understand better than anyone, when I talked to Suzy on the phone. But alone, on the stairs where I would sit every morning to put my shoes on so that he would come rub up against me before I went off to work, I didn't hold anything back. I wept like a baby, with no shame and no regrets.
I didn't really feel any better when I was done, but it was one of those things that had to be done regardless.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Neat and new
Did you know you can download video
from Amazon? Me neither, but using this thing they call Unbox Video downloads, you can download TV shows, movies and other coolness to watch on your computer. And some of their prices are cheap! I saw Little Miss Sunshine there for $3.99. And a bunch of this stuff isn't even out on video yet. I never woulda known, but somebody clicked through my Amazon.com banner and bought one. I guess they're gonna make a run at iTunes.
from Amazon? Me neither, but using this thing they call Unbox Video downloads, you can download TV shows, movies and other coolness to watch on your computer. And some of their prices are cheap! I saw Little Miss Sunshine there for $3.99. And a bunch of this stuff isn't even out on video yet. I never woulda known, but somebody clicked through my Amazon.com banner and bought one. I guess they're gonna make a run at iTunes.Tags:
Friday, January 26, 2007
People at work are funny
So I walk into a co-worker's office a few minutes ago and comment on her new yo-yo.
"I told you I've been spending money."
"Yeah, me too, and I'm wearing it on my belt."
"Your new phone?"
"Yeah."
"Does the text-messaging work yet?"
" Yeah, but the web browser's not up yet. It should work by Monday."
"You're such a geek, blog-boy."
"Yeah, I know. 3 blogs and a smartphone, I can't even try. But I don't have a Wii, doesn't that de-geek me a little?"
"..."
"huh?"
"I just bought a Wii."
"I gotta go blog that."
"I told you I've been spending money."
"Yeah, me too, and I'm wearing it on my belt."
"Your new phone?"
"Yeah."
"Does the text-messaging work yet?"
" Yeah, but the web browser's not up yet. It should work by Monday."
"You're such a geek, blog-boy."
"Yeah, I know. 3 blogs and a smartphone, I can't even try. But I don't have a Wii, doesn't that de-geek me a little?"
"..."
"huh?"
"I just bought a Wii."
"I gotta go blog that."
Tags:
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Marriage is fun
No, really. I just spent two hours arguing with my sife about what we're going to fix in our house next, and how we're going to afford it. It's an odd thing, that money. We always have enough to do the things we want to do, like buy a new phone, or go to Vegas, or buy movies. But when it comes to those things that we really need to do, like rebrick our front stoop - that's the shit that seems to get pushed off and pushed off.
Well, I decided that this year's the year to change some of that and be more like responsible people. I've managed over 2006 to get our money more or less straightened out. We've got a little bit in savings now, and I've upped the contribution to my 401(k) each week. I'm still paying off a 401(k) loan for another three years, but that's not such a terrible state to be in. We've got a little back taxes to take care of as well, but the IRS is actually way more understanding about that kind of thing than you would think. Basically, they're only interested in getting their money, so as long as you're willing to give them some of it every now and then, they pretty much stay off your back.
Suzy's working more, which is good. I just don't make enough to support us both in the manner we would like to grow accustomed to. I'm getting more writing work, and need to buckle down and hammer out some pages. Once I can get that rolling, I think the extra revenue will cover my summer and winter trips. We're trying to save up enough to take her dad with us to Vegas this winter, so I need to tuck a little extra aside for that as well. Looks like maybe I'll still be lighting everything in sight for the foreseeable future - the money right now is too good to pass up.
I'm looking at almost an extra $4,000 coming into the house over the next eight weeks, and that will go a looong way towards dealing with some of this house repairs and shit like that. I think if I tuck away a grand to cover Vegas this summer, then I just need to save up writing money to pay for our surprise trip in September and Vegas this winter. Hopefully by then I'll have enough frequent flyer miles to have two free tickets, and hopefully I'll be able to get the tickets when we want to fly. That's the main reason I flew in so early last winter - frequent flyer mile restrictions.
I'm rambling - and hungry. Later.
Well, I decided that this year's the year to change some of that and be more like responsible people. I've managed over 2006 to get our money more or less straightened out. We've got a little bit in savings now, and I've upped the contribution to my 401(k) each week. I'm still paying off a 401(k) loan for another three years, but that's not such a terrible state to be in. We've got a little back taxes to take care of as well, but the IRS is actually way more understanding about that kind of thing than you would think. Basically, they're only interested in getting their money, so as long as you're willing to give them some of it every now and then, they pretty much stay off your back.
Suzy's working more, which is good. I just don't make enough to support us both in the manner we would like to grow accustomed to. I'm getting more writing work, and need to buckle down and hammer out some pages. Once I can get that rolling, I think the extra revenue will cover my summer and winter trips. We're trying to save up enough to take her dad with us to Vegas this winter, so I need to tuck a little extra aside for that as well. Looks like maybe I'll still be lighting everything in sight for the foreseeable future - the money right now is too good to pass up.
I'm looking at almost an extra $4,000 coming into the house over the next eight weeks, and that will go a looong way towards dealing with some of this house repairs and shit like that. I think if I tuck away a grand to cover Vegas this summer, then I just need to save up writing money to pay for our surprise trip in September and Vegas this winter. Hopefully by then I'll have enough frequent flyer miles to have two free tickets, and hopefully I'll be able to get the tickets when we want to fly. That's the main reason I flew in so early last winter - frequent flyer mile restrictions.
I'm rambling - and hungry. Later.
New toy
I just got a new smartphone, a Treo 650, used from my buddy Alan. It came in the mail today, and since it does indeed work on the SunCom network, I'll be adding a data plan and now I have a coolio geek phone with calendar, web browser and all that jazz built in.
My hope is that I can use the Palm platform in it to keep my inherently unorganized self a little more on track and on task. On task is probably hopeless, but maybe I can avoid missing anymore production meetings for upcoming shows.
My hope is that I can use the Palm platform in it to keep my inherently unorganized self a little more on track and on task. On task is probably hopeless, but maybe I can avoid missing anymore production meetings for upcoming shows.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Helpless
They say that smell is the most visceral trigger for memory. For me it's music. A song can take me back to exactly where I was when it was played. Usually not the first time I heard it, but a pivotal moment when it was played. That's why this blog was named after two songs - Verdi Cries by 10,000 Maniacs and Gypsy by Suzanne Vega. I have a ton of memories wrapped up in those songs.
So Neil Young just took me back to last year. It was fall, or maybe spring. It was warm enough to sit outside, but cool enough to have sleeves on, which in North Carolina narrows it down to about 4 months, or random days in January. Irrelevant.
Matty was in town for work, and we had just finished dinner at Lone Star. Me, Matty, Suzy and a buddy of Matty's from work. The SoCo was flowing, and the dial-a-shots were dialing. We caught Wes in his office, and in a John Grisham moment if I've ever seen one, he pulled down a bottle of 18-year-old scotch that a client had given him in trade for attorney's fees to do a sot with us. We caught Maudie at the computer, and she said "oh, sure. I keep a bottle of Cuervo by the monitor for dial-a-shots."
Yeah, my friends and I drink a little. My street cred with Matty went through the roof last week when he called me for a dial-a-shot and my response was "alright, lemme grab the moonshine my dad gave me last time I visited." I grabbed a quart jar of corn likker (and yes, dammit, that is how you spell it) and did a shot with Matty and Garth as the were partying in DC.
But this particular evening was colored not just with the amber haze of SoCo and Yuengling (which Speaker still can't pronounce), but the setting sun as we sat on the porch telling stories about growing up in the boonies, talking about music and telling the infamous donkey-fucking story. At some point I think we may have mentioned poker, but only for about a minute anda half. Matty got off on telling me about The Last Waltz, Scorsese's documentary of The Band's farewell concert (which I still have to rent at some point), and we got to talking about Neil Young.
Then we got to the next joint, a pool hall, and as we pulled up, Neil's "Helpless" comes on the iPod and me and Matty sing (if you could really call it that) along to my car stereo in the parking lot before we go inside to continue getting bachelor party drunk. It was a great night in a rough year for both Matty and me, and points out the true depth of some of these formerly invisible internet friendships that I've developed over the last two years. We're tied together with far more than poker and blogging. We're music lovers, artists, writers, philosophers, drunks, partiers and true friends.
So Neil Young just took me back to last year. It was fall, or maybe spring. It was warm enough to sit outside, but cool enough to have sleeves on, which in North Carolina narrows it down to about 4 months, or random days in January. Irrelevant.
Matty was in town for work, and we had just finished dinner at Lone Star. Me, Matty, Suzy and a buddy of Matty's from work. The SoCo was flowing, and the dial-a-shots were dialing. We caught Wes in his office, and in a John Grisham moment if I've ever seen one, he pulled down a bottle of 18-year-old scotch that a client had given him in trade for attorney's fees to do a sot with us. We caught Maudie at the computer, and she said "oh, sure. I keep a bottle of Cuervo by the monitor for dial-a-shots."
Yeah, my friends and I drink a little. My street cred with Matty went through the roof last week when he called me for a dial-a-shot and my response was "alright, lemme grab the moonshine my dad gave me last time I visited." I grabbed a quart jar of corn likker (and yes, dammit, that is how you spell it) and did a shot with Matty and Garth as the were partying in DC.
But this particular evening was colored not just with the amber haze of SoCo and Yuengling (which Speaker still can't pronounce), but the setting sun as we sat on the porch telling stories about growing up in the boonies, talking about music and telling the infamous donkey-fucking story. At some point I think we may have mentioned poker, but only for about a minute anda half. Matty got off on telling me about The Last Waltz, Scorsese's documentary of The Band's farewell concert (which I still have to rent at some point), and we got to talking about Neil Young.
Then we got to the next joint, a pool hall, and as we pulled up, Neil's "Helpless" comes on the iPod and me and Matty sing (if you could really call it that) along to my car stereo in the parking lot before we go inside to continue getting bachelor party drunk. It was a great night in a rough year for both Matty and me, and points out the true depth of some of these formerly invisible internet friendships that I've developed over the last two years. We're tied together with far more than poker and blogging. We're music lovers, artists, writers, philosophers, drunks, partiers and true friends.
Tags:
State of the Onion
Tonight is the state of the union address and one the days of the year that I am happiest I don't watch TV. Aside from the fact that Dubya is a lying suckbag, and I have no interest in having whatver I would normally watch interrupted by a lying suckbag, I have a poker game to attend, which is much more important.
Suzy's mostly done with the opera, so she was actually home last night. We watched My Fair Lady, I'm a sucker for Audrey Hepburn, and she's a sucker for any old musical. Honestly, I love the songs in My Fair Lady myself. I gave Suzy a book on movie costumes and costumers for Christmas, so she looked up the guy that did My Fair Lady and compared the still to the movie as we were watching. I half-watched, half-read while it was going on. A nice relaxing evening.
I know, boring as shit, but I'm trying to find the voice for this blog and a more consisten posting style. Get over it, we'll all figure it out soon enough.
Suzy's mostly done with the opera, so she was actually home last night. We watched My Fair Lady, I'm a sucker for Audrey Hepburn, and she's a sucker for any old musical. Honestly, I love the songs in My Fair Lady myself. I gave Suzy a book on movie costumes and costumers for Christmas, so she looked up the guy that did My Fair Lady and compared the still to the movie as we were watching. I half-watched, half-read while it was going on. A nice relaxing evening.
I know, boring as shit, but I'm trying to find the voice for this blog and a more consisten posting style. Get over it, we'll all figure it out soon enough.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Opera?
Yeah, I went. It was kinda cute, but not really my thing. Let's face it, singers should sing, and by and large leave the acting to actors. I know some folks think opera is supposed to be the grandest form of theatre, but it just doesn't cut it to me. It all seems overblown, with no sense of real emotion anywhere.
Give me a small black box theatre with a half-dozen actors working for peanuts that really care about the show any day. Suzy's costumes were good, but there was obviously no communication between costuming. lighting and scenic designers, otherwise no one would have been wearing a pink dress under pink and blue lights against a teal wall. Just not good, folks. And how about a little light upstage? Maybe?
I stuck around for the first two acts, running time 2:30. Just didn't have enough gas in the tank for Act III, so we came home.
Give me a small black box theatre with a half-dozen actors working for peanuts that really care about the show any day. Suzy's costumes were good, but there was obviously no communication between costuming. lighting and scenic designers, otherwise no one would have been wearing a pink dress under pink and blue lights against a teal wall. Just not good, folks. And how about a little light upstage? Maybe?
I stuck around for the first two acts, running time 2:30. Just didn't have enough gas in the tank for Act III, so we came home.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Long Week
This has been kind of a killer week. Suzy's in tech for the opera Die Fleidermaus, which opens tonight, so we haven't really seen each other for two weeks. It's interesting, because usually it's me working until godawful late while she is at home asleep when I get home. This role reversal over the last couple weeks had been weird. It's almost like we're roommates more than spousal units, the little tiny time we've spent together. Good thing is, this puppy opens tonight and things can get back to normal after that.
You know, normal, me working a day joband coming home to either sit on the computer and write all night or go to a rehearsal or MTA or NCTC meeting and we still never see each other. It feels different when she's the one out being busy and I'm the one sitting at home waiting, though.
Traffic is starting slowly to pick up on my Charlotte Theatre website, and hopefully as we get into a more heavily-produced part of the season, that site will begin to take off. The more traffic it sees, the more chance I have for some decent Adsense revenue from it.
I have my first web design client, not really anything I ever looked for, but it kinda found me. Emily's cousin Mitch is opening a nursery and garden center, and needed someone to build a website. I need a little extra cash to fund my trip to Atlantic City in February, so I took the gig. Hopefully I'll actually be able to design a website that shows off what he wants to punch up about his nursery.
You know, normal, me working a day joband coming home to either sit on the computer and write all night or go to a rehearsal or MTA or NCTC meeting and we still never see each other. It feels different when she's the one out being busy and I'm the one sitting at home waiting, though.
Traffic is starting slowly to pick up on my Charlotte Theatre website, and hopefully as we get into a more heavily-produced part of the season, that site will begin to take off. The more traffic it sees, the more chance I have for some decent Adsense revenue from it.
I have my first web design client, not really anything I ever looked for, but it kinda found me. Emily's cousin Mitch is opening a nursery and garden center, and needed someone to build a website. I need a little extra cash to fund my trip to Atlantic City in February, so I took the gig. Hopefully I'll actually be able to design a website that shows off what he wants to punch up about his nursery.
Tags:
Monday, January 15, 2007
Next Show
So I just finished reading the script for The Guys, the next show I'm designing, and I realized why I've been putting it off for a couple of months, until the absolute last minute.
I don't want to watch, read or do this show. It's not that it's a bad show, or a bad cast, or a bad company. It's purely subject matter. The Guys is a play about a fire captain eulogizing his men lost in the 9/11 attacks. It's pretty well-written, not shamelessly manipulative, generally a decent play.
I just don't want to go there. The attacks on New York and Washington rocked my sense of the world enough that I still am affected by the memories. I knew no one that died, but that makes me no less saddened by the losses or guilt-ridden by the fact that I was relatively unscathed.
I went through several months of depression and sleeplessness after the attacks, largely because it has tweaked my world view just a little off-axis. I'm fairly certain it's a permanent shift, because nothing has shown any inclination towards going back nearly six years after the fact. The play dredges up all those sad and vulnerable feelings that aren't ever really that far from the surface, and I don't really enjoy wallowing in that.
So I get to do a play about one of the singular events in my lifetime, one that sent me into a half-year's worth of depression, and hope that I get through everything on a fairly even keel. At least I'm not directing. As designer, I'm pretty much limited to two rehearsals and one performance, and then I'm outta there.
But of course the play is being performed at the firefighter's union hall, so that makes it all the more poignant. Maybe I just felt a kinship with the firefighters who died because working in the volunteer fire department where I grew up was such a pivotal part of my life as a youth, and that sense of being a firefighter never really leaves. Because you know every time you get into the truck that there's a chance, no matter how slim (and in rural South Carolina, it's exceedingly slim), that you won't come back. But you accept that fact when you put the boots on.
So I didn't know anyone represented in this play, but in some sense I knew them all. I've ridden with them, laughed with them, and sat on the end of the truck after the call with them. But I don't really want to go back and revisit their sacrifice. Maybe that's selfish. No, I know it's selfish. But I don't care. I'll be selfish, and hard-hearted, and try not to let this project touch me at all. Because I'm very afraid if it touches me at all it will take me weeks to get over it again.
But maybe I'm just being a melodramatic pussy, too. Yeah, that's probably it.
I don't want to watch, read or do this show. It's not that it's a bad show, or a bad cast, or a bad company. It's purely subject matter. The Guys is a play about a fire captain eulogizing his men lost in the 9/11 attacks. It's pretty well-written, not shamelessly manipulative, generally a decent play.
I just don't want to go there. The attacks on New York and Washington rocked my sense of the world enough that I still am affected by the memories. I knew no one that died, but that makes me no less saddened by the losses or guilt-ridden by the fact that I was relatively unscathed.
I went through several months of depression and sleeplessness after the attacks, largely because it has tweaked my world view just a little off-axis. I'm fairly certain it's a permanent shift, because nothing has shown any inclination towards going back nearly six years after the fact. The play dredges up all those sad and vulnerable feelings that aren't ever really that far from the surface, and I don't really enjoy wallowing in that.
So I get to do a play about one of the singular events in my lifetime, one that sent me into a half-year's worth of depression, and hope that I get through everything on a fairly even keel. At least I'm not directing. As designer, I'm pretty much limited to two rehearsals and one performance, and then I'm outta there.
But of course the play is being performed at the firefighter's union hall, so that makes it all the more poignant. Maybe I just felt a kinship with the firefighters who died because working in the volunteer fire department where I grew up was such a pivotal part of my life as a youth, and that sense of being a firefighter never really leaves. Because you know every time you get into the truck that there's a chance, no matter how slim (and in rural South Carolina, it's exceedingly slim), that you won't come back. But you accept that fact when you put the boots on.
So I didn't know anyone represented in this play, but in some sense I knew them all. I've ridden with them, laughed with them, and sat on the end of the truck after the call with them. But I don't really want to go back and revisit their sacrifice. Maybe that's selfish. No, I know it's selfish. But I don't care. I'll be selfish, and hard-hearted, and try not to let this project touch me at all. Because I'm very afraid if it touches me at all it will take me weeks to get over it again.
But maybe I'm just being a melodramatic pussy, too. Yeah, that's probably it.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Courage
Epitomized here. Follow the link.
When I see you in dance class, I see you looking at me. I see you stare past my crazy hair, my strength, my grace, my skill. I see you looking at my chair, and I recognise in your eyes the fear of what might happen to you. If I am "lucky" that flash of hostility will mellow as you take pity on me -- it's so nice that I come and try hard. If I am not "lucky," the repulsion in your eyes and recoil in your body will stick with me throughout class. You won't meet my eyes again; you will push past me in the changing room and talk above me in the elevator (get your lazy ass out of my elevator -- you're a dancer, dammit. If you can stick your leg above your head, you can certainly manage a flight of stairs).
I am what you may become. It becomes me.
When I see you in dance class, I see you looking at me. I see you stare past my crazy hair, my strength, my grace, my skill. I see you looking at my chair, and I recognise in your eyes the fear of what might happen to you. If I am "lucky" that flash of hostility will mellow as you take pity on me -- it's so nice that I come and try hard. If I am not "lucky," the repulsion in your eyes and recoil in your body will stick with me throughout class. You won't meet my eyes again; you will push past me in the changing room and talk above me in the elevator (get your lazy ass out of my elevator -- you're a dancer, dammit. If you can stick your leg above your head, you can certainly manage a flight of stairs).
I am what you may become. It becomes me.
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Thursday, January 11, 2007
For travel plans
If anybody's looking for a travel deal, here's one from Hotels.com that's worth checking out.
Save Big NOW on all Hotel Bookings with a $100 Cash Back Rebate!
You get rebates based on the number of nights you book, so that on top of their other deals, makes for a pretty penny in savings.
Save Big NOW on all Hotel Bookings with a $100 Cash Back Rebate!
You get rebates based on the number of nights you book, so that on top of their other deals, makes for a pretty penny in savings.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Working to stop working
For The Man, that is...
Lemme preface by saying that I like my job. Barbizon is a great company, my boss is easy to get along with, I'm head of my department so I get all the responsibility I want AND I'm left alone to run it my way. Sounds perfect, right?
Well, nothing's perfect and the grass is always greener. So I'm picking up more side work. I just got hired as the editor of the Gambling Weblog. They don't pay much right now, but we'll see if we can't either squeeze more money out of them later or parlay that gig into something different that pays more.
I've also started up a bunch of different websites, all geared towards affiliate marketing and generating revenue. So far, they're not really generating anything, but I have high hopes. The way this affiliate marketing works is like this - I build a website about bluegrass music. People who are googling bluegrass artists or terms find my website. While they're on my site, they follow a link to Amazon and buy something. I get a 4% commission. Or they click on one of the google ads or use the google search bar. I get a few cents per click every time someone does that, whether they buy anything anywhere or not.
So I'm spending a lot of the time I used to spend playing poker on the internet writing web content and developing websites instead, all in the hopes of someday being able to leave my killer job for an even more killer job - working for myself as a professional writer. I'm not holding my breath, but for now these little side gigs do a good job of paying for trips to Vegas and other sundry places that we like to go, not to mention padding my bankroll.
Lemme preface by saying that I like my job. Barbizon is a great company, my boss is easy to get along with, I'm head of my department so I get all the responsibility I want AND I'm left alone to run it my way. Sounds perfect, right?
Well, nothing's perfect and the grass is always greener. So I'm picking up more side work. I just got hired as the editor of the Gambling Weblog. They don't pay much right now, but we'll see if we can't either squeeze more money out of them later or parlay that gig into something different that pays more.
I've also started up a bunch of different websites, all geared towards affiliate marketing and generating revenue. So far, they're not really generating anything, but I have high hopes. The way this affiliate marketing works is like this - I build a website about bluegrass music. People who are googling bluegrass artists or terms find my website. While they're on my site, they follow a link to Amazon and buy something. I get a 4% commission. Or they click on one of the google ads or use the google search bar. I get a few cents per click every time someone does that, whether they buy anything anywhere or not.
So I'm spending a lot of the time I used to spend playing poker on the internet writing web content and developing websites instead, all in the hopes of someday being able to leave my killer job for an even more killer job - working for myself as a professional writer. I'm not holding my breath, but for now these little side gigs do a good job of paying for trips to Vegas and other sundry places that we like to go, not to mention padding my bankroll.
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Retrospective
So this is the time of year when folks put on their magic glasses and peer into the future to see who and what the year will bring them. I'm not much into that reflective bullshit, but here goes.
I need, not want but need for 2007 to bring a slimmer Falstaff. Suzy and I have a weight loss bet going - whoever loses the most weight in '07 gets to pick our vacation destination for '08. If the winner loses more than 60 lbs, they can pick someplace outside the continental US. Since I don't really care to go to Paris, but would like to go tot Australia, I need to win this bet.
I'd like for 2007 to bring more writing work. I've found a few people willing to pay for my scribblings in '06, and I'm actively looking to expand that field this year. In addition to that, I'm following the tips of Scrurvydog over at Gadooney on affiliate marketing and trying to scare up a few nickels that way. It would be nice to see the light at the end of the debt tunnel through freelance design and writing work. Maybe then we could look at the possibility of job changes. I like my gig at Barbizon, but after 11 years, there's not much new under the sun here for me anymore, so it's time to be looking for the next thing. It would be nice if the next thing were writing for a living, but that's gonna take a stretch.
I don't know what '07 will bring theatrically, but it's not likely to be anything that I produce. There aren't any projects out there that are screaming for me to throw my heart and soul into them, so for now at least I'm just gonna whore myself out for design money. Not a bad gig, since that pays for a couple trips to Vegas every year.
I plan to be in Vegas at least twice this year, once for the blogger summer get-together and again for the winter gathering. I'd like to make it to Oklahoma for Gary's thing if it happens, and if there's a Bash at the Boathouse, then I'll be in Malvern. Otherwise my travel is pretty open. Let's just see what comes of it.
It's gotta be better than 2006.
I need, not want but need for 2007 to bring a slimmer Falstaff. Suzy and I have a weight loss bet going - whoever loses the most weight in '07 gets to pick our vacation destination for '08. If the winner loses more than 60 lbs, they can pick someplace outside the continental US. Since I don't really care to go to Paris, but would like to go tot Australia, I need to win this bet.
I'd like for 2007 to bring more writing work. I've found a few people willing to pay for my scribblings in '06, and I'm actively looking to expand that field this year. In addition to that, I'm following the tips of Scrurvydog over at Gadooney on affiliate marketing and trying to scare up a few nickels that way. It would be nice to see the light at the end of the debt tunnel through freelance design and writing work. Maybe then we could look at the possibility of job changes. I like my gig at Barbizon, but after 11 years, there's not much new under the sun here for me anymore, so it's time to be looking for the next thing. It would be nice if the next thing were writing for a living, but that's gonna take a stretch.
I don't know what '07 will bring theatrically, but it's not likely to be anything that I produce. There aren't any projects out there that are screaming for me to throw my heart and soul into them, so for now at least I'm just gonna whore myself out for design money. Not a bad gig, since that pays for a couple trips to Vegas every year.
I plan to be in Vegas at least twice this year, once for the blogger summer get-together and again for the winter gathering. I'd like to make it to Oklahoma for Gary's thing if it happens, and if there's a Bash at the Boathouse, then I'll be in Malvern. Otherwise my travel is pretty open. Let's just see what comes of it.
It's gotta be better than 2006.
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