Life Upon the Wicked Stage: One Week Down

The ridiculous and amazing Chris

Oh man you guys. What a first week it was. If not for getting along great with most of this cast I may well have gone screaming back to Pennsylvania by now. There's not a ton to share so this won't be one of my epic posts which is great for my ADD addled mother, right Mom!?

So the exterminator came and that night we came home to more ants. Really!? Only this time I was able to trace their path so we sprayed the fuck out of it and cleaned AGAIN. Our producer has, at least, been sympathetic and been making efforts to get it taken care of and has apologized up and down for it. We can tell she is truly feeling bad about it. Not bad enough to move us, but bad regardless.

Rehearsals are long and annoying even though they are the typical 8 hours with an hour lunch. We rarely have a schedule even the night before and then when we do they never stick to it. The creative team generally stands discussing the plan for rehearsal during the first twenty minutes of both morning and post-lunch rehearsal. Several of us often end up sitting unused for hours at a time which is uber frustrating. Our director is so jumbled. He has good ideas and I can tell he has a vision for the show but he's terrible about verbalizing it. Ken, who plays Fatty, clearly wants to be the focus of everything and is always telling the director bits he wants to do that are always all about him. I never get any direction at all so I'm working out all kinds of small business for myself back at my piano that will be entertaining for me and if someone in the audience catches it and finds it fun so be it but I'm really just working for myself at this point. Our poor stage manager, Nancy, is running around like a chicken without a head running sound (tracks, thanks so much) moving set pieces and finding props. And this show is CRAZY prop heavy. It's all that silent movie schtick so there are rubber chickens and shaving cream pies and dolls and laundry and knightsticks for the Keystone Kops and all that jazz. I have a bottle of booze on my piano and a fake cigarette is always hanging out of my mouth. I decided to make Ella as different from Sister Margaretta as humanly possible and I believe I've succeeded.

The theatre itself is super ghetto so I probably won't do a video tour this time. It's an unmarked building behind a cruddy shopping plaza. Inside is ok. Backstage is really tight especially for 17 actors and all of the set pieces and props we have. It's going to be a puzzle for sure. The "dressing room" is a long mirror and counter in what amounts to the scene shop. It looks like it may seat FOUR. And instead of the traditional backstage monitor system we have...baby monitors. Oh sweet Jesus. I'm not even kidding. The dressing/scene shop area also butts up to the black box theatre and the space has to be shared with THAT cast when they arrive and open Steel Magnolias in September. Just kill me now. Instead of the Facebook "Jam and Bread" videos, this contract I have the "Calling Non-Equity" photo album of us calling "Non-Equity" instead of Equity to complain about things. We do this using various props and such as the phone. The album is a work in progress and up on Facebook along with all the other pics I've been taking.

Eating better and less is getting easier slowly but surely. I generally have a Chobani greek yogurt for breakfast with some fruit and sugar-free granola mixed into it, hummus with pita chips and fruit for lunch and then something light for dinner like a chicken salad or Lean Cuisine or something. Soda is all but cut out of my life with the rare exception for a Diet Coke. And I allow myself a Skinny Cow ice cream novelty treat for dessert so I don't totally go off the rails and buy candy and junk. I have also stopped with the lattes and am having Starbucks iced Via instead. It's much cheaper and only 100 calories versus the 300 plus I was ingesting almost daily. I've been good about going to the gym with the girls. We've all joined but none of the boys have. Weird huh? Cardio kickboxing class was death and I didn't even realize I HAD hip flexor muscles until I could feel the extreme pain in them. I alternate my cardio routine and weight machines so nothing is the same every day. It's so hard when after a day at this place I just want to lay on my ass and eat and watch tv but I have to break the cycle. As you all know, it's a lifelong struggle for me. The good news is my cold is FINALLY gone. Yesterday was the first time in two weeks that I stopped coughing and could breathe and have energy again. Good thing because I was able to enjoy my day off and hit this enormous mall in Boca Raton with Chris, Mara and Lauren. I only spent $20: a manicure and two shirts for Mike at Marshall's on clearance.

Well, that's all from Ghettoville, er, uh, Coral Springs. Enjoy these pics of the theatre.