Forgive me dear readers for I have sinned. It has been nearly one week since my last entry! It's been a crazy week. Saturday was our last rehearsal in NYC. We did a run-through that went quite smoothly and then were released early to go home and get packed and ready to go. Our creative team flew out to CA on Sunday while we prepared to leave. Sunday morning I slept in (ahhhhhhhhh), did laundry, then hauled it out to Michelle's to spend the night there before my crack-of-ass flight. I was very happy to get to spend my last night in New York with my girl since it will be spring before I get to see her again. We lounged and watched "Project Runway" and she cooked dinner. Somehow she must have known I had been having mad cravings for chocolate ice cream because she had bought us pints and I ate the whole thing!
Sunday morning I got up at 3:45 for a 4:15 car service to the airport. On the way we picked up my castmate Alaggio who was staying in Astoria. Let me tell you, theatre people are NOT happy about being up that early. Our flight was at 7:30 out of JFK and we flew on Virgin America. It was really a nice flight, although I'm sure the 3 ativan I took helped! They have tv screens on the seatback in front of you for tv and movies and you can even IM with people in other seats so we had fun with that. I slept a little while but not long enough! Our bus met us at LAX and we met our drivers for the tour, a husband and wife team named John and Kim and they are very nice. The bus is fine. We have little video screens and can watch DVDs if everyone wants. Alas with children on board we have to choose carefully.
We drove out to our hotel in San Bernardino which is about 45 minutes east of Los Angeles. It's kind of a ghetto town to us, or at least the theatre is in a ghetto area! But the hotel is decent and the beds are comfy although the pillows seem to be for tiny people, very bizarre. Matt and I seem like we'll live together just fine. We don't have a ton of spare time right now but we have been able to enjoy the pool a bit in this sunny Southern California heat. We're inland more toward the desert so we are about ten degrees warmer than it is in L.A. The palm trees and mountains are beautiful!
Not able to relax much at all, we checked into the hotel and pretty much jumped back on the bus and headed to the theatre for out first day of tech. We worked scene changes now that we have the set. Tuesday we teched act one, Wednesday we teched act two, Thursday was a mishigoss(sp?) of teching, costumes, working scene issues...you name it. I also had gotten up at 6:45 to tape a radio interview with a station back home that wanted to get my 9/11 story. That was hard to talk about that early especially. We ended our day in Jen and Alaggio's room with pizza and alcohol and yours truly got a little smashed so waking up today was...um...interesting. Wine is so cheap here if you buy a CA wine so we all went a bit nuts at the supermarket. I mean a $12 bottle in PA is $5 here so you can imagine our excitement. Today is Friday and I'm at the theatre with my laptop seated currently in my PRIVATE dressing room, thank you very much. I get a private room whenever the theatre has the space and otherwise will share with Rhiannon (Nancy) which is cool too! I actually sort of miss the whole fun time in the dressing room with other people but privacy has its benefits too. My dressing room (all of them actually)is totally ghetto with a guest chair with mystery stains, a rusty sink and walls and shelves that haven't seen a fresh coat of paint seemingly since this place was built in 1928! The lobby is MUCH better cared for. But I digress! Today we ran act two with costumes which was kind of a nightmare for me. I'm learning the whole show I'm either onstage or changing clothes at lightening speed or so it seems. There are always issues when you first do costumes but oh my goodness! We had a nice long break so a bunch of us hiked to find a Starbucks as we were having withdrawal. Came back, had dinner and now I'm back in my dressing room catching up on my blog, listening to my itunes and waiting for an 8:00 dress. We have our first show with audience tomorrow at 2:00, then an 8:00 then a Sunday matinee. We officially open in Fresno early next week. I guess this is sort of like being in previews. I picked up a local paper tonight and there's a big ad in the Weekend section. Yea! They do cater our dinner in since we have such long days which is cool and there's a continental breakfast at the hotel if we're up early enough so it's been easy to save money.
So today's "Meet the Cast" features my roommate Matt David. Matt is 31 and originally from Worcester, MA but I like him anyway! Ha! Matt plays Mr. Brownlow so I have one scene with him in act 2. He also covers Bumble. Matt has a GREAT voice and he's very funny. He's also pretty twisted! Matt was on the Annie tour last year and roomed with my old friend Ricky Pope. Ricky had nothing but good things to say about Matt so I knew we'd get along. Well, I'd better start getting ready as half-hour (for non-theatre folks this is when the cast is called to start to get ready) is never long enough. I'll try to be better bout posting and let you know how the shows go this weekend. Will we get reviewed!? AGH! I miss you all like mad!
Sunday morning I got up at 3:45 for a 4:15 car service to the airport. On the way we picked up my castmate Alaggio who was staying in Astoria. Let me tell you, theatre people are NOT happy about being up that early. Our flight was at 7:30 out of JFK and we flew on Virgin America. It was really a nice flight, although I'm sure the 3 ativan I took helped! They have tv screens on the seatback in front of you for tv and movies and you can even IM with people in other seats so we had fun with that. I slept a little while but not long enough! Our bus met us at LAX and we met our drivers for the tour, a husband and wife team named John and Kim and they are very nice. The bus is fine. We have little video screens and can watch DVDs if everyone wants. Alas with children on board we have to choose carefully.
We drove out to our hotel in San Bernardino which is about 45 minutes east of Los Angeles. It's kind of a ghetto town to us, or at least the theatre is in a ghetto area! But the hotel is decent and the beds are comfy although the pillows seem to be for tiny people, very bizarre. Matt and I seem like we'll live together just fine. We don't have a ton of spare time right now but we have been able to enjoy the pool a bit in this sunny Southern California heat. We're inland more toward the desert so we are about ten degrees warmer than it is in L.A. The palm trees and mountains are beautiful!
Not able to relax much at all, we checked into the hotel and pretty much jumped back on the bus and headed to the theatre for out first day of tech. We worked scene changes now that we have the set. Tuesday we teched act one, Wednesday we teched act two, Thursday was a mishigoss(sp?) of teching, costumes, working scene issues...you name it. I also had gotten up at 6:45 to tape a radio interview with a station back home that wanted to get my 9/11 story. That was hard to talk about that early especially. We ended our day in Jen and Alaggio's room with pizza and alcohol and yours truly got a little smashed so waking up today was...um...interesting. Wine is so cheap here if you buy a CA wine so we all went a bit nuts at the supermarket. I mean a $12 bottle in PA is $5 here so you can imagine our excitement. Today is Friday and I'm at the theatre with my laptop seated currently in my PRIVATE dressing room, thank you very much. I get a private room whenever the theatre has the space and otherwise will share with Rhiannon (Nancy) which is cool too! I actually sort of miss the whole fun time in the dressing room with other people but privacy has its benefits too. My dressing room (all of them actually)is totally ghetto with a guest chair with mystery stains, a rusty sink and walls and shelves that haven't seen a fresh coat of paint seemingly since this place was built in 1928! The lobby is MUCH better cared for. But I digress! Today we ran act two with costumes which was kind of a nightmare for me. I'm learning the whole show I'm either onstage or changing clothes at lightening speed or so it seems. There are always issues when you first do costumes but oh my goodness! We had a nice long break so a bunch of us hiked to find a Starbucks as we were having withdrawal. Came back, had dinner and now I'm back in my dressing room catching up on my blog, listening to my itunes and waiting for an 8:00 dress. We have our first show with audience tomorrow at 2:00, then an 8:00 then a Sunday matinee. We officially open in Fresno early next week. I guess this is sort of like being in previews. I picked up a local paper tonight and there's a big ad in the Weekend section. Yea! They do cater our dinner in since we have such long days which is cool and there's a continental breakfast at the hotel if we're up early enough so it's been easy to save money.
So today's "Meet the Cast" features my roommate Matt David. Matt is 31 and originally from Worcester, MA but I like him anyway! Ha! Matt plays Mr. Brownlow so I have one scene with him in act 2. He also covers Bumble. Matt has a GREAT voice and he's very funny. He's also pretty twisted! Matt was on the Annie tour last year and roomed with my old friend Ricky Pope. Ricky had nothing but good things to say about Matt so I knew we'd get along. Well, I'd better start getting ready as half-hour (for non-theatre folks this is when the cast is called to start to get ready) is never long enough. I'll try to be better bout posting and let you know how the shows go this weekend. Will we get reviewed!? AGH! I miss you all like mad!
1 comment:
WOW, you are really there and probably on stage as I write this. I am smiling from ear to ear reading of all of the fun you are having. These are the memories that you will live on when you are in THE HOME. I couldn't be prouder. I love you.
The Mama
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