If you’re a local, the Idaho Repertory Theatre is in desperate need of some assistance.They need volunteer painters to work on one of the sets. It’s not arty stuff, so even if your experience is limited to occasionally painting the bathroom, you’ll be able to help with this. I’ll be spending my day tomorrow in the Hartung shop, helping out. If you can help too, contact the IRT Office and they’ll get you set up.
Archive for June, 2009
Help Wanted
Jun 25
A Really Uninteresting Entry
Jun 23
Seriously. There’s nothing to see here, move along.
I have wracked my brains to come up with a topic so I can post today and feel like I’m getting back to a regular routine after all the travel/illness, but the best I can do is to write about how I have nothing to write about. I mean, what did I do today?
☀ Filled out forms for official copies of my transcript & sent some emails.
☀ Leaped back in alarm as a spider on a bookshelf–I swear to God this is true–LAUNCHED itself at me. I don’t know where it went and I don’t care. It missed me, and that’s the most important thing.
☀ Sort of had a job interview, which may well lead to my first theatre gig in Chicago. Not acting, unfortunately, but working with a director and some actors in ways that may well get me at least looked at for later roles.
☀ Discovered that this whole time I’ve been using old plastic credit-card like things, I’ve had a PALETTE KNIFE in one of my tool mugs. Seriously. A palette knife. Glad I figured that out before I went and bought one.
☀ Walked to 1) the Post Office, 2) the Registrar’s Office, 3) the bank, 4) large national chain “arts” and crafts store, 5)Walgreens, 6) home. That’s about 5 miles, not counting the walking I did inside buildings.
☀ Bought some art suppies.
And that’s pretty much it. Now that the wine from dinner has worn off, I’m going to go work on my lines. At the yearly company “Come see our shows! Look at the cool stuff we’re doing!” event this Sunday, I’ve been asked to be part of one of the scenes they’ll preview. Of course it’s one of the scenes where I have insane amounts of lines. Not one of the scenes where I just stand there and mutter occasionally. So I need to be off book. It’s good because it means I won’t have to worry about that scene any more. It’s bad because I was sort of hoping to sneak up on that one gradually, working on it a little bit at a time as I got off book on the rest of my lines. Now I have to deal with the monster first. And by monster, I mean this:
NURSE
Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
LADY CAPULET
She’s not fourteen.
NURSE
15 I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth,–
And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four–
She’s not fourteen. How long is it now to Lammas-tide?
LADY CAPULET
A fortnight and odd days.
NURSE
20 Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she–God rest all Christian souls!–
Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God,
She was too good for me. But, as I said,
25 On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
That shall she. Marry, I remember it well.
‘Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean’d,–I never shall forget it,–
Of all the days of the year, upon that day.
30 For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall.
My lord and you were then at Mantua:–
Nay, I do bear a brain. But, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
35 Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake quoth the dove-house: ’twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
40 For then she could stand high-lone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about.
For even the day before, she broke her brow,
And then my husband–God be with his soul!
He was a merry man–took up the child,
45 ‘Yea,’ quoth he, ‘dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit.
Wilt thou not, Jule?’ And, by my holidam,
The pretty wretch left crying and said ‘Ay.’
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
50 I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it. ‘Wilt thou not, Jule?’ quoth he.
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said ‘Ay.’
LADY CAPULET
Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
NURSE
Yes, madam: yet I cannot choose but laugh,
55 To think it should leave crying and say ‘Ay.’
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone.
A parlous knock, and it cried bitterly.
‘Yea,’ quoth my husband,’Fall’st upon thy face?
60 Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age.
Wilt thou not, Jule?’ It stinted and said ‘Ay.’
JULIET
And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I.
NURSE
Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!
Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed.
65 An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish.
I have more to say in that scene, but not much. Though I must say, after the beast that was the line load for Collected Stories, which was essentially two women talking for two hours and ten minutes, this seems teeny by comparison. Still, I’ve got to get it into my head by Sunday, and it’s the worst kind of thing to memorize, the same stuff said several times in slightly different ways. It’s so easy to talk yourself in circles with a speech like this one.
And because of the language, I can’t just rattle it off, I also have to know exactly what it means so I can impart that meaning to the audience. And it’s not all entirely clear to me yet.
BUT. It’s a role I’m enjoying playing, and our Romeo and Juliet are both really solid, along with being absolutely lovely human beings. Anyway, I’m going to work on these lines a bit and then maybe do some art before I go to bed. Though now that I see the time, I may just go to bed and work my lines there.
Now, aren’t you glad you chose to not read this entry but instead went off and lived your life? I warned you it was uninteresting.
The director for Romeo and Juliet asked us to do some homework this week. This is in addition to exploring our text and doing our research and memorizing our lines and learning any dancing or fight choreography. That’s all just understood to be part of an actor’s outside of rehearsal activity. These assignments were something special. In fact, let me just include the full assignment here:
Each cast member must do the following:
1. For every scene you are in, I would like a “Tabloid Headline” for it by 5pm July 26th, sent to Robby to assemble and re-distribute before July 27th rehearsal. I.e. “Wild Romeo wreaks havoc on town of Verona after friend’s untimely death.” You can do way better than that- make it sensational and fun.
2. Character Abstracts- a detailed character abstract due also 5pm June 26th via email. This can change, but commit something to writing now. If you were a _________, your character would be _______________. I.e. If Romeo were a car, he would be a 1978 Red Pontiac Firebird with the Firebird painted on the hood. Give me abstracts for these please: VEHICLE, SONG, ANIMAL, FOOD, BEVERAGE.
I had fun with this. A LOT of fun with it. I just can’t help myself when it comes to writing. Give me a prompt and off I go. Oh. These responses are based on the cut text. Just a hint to all you lovely audience members out there. Shakespeare is ALWAYS cut. It’s just too, too long otherwise. And occasionally too, too obscure as well. So my responses are based on my perception of the Nurse in the version of the play we’ll be doing. Here they are :
Tabloid Headlines from Nurse
Things to Look Forward To
Jun 22
So there’s the new steampunkish Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey, Jr. coming out in December, and NOW I can also anticipate Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 2010. Go check out the photos in that link. Holeee shit, is that going to be a gorgeous and amazing film.
Oh. And if you haven’t yet seen the droolicious Sherlock Holmes trailer, it’s at that link above.
Tangent
Jun 20
Well, not really even that. More of a detour, really.
In order to make the wedding albums I made last month, I needed to drill holes for the stitching. I have tried to do this using a hand dril and made an absolute hash of things. HASH. Of things. I really didn’t want to do that to the gifties I was making. So I took Dave up on his offer to purchase for me a leetle teeny drill press. And when I say leetle teeny, I mean just that.
Dave has a drill press in the garage his shop. It’s probably seven feet tall and weighs hundreds of pounds. I now have a drill press in the kitchen my work area. It’s a little over a foot tall and weighs maybe fifteen pounds. And I love it to death. Loove it. To death.
This sweet little machine made the job of drilling holes about as painless as it can be. Something that took FOREVER with a hand drill is now perfectly done in minutes. It’s like the pony all over again, only smaller. Much smaller. Also cheaper.
Unfortunately, these are really the only two photos that turned out. All of the rest are not really saveable. But I think my love for the drill press comes through anyway. It should.
Agreement
Jun 19
Dave and I just had a very brief conversation in which we discussed the move and what furniture I would be taking to Chicago vs. what would be staying here.
Astonishingly, we were pretty much in agreement. Things I wanted but would never have asked for (like the couch) are coming with me. Woot! The couch is coming to Chicago with me! I’ll have a living room with actual living room furninture in it! Dave–poor soul–will have a living room futon. I do want to clarify that he OFFERED the couch, I did not ask for it. I wasn’t even going to suggest the couch come with me, I was going to leave it for him to enjoy. I even offered to leave it here once he’d broached the subject. But yay! It’s coming with me!
And actually, we think we may be able to clean out the storage unit with this move. Stuff from there can come with me, and it can also fill the spaces I’ll be emptying when I go. I’m pretty sure there’s room in the dining room of the apartment for our lovely dining room table along with my desk. I’ll need chairs there, Dave could use a couple more chairs here. I’ll need a bedframe, which we have in storage, and if it’s still good, the mattress and box spring that used to sit on it. The other bedframe, mattress and box spring can be set up here.
There will also be a bit of a reshuffling. Dave will move his office upstairs into my old office space, and his old office space will become a guest room for real. He’ll also be able to move his clothes into the bedroom closet and the sheets staying here with him into the linen cupboard(s) in the hallway where my clothes now reside. The closets in my old office can hold the remaining stuff from storage that won’t be coming with me. And then we won’t have to worry about paying for that any more or about having to pay a moving company to make two pickups.
The only thing we didn’t discuss is the kitchen gear. When do things like the Cuisinart and the knives and the pots and pans move to Chicago? As in, who gets to take what we have and who gets the new set we’ll need to buy? We may have to rochambeau for that stuff.
Processing
Jun 19
I’m in a weird space right now, a weird space in my head. So much has happened in the last few weeks, I’ve done so much and experienced so much and I haven’t had the time to really sit with any of it. So it’s mostly all a big jumble and swirling madness in my psyche and I don’t seem to be able to pin anything down long enough to really look at it.
I need some time off. Time off I’m not going to get for a while, what with R&J beginning this past week and my “free time” needing to be about memorization and packing and applying for jobs. But I need a vacation. I haven’t really had a break since classes began in January, and I’ve been running like a madwoman ever since.
In a perfect world, I’d take a week or two to just sit and exist someplace beautiful. I’d spend my time walking and reading and eating wonderful food and just remembering what it’s like to be in the moment and not worrying about some task or some place I have to get to next. Then I’d spend some time making art. Days, weeks, maybe even a couple of months making books and painting and cooking and sewing and writing. I’d spend mornings at coffee, afternoons in the sunshine, evenings around bonfires, all laughing and talking and playing with friends.
Then maybe I’d be ready to step back into the “real” world, back into weekday jobs and responsibilities. Maybe. But maybe I’d have created enough by the time my vacation was over that I could sell it and contribute my small mite to the family income that way. I don’t know.
I do know that June is more than halfway gone and I haven’t really copped to summer being here yet. My crabapples bloomed and I was barely aware. I blinked and my mock orange was all-over flowers. Most of my rosebushes were severely damaged this winter and are coming back from the root, so I haven’t had the explosions of blooms I usually get to remind me June is here. (Though the rugosas and the volunteer wild rosebush are all doing FAMOUSLY. I don’t think this winter even phased them.)
Because I’ve had so much to do, I’ve felt guilty when taking time for myself, and that includes time to paint or write or bookbind or create. The most creative I’ve been able to be is in putting together lunch menus for the past few days when walking to campus and 9-5 rehearsals have been the norm. I’m trying to eat better, both in terms of nutrition and pleasure, so I’ve put together some fast, portable, creative menus for my lunches, but even making those was about “getting this done now because I won’t have time later.” I’ve been snatching the odd hour of downtime here or there and feeling guilty about it the whole time because I have so much to do.
I have today “off.” I put that in quotes because all that word means is that I don’t have rehearsal. I still need to memorize my lines and get stuff together for some teaching job applications and maybe have an interview over the phone and clean the house because it hasn’t been done in over a month at this point except for cleaning the toilet and the kitchen sinks, occasionally picking up clutter and the weekly changing of the cat litter. All of this is preying on me, weighing my mind down with all of the “Must Do’s” so that I can’t even consider taking the day off for real. The only hope I have is that some of these tasks will take less time than I expect them to so that maybe I’ll have some time this evening to play when I’m not too exhausted to enjoy it.
I know this sounds like complaining, and maybe it is. From my point of view, it’s simply me expressing what’s on my mind and in my life right now. I’m too busy to enjoy my life, and I don’t like being that way. I know if I can get some of this done and dealt with–the job applications, for instance–I won’t have to worry about them any more and that part of the stress will be gone. Same goes for the memorization. And I know that once I get something packed, I don’t have to think or worry about it again until it’s time for the unpacking in August. I’m trying very hard to take this one step at a time, but right now, there are So Many Steps that I don’t know which to ascend first. I feel a bit like I’m trying to run up the down escalator.
I’ve not posted here for so long out of busy-ness and travel and of guilt. If I’m writing here, I’m not doing something else I really need to be doing. And as you can see from this entry, I don’t have much to say. I sure have an awful lot to DO, however. The list is overwhelming. Maybe I just need to close my eyes and point wildly at a task to figure out where to begin.
Overwhelmed
Jun 17
So sorry for the long absence. Life is insanely busy and I haven’t had the time to check my email most days, much less post here. Unfortunately, this state of affairs will most likely continue for the next little while. I will post when I can, but things are crazy right now.
I HAVE AN APARTMENT
Jun 12
I signed the lease this morning for a 1000-ish square foot one-bedroom on a quiet tree-lined street.
With a landlady who just rocks.
Thank goodness my luck seems to be holding.
On the Road Again…
Jun 9
But only until I get to the airport.
I’m off to Chicago this morning. Off to see lovely people and (hopefully) lovely apartments. I hope one is absolutely irresistable. I know I’ve already found a landlady I want to get to know better.
Interesting little side note about Chicago apartment hunting. The last time I looked for a rental was over ten years ago. We’ve owned our own places since 1999, so it’s been a long, looong time since I was at someone else’s mercy re: a living space.
Anyway, when I was looking for apartments in Portland, the first question I asked was always about the pet policy. “Do you take pets?” “What kind of pets do you have?” “We have three cats.” And the response to that was almost invariably, “THREE cats??!!??!?” As though I was announcing that we had two elephants, a zebra and an ostrich who would be moving in with us. Since we had four cats by the time we moved to Moscow, we just went ahead and bought another house. There was no point in going through all that again only with one more animal. So you can imagine how excited I was to be asking THAT question again as I called to make viewing appointments. (Though we are, sadly, back down to three. Pardon me for a moment, just stumbled into a grief pocket.)
I’d been pretty careful about scouring the listings for places that allowed cats in the first place, and then winnowing out all the places that had a two pet maximum specifically listed. And still, my first question was, “I’m unclear on your pet policy, so I need to know, we have three cats. Will that be an issue?” And figuratively speaking, no one batted an eye. Some were even careful to reiterate that they didn’t require pet deposits, and as long as the pets in question were cats and not dogs, it was fine. Even after I double-checked about the number of cats involved.
As I said to Dave in a phone conversation yesterday afternoon, “It’s like an entirely different city.”
“Well, yes,” he replied. “Because it is.”
Um, yeah. I knew that.