First of all, I apologize for abandoning my blog for so long. Things got extremely busy at the theatre, so whenever I was able to find a few spare moments, I either didn't feel like writing or couldn't think of anything interesting to say. I didn't want to fall into a rut of complaining about the mean people or venting about my coworkers. That must get old for you as readers. So for weeks and weeks I was stumped to find a topic to write about. Unfortunately, a topic that deserves to be written about has reared its ugly head. On Sunday evening, I was in a car accident. So this blog post is not meant to shock, upset, or to ask for sympathy, but rather it is acting as an outlet through which I can objectively view this occurrence while maybe even finding a little humor in it. Humor may seem like a morbid avenue to take, but for some of us, it's the most effective way to cope. Bear with me... this is a long one.
To begin this story, I have to back up a little bit. After spending about a week home in Pittsburgh, seeing my family and a few friends, I had an incredibly difficult time coming back to Florida. I was tempted in the worst way to stay up North and have my things FedEx-ed to me. Alas, I had to return. When I got back to the Sunshine State, I made a vow to myself that I would take care of Me and only Me while I spend the next five months in this internship. If somebody decides to slack off, it has nothing to do with me. If a roommate leaves their dishes in the sink, I will not be the one to wash them and put them away. Now, because you all have met me, I'm sure you guessed that this lasted about a minute. The one thing I could take control of, however, is my actual body. So I started a gym membership at L.A. Fitness. It was a nice gym, they had a good class schedule, and they charged me ten dollars every week -- a scare tactic that forced me to go, knowing that ten precious dollars were being deducted from my tiny bank account every Thursday at midnight. So I went pretty consistently for about a week and a half, then scheduled a free fitness consultation for Monday at 9:30am. Some muscly guy was going to tell me how chubby I am and how to fix it. Fine. Horrifying, but fine.
So on Sunday after house managing the matinee of God of Carnage, I decided to head to the outlets, where I had a $50 giftcard, to buy some new tennis shoes. (I've had my red Addidas sneakers since the 7th grade.) This may sound somewhat cliche or over-dramatic, but something felt very odd on Sunday. I was feeling extremely lonely, so I had called my mother (for the second time that day) and got to speak with my brother while they were all sitting around having dinner after doing some errands. After hanging up with the Avolios, I called Sara (Sara and I are Olympic phone taggers), hoping to hear a comforting voice, and left a voicemail that almost brought me to tears. I'm not sure why. I didn't say anything of great importance, nor did I need to hear anything more than "Hi, this is Sara, leave me a message." I felt a little better, but decided to give John a ring, even though I knew he was in rehearsal. To no avail. So I hopped in my car, or Bertie as I liked to call her, and started my drive to the outlets with Richard the GPS as my navigator.
Summerlin Road, the highway that goes straight to the outlets, has always been a road that made me nervous. There are too many exits, too many causeways, too many snow birds in their giant Buicks. I made it past the awkward left exit towards Fort Myers Beach, made it past the steep bridge that scoops up above San Carlos Boulevard -- I was almost there. Then, as I was driving in the left hand lane, I see out my side window that a man in a white pick up truck is changing lanes. Just as I worry he might also try to change into my lane, I see him start to merge left, obviously not seeing me, as Bertie was probably tucked perfectly away in his blind spot. I swerve to the left so as not to be hit, then swerve back to the right so as not to hit the median. As I do so, my car looses control, causing Bertie and I to slide across the three lanes of traffic. At this moment, instead of being scared, I am completely annoyed. Annoyed. I'll never get my tennis shoes today. A nano-second later, I see a light post coming straight for my side window. My mind thinks of how many movies use that exact camera shot when filming car accidents. The pole looks as if it could hit the car, and progressively gets bigger and bigger as the car speeds toward it. You know that shot, right? In about a million movies. Or car insurance commercials. As I crash sideways into the pole, it feels like the worst bumper car experience of my life. It was like as if a giant snot-nosed kid in an enormous neon green car rammed into me, happily licking his disgusting ice cream cone the whole time. Well, that just made me even more angry. Then I feel the car flipping over and over, and all I can think about is how this is the most inconvenient time for me to die. Inconvenient? What is wrong with me? I may or may not walk away today, but all I can think about is how obnoxiously inconvenient this timing is. I was so angry at the possibility of dying, that I think I just refused to let it happen. Bertie landed right side up in about four feet of stagnant water in a ravine beside the road.
"Holy Moses," I think, "My car is totally gone." I frantically started trying to remember if I had scheduled a wheel alignment like I was supposed to, and if I would have time to call and cancel it. I actually was relieved that my father wasn't charged for the damage that Pittsburgh potholes had done to my wheel alignment, because it would have been a complete waste of money now. I'm snapped back to reality by people screaming at the side of the road. "Are you ok?" "Is there anyone in the car with you?" "Don't worry, we saw the whole thing." "We're calling 911." "He totally cut you off!" Some of the people were more helpful than others. Just then, a voice came through my rear view mirror from On Star. They informed me that they were calling 911, asking all sorts of questions, and then connected me with my dad. That was kinda weird. Hearing my father's voice come through my smashed car, asking what happened. My instinct is to apologize for the car. You would think that my phobia of being inconvenient and burdensome would subside for this particular instance, but no. Julianne's asinine neuroses win again. I assure him that I'm fine. There is a woman looking down at me from the side of the road with the kindest face who keeps telling me that she is going to stay with me until the emergency vehicles get here. The firemen come just as the water starts coming into my vehicle. It's at this time that I regret not finishing my swimming lessons as a kid. A burly fireman wades into the water, rips my back door off, and I climb to the back of my car and onto his shoulders. As I scamper to the top of the embankment, I see the woman who stayed with me. She gives me a big kiss on the cheek and says, "My name is Lucy." I love Lucy. I think to turn around, and I start to scream about my car. "Don't look at the car, Julianne. Don't look at the car," one of the EMTs tells me. As he starts to put a neck brace on me and lower me onto a stretcher, I think, "You look like you should be in a soap opera, not taking my vitals."
As I'm being asked questions in the ambulance, I revert back to a conversation I had with Sam Turich last year. We talked about how the curse of an actor is that you're always trying to commit experiences to memory. When something terrible happens, you say to yourself, "Remember how this felt. Remember how I behaved, how the people around me behaved." It's a horrible, horrible habit, but one that I suffer from, nonetheless. Then.. "Oh crap," I think, "I just put $33.50 in gas into my car this morning. There's money that I'll never get back." WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! I almost die in a Fast and Furious-like crash, and I'm pissed because I can't get 30 bucks back? Looking back, though, I suppose any thoughts that can get you back to normalcy are comforting thoughts when strapped into an ambulance.
When I get to the hospital, they take me inside the doors where a tiny doctor tries to ask me questions. Unfortunately, he is too short to look at my face, so he asks the paramedics to lower my stretcher. "Great," I think, "I'm being examined by Martin Short." After he marvels at the lack of injuries I sustained, he wishes me luck and scurries down the hall. I am then taken into an examination room where I begin to lose it. Everything that happened starts to settle into my consciousness. I text my mother to reassure her that I'm okay, and call John to tell him what happened. (My phone magically ended up in the cup holder after the accident, so I was able to grab it on the way out.) As I sit there waiting for a nurse to come in, a disgustingly fat man wearing a McDonald's manager's uniform is in the room across the hall getting his ring cut off, because he is too fat to get it off himself. He is swearing, threatening, and whining at the nurses, who eventually give up and call reinforcements. I stare at this man, hoping that the fury in my eyes is enough to tell him to stop crying about his fat finger after I just rolled my car and a guy down the hall was hit on his bicycle. At the end of the day, I'm sure the small pressure you feel on your knuckle is not quite worth the lawsuit you think it is. Just then my phone goes off. I don't answer the unknown caller, but instead wait to check the voicemail. "Hey Julianne, this is Randy from L.A. Fitness. Just wanted to call to remind you about our fitness consultation tomorrow morning at 9:30. Call me tonight with any questions, and I'll see you tomorrow. Be ready to work. We're going to have a lot of fun." Ohhhhh Randy. You have no idea how much I won't see you tomorrow.
After some crazy phone tag, Hallie comes to pick me up at the hospital when they release me after a short examination. About two hours after the accident, I'm home and in the shower. I felt like I wasn't really there. Like I'm not alive and standing in my apartment. Like at any moment someone was going to say, "Just kidding. You aren't fine." I stand in the hot water that stings the brush burn I received from the seat belt and the life-saving side airbag. Luckily I was stingy on my last grocery trip, because I had a nice soothing bar of soap to go over my cuts instead of that rough luffa (or puffy-doo, as I am known to call it). The smell of the Irish Spring takes me back to my second grade research project when I carved a penguin out of a bar of soap made to look like whale bone. It's a weird thing to find comfort in, but I'll take it. I'm not sure I'll buy another brand of soap for quite some time.
In the meantime, my car is gone, my wallet is gone, and I'm in a completely different state. I feel very trapped. But at the same time, I feel hidden. The one thing I have hated about Florida in comparison to Pittsburgh is that there is nowhere to hide. Now I have been given the opportunity, just for a little while, to have no identity. And I'm all right with that. For now.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, November 14, 2011
Man, why you gotta be so rude?
I started to write an update of what's happening professionally down here in regards to shows and rehearsals and all of that, but it just made me tired. I think I need an escape from talking about that with you all, because I'm starting to feel like all you hear about is "casting this" and "casting that." So this entry is going to be about all the rude run-ins with crazy Floridians I've had over the past couple weeks. Some funny, some infuriating, and others just sad. If you can picture the gratuitous passion with which I would most likely tell these stories in person, you should find them interesting at least.
To preface all of this, part of me feels like this trend of rudeness is not entirely these people's faults. I blame the state of Florida. For those of you who are familiar with my audition pieces, you'll remember the one monologue I use that is about Florida's environment. I now understand that piece better than I ever have. For those of you that have no heard said monologue, it begins, "This is not an easy place to be thoughtful. Central Florida. I'm from New Hampshire. I've thought about this, and I think... I think winter is important. ...You never see your world shrivel up and die, so you begin to feel immortal." IT'S TRUE! I think people who live down here have a totally warped sense of human interaction and communication. They have a sunny, warm environment every day of their lives, so they grow accustom to living in perfect surroundings, encouraging an egocentric personality. That is part of my theory. The other part will come in later.
With that being said, here are some stories:
I'll start with the least infuriating of these tales. Because my dear father was kind enough to send me a little cash along with my forwarded mail, I decided to treat myself to some chinese take out for dinner. So I walk over to Ichiban, the restaurant near our theatre, to order some pork fried rice and an egg roll. I enter the restaurant, walk to the cash register, and order my food from an older woman who seems nice enough despite the apparent tension between her and the young girl working next to her. As I stand outside the restaurant for my food to be ready, I receive a text from Hallie asking me to grab a spoon for her because she forgot to pack one in her lunch. Sure. Fine. No problem. Or so I thought. The peppy younger woman calls out to me that my food is ready. Just as I turn to reenter the restaurant, the old woman spitefully takes over the transaction and checks me out. The conversation was as follows:
Woman: That'll be $5.25.
Me: Sure. I might even have a quarter! Here you go. Oh, could I also have a spoon?
Woman: *Looks at me like I'm on fire*
Me: A spoon? Do you have a spoon I could take with me, please?
Woman: But you ordered take out.
Me: Uh huh. ...Could I have a spoon?
Woman: We gave you a fork. You ordered rice.
Me: Sure. Could I also have a spoon?
Woman: *Continues to look at me like I'm on fire.*
Me: I'm not going to get a spoon out of this conversation, am I?
Woman: *More fire staring*
Me: Have a nice day.
The button on the whole thing: she forgot to give me my egg roll. Now I know what you're all thinking: "You should have gone back and demanded that egg roll!" But if that woman was so unprepared to give me a plastic utensil, I can only imagine how unsuccessful the explanation of my missing fried appetizer would be. Now, this may not have been a "rude" conversation, but it was certainly a frustrating one.
Now on to a doosie. This next little nugget of horrifying adult behavior takes place at none other than... the Dollar Tree. So right at the start, we shouldn't be expecting much. Everyone, including myself, is there to buy generic brands of hand soap and defective cleaning supplies. It's not exactly a place where one should expect the highest quality service from the poorly paid cashiers working the registers. It is what it is. While I was crouching at the bottom of a shelf, figuring out the best deal for body wash (you know, how many ounces and what brand will I be getting from my dollar), a woman asks me if she can get by. "Of course!" I say to her as I stand from my catcher's position on the floor. The roly-poly woman, however, continues to analyze the bars of soap to my right. "Do you need to get by?" I ask her. "Oh no, I just wanted to make sure that I could." What did she think? That if there was a fire, I would continue to ponder the better deal between the White Rain 16oz. and the generic 24oz. while the Dollar Tree crumbled in a blazing inferno around me? It's okay. I let it go. Maybe she doesn't have entitlement issues, but rather is worried about her ability to maneuver the narrow, junk-filled aisles when the time comes.
BUT THEN, this woman, Roly-Poly, I'll call her for clarity's sake, gets in line behind a person whose items are being rung out. In the line next to that, an awkward teenage boy opens his register. Another woman and I enter that line. Back at the ranch, the person whose items are being rung out is having problems with the debit machine. Roly-Poly then decides it is her right to be served in any line the Dollar Tree has to offer. "I'm next," we hear from the next line over. Roly-Poly starts accosting the awkward teen running my check-out line, attempting to convince him that she should be next on his register because of the inconvenience she is experiencing behind the misbehaving debit machine. The gangly kid looks awkwardly at my few things, so completely thrown off by the abrupt assumption that this woman should be allowed to jump line on his register simply because of what ended up being a 90 second delay in her purchasing. He putters a few times, not sure how to handle this overbearing, round woman, and manages to squeak out, "This lady (me) only has a few items, if you can wait until she's done." A valid solution to the debit machine crash of 2011. Roly-Poly, however, was not pleased. "Exactly," the globular woman exclaimed, "if she only has a few items, then she can wait. I'm next." This does it. "Ma'am," I interject, "with all due respect, there is no reason I should not be allowed to check out with my couple items." After she accuses me of disrespecting my elders, I am forced to counter-attack. "My mother always taught me to respect my elders, and I do. But at the end of the day, how many years you've been alive has nothing to do with where you stand in line at the Dollar Tree." By the end of my sentence, my items had been scanned and the debit machine at fault had been fixed. Roly-Poly makes it to the register in the same amount of time it would have taken to stand behind me. This woman was old enough to know better than to give a young guy such a hard time about buying some brillo pads and box of pancake mix.
Speaking of old enough to know better, I was walking down the sidewalk the other day when I saw a man attempting to park, illegally I might add, in front of my car on the street. I watched him hit my car three times through the duration of the horrendous, and ILLEGAL, park job. While he turns his car off after finally deciding he has his car in perfect ILLEGAL position, I walk to my car and begin to inspect the potential damage to the front of it. He and his wife get out of the car, look at me, and proceed to walk away. Better not be late for your dinner reservations, right, sir?
Me: Sir, you hit my car.
Man: Oh, sorry. *Continues to walk away.*
Me: Actually, sir, if you could wait just a minute while I finish looking over the front of my car. If something is damaged I'd like to take care of it.
Man: What? Oh.. *Slowly attempts to back away, following his wife's lead.*
Me: Well, there is a small dent in the bumper, but I won't take up your time with exchanging insurance information. But just so you know, you're parked illegally anyway.
Wife: How do you know that?
Me: Well, the parking spaces are painted onto the road. Where your car is, there aren't any painted spaces which is why you didn't have enough room to park your car and why you hit me.
Man and Wife: *walk away murmuring unhappily*
Now, I believe I handled that in the most polite way I could, seeing as I cannot handle actual confrontation or inconvenience with another human being. Why I was the one being treated like the offender, I'm still not sure.
The longer I am here, the more I am starting to lose faith in older generations. I respect them and have much admiration for many individuals within this group, so I do not want to speak with broad, overarching generalizations, but the blatant disregard many people have for anyone under the age of 40 is a disgusting trend among what is often thought to be the greatest generation to have ever lived. I know they have been through a lot of experiences and have witnessed a lot of horrible historic events, but it isn't our fault that we weren't alive back then. There was, in fact, a time when the generation I speak about was 20 years old and had experienced the same things we have. Some people had to grow up with a rough economy in a wartime environment. And it wasn't easy. Sounds pretty familiar to me. I don't mean to trivialize anyone's past by comparing cultures, but at the end of the day, it is incredibly frustrating as a hard-working, morally-centered person to be cast aside by my elders time after time, merely because of a birth date. Even adults I know and trust will post things online about how the youth of this country "hates America" and doesn't know the meaning of hard work and is attempting to overturn everything this country is built on. The list goes on. The more I think about it, though, if this kind of dismissive attitude is what is making up our present culture, I'm glad my generation is different from all that.
Sorry about the random political/social rant at the end there. It's just something that's truly been irking me for a long time, especially the more I see that kind of behavior. Let it be known, though, that the woman at the restaurant had nothing to do with this analysis. I think she was just out of spoons.
To preface all of this, part of me feels like this trend of rudeness is not entirely these people's faults. I blame the state of Florida. For those of you who are familiar with my audition pieces, you'll remember the one monologue I use that is about Florida's environment. I now understand that piece better than I ever have. For those of you that have no heard said monologue, it begins, "This is not an easy place to be thoughtful. Central Florida. I'm from New Hampshire. I've thought about this, and I think... I think winter is important. ...You never see your world shrivel up and die, so you begin to feel immortal." IT'S TRUE! I think people who live down here have a totally warped sense of human interaction and communication. They have a sunny, warm environment every day of their lives, so they grow accustom to living in perfect surroundings, encouraging an egocentric personality. That is part of my theory. The other part will come in later.
With that being said, here are some stories:
I'll start with the least infuriating of these tales. Because my dear father was kind enough to send me a little cash along with my forwarded mail, I decided to treat myself to some chinese take out for dinner. So I walk over to Ichiban, the restaurant near our theatre, to order some pork fried rice and an egg roll. I enter the restaurant, walk to the cash register, and order my food from an older woman who seems nice enough despite the apparent tension between her and the young girl working next to her. As I stand outside the restaurant for my food to be ready, I receive a text from Hallie asking me to grab a spoon for her because she forgot to pack one in her lunch. Sure. Fine. No problem. Or so I thought. The peppy younger woman calls out to me that my food is ready. Just as I turn to reenter the restaurant, the old woman spitefully takes over the transaction and checks me out. The conversation was as follows:
Woman: That'll be $5.25.
Me: Sure. I might even have a quarter! Here you go. Oh, could I also have a spoon?
Woman: *Looks at me like I'm on fire*
Me: A spoon? Do you have a spoon I could take with me, please?
Woman: But you ordered take out.
Me: Uh huh. ...Could I have a spoon?
Woman: We gave you a fork. You ordered rice.
Me: Sure. Could I also have a spoon?
Woman: *Continues to look at me like I'm on fire.*
Me: I'm not going to get a spoon out of this conversation, am I?
Woman: *More fire staring*
Me: Have a nice day.
The button on the whole thing: she forgot to give me my egg roll. Now I know what you're all thinking: "You should have gone back and demanded that egg roll!" But if that woman was so unprepared to give me a plastic utensil, I can only imagine how unsuccessful the explanation of my missing fried appetizer would be. Now, this may not have been a "rude" conversation, but it was certainly a frustrating one.
Now on to a doosie. This next little nugget of horrifying adult behavior takes place at none other than... the Dollar Tree. So right at the start, we shouldn't be expecting much. Everyone, including myself, is there to buy generic brands of hand soap and defective cleaning supplies. It's not exactly a place where one should expect the highest quality service from the poorly paid cashiers working the registers. It is what it is. While I was crouching at the bottom of a shelf, figuring out the best deal for body wash (you know, how many ounces and what brand will I be getting from my dollar), a woman asks me if she can get by. "Of course!" I say to her as I stand from my catcher's position on the floor. The roly-poly woman, however, continues to analyze the bars of soap to my right. "Do you need to get by?" I ask her. "Oh no, I just wanted to make sure that I could." What did she think? That if there was a fire, I would continue to ponder the better deal between the White Rain 16oz. and the generic 24oz. while the Dollar Tree crumbled in a blazing inferno around me? It's okay. I let it go. Maybe she doesn't have entitlement issues, but rather is worried about her ability to maneuver the narrow, junk-filled aisles when the time comes.
BUT THEN, this woman, Roly-Poly, I'll call her for clarity's sake, gets in line behind a person whose items are being rung out. In the line next to that, an awkward teenage boy opens his register. Another woman and I enter that line. Back at the ranch, the person whose items are being rung out is having problems with the debit machine. Roly-Poly then decides it is her right to be served in any line the Dollar Tree has to offer. "I'm next," we hear from the next line over. Roly-Poly starts accosting the awkward teen running my check-out line, attempting to convince him that she should be next on his register because of the inconvenience she is experiencing behind the misbehaving debit machine. The gangly kid looks awkwardly at my few things, so completely thrown off by the abrupt assumption that this woman should be allowed to jump line on his register simply because of what ended up being a 90 second delay in her purchasing. He putters a few times, not sure how to handle this overbearing, round woman, and manages to squeak out, "This lady (me) only has a few items, if you can wait until she's done." A valid solution to the debit machine crash of 2011. Roly-Poly, however, was not pleased. "Exactly," the globular woman exclaimed, "if she only has a few items, then she can wait. I'm next." This does it. "Ma'am," I interject, "with all due respect, there is no reason I should not be allowed to check out with my couple items." After she accuses me of disrespecting my elders, I am forced to counter-attack. "My mother always taught me to respect my elders, and I do. But at the end of the day, how many years you've been alive has nothing to do with where you stand in line at the Dollar Tree." By the end of my sentence, my items had been scanned and the debit machine at fault had been fixed. Roly-Poly makes it to the register in the same amount of time it would have taken to stand behind me. This woman was old enough to know better than to give a young guy such a hard time about buying some brillo pads and box of pancake mix.
Speaking of old enough to know better, I was walking down the sidewalk the other day when I saw a man attempting to park, illegally I might add, in front of my car on the street. I watched him hit my car three times through the duration of the horrendous, and ILLEGAL, park job. While he turns his car off after finally deciding he has his car in perfect ILLEGAL position, I walk to my car and begin to inspect the potential damage to the front of it. He and his wife get out of the car, look at me, and proceed to walk away. Better not be late for your dinner reservations, right, sir?
Me: Sir, you hit my car.
Man: Oh, sorry. *Continues to walk away.*
Me: Actually, sir, if you could wait just a minute while I finish looking over the front of my car. If something is damaged I'd like to take care of it.
Man: What? Oh.. *Slowly attempts to back away, following his wife's lead.*
Me: Well, there is a small dent in the bumper, but I won't take up your time with exchanging insurance information. But just so you know, you're parked illegally anyway.
Wife: How do you know that?
Me: Well, the parking spaces are painted onto the road. Where your car is, there aren't any painted spaces which is why you didn't have enough room to park your car and why you hit me.
Man and Wife: *walk away murmuring unhappily*
Now, I believe I handled that in the most polite way I could, seeing as I cannot handle actual confrontation or inconvenience with another human being. Why I was the one being treated like the offender, I'm still not sure.
The longer I am here, the more I am starting to lose faith in older generations. I respect them and have much admiration for many individuals within this group, so I do not want to speak with broad, overarching generalizations, but the blatant disregard many people have for anyone under the age of 40 is a disgusting trend among what is often thought to be the greatest generation to have ever lived. I know they have been through a lot of experiences and have witnessed a lot of horrible historic events, but it isn't our fault that we weren't alive back then. There was, in fact, a time when the generation I speak about was 20 years old and had experienced the same things we have. Some people had to grow up with a rough economy in a wartime environment. And it wasn't easy. Sounds pretty familiar to me. I don't mean to trivialize anyone's past by comparing cultures, but at the end of the day, it is incredibly frustrating as a hard-working, morally-centered person to be cast aside by my elders time after time, merely because of a birth date. Even adults I know and trust will post things online about how the youth of this country "hates America" and doesn't know the meaning of hard work and is attempting to overturn everything this country is built on. The list goes on. The more I think about it, though, if this kind of dismissive attitude is what is making up our present culture, I'm glad my generation is different from all that.
Sorry about the random political/social rant at the end there. It's just something that's truly been irking me for a long time, especially the more I see that kind of behavior. Let it be known, though, that the woman at the restaurant had nothing to do with this analysis. I think she was just out of spoons.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
"I'm just quoting Mama..."
Hello friends
Well, the show is open! It was exhausting, but it's open. We had a great week of previews with pretty raucous audiences that laughed at every word. Opening night was certainly a thing. The house was great and full of people from the company, so that was nice. There was a big opening night party at our Artistic Director's house. This opening night party was one like I have never seen before. I've been to openings at City Theatre and at the Public, but things are run so differently here. The event wasn't held at the theatre, but instead, the patrons, donors, board members, cast, crew, staff, etc. were all invited to Bob's house. There were easily about a hundred people there. Probably more. It seems like a totally different world in which Bob can announce to the audience, "opening night party at my house, be there." The thing about it, though.... it was impressive. The food was unreal, free wine and beer for days; shrimp rings, expensive Italian meats, French cheeses, homemade pasta dishes.. the list goes on. Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious that night with heavy downpours. So instead of spreading out on his back patio areas (yes, "areas" plural), everyone was crammed in his house and on a tiny lip on his back porch. Now, his house is not a small house by any means, but for someone like me who easily gets overwhelmed by crowds, it was too much to handle. Needless to say, I left pretty early. It was a fairly nice time nonetheless.
After all the tech rehearsals and opening weekend performances, I have really started to ask myself a lot of questions about why the hell I'm even in this career. Some of them are questions that I can easily answer, but others have been pretty eye opening. The preliminary question is obviously, do I like to act? The answer is easily yes. In a perfect world, that would be all I needed to know. Alas. As I walked around that opening night party, I asked myself, do I like these kinds of events? Do I give a damn about schmoozing with artists and rich people? The answer is kinda... no. I know this is obviously just a small, small part of it all, but in a way, it's not. Now, these events are not what makes me second guess what I'm doing, but rather it got me thinking about the bigger aspects of my career.
The cast I'm working with is full of fascinating, great people, who have worked hard to make a decent living as actors. But at the same time, I do not envy them. Some of them are married or in relationships, but go months and months without seeing their partners every year. Others have very little outside of their careers: no permanent home, a suitcase of the same few things; but they have story after story of productions they've done or of people they know. While that is all very romantic and, I imagine, quite fulfilling in its own way, I can't imagine that being my life.
Not to sound too much like Dave Peterson, but I was listening to the music from Sunday in the Park with George the other day, when a few lyrics actually made me want to stop my car. Bernadette Peters is singing about what her mother used to tell her, and she sings, "It isn't so much that you do what you like than it is that you like what you do." This, to me, is exactly right. I began to think about how that translates into my life. I like to act. I do what I like. What I do, however, is not just act. My life could wind up being endless traveling with a lack of home base, a plethora of schmoozing, and some acting in between. Is that what I want? I want what I do to include acting (because I like it) but with a much different lifestyle. I don't even know if that's possible, but I figure if I start with laying out all the things I would want in a perfect world, I can sacrifice and compromise as I go. I have never been a person to say, "this is what my dream ____ is." It's not what I do. Because I realize that I may not even know that I want something until it happens. With that being said, I want to figure out a way to do what I like in an environment that I control. I decide where I live; I decide when I move; I decide with whom I spend my time. To me, liking what I do on a daily basis is more important than making sure I am an actor every blessed minute of my life. If I could plan life any way I wanted to, I would want to be surrounded by the people I love, doing what I like if I am lucky enough for the opportunity. I'm certainly not saying that traveling for gigs every once in a while is out of the question, but I have to ask myself what I'm willing to sacrifice. I look at these actors who miss so much in the lives of the people they love so they can say they played x, y and z roles, and I'm just not sure if that is worth it for me.
First of all, I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness style of this blog entry, but these are things I needed to work out for my own brain. Most of it probably makes no sense unless you are sitting in my scattered little brain anyway. Maybe it is the secluded feeling of southwest Florida that is provoking these thoughts. I know that in other places, I can, in fact, act while having a stable life, even if it means having a few jobs on the side. But at the end of the day, the real people in my life mean more to me than the characters.
If you've made it through this blog, you deserve a medal of some sort: a jumbled, philosophical medal.
Who knows. Maybe I'll wake up and feel differently...
Well, the show is open! It was exhausting, but it's open. We had a great week of previews with pretty raucous audiences that laughed at every word. Opening night was certainly a thing. The house was great and full of people from the company, so that was nice. There was a big opening night party at our Artistic Director's house. This opening night party was one like I have never seen before. I've been to openings at City Theatre and at the Public, but things are run so differently here. The event wasn't held at the theatre, but instead, the patrons, donors, board members, cast, crew, staff, etc. were all invited to Bob's house. There were easily about a hundred people there. Probably more. It seems like a totally different world in which Bob can announce to the audience, "opening night party at my house, be there." The thing about it, though.... it was impressive. The food was unreal, free wine and beer for days; shrimp rings, expensive Italian meats, French cheeses, homemade pasta dishes.. the list goes on. Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious that night with heavy downpours. So instead of spreading out on his back patio areas (yes, "areas" plural), everyone was crammed in his house and on a tiny lip on his back porch. Now, his house is not a small house by any means, but for someone like me who easily gets overwhelmed by crowds, it was too much to handle. Needless to say, I left pretty early. It was a fairly nice time nonetheless.
After all the tech rehearsals and opening weekend performances, I have really started to ask myself a lot of questions about why the hell I'm even in this career. Some of them are questions that I can easily answer, but others have been pretty eye opening. The preliminary question is obviously, do I like to act? The answer is easily yes. In a perfect world, that would be all I needed to know. Alas. As I walked around that opening night party, I asked myself, do I like these kinds of events? Do I give a damn about schmoozing with artists and rich people? The answer is kinda... no. I know this is obviously just a small, small part of it all, but in a way, it's not. Now, these events are not what makes me second guess what I'm doing, but rather it got me thinking about the bigger aspects of my career.
The cast I'm working with is full of fascinating, great people, who have worked hard to make a decent living as actors. But at the same time, I do not envy them. Some of them are married or in relationships, but go months and months without seeing their partners every year. Others have very little outside of their careers: no permanent home, a suitcase of the same few things; but they have story after story of productions they've done or of people they know. While that is all very romantic and, I imagine, quite fulfilling in its own way, I can't imagine that being my life.
Not to sound too much like Dave Peterson, but I was listening to the music from Sunday in the Park with George the other day, when a few lyrics actually made me want to stop my car. Bernadette Peters is singing about what her mother used to tell her, and she sings, "It isn't so much that you do what you like than it is that you like what you do." This, to me, is exactly right. I began to think about how that translates into my life. I like to act. I do what I like. What I do, however, is not just act. My life could wind up being endless traveling with a lack of home base, a plethora of schmoozing, and some acting in between. Is that what I want? I want what I do to include acting (because I like it) but with a much different lifestyle. I don't even know if that's possible, but I figure if I start with laying out all the things I would want in a perfect world, I can sacrifice and compromise as I go. I have never been a person to say, "this is what my dream ____ is." It's not what I do. Because I realize that I may not even know that I want something until it happens. With that being said, I want to figure out a way to do what I like in an environment that I control. I decide where I live; I decide when I move; I decide with whom I spend my time. To me, liking what I do on a daily basis is more important than making sure I am an actor every blessed minute of my life. If I could plan life any way I wanted to, I would want to be surrounded by the people I love, doing what I like if I am lucky enough for the opportunity. I'm certainly not saying that traveling for gigs every once in a while is out of the question, but I have to ask myself what I'm willing to sacrifice. I look at these actors who miss so much in the lives of the people they love so they can say they played x, y and z roles, and I'm just not sure if that is worth it for me.
First of all, I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness style of this blog entry, but these are things I needed to work out for my own brain. Most of it probably makes no sense unless you are sitting in my scattered little brain anyway. Maybe it is the secluded feeling of southwest Florida that is provoking these thoughts. I know that in other places, I can, in fact, act while having a stable life, even if it means having a few jobs on the side. But at the end of the day, the real people in my life mean more to me than the characters.
If you've made it through this blog, you deserve a medal of some sort: a jumbled, philosophical medal.
Who knows. Maybe I'll wake up and feel differently...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
So much time so little to do: Strike that, reverse it.
Hello All,
I apologize for the massive delay for this most recent post. Yesterday and this morning have been my first days off in two weeks. Needless to say, I haven't had much time for blogging; though I have been making mental notes about what to write for two weeks now.
Rumors has been going well. The actors in the production are incredibly talented and all very nice, so it has been fun and beneficial to watch them play around every day. It is turning out to be "a good little skit," as one of the actors, Mark Chambers, likes to say. We have our first preview performance tonight with a sold out house, so it will be nice to see how it plays with a full audience. It is getting to the point that we are struggling to remember what the real jokes are because we've become to used to all of them. There was a company run through on Sunday night after tech, so we got a little bit of an idea how the show will run with an audience. Let it be known that I got three laughs with only two lines ;). Though I spoke to a few people from the company, and they said by the time the cops come in at the end, the audience is relieved to have some new characters to laugh at. So while my laughs come mostly from Neil Simon, I'll take them nonetheless. The only downside to this rehearsal process has been the lopsidedness of the interns' work ethics. While most of us show up ready to take on whatever task we are needed for, one intern, I'll call him intern X for the time being, still thinks it is acceptable to sit and play on his iphone or knit. (With the prop knitting, I might add.) The other night at tech rehearsal, the director needed Lenny's understudy, Intern X, to fill in for Lenny for a few lines while they worked something out. Imagine his surprise when he was LOST. He had no idea where to stand, when to cross, who his lines should be delivered to. It was infuriating. When the stage manager got worried that he didn't know anything about the role he should be understudying, he denied and denied and justified and justified until the cows came home. The next day, he walked in with his knitting. I may have to kick some faces soon. At least the powers that be got to see his laziness in action, so that was delightful for the rest of us.
Outside of that, I have been steering clear of spending too much time with the interns, as I can sense that I may say something that will be bad this early in the season. So I've been spending time with my roommate Tyler and the company manager Daniel. It is nice that they are content just watching a movie and sitting around instead of going out to the bars every blessed day. Tyler has convinced me to dress up for Halloween, though I so didn't want to. I agreed on the terms that it can't be stupid, gory, or slutty; therefore, we are going as Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell as the Spartan Cheerleaders. Tyler wants to rehearse this week. Should be a thing.
Speaking of dressing up, there was a GIANT convention here last weekend called Zombiecon. Apparently Fort Myers has an event every year in which people dress up like zombies and drink and listen to bands and do other crazy things. They were trying to beat the Guiness world record of biggest gathering of zombies, so there were requirements of makeup that you had to wear in order to be considered a "registered zombie." I agreed to go through with the minimum requirement at the last minute. The convention was actually quite fun, though some people looked legitimately disturbing. There was a local band there called Strange Arrangement that was incredibly good, so I stayed at their concert for two hours and then went home. Others were out all night, but that sounded a little too intense for me. But apparently they beat the record: there were approximately 20,000 people there, with about 75% dressed as zombies. So there's that.
Back on the theatre front, I have a callback audition tomorrow for Mary in It's a Wonderful Life. I have to try to look the period as best I can, apparently. That won't be too hard. (Ugh.) I'm feeling all right about this one, because they want Mary to read a little older, and I just naturally read older than Hallie does. Though Hallie has a more classic look. Who knows. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Also, our casting director person told the interns that we are doing an intern show. It will most likely be "Title of Show," if they can get the rights. The other three interns were thrilled about it, being hardcore musical theatre people. I was less excited. It will be a good credit to have, I suppose, but I would have rather worked on a play. I just have to get my voice back in shape, seeing as I do not really sing anymore. Apparently Florida Rep is under the impression that I do. So this should be interesting. Rehearsals will start in March and there will be two performances in April. Meh.
I JUST REALIZED WHAT TIME IT IS! Ok, folks, I have to jump in the shower and head out to rehearsal before our preview tonight. I promise to blog more often so they aren't so long and babbling.
I love you all and think about you all every day. I miss you guys a lot.
Julianne
I apologize for the massive delay for this most recent post. Yesterday and this morning have been my first days off in two weeks. Needless to say, I haven't had much time for blogging; though I have been making mental notes about what to write for two weeks now.
Rumors has been going well. The actors in the production are incredibly talented and all very nice, so it has been fun and beneficial to watch them play around every day. It is turning out to be "a good little skit," as one of the actors, Mark Chambers, likes to say. We have our first preview performance tonight with a sold out house, so it will be nice to see how it plays with a full audience. It is getting to the point that we are struggling to remember what the real jokes are because we've become to used to all of them. There was a company run through on Sunday night after tech, so we got a little bit of an idea how the show will run with an audience. Let it be known that I got three laughs with only two lines ;). Though I spoke to a few people from the company, and they said by the time the cops come in at the end, the audience is relieved to have some new characters to laugh at. So while my laughs come mostly from Neil Simon, I'll take them nonetheless. The only downside to this rehearsal process has been the lopsidedness of the interns' work ethics. While most of us show up ready to take on whatever task we are needed for, one intern, I'll call him intern X for the time being, still thinks it is acceptable to sit and play on his iphone or knit. (With the prop knitting, I might add.) The other night at tech rehearsal, the director needed Lenny's understudy, Intern X, to fill in for Lenny for a few lines while they worked something out. Imagine his surprise when he was LOST. He had no idea where to stand, when to cross, who his lines should be delivered to. It was infuriating. When the stage manager got worried that he didn't know anything about the role he should be understudying, he denied and denied and justified and justified until the cows came home. The next day, he walked in with his knitting. I may have to kick some faces soon. At least the powers that be got to see his laziness in action, so that was delightful for the rest of us.
Outside of that, I have been steering clear of spending too much time with the interns, as I can sense that I may say something that will be bad this early in the season. So I've been spending time with my roommate Tyler and the company manager Daniel. It is nice that they are content just watching a movie and sitting around instead of going out to the bars every blessed day. Tyler has convinced me to dress up for Halloween, though I so didn't want to. I agreed on the terms that it can't be stupid, gory, or slutty; therefore, we are going as Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell as the Spartan Cheerleaders. Tyler wants to rehearse this week. Should be a thing.
Speaking of dressing up, there was a GIANT convention here last weekend called Zombiecon. Apparently Fort Myers has an event every year in which people dress up like zombies and drink and listen to bands and do other crazy things. They were trying to beat the Guiness world record of biggest gathering of zombies, so there were requirements of makeup that you had to wear in order to be considered a "registered zombie." I agreed to go through with the minimum requirement at the last minute. The convention was actually quite fun, though some people looked legitimately disturbing. There was a local band there called Strange Arrangement that was incredibly good, so I stayed at their concert for two hours and then went home. Others were out all night, but that sounded a little too intense for me. But apparently they beat the record: there were approximately 20,000 people there, with about 75% dressed as zombies. So there's that.
Back on the theatre front, I have a callback audition tomorrow for Mary in It's a Wonderful Life. I have to try to look the period as best I can, apparently. That won't be too hard. (Ugh.) I'm feeling all right about this one, because they want Mary to read a little older, and I just naturally read older than Hallie does. Though Hallie has a more classic look. Who knows. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Also, our casting director person told the interns that we are doing an intern show. It will most likely be "Title of Show," if they can get the rights. The other three interns were thrilled about it, being hardcore musical theatre people. I was less excited. It will be a good credit to have, I suppose, but I would have rather worked on a play. I just have to get my voice back in shape, seeing as I do not really sing anymore. Apparently Florida Rep is under the impression that I do. So this should be interesting. Rehearsals will start in March and there will be two performances in April. Meh.
I JUST REALIZED WHAT TIME IT IS! Ok, folks, I have to jump in the shower and head out to rehearsal before our preview tonight. I promise to blog more often so they aren't so long and babbling.
I love you all and think about you all every day. I miss you guys a lot.
Julianne
Monday, October 10, 2011
Now is when the craziness begins.
Hello dear friends and family!
I still miss you all so much it hurts.
In other news, Rumors rehearsals have started. It has been a long first week of 8 hour rehearsals, especially since my character has two lines in the last five pages of the show. Needless to say, I haven't gotten up on my feet yet. Even though I haven't been doing anything with my actual role, I have been taking notes and tracking blocking for two of the other actors. We have a really good cast of very talented actors, so it has been fun and interesting to watch them at work all week. I am first and foremost understudying the role of Chris, which has been really helpful. The actress playing Chris is super tiny, really funny, and has a great method of working. It has been quite beneficial to observe an actress of a similar type as myself. She knows how to work honestly with what her best skills are instead of trying to sell herself as someone else: an ability that, while I am usually somewhat comfortable with what I have, I am still working hard to perfect. The other role I am understudying, Cookie, is also pretty fun. The actress is the sweetest woman in the world, and one of the funniest to boot. In general, sitting in on rehearsals, though it makes my butt fall asleep, has been a useful experience. Let's hope I don't mess up my two lines when we come to them this week...
Tomorrow starts the craziness of the acting interns' schedules that apparently won't let up until we leave in June. We start rehearsing for The Imaginators, the other kids' show, at the same time that we are rehearsing and observing Rumors rehearsals. An average day now will be from 10am-11pm give or take, depending on the day. Once we get The Imaginators put together, we start to tech both that show and the Edison show so that they are ready to take out on tour in November. In the middle of all of that, Rumors will be in tech and will open the week of October 25th. And then in the middle of all THAT, rehearsals for It's a Wonderful Life will start. I don't know in what capacity I'll be working on that show, but I'll at least be sitting in on rehearsals every day. Then the basic schedule is touring, rehearsals, working the evening shows if we aren't in them, hanging and focusing lights, and I also start teaching my class in November! I have no idea if I'll survive this. At least I won't have much time to spend money and get fat.
Speaking of getting fat, I need to stop that. I had a huge revelation this week while watching rehearsals. The woman playing Chris is in her mid forties and is in incredible shape. I, at the age of 21, am not in incredible shape. If I want to continue to work in this profession, I need to lose weight and take control of how I care for my body. I am tired of being a seemingly tiny person, but not being able to do the things a tiny person should be able to do. Now, I am well aware that I am not dangerously overweight, nor disgusting to look at, but I want to give my body a break from feeling tired and bogged down. If I want to be like Michelle (this particular actress) then I need to give myself a chance. I am not, and never will be, tall or blonde or outrageously beautiful, so I need to work on what I actually am. I am an attractive, short, funny actress. Being chubby isn't doing me any favors, especially when I know I have lost roles because of it. So this week I've been trying to eat better, but today I have started an actual plan. I did research on recommended calorie intake based on my body's statistics and how much weight I want to lose; I dusted off my yoga mat this morning and found an online pilates workout; and I went to the pool and did a few laps across the length of it. Later tonight I am going to map out my meals for the week so I don't have to worry about counting calories every blessed day, but instead it will be all planned ahead of time. So there we go. Hopefully I will stick to this and change my ways. One of the other acting interns keeps saying, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." He's a tool. Of course there are things that taste that good. I just need not to let them take over my life.
On the social front, things are somewhat better. I decided to go up to our Scenic Charge, Erin, and just ask her to be my friend. Second grade style. Thank goodness she is hilarious enough to handle my bizarre question. She has been a small breath of fresh air in between the people I am forced to see every day. She lives right next door, so we have planned nights to watch certain shows and other things of that nature. Now I can say I have a friend here! Tyler is still pretty fun, but he has his people that he usually spends a lot of time with. Tables have turned within the acting interns, interestingly enough. One of them doesn't seem to be doing even a fraction of the work that the rest of us are, but instead sits on his iPhone all the livelong day during rehearsals when the rest of us are taking notes and watching the actors and learning lines and doing a million other things. The girl who carpools with him seems to be at her limit. He just insists on making fun of people all the time and doesn't seem to be here to work, but instead to socialize and get paid. Not to be rude, but Bob said on the first day, "If you're here for the paycheck, there's the f***ing door." (Edited for the appeasement of my Mom (: ) As I predicted, this girl said the carpooling is getting to be too much, but now she's stuck in it. Why doesn't anyone listen to me? Did I not say this would happen? Ugh. Oh well. I am just trying to stay as far away from the drama as I possibly can. I cannot afford to waste my time here worrying about lazy actors who are mean to their peers. I told her that we have to keep our heads in our scripts and trust that those who matter will see that we are here to work, and others are not. And if it doesn't work out that way... well... life's a bitch.
In response to my last blog post, I still think palm trees are ugly, but I'm trying to spend more time in the sun so I can learn to love the hot Florida days. This transition is still in the works. I still check craigslist almost every day for places to live when I get back. John must be getting really tired of receiving links in his email that say, "LOOK AT THIS PLACE!" Oh well. It's what I've got. ;)
Here's a link to a video of our first Rumors rehearsal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o37DsF0V7uE
Good night and good luck.
I still miss you all so much it hurts.
In other news, Rumors rehearsals have started. It has been a long first week of 8 hour rehearsals, especially since my character has two lines in the last five pages of the show. Needless to say, I haven't gotten up on my feet yet. Even though I haven't been doing anything with my actual role, I have been taking notes and tracking blocking for two of the other actors. We have a really good cast of very talented actors, so it has been fun and interesting to watch them at work all week. I am first and foremost understudying the role of Chris, which has been really helpful. The actress playing Chris is super tiny, really funny, and has a great method of working. It has been quite beneficial to observe an actress of a similar type as myself. She knows how to work honestly with what her best skills are instead of trying to sell herself as someone else: an ability that, while I am usually somewhat comfortable with what I have, I am still working hard to perfect. The other role I am understudying, Cookie, is also pretty fun. The actress is the sweetest woman in the world, and one of the funniest to boot. In general, sitting in on rehearsals, though it makes my butt fall asleep, has been a useful experience. Let's hope I don't mess up my two lines when we come to them this week...
Tomorrow starts the craziness of the acting interns' schedules that apparently won't let up until we leave in June. We start rehearsing for The Imaginators, the other kids' show, at the same time that we are rehearsing and observing Rumors rehearsals. An average day now will be from 10am-11pm give or take, depending on the day. Once we get The Imaginators put together, we start to tech both that show and the Edison show so that they are ready to take out on tour in November. In the middle of all of that, Rumors will be in tech and will open the week of October 25th. And then in the middle of all THAT, rehearsals for It's a Wonderful Life will start. I don't know in what capacity I'll be working on that show, but I'll at least be sitting in on rehearsals every day. Then the basic schedule is touring, rehearsals, working the evening shows if we aren't in them, hanging and focusing lights, and I also start teaching my class in November! I have no idea if I'll survive this. At least I won't have much time to spend money and get fat.
Speaking of getting fat, I need to stop that. I had a huge revelation this week while watching rehearsals. The woman playing Chris is in her mid forties and is in incredible shape. I, at the age of 21, am not in incredible shape. If I want to continue to work in this profession, I need to lose weight and take control of how I care for my body. I am tired of being a seemingly tiny person, but not being able to do the things a tiny person should be able to do. Now, I am well aware that I am not dangerously overweight, nor disgusting to look at, but I want to give my body a break from feeling tired and bogged down. If I want to be like Michelle (this particular actress) then I need to give myself a chance. I am not, and never will be, tall or blonde or outrageously beautiful, so I need to work on what I actually am. I am an attractive, short, funny actress. Being chubby isn't doing me any favors, especially when I know I have lost roles because of it. So this week I've been trying to eat better, but today I have started an actual plan. I did research on recommended calorie intake based on my body's statistics and how much weight I want to lose; I dusted off my yoga mat this morning and found an online pilates workout; and I went to the pool and did a few laps across the length of it. Later tonight I am going to map out my meals for the week so I don't have to worry about counting calories every blessed day, but instead it will be all planned ahead of time. So there we go. Hopefully I will stick to this and change my ways. One of the other acting interns keeps saying, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." He's a tool. Of course there are things that taste that good. I just need not to let them take over my life.
On the social front, things are somewhat better. I decided to go up to our Scenic Charge, Erin, and just ask her to be my friend. Second grade style. Thank goodness she is hilarious enough to handle my bizarre question. She has been a small breath of fresh air in between the people I am forced to see every day. She lives right next door, so we have planned nights to watch certain shows and other things of that nature. Now I can say I have a friend here! Tyler is still pretty fun, but he has his people that he usually spends a lot of time with. Tables have turned within the acting interns, interestingly enough. One of them doesn't seem to be doing even a fraction of the work that the rest of us are, but instead sits on his iPhone all the livelong day during rehearsals when the rest of us are taking notes and watching the actors and learning lines and doing a million other things. The girl who carpools with him seems to be at her limit. He just insists on making fun of people all the time and doesn't seem to be here to work, but instead to socialize and get paid. Not to be rude, but Bob said on the first day, "If you're here for the paycheck, there's the f***ing door." (Edited for the appeasement of my Mom (: ) As I predicted, this girl said the carpooling is getting to be too much, but now she's stuck in it. Why doesn't anyone listen to me? Did I not say this would happen? Ugh. Oh well. I am just trying to stay as far away from the drama as I possibly can. I cannot afford to waste my time here worrying about lazy actors who are mean to their peers. I told her that we have to keep our heads in our scripts and trust that those who matter will see that we are here to work, and others are not. And if it doesn't work out that way... well... life's a bitch.
In response to my last blog post, I still think palm trees are ugly, but I'm trying to spend more time in the sun so I can learn to love the hot Florida days. This transition is still in the works. I still check craigslist almost every day for places to live when I get back. John must be getting really tired of receiving links in his email that say, "LOOK AT THIS PLACE!" Oh well. It's what I've got. ;)
Here's a link to a video of our first Rumors rehearsal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o37DsF0V7uE
Good night and good luck.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
The Verdict is In (Well, the first one...)
So our costume lady was right in telling me that I'll be playing Pudney, the cop at the end of Rumors. I at least get full EMC points for it instead of just understudy credit. I'll also be understudying the role of Chris, which is who I would likely be cast as in the real world, so that will be a useful credit on my resume. Rehearsals begin on Tuesday, so I'm excited to watch the rest of the actors and to work with the artistic director. Hopefully if he likes me enough during this, he will cast me in one of the other shows.
Tonight we have a designer run through for Thomas Edison, so hopefully whoever comes to watch the rehearsal will be pleased with our work. It's turning out to be a good show, in spite of the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the script. We still haven't added all the props or the million costume changes we have, so my brain has not completely exploded yet. Give it time.
The interns and I are slowly starting to figure out our working relationships. They have said a few times that I remind them of having a Mom around. I think they meant that in a positive way? I can work with that title, I suppose. I seem to be the one who brings everyone back to focus when we digress or spend too much time on a problem that needn't exist. We are getting to the point that we are figuring out what each other's "thing" is, and learning to take it for what it is. I guess they are learning that I am "the mom." I'm not sure why I let things bother me so much, but I do. I am working on letting things roll off me, but it's certainly a challenge on which I will have to continue to work.
I went to the pool yesterday with Tyler (my roommate) and he kinda called me out on the carpet about me not fitting in well. We had a good talk about it, and I feel a little better. He said that he can tell that I don't thrive with peers my own age, and he has always been the same way. He helped me realize that I can't hold my own lifestyle choices against the other interns. I think part of me just wants very much not to like anyone here, so I can make a clean break back to Pittsburgh, where I want to be. I know that is a really stupid way to think, but sometimes I'm really stupid when it comes to these things. I am learning to remind myself that having a positive experience here doesn't mean I have to stop missing home. I can still cry to John on Skype every night if I want to. (Though I promise to try to stop that, babe.) The experience I gain here and the people I meet here will help my career in Pittsburgh and in other places. That has become the sentence I tell myself every morning when I wake up to help me get through the day. It may not get easier, but maybe it will at least be a little more enjoyable.
In the meantime, I will still miss getting bundled up and walking around Pittsburgh in the fall and winter, but I will try to find a little more beauty in these bizarre looking palm trees.
Julianne
Tonight we have a designer run through for Thomas Edison, so hopefully whoever comes to watch the rehearsal will be pleased with our work. It's turning out to be a good show, in spite of the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the script. We still haven't added all the props or the million costume changes we have, so my brain has not completely exploded yet. Give it time.
The interns and I are slowly starting to figure out our working relationships. They have said a few times that I remind them of having a Mom around. I think they meant that in a positive way? I can work with that title, I suppose. I seem to be the one who brings everyone back to focus when we digress or spend too much time on a problem that needn't exist. We are getting to the point that we are figuring out what each other's "thing" is, and learning to take it for what it is. I guess they are learning that I am "the mom." I'm not sure why I let things bother me so much, but I do. I am working on letting things roll off me, but it's certainly a challenge on which I will have to continue to work.
I went to the pool yesterday with Tyler (my roommate) and he kinda called me out on the carpet about me not fitting in well. We had a good talk about it, and I feel a little better. He said that he can tell that I don't thrive with peers my own age, and he has always been the same way. He helped me realize that I can't hold my own lifestyle choices against the other interns. I think part of me just wants very much not to like anyone here, so I can make a clean break back to Pittsburgh, where I want to be. I know that is a really stupid way to think, but sometimes I'm really stupid when it comes to these things. I am learning to remind myself that having a positive experience here doesn't mean I have to stop missing home. I can still cry to John on Skype every night if I want to. (Though I promise to try to stop that, babe.) The experience I gain here and the people I meet here will help my career in Pittsburgh and in other places. That has become the sentence I tell myself every morning when I wake up to help me get through the day. It may not get easier, but maybe it will at least be a little more enjoyable.
In the meantime, I will still miss getting bundled up and walking around Pittsburgh in the fall and winter, but I will try to find a little more beauty in these bizarre looking palm trees.
Julianne
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
And it all begins...
Monday started my first "official" day at the theatre. We've been rehearsing... but I guess that wasn't real. We started the morning off with a company meeting. That was something else. Each department head got up and gave their shpeal(sp?), just like what happens at all company meetings. Everyone seemed very nice and all of that. Then the artistic director got up and talked for over an hour, making the meeting run 45 minutes late. Bob is very nice, and super passionate, but a little intense. For those Pitt people reading, he is like if Stephen and Holly had a baby, but it was raised by Lisa. I'm not sure how that makes sense, but somehow it is a perfect description. In any case, I think we will get along fine.
His wife and he run the theatre. Actually, it turns out that they are both very good friends with Holly and Larry John Meyers, so we had a lot to talk about there. They had lived in Pittsburgh for a little while before they moved to Sanibel to start a theatre company. They also know Ken Bolden, so we talked about him for a good long time. I'm hoping this connection will improve my chances of getting good roles.... but probably not.
Speaking of roles, auditions also happened on Monday. They went surprisingly well, in fact. I was not expecting them to, but I don't think I sucked. I did my two audition monologues for the room, which went over well, and then I read sides from three of their plays. I read the two lines for the cop in Rumors. So there was that. Then I read for Mary in It's a Wonderful Life. I thought I was totally going to stink up the room with that one, but it wasn't bad. Bob seemed to like it. Then I read for Black Tie. I hope he can look past the fact that I don't look like a white anglo-saxon protestant who runs 5Ks in her spare time, because I read pretty well for it. But now I have no control over any of it: now I wait. We should hear about Rumors soon, as rehearsals start next week; It's a Wonderful Life may not be until mid October; and we could be waiting on Black Tie until February, as it doesn't go up until April. *sigh*
In the meantime, I've just been rehearsing Thomas Edison: Fire of Genius. It's kinda exhausting. I'm doing all right keeping all my different characters straight, but there is just so much that goes along with it that is driving me crazy. We are supposed to have a designer run-through on Sunday, so hopefully by then I'll have my stuff together for the company to see it...
The acting interns are still a bit of a roadblock for me. I think they don't like me because I don't carpool in with them every morning, which is super ridiculous, but it seems to be the case. I get the feeling that this is like another freshman year of college for them, but I would like to be an employee of this company rather than one of the fantastic four. They are all nice enough, I just don't want to spend every moment with them, especially when we are together from 11-7 every single blessed day. But the three of them are inseparable... and then there's me. This is fine with me, of course, since it will open up opportunities for me to meet everyone in the company, not just the people I rehearse with all the time. Furthermore, the commute to and from the theatre is the only time I'm actually by myself, and it's my favorite part of the day. So there. : )
I met some of the other interns and staff at the BBQ, and a lot of them seem really nice. There is a scenic painter intern named Mandolyn who is pretty cool, and the quiet little administration intern named Scott is very sweet. I also started to get along with our Associate Director and our Business Manager very well, so hopefully I'll be able to see them more once mainstage productions start.
I'm sorry this was a long one today! I miss all of you more than you could ever know, and I think about you all daily. Hope all is well back in the Burgh.
word to yo mutha.
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