Can you stand more thoughts on our opening weekend?

No? Then why are you reading this? :)

Striking the set and stashing everything (set pieces, props, costumes, sound equipment - everything!) didn't take nearly as long as I feared Saturday night - the last of us left by 12:30 Sunday morning. We also got the church back to a stage set in fairly good time Sunday afternoon, although some of the masking flats ended up in slightly different places, which created sightline problems stage right.

The work isn't so much strenuous as tedious, although it is not without risk. I have any number of little scrapes & bruises, and quite a bruise on the nailbed of one finger that didn't get out from between riser and frame quite fast enough. Naturally, it's on my dominant hand, and because it's the last section (joint? finger tip?), the pressure sensitivity means I notice every time I use that finger for a keystroke. Not painful, but certainly a nuisance.

Another eccentricity of performing in a church nave is that you can never bring the house lights down completely at the matinee because you get sunlight streaming in through the stained glass. This meant, among other things, that the black scrim masking the stage right "backstage" area didn't really hide us all that well because we're backlit.

Saturday I ended up running out to a mom-and-pop fabric store to pick up some daisy-sprigged gingham for windows in Ursula's and Kim's "bedrooms". (Sure beats doing housework.) I was going for "girly" curtains and they turned out even better than I'd hoped. I took a few pictures of the curtains once I got them mounted on the window frame piece and will post them if I can ever figure out why our computer flatly refuses to run Photo Shop any more.

Despite not getting to bed until 1:30 Sunday morning, I went ahead & set my alarm for church. It went off, I got up, realized I had another migraine, took some imitrex and went right back to bed. When I finally got up for good shortly after 11, I felt so much better that I can't help but wonder if God was giving me a bye - "sleep in, kid; you need that more than you need to get to church."

Did I mention that the principals are miked for this show? Seems to me from "stage" (standing on the lovely old hardwood floor) that the acoustics are good, but the walls are all brick and the ceiling is quite high in the center but much lower along the sides, so maybe the quality of the acoustics varies widely depending on where you sit. My costume is pretty well suited for the mike. The first dress has a back tie the power pack can clip onto and the second dress has pockets (yes, I actually have a costume with usable pockets!) which are just the right size for it. I can clip the mic to the neckline of the dress, the coat covers the cord from the mic to the power pack, and its neckline is open enough not to block the mic. The only tricky part is not to hit the mic when Mae clutches at her heart dramatically.

My costume is rather a mismatch: I have a feathered black hat that prompted chuckles from my fellow castmembers at the first dress rehearsal and lots of "that's a Mae hat!" comments. Poor thing's needed a bit of repair, though - the cluster of feathers on top has started to disintegrate on me twice. Elmer's glue got me halfway thru opening night, but I had to borrow the producer's glue gun to repair it more securely. I braid my hair and twist it into a bun, wear the hat pretty far forward above that, and nail it to my head with a pair of deadly hatpins that were my aunt's. Good & sturdy (I've had to warn people not to get too close when I've got the hat on) and tipped w/ tiny amethysts, they've served me well in more than one show. I wear the hat at all times, as well as a long (almost midcalf) real fur coat, pearl earrings & necklace, a plain white-gold wedding band (left over from my first marriage), and a pair of obviously well-worn shoes (my own, kept for running errands or wearing in messy weather). Mae's first dress is a black-and-cream check, the second is a brown floral w/ a bit of lace at the neckline; both are suitable frumpy. The only problem I have with the costume is that a genuine fur coat over a polyester dress is a very warm combination! As soon as I come off stage into the wings, I generally catch the coat in the crook of my elbows or take it off entirely, then stand over an a/c grate. Kinda like Marilyn Monroe doing the 7-year-itch thing at, oh, 55 or 60. :D

Naturally, Mae carries a purse at all times, even walking around the Macafee's house. No telling what Queen Elizabeth carries in her purse, but Mama's purse contains: some plain paper to bulk it out; a worn tapestry coin purse holding the large coin (a 2-shilling piece) she gives Albert to buy some candy; a dark green hankie, used as a hand prop; the gloves she wears for the Penn Station scene; the letter from which she wrings out "only a mother's tears" upon arriving in Sweet Apple, OH; the cats-eye glasses Conrad wears when he makes his escape in disguise; a tin of wintergreen Altoids so she can chew Albert out without blasting him with the fumes of whatever she had for dinner; a watch w/ a light-up dial; a tiny flashlight so I can check the list of scene change assignments posted backstage; and a tin of foreign change for weight, so it moves like a real mama's purse. For a while, I even had my swiss army knife in there. When I first added the tin of change, I didn't have much else in the purse, but now I've got so much in there that it'll have the right weight even without all that change. :D

So far I've had people I know at each performance. My neighbors came Friday night and sent a congratulatory "Sweet Apple telegram" backstage. This is a cute idea; for $1, the company will give you a piece of "telegram paper" (bordered in the Bye Bye Birdie logo) on which you can write a note and send it backstage to a cast or crew member. A tenor with whom I've done time in the chorus of many a G&S brought his wife to Saturday's show. He e-mailed me Sunday and, among other comments on the show, described my performance as "outstanding and very entertaining". What a lovely man! :) Sunday a Jewish friend from work came; if she didn't think much of my Jewish mother shtick, she was too polite to say so. I've joked with friends that the acid test of my accent will be the "native speakers" - my Jewish friends who grew up with that accent either themselves or in their family.

Another couple, whom I've known for years, also made it Sunday. They live rather a distance from where most of my shows have been performed so this is the first time they've made it to one of my shows. Our schedules make it hard for us to get together more than a few times a year, so the fact that they not only made it to the show (which I thought was my best performance to date) but were able to stick around so we could have dinner together was a lovely finish to the day.

Now I'm going thru the usual post-opening let-down. After nearly two weeks of rehearsing almost daily with everybody, now we won't see each other until Friday; feels weird to come home, have a leisurely dinner, and not go running out the door again.

God forbid!!!!

TW called me early this morning (before I left for work, instead of midmorning my time) to warn me that, due to some realignments in their section, there's a slight chance he might not get to rotate home on time! The supervisor who told him about the staffing changes also told him that no one has yet been involuntarily extended, but I'm already asking people to pray that TW gets to come home as scheduled. Yes, I'm well aware of all the military families whose father/mother/spouse/loved one is deployed for 12 or 18 months while TW is doing 6, but when you're missing someone terribly, every day added on is painful no matter how long or short the separation.

At this point we've now been married 6 years and a couple of weeks. Of that time, the chunks of time we've been 2 continents apart add up to nearly 2 years. I can't help but think of all those families in WWII and earlier who sent loved ones off to war not knowing when they'd be back - months, years, or only in a box. They didn't have the telecommunications advantages we do, either. Phone calls and e-mail will never replace being able to hold someone's hand, but at least TW & I have been able to talk pretty much every day. Not bad at all, especially given the 7-hour time difference.

On our way to a fully sold-out run!

They were adding seats for all 3 performances this weekend; today they even had some poor souls seated way over in the nave's choir area, where they probably couldn't see very much. They were even turning people away at the door yesterday & today, and at intermission today, the producer asked the cast if we'd be able to add a matinee the last Saturday of the run. Nothing like that kind of ticket sales to make you feel good about how your show is going! Granted, we can't squeeze in all that many chairs (I'd be shocked if they could manage 130), but it's still far better than playing to audience that are outnumbered by the cast.

Random thoughts on another opening night

Well, we survived Opening Night. Some of the glitches weren't all that minor, but the audience really seemed to enjoy the show, and that's what counts.

Still to do when I arrived at the church yesterday afternoon - masking for the upstage entrances and for the stage-right area where we were stashing props, set pieces, and people (including access to the men's changing area). We also still needed platforms to go behind the scrim for Telephone Hour, and a frame to hold the windows "defining" Kim's & Ursula's bedrooms for their first scene. I think all that got finished by 6:30 - yes, that's right, only about 1 1/2 hours before downbeat! (Can't say "curtain", as we don't have any, given that we're performing in a church nave.)

While I took my sewing machine & kit with me, I ended up using only my tape measure and shears. I still got to have fun with fabric, though. Our director had bought a huge bolt of theatrical fabric (that black stuff used for curtain legs) for 99 cents/yard on E-bay, so I meaured off pieces of that to drape a couple of the masking flats (one was painted red and the other had a huge tear in it which showed white against the black paint). He also had a bolt of very good quality muslin (no slubs, straight grain, fine weave), which we used to make curtains for Kim's & Ursula's bedroom windows. I think our director started bulding that window piece around 5 p.m., I finished using white duct tape to pleat & hang the curtains around 6, and someone else swathed the base of the window piece with more muslin.

This is the first time I've done a show where we were still building the set so close to downbeat. Last-minute set dressing, yes, but set building, no. Every time someone would start to say "I can't believe we open in (VERY short amount of time) and we're still ...", I'd shush them and tell them I was trying desperately not to think about that, as my nerves were quite bad enough already!

Another stressor was that our props runner sent out a new list of scene change assignments yesterday. I don't know that everyone had a chance to look it over, as I ended up striking a couple of things alone or for someone else. Certainly more than one scene change took longer than it needed to because of the confusion. I found that the very first of my new assignments was going to have to go. Because I was striking a few pieces off left after the opening scene, I wasn't able to get stage right in time to come on for Telephone Hour - I missed that scene completely! Not a disaster for the show, as I'm just one more adult behind the scrim, but I was so upset about it that I spent the scene in the ladies' changing area swearing a blue streak. Poor Rosie was back there changing and had to listen to me. I need to apologize to her; she didn't need that aggravation.

On the up side, "Ann O'Nymous" is gone. After being even later for that costume change last night, I asked the director if I could just sing from the wings and he said yes. Hallelujah! Not having to worry about that change makes my life much easier.

By now you may be wondering "So how did the show go?!?" Judging from the audience reaction, I think it went very well. Typical of a Friday-night audience, they were a little slow warming up, but quickly got into it. There were certainly wide awake by the time I came on for my first scene - they chuckled at much of Mae's dialogue and seemed a bit shocked at some of the nastier things she says to Rosie. ("What does Rosie need a job for? In a year or two she'll be getting Social Security.") It was interesting and a little weird to play Mae for an audience, at long last. Having "real people" out there certainly changed the chemistry of my performance; in my very first scene, when Mae is talking about how "a mother can ride crowded in a dirty subway...", I found myself almost confiding in the audience, not merely kvetching to Albert.

I knew having an audience would affect my timing; you can never predict for sure which lines will get bigger reactions than others. However, this is the first time I've worked in a setting where the audience is so very close, and sitting higher than we are. (We're mostly on the floor, while most of the audience seating is on risers.) Makes for a very different energy, and I felt I was getting more energy from them than usual because of the more intimate setting. Albert even noticed that I adjusted my line readings in a couple of places. I must have looked worried, because he hastened to add that the changes were good. :D

I'm told the audience was shouting & cheering during Honestly Sincere, Conrad Birdie's first number, though I couldn't hear it backstage over all the teenager screams. ;) In fact, the audience seemed to love all the production numbers, and Rosie's last big number, Spanish Rose, got one of the biggest hands of the show. She's been sweating bullets over that one and working very hard on it, so I was delighted to hear how well received it was.

The company had an opening night reception after the show and I heard lots of favorable comments. The woman who founded the company came up to me and complimented me on my performance, even going so far as to say that she'd been asked to audition for Mae. She couldn't because she was going to be out of town for most of the run, but said that, while she'd have loved to do the role, "You were better!" What a generous thing to say!

Pray for us!

Since we couldn't rehearse on the set last night, we reviewed music and blocking. Because the two things I'm in were among the first things we worked on, I was home shortly after 9. However, instead of going straight to bed, I made opening-night cards, threw my costume dresses into the wash, and took care of a few other preparations, so it was midnight by the time I got to bed and turned out the light. For all that, I couldn't sleep past 6:30 this morning. I lay there for nearly half an hour trying to will my body back to sleep, but my brain had already kicked into high gear so I eventually gave up.

Last night I told the director I was willing to bring my sewing machine if he still wanted to rig some kind of masking for the upstage entrances. The look on his face let me know he planned to take me up on that offer, so last night I packed up my sewing stuff and set it by the front door, ready to be loaded into the car. I'm actually looking forward to sewing masking drapes; it'll make me feel in control of the situation, however slightly, and I'm so used to doing some kind of sewing during Tech that I think it'll calm me down. I'll also be there plenty early to help; having that "time cushion" will help my nerves, too.

The dancer who hurt her foot last weekend actually danced on the foot Wednesday night, but the boy with the newly-broken collarbone wasn't there last night. He was obviously still in pain Wednesday, so I'm wondering whether he'll be able to go on tonight, poor kid. He was one of the better male dancers, too, so at least one of the teen dance numbers will suffer for his absence.

I've got a bad case of Opening Night jitters today! Not sure how much of that is due to the last-minute things still to be done (new scene-change assignments, new placement for Telephone Hour, possibly new set masking, insha'allah) and how much is due to the fact that I made the coffee a bit too strong this morning. Two dancers hurt, new set stuff that we won't get to rehearse before we have an audience, I've been dropping lines all week (you'd better believe I plan to drill my lines today!) - is it any wonder I'm nervous? Part of me knows I'll be fine as soon as we have an audience, but just the same, pray for us all, especially our poor, long-suffering director.

Taking it a little easy today.

I had planned to take today off work but ended up having to go in for a meeting (rescheduling would have been more trouble than it was worth). So I warned them I'd come in late and leave early, since I wasn't able to take the whole day.

Good decision; I slept until nearly 7, which felt good. I also left early enough to pick up a color cartridge for the printer and a coupla other things and still get home by 4.

Rehearsals Tuesday night & last night haven't made me feel any more sanguine about our tech. I did have an actual oven to put my head in last night, but the Telephone Hour scrim is still to be rigged, and there's so very little masking around the stage area that I'm afraid we're all gonna hafta stand a few yards from the entrances to avoid being seen. That'll affect timing of entrances, and we won't get another chance to rehearse that before we open, which does not give me warm fuzzies!

We got 2 more musicians Tuesday night, bringing us to 6 - I joked w/ a few folks that we'd be up to a 20+-piece orchestra by Closing! And then at least one of them was missing last night - how the **** are they supposed to learn the show if they aren't there?!?

Tuesday night Albert & I found ourselves reblocking part of a scene on no notice. At that point, Mae is trying to guilt Albert into not going after Rosie by asking him to take her head out of the oven when he gets back from looking for Rosie. All along, we've been told the oven would be up center, but when the "kitchen wagon" finally appeared, it was tall enought that it blocked some other things and got moved down right. However, we didn't find out about this until we got to the scene where I have to stick my head in the oven and he pulls me out again. We ended up reblocking on the fly to pull the scene back into the light. (The lighting isn't quite as wide as the set.)

We still don't have our scene changes down yet, either. One of my assignments is to help remove the cart w/ the oven on it, but it's placed down right and I exit up left during that scene, so I can't get over there soon enough. A stool didn't get placed for one scene, the suitcase from the final scene didn't get struck, there were new furniture pieces to contend with in another scene - this has definitely been one of my more stressful tech weeks.

I'm no less nervous about my performance, either - I screwed up my lines again last night, this time in my first scene. Part of me keeps saying "You were doing fine until we got to Tech; you'll be fine again as soon as we have an audience." That's the little voice I need to listen to, not the one that keeps saying "OK, what are ya gonna screw up tonight?" ;)

That quick change of mine is continuing to be a problem. Despite changing to a looser-fitting pair of gloves and drafting "Mrs. Macafee" to help me change coats, I was a little late for my entrance Tuesday and quite late last night. I think tomorrow I'm going to wear a hat instead of a scarf as "Ann". I agree with the costumer that the scarf disguises me better, but the hat goes on in 2 seconds; I just don't have time (3 or 4 lines!) to position and tie the scarf.

Heavy tech week

We've done practically a double tech week for Birdie - rehearsals just about daily last week, though not on Friday. Saturday the director reblocked a coupla numbers to accommodate the performance space, then we ran the show. Sunday was the marathon - 1 p.m. call to set up, then run the show. We finally finished around 9.

Working with this company is unusual for several reasons. First, we perform in the nave of the church, which feels very weird to me. Performing in the nave means that Sunday we spent about 3 1/2 hours removing all the chairs, lecterns, and the altar (!), then setting up the risers that form part of the set and also hold some of the audience seating. That'll stay up until after Saturday night's show, when we have to tear it all down and return the nave to its worship configuration. Sunday we have a 1:30 call for the 4 o'clock matinee so we can turn the nave back into a theater. And repeat the drill the 2nd weekend of the run. Sure explains why there's no matinee the 3rd weekend - that's too much work for a single performance!

The other weird thing is that Thursday is their choir night and the choir rehearses in the nave because that's where the organ is. Which means that we don't get to rehearse on the set the night before we open! =:o Instead, our final rehearsal will be in the parish hall. At least we'll have our musicians for that, instead of having to make do with just a piano. TBD whether it will be a run or just a music/choreo rehearsal.

We never got a Sitzprobe (music-only rehearsal w/ orchestra), either, unless that happens Thursday. We just ran the show Sunday night w/ 3 musicians playing, and last night with 4. We'd been told there'd be 10, but it's probably just as well we don't that many; I don't know how we'd shoehorn them into the space available.

Other things unique to this performing venue: light spill from the stained-glass windows, so we have to rig sthg for the window directly behind the stage so the images projected on the backdrop screen (50s pics, Conrad Birdie, train station, etc.) will show. No green room or backstage dressing rooms, so we have to hang out quietly behind the stage and masking flats and change in improvised areas. The restrooms are reserved for audience members, at least at intermission, which makes me wonder how the cast is supposed to answer nature's call during the show. Because we have no wings or fly space, all the props and set pieces get stashed backstage or behind the masking flats.

Last night we had a 6:30 call to do make-up, hair & costumes, then blocked the curtain call. I was a little surprised to see how many little groups the director has come out - given the size of the cast, and based on my experience, I expected the teens & smaller adult roles to come out in bigger groups to make the bows go more quickly. Except for the teen girls (a group of about 6 or 7, I think), most come out in 2s and 3s. Mae comes out with Hugo Peabody; we're the first principals out. The MacAfees follow us, then Conrad, IIRC. Albert & Rosie get the final bow.

When we finally ran the show last night, we stopped at each scene change to assign responsibility for setting and striking props and set pieces. This obviously added quite a bit to our rehearsal time; I didn't get home until midnight. There are 10 of us in Telephone Hour who are singing and gesturing behind a scrim, but that scrim hadn't appeared by last night. I can't help but think that the scrim won't materialize and the 10 of us will be cut. I wouldn't be sorry to just stand in the back and sing (we were there for added voices and visual interest), but when I think of the rehearsal time spent on it... Ah well, guess it's the theatrical equivalent of ending up on the cutting room floor.

We added musician #4 last night (who was sight-reading), and we still don't have all our stage masking, or lights, the Telephone Hour scrim & back lighting, or the kitchen appliances. (Mae will look pretty silly sticking her head in a non-existent gas oven.) Part of me keeps saying "don't worry, it'll happen", but part of me is also nervous about how ready we'll be for opening night, especially as we don't get to rehearse on the set Thursday night.

We worked in full costumes, hair & make-up last night, so I did get to try my one quick change (from Mae to "Ann O'Nymous"). I was still buttoning my coat after I got on stage, but of course that was only the first time; it should be a little better tonight. The costumer pointed out today that I forgot Mae's supposed to wear gloves in that first scene. Fortunately, "Ann" doesn't have to, or that costume change would be even tighter. I'm expecting the make-up guy to tell me my make-up needs to be less understated, too - he seemed a bit unsure when I presented myself for his approval before we started, saying he thought it might be too pale but he'd have to see how it looked under the lights.

I'll have to get a picture of my Mae hat; when I put it on last night, people would look at me and chuckle or even laugh! And I'm sure that when I combine it with the fur coat, I'm a vision. Of what, I couldn't say. The fur coat produced some interesting reactions from a few of the others in the cast. When asked if it was real, I said "yes". A couple of the cast members are vegetarians and actually recoiled when they learned it was real, after they'd just been petting it.

Forced break

Woke up w/ another migraine today - that's 3 in a week! Yesterday's was soon subdued w/ meds and a can of Dew, but that didn't work today, so I ended up calling in sick again. I was blaming it on the pollen count (allergies can be a migraine trigger), but I can't help wondering how much stress might have contributed, given that I didn't get home from rehearsal last night until midnight. So I slept in and was relieved to find the migraine was completely gone by mid-morning. Didn't go in to work at all, which gave me time to starch & iron a shirt for one of the Birdie teens, load a wooden office chair for the opening scene into the car, and generally just sit and do nothing for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a stretch. I'll have time to eat at a normal pace, take a nice, long shower, and still get to rehearsal with plenty of time to find a parking place. I'm even taking time to do a bit of blogging.

I'm choosing to take this latest migraine as a sneaky gift of some down time. Much needed, as this has been a tough tech week and it's only Tuesday.

For the theater-addicted

I subscribe to Savoynet, a Gilbert & Sullivan listserve and the source of probably 90% of my G&S knowledge. (It can also be a fun fount of wordplay, but that's another matter.) A recent post solicited reactions to http://otslmikado.blogspot.com/, where the director of the Opera Theater of St. Louis' production of The Mikado is writing up his impressions on the production process. I checked it out and found that he includes teaser pictures of the rehearsals & production stages of the show in addition to his impressions on pulling it all together. There are several things I like about it: it's well written and proofread; it lets me peek into how the process works at the professional level; and it's another look into The Mikado, the show that got me started blogging.

Anyone who's done or even seen more than one production of any show knows it's different every time. Change just one element, be it as small as a single cast member or the characterization of a minor role, and you get a different result. Change more than that - the director, the "concept", even the instrumentation, for musicals - and you have an entirely new show. Not being a chemist, I wouldn't consider attempting to analyze why or how that works, but it's what makes it possible to see the "same" show over and over again. "Haven't you seen Show X umpteen times already?" "Yes, but not with this director/lead/concept..."

Rain, rain, come and stay

Rain in the forecast, to start sometime today or tonight, with "risk" (why "risk"? what happened to "chance"?) of thunderstorms tomorrow. I can already feel the front moving in; I woke up w/ a migraine that came on like a freight train. In the 15 minutes between the alarm going off and bringing in the morning paper, it went from "migraine imminent" to "lie down before my eye explodes" - never good! I took my imitrex as soon as I got up, followed it w/ a can of Dew, but quickly realized that my usual procedure of going to work and doing brainless things while waiting for the meds & caffeine to kick in wasn't going to cut it. So instead, I cut my losses - called in sick, then went right back to bed.

TW called (and woke me up) around 7:30 but quickly got off the phone with a promise to call back a few hours later when I told him I was down w/ a migraine. Smart move - he's seen just how pointless it is to try to talk to me when I can't bear to open my eyes.

The migraine isn't helped by the pollen-induced sneezing fits and other miseries, which is why I find myself cheering on the weatherman when he predicts rain. "Rain, rain, come and stay - wash this pollen all away!"

Pollen poisoning

Friday we finally got some wonderful weather - sunny, cloudless skies and temps in the 70s, after not seeing the sun since the previous Saturday and enduring highs only in the 40s. Gorgeous! And the beautiful weather lasted right through the weekend - the joggers, gardeners, walkers and stroller brigade were out in force. The dogwoods, azaleas and other late-spring flowering trees and shrubs have really popped out - looks wonderful.

Unfortunately, the tree pollen was out in force, too. Monday's pollen count was 2000 and yesterday's was even higher - two thousand two hundred! To put this in perspective, the non-allergic start feeling it when the count gets to 150-200, and the allergy sufferers start feeling miserable when it's as low as 50. As a result, I've been walking around with what feels like the granddaddy of all head colds, eyes that are swollen and itchy, a sore throat that extends halfway down my sternum, I've been sneezing my head off, and I even ache all over. This is the time of year I want to move into a nice, sterile bubble until the trees quit spreading their pollen indiscriminately over all & sundry.

I just hope and pray the pollen count backs off a bit by the time we open next Friday. I always lose my voice for a day or two around this time of year; the last thing I need is to have laryngitis on opening night! =:o

Chipping away at the backlog

So this is what back-to-back tech weeks is like...

Saturday I had a day off!, so I caught up on some dishes & laundry and even stole some time to play in the dirt - watered my impatiens and dumped several bags of topsoil in the eroded spots in the driveway and the spot by the basement steps where the clay settled after the sewer reconstruction of a year and a half ago. Saturday night a fellow Birdie cast member and I went to see Thoroughly Modern Millie and absolutely loved it. Good show, well cast and well performed - wonderful!

Sunday started the marathon - from work I went straight to Murder rehearsal. Costumes are not where I'd like, but given the time constraints I was working against, well, I'll have to live with the results. (Poor little theater company - they're getting what they paid for.)

This week might as well be tech week, as we have rehearsals every night except Friday (opening night for Murder; guess where I'll be that night)! Saturday is our last "normal rehearsal"; Sunday is load-in and run-thru w/ tech. Gonna be a long one; call is at 1, and we're scheduled to run until 9. It'll be interesting to see if we actually do a cue-to-cue, or if they'll still be pointing lights and such. Tuesday is when it'll start to get real - that'll be our first rehearsal w/ costumes & orchestra.

Not even tech week and I'm already tired. I may leave work early on Friday and go home to take a nap.

Enough already!

When I called home Sunday, Dad answered and obviously had a very bad cold. Serious head congestion and at one point he had to hold the phone away while he coughed. Long and hard. At which point I told him I'd get off so he didn't have to try to talk. Mom took him to the doctor yesterday (with her immune system still recovering from the chemo, they weren't taking any chances) and called me later to say Dad was in the hospital w/ pneumonia! Apparently they took him off the IV (meds & rehydration) earlier today and, if all goes well, he'll get to go home in the morning.

Sounds like it was never all that serious, but Dad's 79 and not in the best of shape, so when Mom told me he was in the hospital, well, I was a wee bit worried.

The Illness section of my prayer list is getting so long, I may have to subdivide it - parents, breast cancer, other cancer, other illness...

Happy anniversary

... to us! TW sent me an anniversary present, which arrived Friday. However, because it was insured, the carrier left me a pick-up slip instead of the package. Saturday I was at the post office and had just given one of the staffers my ticket when TW called. He was surprised I'd gotten the package so quickly and told me he'd call back in about 10 minutes, once I got home and had opened the box! When I told him he'd better give me more time, as I'd only just given them my slip, he stayed on the line until I actually got the box. I had only just gotten home and pulled out the scissors to start opening when he called back (he doesn't know the meaning of the word "patience" when he's giving presents). Turns out he'd sent me a set of pearl jewelry - necklace, post earrings, and bracelet. Freshwater pearls, very white, and small, so they're subtle. Very pretty, and I really like the bracelet because it has a section, set off by a gold spacer bead on either side, with graduated pearls, so that the centermost is nearly twice as large as the "regular" pearls.

TW also very generously solved my dilemma of an anniversary gift for him by buying himself a set of 4 woodworking DVDs. I didn't have to shop, wrap or mail - all I have to do is pay for them when the credit card bill comes in. :D

Garden update

The daffodils are pretty well spent, the tulips are starting to open, yet I still have crocuses in the driveway! For all that I planted them all at the same time and to the same depth, I got a few new purple ones popping up last week.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of the mazus I planted in the driveway last year is coming back. Not very thick, but it's making an effort, and yesterday I noticed that the one closest to the street actually has a few flowers on it!

Yesterday I stole some time to run over to the nearest nursery and get my annual "fix" of impatiens. Three colors this year - white, pink & purple, which I planted in the bed under the mailbox, where they always do so well. Instead of mixing them up, this year I planted the white in the back and along the front steps, the purple along the front of the bed, and the pink in the middle. Very conveniently, it started raining yesterday evening, so I didn't have to water the new residents. (Although I will have to water the one little impatiens which is so sheltered by the house and a corner column that it got almost nothing from the drenching we got.)

Thanks, I needed that!

Ooh, just had 2 wonderful shows in 4 days! My voice teacher & I went to Merry Widow Thursday night. Some quibbles about the costumes & make-up, and some of the blocking wasn't as lively as I could have wished, but the music was absolutely GLORIOUS!!! I love pretty much every note in the show, and hearing it live had me blissed out every time they got to one of the hits from the show. Work had been particularly aggravating that day; knowing I had Merry Widow to look forward to helped me get through the day, and the music most definitely did not disappoint!

Then this afternoon we saw a Condensed Mikado - no chorus, most of the chorus numbers and verses to all the remaining songs cut, Pish-Tush' material given to Go-To, so the show fit into an hour and a half. I was surprised at how very much I liked it. Perhaps because it was in a black box theater and the players were therefore that much closer to the audience, the actors' faces seemed much more mobile. It was certainly one of the most playful Mikados I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty - the actors were obviously having a lot of fun, which made it fun for us in the audience. I loved the characterizations, which might have seemed over the top in a traditional production but which were absolutely perfect in this context.

Tax time

With Birdie & Murder eating my evenings & weekends, I had to take a day off work to do the taxes. With TW deployed, we're eligible for a 6-month filing extension, but that doesn't mean an extension if you owe the IRS any money, so I had to at least rough in the numbers to learn whether we'd have to pay.

Lotsa problems, mostly because for some reason a few key things weren't in the "2006 Taxes" folder. For starters, if TW printed a copy of last year's return before e-filing, I couldn't find it. And the softcopy was lost in the Great Computer Crash of September 06, so in the morning I'll mail off the forms to request a "transcript" of last year's federal return (free, whereas a copy of the actual forms runs $39!) and a copy of the state return. I also couldn't find a couple of our year-end statements. Had all the documentation been where I expected to find it, this would have been pretty easy. As it was, a padded cell was starting to look pretty good...

It didn't help that it took me at least an hour and a half to get the miserable computer ready to start; seemed as if every time I tried to do something, I'd get a pop-up telling me I needed to update one application or another.

I can't help but wonder how much it'll slow things down that TW isn't here to sign the forms. I've got copies of his orders and hold power of attorney, so I can always submit copies to the IRS and the state, but - correct me if I'm wrong - doesn't that sorta seem to defeat the point of e-filing?

Not again!

We got yet another Birdie rehearsal sked yesterday! That's it; I'm gonna hafta tell the Murder director & producer that I just can't do it. When I can't count on off days staying off days and I'm therefore not able to plan thrift shopping, I don't see how I can finish costuming Murder. Not if I want to stay employed or avoid booking a room at the local mental facility. Although, now that I think about it, it'd probably be nice & quiet there, no responsibilities... Nah, the other inmates would probably get on my nerves. ;)

Now there's a stage direction I never expected to get!

Running one of the Act II scenes Wednesday night, the director was trying to get me to play a particular exit ever bigger and told me "Try to steal the show"!!! Talk about a stage direction I never expected to receive! After all the years I've spent in the chorus, where pulling focus is a capital offense, I just had to laugh. I can play big, I just have to unlearn that "never pull focus!" habit.

I must be starting to get it, though. When we ran the scene Thursday where Albert tells Mae he doesn't need her any more, I played Mae in what I thought was a ridiculously melodramatic, over-the-top way and the director didn't bat an eyelash. This is gonna be fun! :D

May have to bury "Murder"

We got yet another Birdie rehearsal sked on Wednesday. This one has me called for rehearsals almost daily - that's right, evenings and weekends - until we open, including all of tech week and opening night for Murder Takes the Stage. I had to e-mail the Murder director & producer to warn them that I might have to pull out, and I've just spent time assessing what costuming I have and what I still need. I was dismayed to find I'm not nearly as far along as I thought or as I'd like to be, 3 weeks before opening. However, I do have several pieces for people to try on; if those work, we'll be much closer to complete costumes.

I hate bailing on a commitment, especially given that they open soon, but I signed on for Birdie first. If I ever try to do concurrent shows again, somebody PLEASE stop me!

Halfway home!

TW hit the halfway point of his 6-month deployment earlier this week. We're counting down to the day he gets on that homeward-bound plane - can't wait!!!

Feeling ever so slightly crazed

Now that it's April, I'm realizing that Murder opens 3 weeks from Friday and I've only clothed half the cast. One of the women just e-mailed me that a skirt we were planning to use for her character doesn't fit after all, and would a linen one be ok? Sure - do you have one that fits and is a late-50s cut & length? Please say you do!

And our poor Birdie director just issued yet another rehearsal schedule update - this must be at least the 6th or 7th version. The church where we rehearse and will perform keeps changing the schedule on us, which means having to redo the sked again. It's a wonder poor Frank isn't completely bald from pulling his hair out in frustration. So now I have to figure out if I can still go grocery shopping & thrift shopping when I'd planned to or will need to change because of the rehearsal changes.

Saturday, which I'd earmarked for baking (and taking a friend to Easter Vigil services), is now on the schedule as a choreography rehearsal day, numbers TBD. If I'm lucky, they won't work the one dance number I'm in (except I don't really dance; I'm one of the 6 standing on blocks ), so I won't have to reschedule my plans. If I do have rehearsal, though, my baking decision is made for me - rum cream pie is faster & easier than either apple or carrot cake, and much less messy.

Work's been nuts - what with spring break, broken pipes, ailing parents or kids, and vacations (the nerve of some people!) all happening much too close together, those of us left to hold the fort are perfecting our one-armed paperhanger imitations. I racked up an extra 6 hours last pay period without even trying, and I'm already well on my way to doing the same again this time. A collateral duty I picked up when someone else left is trying hard to become a full-time job all by itself; if it doesn't slack off soon, I'm gonna hafta ask for some help because I'm spending barely 10% of time on what's supposed to be 80% of my job. And won't that wreak havoc w/ my year-end performance review! =:o

TW called this morning and asked if I'd send him some cold meds. Poor baby, he sounded horribly congested. So after not getting out of work until it was much too late to get anything in the mail today, I stopped and got him his cold remedies. Had to ask the pharmacist for one of 'em (pseudephedrine in it). Poor guy looked pretty harassed about the process and was apologetic when, after I gave him my military dependent's ID, he had to ask for my driver's license because that's what the new regs require. Now to box it up so I can mail it off tomorrow. That'll be my excuse - "I have to leave on time today - gotta get to the post office before it closes." Never mind that it'll be a week before he gets it, by which time the cold will be in decline.

Waiting for the MVA to send the registration stickers for my car. I shoulda had 'em by now, especially since the old ones expired Saturday. Until then, my car sits in the driveway while I take TW's to work. (And one of these days I gotta get those bags of dirt outta the trunk. The way gas prices are going up again, I can't afford to schlep that stuff around for no reason.)

And I still have to do the taxes! Rehearsing one show & costuming a second is devouring my nights & weekends, so I guess I'll have to take a day off work to get the tax job done. At least with all the comp hours I've worked, I won't have to take "regular" leave. :p

But when, oh when will I get a chance to play in the garden? I haven't even shopped for impatiens yet, let alone bought any, and I have all that vinca to be planted (if it hasn't died by now), and dirt to spread, and...

A nice dilemma

Hmm, what to fix, what to fix? I'll be joining friends for Easter dinner and am supposed to bring a dessert to go with the coconut cake someone else is baking. I submitted a lengthy list of "candidates", which the hostess narrowed down to three: apple cake, carrot cake or rum cream pie. There'll only be 7 or 10 of us around the table (one family of 3 may or may not attend depending on the health of fragile parents) so I don't need to make a big dessert.

I have a fleur-de-lis cake mold and a mini-Bundt mold; I might make a dozen minis instead of a single full-size cake. But that would mean washing & re-prepping the pan between batches, not to mention that one recipe makes one full-size cake (12 slices) but only 9 minis. That's fine if there are only 7 of us, but if there are 10, I'd have to abstain. Or I could make 2 cakes - one apple and one carrot - have far more than enough minis to take to Easter dinner, and still have enough to share with our neighbor.

And then there's rum cream pie. This has been a Christmas tradition in our family for as long as I can remember, in no small part because an old family friend (he's known my 50-years-married parents longer than they've known each other!) loves the stuff. As do I. We've also made it for other occasions; it's always popular. Might be a chance to introduce it to a new audience.

I could make rum cream to take to dinner and a cake (or a batch of minis) to share, since the rum cream is a refrigerator pie, not a baked variety. Mix up the cake, slide it in the oven, then make the pie. (I haven't baked since right before TW deployed; I think I'm going thru baking withdrawal.)

Care to weigh in? Feel free to vote. :)

Mom's energy level...

... must be almost back to normal, at long last. When I called home today, Dad said Mom was busy in the kitchen, fixing brunch for the local contingent of the family (3 of my siblings, their spouses, and 7 of the 10 grandchildren). Dad said this is the first time in probably a year that Mom's felt up to doing this - a very good sign indeed! Mom absolutely thrives on having family around her and loves feeding us, so she must really be having a good day. She'll probably crash & burn once everyone leaves (don't worry, no one will let her clean up afterwards), but I'm sure she's delighted that she's back in action again at last.

Color!!!

Spring is getting into full swing here. The buds on the Bradford pears in the neighborhood started opening yesterday, the magnolias are just a day or two short of their peak, the cherry trees are starting to bud, the forsythia is coming out all over town, I had a miniature purple crocus pop its little head up in the driveway today, and the daffodils are coming into their own.

Had a lovely ride to my voice lesson today; in addition to all the flowering trees, seems like a few more medians have been planted w/ daffs. I love this trend, whether at the municipal, county or state level. It certainly lifted my mood today, stopping at one of the longest traffic lights and seeing a bank planted in a sea of yellow. My voice teacher even commented that I looked "sunnier" than last week. I told her it was all the "color coming back into the world". Because the winter gray sets in so gradually, I never fully realize just how much it affects me until the spring flowers start making their riotously colorful appearance.

Oooh, sparkly!

Got my wedding & engagement rings back today. The jeweler cleaned & polished them in addition to the repair, and boy, do those little diamonds sparkle! Maybe it's just because they're clean, but they look bigger to me now. Even better, the ruby looks wonderful when the daylight hits it, now that all the gunk's been cleaned out of the prongs. Even in incandescent lighting, it glows more. (Home jewelry cleaners just can't touch whatever it is the jewelers do.)

Gardening update

Picked up 6 bags of topsoil the other day to fill in holes in the "boxes" in the driveway and a few places in the yard; I'll probably do that tomorrow.

The crocuses I planted in the driveway last fall have come up nicely. Mostly yellow, a few white, but no purple ones; at least, not yet. And of the 4 mazus reptans I planted last year, only 1 seems to have survived. I've noticed a few tiny green leaves making an appearance; maybe this year it'll manage better. However, I went ahead and ordered some "walk-on-me" for a ground cover. With any luck, it'll live up to its advertising and spread quickly so the new dirt doesn't follow the old dirt down the driveway and into the street. Looks like it shouldn't interfere w/ the crocuses, and the few surviving sprigs of vinca and pachysandra TW planted there last fall should be ok there too. Maybe this will be the year that dirt between the concrete strips finally looks halfway decent, instead of the semi-eroded weed patch it's been for so long.

My vinca's looking a little peaked so far this year. Maybe it's just the way the temperatures have been changing so dramatically (lows in the 50s one day last week, followed by highs in the 40s the next day!), but the flowers that have appeared so far are smaller and paler than usual.

Busy week!

Been running around like a crazy thing this week. Work's been busier than usual (some sorta bug is making the rounds in the office at one of our busier times of year), went to a Murder rehearsal for some preliminary costume fittings, and of course had Birdie rehearsals too.

Saturday I hit some thrift & antique stores and came home w/ a purse for me to use as Mae; a fur stole that has the entire critter (heads, feet and all); a perfect pearl-trimmed hat for the "star" in Murder; and a tie, 2 dresses, a top, and a skirt, also for Murder actors. So far I've got one of the men completely taken care of; the sheriff needs a pair of trousers and some official-looking insignia; two of the women are completely taken care of, one has half her costumes, and I still have all the rest to do. There are at least 2 for whom I'm going to have to sew something, but if one of them can find 3 different tops, she'll only need another skirt. I'm starting to feel a tiny bit of pressure, but I know that'll escalate as soon as it gets to be April, since the show opens April 27th. Complicating matters is the fact that I'll only be able to make the Sunday & Tuesday before opening, as I've got 3 Birdie rehearsals during Murder tech week. If in future I'm ever crazy (or amnesiac) enough to think I could do 2 shows that open on successive weekends, please remind me that back-to-back tech weeks are NOT a good idea, especially if you have a day job!

Last night I went to a CD release party for Wooing the Lorelei. Great material - both the music & the lyrics are very intelligently and wittily written; the music is not at all predictable and rewards repeat listenings. The songwriter had written these for a cabaret act, and they remind me a lot of Noel Coward, Cole Porter, or the Gershwins. Very sophisticated "stand around the piano in cocktail-party wear while sipping martinis" sort of music. In a fun packaging gimmick, the CD has been pressed to look like an LP; nice touch.

Spent too much time on e-bay this afternoon searching for 50s hats and cats-eye eyeglass frames. I ended up bidding on some glasses w/ clear frames, a crinoline, and a hatbox full of 13 hats! If I win all 3 bids, I'll be able to provide hats for all the ladies in both Birdie & Murder!

Tired

And when I'm too tired, I get irritable and prone to wallow in self-pity. Doesn't help that I noticed at work this morning that I'd lost one of the diamonds from my wedding band. Not a big one, but what looks at a glance like a schmutz on my ring is actually a hole. Makes me miss TW that much more.

Spent most of the day working on a quarterly bean-counting report. My mood wasn't helped by the fact that I spent a few hours on it Sunday, then learned yesterday that I'd been working on the wrong form. (They'd sent out the wrong one.) I wasn't surprised, though; I'd thought on Sunday that it was a whole lot less work than in the past. Royal pain in the tuckes, with some inadvertently (I hope!) unreasonable statistics requested. Wretched thing is due at noon tomorrow, but is gonna hafta go in with one section incomplete, since I ran out of time to get to it and will be busy with visitors tomorrow.

Another irritation: The company for whose Pirates I auditioned is already soliciting additional tenors for the chorus, while I have yet to hear whether they want me for the chorus. (I didn't get called back, so they're obviously not going to offer me a lead.) I've had a problem w/ this MD once before. I was one of 3 being considered for a role. One of the wannabes learned that night that she wasn't cast because she saw the MD at a concert. The wannabe who did get cast found out the following day that she was the lucky one when someone else in the cast congratulated her on getting the role! The MD called me at work the day after that, commenting that "I forgot we hadn't called everybody". You "forgot"?!?!? (OK, c'mon, take a deep breath; now let it out s-l-o-w-l-y.)

Beautiful day today, and most of the crocuses seem to have survived the cold blast over the weekend, but because I'm tired, these irritations still have me in a pissy mood. At least I don't have to be at rehearsal until about 8 tonight; can catch up on e-mail and my blog and still have time for a reasonably relaxed dinner.

"Duty-free" night

The rain that started falling last night had turned to sleet by late afternoon today, so instead of running errands and getting dinner out, I picked up some (wonderful-smelling!) Chinese food on the way home. I'm taking this execrable weather as a sign that I'm meant to do nothing, not one blessed thing, on my To Do list tonight. Instead, I plan to change into sweats or some such, put Singing in the Rain into the VCR, and curl up on the couch w/ my Chinese and a glass of wine. There'll be plenty of time tomorrow for all those To Do's...

Cow video

Yes, I said "cow video" and a very silly video at that: http://www.3dweb.no/galleri/stuestolbm/bilder/anim1.swf
I think it's the trumpets in the chorus that really had me laughing, but some of the puns were pretty good, too.

Voice lesson in which I sang not at all

Since I probably won't audition for anything else before fall, today's voice lesson was a planning session - long-term vocal projects (picking things to work certain techniques, vocal color, etc.), reviewing the types of things in my repertoire (3 categories - Broadway, G&S, and opera), and picking a few things to prep "for future reference". She told me something interesting: some teachers, especially when they get a young student, will tell them to audition for nothing for at least several months or even as much as a year! I guess that's so the student will have plenty of time to focus on correcting bad habits, learning new ones, developing technique or what-have-you. That's my guess, at any rate, based on the fact that this arose in the context of our observing that we haven't worked long & hard on any one thing in my lessons lately because I've been doing so many auditions this season (13 since August, and 3 in a single week back in January!).

Last audition of the season?

Auditioned for Pirates of Penzance tonight. Didn't do badly, but not as well as I'd like, either. And there was another mezzo who I'm betting also has her eye on Ruth and has a better voice than I do, and I know she's not my only competition for the role. So I don't expect a callback and, given my other theatrical commitments, I may not take chorus. TW was funny when I talked to him earlier today: "When will they start rehearsals? ... So you'd be rehearsing two shows?!? You're gonna kill yourself!"

On the other hand, much as I love Pirates, if I pass on it, that'll give me more time to work on those curtains for the cabin, which I haven't even started yet.

Lotsa knife fights this weekend

On stage, that is. Saw Wait Until Dark last night and a version of Carmen: The Tragedy of Don Jose today. Both had people trying to kill each other. Last night's fights were very realistic; all the moves looked very real, the violence read as authentic, and the falls looked and sounded as if the person falling would be getting up w/ bruises. (The guy who got knifed and fell down a partial flight of stairs probably does have bruises.) Today's weren't so much fights as stylized knifings - "kill him quick and keep the plot moving" sorta thing. But Don Jose did seem to be pretty quick to solve his differences that way; he killed 2 or 3 of Carmen's lovers before he killed her.

Lots of obsession this weekend too. Friday night it was Rene Gallimard's obsession with his Asian "butterfly" (M Butterfly), this afternoon it was Don Jose's jealous obsession w/ Carmen. In both cases, it ended badly.

"Winter visitors"

Been seeing a lot of slate-colored or dark-eyed juncos lately. I don't know where they've been hiding all winter, that I didn't notice them until a few weeks ago, but it's fun to watch 'em hopping around in the snow. And since they always seem to travel in groups, they make quite a striking picture, with their dark coloring against the snow. (Or sleet, a few weeks ago.)

Flying solo

Back in December I "certified" to teach a day-and-a-half specialty class at work. The last step in the process was teaching with the course manager observing from a corner. Yesterday and today was the first time I taught solo. I think it went well; last time I had a few folks who really struggled w/ the material. I made some notes to amend what I covered and how; this time all but one of them sailed through everything. The one non-sailor struggled but is nowhere close to failing; it's simply a matter of determining how much above the cut-off that person's final is. Felt good - knew my stuff, was able to answer the questions, and best of all, they did really well on the final exercise (7 of them definitely scored in the 90s; the 8th may just pull it off too).

I did have to put in some extra time to prep for the class and get the "finals" graded this afternoon and will need to spend a bit more time tying up administrative matters, but success is a good feeling.

Good voice lesson

Last week's lesson, the first in nearly a month, wasn't particularly productive because we'd had another sharp weather change that filled my lungs w/ crud. This week's, however, was much better. Due to a bit of confusion, I showed up at 4:30 when K wasn't expecting me until 6:30. After some discussion, I headed off to a leisurely dinner, then returned for a 6:30 lesson. I don't usually like to sing so soon after I've eaten, preferring to give the digestive juices plenty of time to settle, but the burger, fries and hot tea didn't seem to hurt me. I walked into my lesson without warming up at all, yet in the vocalises my voice didn't crack at all until I got up to a high C (not bad at all for a mezzo!), then proceeded to go down to a G below middle C. Over 2 octaves, cold - I was pleased! We then worked on an audition piece for Sunday (Pirates of Penzance coming up). Listening to the tape in the car on my way home, I actually liked a fair amount of what I'd done, which was very encouraging. Now if only I can do that well come Sunday...

Calendar juggling

Thank heaven my voice teacher is flexible. I had to reschedule next week's voice lesson once because I found out about a mandatory meeting that starts just when I'd be leaving work for my lesson. Then I learned I've got a rehearsal that night, starting less than an hour after the start of the rescheduled lesson time, so I had to go back and ask for a new lesson time. Let's hope this third time works out, or I think my brain might explode!

The next week is pretty crazy - adjudicated a show last night, Birdie rehearsal today, seeing a friend's show tonight and another tomorrow afternoon, rehearsal tomorrow night for the show I'm costuming. Monday night rehearsal, Tuesday voice lesson, Wednesday friend's show, Thursday dinner w/ a friend (not a theater-related calendar item!), adjudicating shows next Friday & Saturday nights, friends' show on Sunday (w/ another theater friend), and an audition that night. Maybe I can reschedule my headshot session during the day on Saturday; heaven knows, I can't squeeze it in any sooner!

April & May will be more of the same: in addition to the show I'm costuming and the one I'm in, I have one to adjudicate, five that various friends are doing, and 2 others I auditioned for and would like to see.

Here it is, barely March, and I've already seen more shows than I often see in an entire year! Now I completely understand why my Theater Mentor color-codes her calendar! However, I'll drop it all like a hot rock once TW comes home in early July, and will be much more restrained when the next season starts in the fall. After all, one he's safely home again, I won't need to keep my mind off his absence.

Crocuses!!!

Not to mention snowdrops, and even a clump of precocious daffodils! I had one lone brave, advance-wave crocus that popped up and bloomed about a month ago, when we were still in the throes of temperatures that never got up to the freezing mark. Then nothing but a few shoots until earlier this week. Our highs started passing the 50-degree mark around Tuesday, then into the 60s, so I'm not all that surprised that my crocuses have started popping up. Usually it's the purple ones that show first, but this year I've got at least half a dozen yellow ones and nothing else, aside from a snowdrop or two, and yesterday I noticed a house in the neighborhood had a clump of daffodils in full yellow glory. We've got a fairly shady lot so our bulbs tend to appear later than elsewhere in the neighborhood. The springlike temps have had everyone in a good mood after last weekend's snow, but the crocuses clinch it for me - they've always been my sign that winter is on its way out and spring is in the wings, just waiting for its cue to make a grand entrance.

Now I want to drive by this one house a few blocks away. It sits on a corner lot and every spring has a yard that's a sea of lavender crocuses. It does my spirits good to see it, even on the rainiest day.

My allergies hate spring (my lungs are already starting to fill with crud), especially once the trees start pollinating their fool heads off, but I absolutely thrive on those first signs of spring's arrival. Now I'm itching to run out and buy truckloads of soil for the vinca I ordered last month and to fill in the driveway so I can plant something there, too. I have no idea when I'm going to manage that, what with my own and other people's shows, but I'm definitely going to carve out some chunks of time to start digging into the garden, both literally & figuratively.

The importance of geography

For anyone who ever thought "geography - who cares? Why do I need to know how to read a map?":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1827554.stm

One answer, obviously, is "to prevent hugely embarrassing international incidents"!

Miscellaneous

I had a headshot sitting scheduled for today, but after a long, tiring week and only 6 hours of sleep last night, decided I'd better reschedule. (I don't fancy distributing headshots that look like a portrait that should be up in my attic.) Then I checked my e-mail and learned that today's Birdie rehearsal was cancelled. This means I don't have to go anywhere until it's time to leave for the theater for my 6:30 call. Yee-ha! I'll have time for a NAP! I've already plowed thru my e-mail backlog, and look, I'm even updating this blog thingy.

In other news, we just got the Birdie rehearsal schedule for March. Looks like Saturdays & Sundays are reserved for choreography rehearsals. Since I'm not in any of the dance numbers, and we don't have any Friday rehearsals at all, I might be able to get out to the cabin again in a few weeks to see how much damage we had to the pipes. Depending on the weather, I may also look into getting a truckload of topsoil delivered and spread over the septic field. I ordered 50 vinca plants a month or so ago; once those come in, I'll plant 'em all over the place. That should help keep the dirt above the septic field from washing down the hill. Yes, the grass TW planted last fall already helps, but it's not as ornamental - no pretty purple flowers. I'm also thinking about planting lilies-of-the-valley, but I'm not buying a single pip until I can find someone or something to tell me how likely the deer are to eat them all up. I've thought about planting daffodils there, but of course I can't plant those until fall, which means I wouldn't see results until next spring.

Turns out dubheach will be in town for a sci-fi con the last weekend of March. It would be SO great if we can get together - we haven't laid eyes on each other in 6 years, when she was in town to see TW & me get married.

When TW called this morning, he told me he was able to get new glasses at the (American eyeglass franchise) at a local mall on the outskirts of Doha! Forget political hegemony; the US seems to be concentrating on commercial imperialism - fast food and chain restaurants everywhere, the top 2 colas duking it out for world domination, and even an eyeglass franchise trying to change the world's focus.

We've had a MOST welcome (at least to me) thaw the past few days, but of course we knew it wouldn't last. The weather forecast last night was threatening sleet or freezing rain starting sometime during the night tonight, to continue into tomorrow evening. This could very easily cancel our last Ruddigore performance tomorrow - horrors! I see the forecast has been updated since last night; now they're saying we'll get a "wintry mix" (i.e., think of every possible kind of frozen or freezing precipitation - that's what you'll get) that should change to rain by afternoon. However, even if things warm up enough that all we get is rain, that'll still cut into our attendance. People just don't like going out in the rain if they don't have to. However, if it's just rain, and it's warm enough that we don't have to worry about refreezing, at least the show can still go on, as can the post-strike cast party. And really, that's the most important thing, isn't it! ;)

Ah, the joys of running water!

After spending too much time trying in vain to get the water flowing out at the cabin, it was SO nice to get home to running water. Being able to brush teeth & wash hands (and dishes) more easily is good, but best is being able to stand under a nice, hot shower and wash the hairspray out of my hair and a few knots out of my muscles. (Slinging sleet is hard work!) I'm achier today than yesterday from wielding that maul, moving piles of sleet, schlepping things down the driveway from the car to the cabin, etc. I was very careful about my body mechanics so I didn't injure anything; it's just all those muscles that aren't used to working that hard. Worst seems to be my hands - they're used to controlling lightweight things like writing utensils and book pages, not 50-pound mauls. So even though I indulged in a nice, long, hot shower this morning, I may take another before bed to ease the muscles a little more.

So much for that idea...

So much for my nice, relaxing trip to the cabin! Got out there around 8:30 last night to find the (very steep) driveway at least 6" deep in sleet, with perhaps half an inch of powder on top. No way I was driving down there, so I parked up on the street. Not only was the driveway impassable, but the cover to the little "well" housing the water shut-off was under at least a foot of drifted sleet! After spending about 15 minutes chipping away at it with the water key (the handle for turning the water on & off), I decided to wait until this morning, when I'd have daylight and less cold. I did get the place warmed up in fairly short order, but wished I could do better than bottled water for washing (after first Ruddigore, then the sleet chipping, a nice, hot shower would have been lovely!).

After breakfast, I first tried to go down to the "basement" under the addition to look for a shovel but never got there. I got about halfway down the slope; at the point where it gets steeper, my feet slid out from under me and rather than risk injury by trying to get the rest of the way down, I decided it would be the better part of valor simply to borrow a shovel from the next-door neighbors. Pity there was no one with a camera to capture my crawling back up the hill - might have made some decent money selling the video to America's Funniest or some such show.

The neighbors loaned me both a shovel and a maul. The latter was heavy and I took it mostly to be polite, but was soon happy to have it, as it was just the thing to break up the drifted sleet - a few good whacks and I'd separate another chunk from the mass keeping me from accessing the water shut-off. After close to an hour's work, I finally managed to get at the cover and turn the water on. Nothing. Not a hiss, not a fizz, not a gurgle. I went back inside and called the Homeowners' association folks, who had someone out to check the situation within no more than 15 minutes or so. After half an hour spent confirming that the water hadn't been shut off at the street and fiddling with the shut-off, Art determined that a pipe running from the shut-off into the house was probably frozen. He lent me a hair dryer, even positioned it for me and told me to return it later, but over half an hour of that yielded no results. Sigh.

So after taking care of some other things (like hauling blinds and curtain rods in from the car), I came back home, having installed not one blind or curtain rod, and resigned to the fact that there's no point in going back out there until things have thawed out. And when I do, I'm afraid I may have to spend a night in a hotel while I wait for a plumber to come out and fix whatever pipe(s) have frozen.

Ah, the "joys" of second-home-ownership.

Halfway there

That's one Ruddigore weekend down, one to go. Friday's house was quite small, but appreciative and surprisingly vocal for a Friday night crowd. (They tend to be quiet - probably tired at the end of the work week.) Saturday's crowd was nearly twice as large, and also vocal. Both nights the crowds didn't just chuckle, they laughed appreciatively at all the jokes; they're welcome to come back any time.

Sunday's audience was the largest because that was the "student outreach" matinee - a paying adult could bring one or two students for free and they got a backstage tour (first time I've had an "audience" in the dressing room!) and a post-show Q&A with the directors & principals. They were another vocally appreciative audience, and even applauded a couple of bits of business, not just the Act II dance number where we expected applause. The Q&A was rather sparsely attended, probably because by then it was snowing heavily, but I'm sure the die-hards who stayed felt they'd more than gotten their money's worth.

I'll have to get pics of my costume - it's one of the prettiest ones I've worn, and the costumer confided to me that it's one of her favorites of those on stage. A friend who came Saturday night also commented on my pretty dress and fetching hat. The "dress" is actually several pieces - blouse, skirt, overskirt & sash, worn over a bustle and petticoat. That's a lot of pieces to assemble, in addition to the usual drill w/ hair & make-up. Yesterday was the first time I was actually completely ready before the overture started - Thursday & Friday I had only done hair & make-up, no costume yet, when they called "places", and Saturday I had just begun to don my costume when "places" was called. I had been rolling my hair to give it some body before putting it up under the hat, but given how much assembly the costume requires, I may forget about the rollers.

This week I've been doing some of the "finishing" I always enjoy: made a reticule for Dame Hannah, cut down & hemmed the length of tartan Mad Margaret wears in her first scene, bought & attached trim to Rose's overskirt, trimmed countless stray threads from various people's costumes, hemmed my skirt and finished my sleeves w/ lace "harvested" from one of the men's shirts. (He didn't want lace on his sleeves, mine needed finishing, there was just enough lace - it was meant to be.) Oh, and the usual lending - a cameo and a dress liner to Dame Hannah, hatpins to 4 of the ladies, my curling irons for general use.

Given how I'm always doing this kind of tweaking, and how I enjoy getting a costume "look" just so, I suppose it was inevitable that I'd costume a show myself. Not completely by myself, because the director is herself an experienced costumer and has some pretty definite ideas of what she wants, and the producer is an experienced costumer and has offered her services if I get stuck. But still - it'll be my name on the program for costume design! Shouldn't hurt my resume any, especially if audience members actually notice the costumes in a good way.

"No lymphoma found"!!!

Mom just called with the synopsis of today's visit with the oncologist. She passed all her tests and the results boil down to three glorious words:

"NO LYMPHOMA FOUND"!!!!!
She has to go back for monthly portacath maintenance and for quarterly check-ups w/ the oncologist, but the important thing is that the prayers and the chemo WORKED!!!

Oh, sleet!

Woke up at 5:30 this morning (when the alarm was set for 7) to learn the good news - no work today! Bad news - sleet! I could hear it patting against the windows and skylights at 5:30 and when I went out to shovel about 3 hours later, it made for some pretty tough going. That stuff is heavy! Not to mention hard to shovel; it clumps, you have to chip at it to get it to let go, it weighs a ton, and while it's melting at the moment, it's gonna refreeze later this evening. Send lots and lots of warm thoughts our way, please - we really can't afford to lose another night of rehearsal! If we lose tonight, that gives us only one night to get thru the entire show w/ orchestra, practice the evil/dead make-up for nearly half the cast, and get the blocking adjustments into our muscular memory. Not enough! Not that we'll be horrible if we don't get to rehearse tonight (we'll be well-rested, if nothing else), but losing two key rehearsals right before Opening Night is a Bad Thing!

You'd think I'd be well rested today, but you'd be wrong. Not only was I unable to get to sleep until after midnight last night (that late-afternoon migraine nap wreaked havoc w/ my sleep patterns), but after waking up early and going back to bed, I heard my cellphone beep just as I was getting back to sleep. Turned out somebody's boss was text-messaging them to come in late. I let "Mike" know he'd texted the wrong number, then went back to bed again. Ten minutes later, TW called. By the time we finished talking, I was wide awake, and headache-y, so I threw in the sleep towel, made some coffee (which took care of the headache, thank heaven), and wondered whether the carrier would be able to deliver the paper before noon.

Cabin, here I come!

Ooh, ah, can't wait! I've actually managed to keep my calendar clear so that after this Sunday's matinee, I can head on out to the cabin! I'm taking Tuesday off so I can spend all day Monday out there, hanging "cellular shades" and curtain rods, checking on the state of the plumbing (it shouldn't have frozen, but I'll feel much better once I've checked), and treating myself to a massage. Should I have any free time, I'll spend it reading (my Birdie script will be among my reading materials), maybe watching a movie or two, and generally enjoying the peace and quiet.

I'll probably take TW's car to give it a good run, which means I'll need to get the wipers fixed (right now they scrape horribly!), then start loading it with all the things to go out there - curtain rods, blinds, the bathroom rugs TW & I bought right before he left, a few supplies & decorative items. Better not think about it or I'll get too antsy, though it's not too early to book my massage...

Night off during Tech Week!

Having a night off during Tech Week is a wonderful thing, but the reason we have tonight off isn't so nice. We're getting a storm that dropped an inch or two of snow before switching over to sleet, or freezing rain, or some other version of ice. Worse, the low pressure system that brought this "lovely" storm also sent me home from work early w/ a killer migraine. Not the worst I've had, not by a long shot, but bad enough that I took a 2nd imitrex when I got home and still had some lingering pain and nausea after a 3-hour nap.

Now that I'm feeling almost human, I plan to spend the next couple of hours hemming my costume skirt, going over my notes from the past 2 nights to remind myself of the blocking adjustments, do a "run sheet" (notes to self about cues, entrances, any tricky blocking, props I need to have, etc.), and relish the fact that it's within my power to be in bed w/ the lights out by 10 p.m. during Tech Week! This is particularly important because tomorrow's rehearsal will probably run even later than last night's (we ran until 11). We haven't had a run on the set yet, so I'm sure the director's a bit nervous about that; I certainly would be! However, we did have 2 very productive nights; got through all the 160-odd tech cues at last night's cue-to-cue and fixed nearly all the spacing issues.

It remains to be seen whether I'll have to go in to work tomorrow, but I still get to sleep in until 7. I had already planned to go in late and go to the theater from there. This is the first time in a few years that I've actually gone in to work during Tech Week instead of taking the whole week off. After not getting to bed until 1 this morning and then getting up at 7, I'm reminded why taking off during Tech Week is such a great idea, and not only because I have so much time to do costume repairs, run errands, and get my make-up kit in order! However, with another show running in May and perhaps a 3rd in June, on top of wanting to take 3 weeks off when TW gets back from deployment, I really do need to hoard my leave for the time being. Hence, I'm only taking off this Thursday & Friday, and next Tuesday so I can make a quick run out to the cabin to check on the place.

Barely time to catch my breath

Whew! Between Ruddigore & Birdie, I had 4 rehearsal nights last week. Saturday was the start of Tech Week for Ruddigore, and a very busy day indeed. Post office to mail another box to TW (socks, munchies, phone cards); then the fabric store for the makings of a burlap bag for Dame Hannah's kidnapping and a "hump" for Old Adam/Gideon Crawle; theater for the Sitzprobe (I took my sewing machine so I could work when I didn't have to sing); 1.25-hour drive to Birdie rehearsal; 5:30 Mass; quick jumbo slice of plain pizza before taking in Much Ado About Nothing. All-female cast, and most of them were very good. Interesting concept (the director apparently had so very many talented women audition that he decided to go w/ the all-female cast); the director set it during WWII and added a 4-piece combo to play for the feast, at which there was dancing, and inserted music elsewhere.

So now Ruddigore is in Tech. We got our first look at the set last night; only worked some Act I things, but the director seemed pretty happy w/ what we accomplished, and we were dismissed by 10:10 - early for Tech Week! Tonight is cue-to-cue; nobody's favorite, but a necessary evil. No telling whether we'll manage rehearsal tomorrow night; the weather reports have been full of a "winter storm watch" since Thursday and this morning they started talking about ice, sleet and freezing rain along w/ the snow. I don't mind snow, but that icy stuff is bad news! I'm sure our director is praying for snow only; so am I.

This is when the magic starts to happen for me: the set is coming together ("watch out for the paint on that flat!" "coming thru with the Genie!"), the costumes are being hemmed & fitted, the accessories decided on ("hmm, what should I do w/ my hair under this hat?"), prowling the set to see how the real thing is going to affect entrances, exits and placement. I just love it!

The pit piano we're using for rehearsal until Wednesday was hideously tinny and out of tune last night; I don't know how our accompanist stood it. Can't wait till we get to work with the orchestra; our accompanist is wonderful but that piano is an instrument of torture!

Updates

I e-mailed the company doing Merry Widow to thank them for considering me but that I'd be unable to do the show after all. Sigh.

Also e-mailed the producer & director of the show I'll be costuming (am I crazy? if not, I think I soon will be!) about a costuming meeting so I can start thinking about what we'll need for that.

Finished a skirt for a fellow Ruddigore castmember. Our costumer had distributed a few "kits" at an earlier rehearsal. I finally got to mine this afternoon and knocked it out in only a coupla hours. Good thing I've gathered skirts onto waistbands before, though, as the directions left out a vital instruction - how to line up the waistband to the skirt base.

Went out this afternoon and bought a space heater for the kitchen so that I could stand to sew there. The back end of the kitchen is always cold in the winter because the seal on the french doors is no longer all that tight. With the arctic cold front we've been dealing with (today's high might have topped the freezing mark, but I'm not sure), the kitchen has been averaging around 60 degrees, and it's just too hard to sew when you're fingers are half numb. I also have all those curtains I want to sew for the cabin (2 foyer doors & sidelights, the bedroom door, and six bedroom windows) before TW gets home, so warm fingers are important! Bought the heater at one of those bedding/housewares chains and also bought the curtain rods and such while I was at it.

So now I'm ready - next time I go to the cabin, I have "cellular shades" and curtain rods to put up out there, and should have at least the sheers (foyer & bedroom doors) ready as well. With luck, I might even have a lined curtain or two finished by then, but I'm not holding my breath. After all, I've never done lined curtains before, so at least the first one or two will go particularly slowly while I figure out the measurements, layout and such.

Had a nice night at the theater last night - went to see a friend in "Anton in Show Business". Some heavy stuff, but mostly quite funny, and the 3 principal characters (of which my friend was one) worked so well together it would have been hard to single one out for special notice. This one was very much an ensemble show and, at least from my seat in the audience, the ensemble worked beautifully together. Bravi, tutti!

Mom had a bone marrow sample drawn last week, gets another CAT and PET scans this week, then goes to the oncologist for the results of everything on the 16th. Keep praying that the chemo did the trick!

Waiting...

After the euphoria of learning I'd been called back for Widow subsided, I realized I had a problem. Because Widow closes just 2 weeks before Birdie opens, I'd have great chunks of time when I'd be unavailable for Birdie rehearsals. Part of me wants to do everything - think kid in a candy store with a fatter-than-usual allowance. On the other hand, I can only imagine how frazzled I'd get if I'm in rehearsal for two shows at once, especially since I've agreed to design costumes for yet a third show. And as if that weren't enough, things at work are about to get busier, or so we're told, which could mean much longer days.

I e-mailed the Birdie director Friday night, offering him the chance to say that no, I can't have my cake and eat it too (i.e., do both Widow and Birdie) but haven't heard back from him yet. However, the more I think about it, the more I think that, in the interest of preserving what little sanity remains to me, I'd better tell the Widow company that, while I very much appreciate being called back and would dearly love to do the show with them, I'd better not. (That will certainly improve the odds for the other 4 women called back for the 3 "wife" roles; they should be happy with my decision.)

Another callback!

Got home from work this afternoon to find a message on the machine telling me I'm called back for a role in The Merry Widow! Huzzah! They didn't say which role, but I'm guessing it's one of the Pontevedrian wives. Those are speaking roles; IIRC, all their singing is done in the full ensembles. Which is just fine; Lehar's choral writing is lush enough to keep me happy. And if they let me waltz, I'll be in heaven!

Another possibility is that they're considering me for one of the folk dancers. I doubt they'd want me for one of the can-can dancers unless they're desperate - I've never been able to do the splits or a cartwheel, although I can turn in place for at least 8 counts. That'd make a great visual - one brightly-garbed dancer turning and turning while others cartwheel past her.

I've already done the show once and got to dance 3 times; I was in the curtain-raiser at the top of the show, and was a folkdancer (type-casting!) and Jou-Jou, one of the can-can dancers. Heaviest rehearsal schedule I've ever had because of all the choreography rehearsal required - I was absolutely ate it up with a spoon and begged for more!

I hope to know more soon - the message promised they'd either e-mail me or call later tonight to tell me when to show up on Sunday.

Another audition under my belt.

Today's audition was for the company doing a Condensed Mikado overlapping with Merry Widow. I thought I sang pretty well, especially given that I'd been having a lot of crud problems when I first started singing this morning, but I hit a first with this audition: when I finished, the director (or maybe the MD; they didn't introduce themselves) asked me to sing it again but louder. He said "the acting was fine" but I seemed to be holding back; he wanted me to give him both barrels! I had sorta dialed it down, both for dramatic reasons and because it was a low-ceilinged room w/ cinderblock walls, but I did as I was told. The director even gave me an occasional "gimme all ya got" gesture as I was singing. Felt funny, but fortunately the singing still felt good.

The dance part of the audition went pretty well, too, though one movement gave me trouble because it depended on the use of a muscle I'd pulled during yesterday's rehearsal. The muscle hadn't bothered me at all today until we got to that point in the combination. Now it hurts to try to raise my right leg, which is gonna be problematic stepping into and out of trousers and climbing stairs.

I was there quite a bit longer than I'd expected. I was in the first batch of 10; each of us sang our bit, then they herded us off to church's social hall to learn the dance combination. After spending about half an hour on that, the directors, accompanist and board president came in to watch us dance. The choreographer had us split into 2 groups and each group got to do the combination twice. All told, it probably took at least an hour and a half from the time the first person sang to the time they released us after the dance piece. I think that's the first time I've auditioned for this company that I didn't just sing my bit and leave. The fact that they're including dance gives me hope for how much dance will be in Merry Widow. (Now to hope that they cast me....)

This week in theater

It's been a busy week: I was going to audition for Birdie Sunday night but the neighborhood streets were so slick that I decided it wasn't worth the risk and instead asked if I could audition at callbacks. Monday night was voice lesson and Ruddigore rehearsal.

Tuesday I auditioned for Thoroughly Modern Millie. The only thing really open to me is Mrs. Meers; the other mezzo role, Muzzy van Hossmere (sp?), is specifically described as African-American, and the ensemble has to tap. After doing things like folk-dancing barefoot on a concrete slab back when I was young and ignorant of such matters, my knees won't put up w/ the punishment of tap, so ensemble's out. As I'd expected based on my merely adequate singing that night, I didn't get called back, so I expect to get a "thanks but no thanks" in another week or so. Which is OK now that I'm doing Birdie.

My Birdie audition Wednesday night was kinda funny; I'm not at all sure how well my singing went (I got cut off at both auditions, using the same piece), but I thought I read well. The director apparently agreed, as he had me and another auditionee stay for callbacks, and ended up giving me the only part he had me read for. Mae is going to be fun to do, but I'm a little disappointed that the role calls for no dancing and only a few ensemble songs. Ah well, working on her accent will be good exercise; the director wants her played as a "quintessential New York Jewish mother". At callbacks I read it with what I thought was rather a cartoony accent, but I got compliments on it from two people - one a self-identified NY Jew; the other, one of the women also up for the part.

We're working Ruddigore choreography fixes today, which will be fun. It'd be more fun if I had more dancing than just a tiny piece of the one number, though. Unlike a lot of singers I've shared a stage with (especially most of the guys), I actually look forward to the dancing. The more dancing there is in a show, the better I like it! (Which is another reason I really want to do Merry Widow!) Yet in Ruddigore and Birdie, I end up doing little or none.

Tonight I'm off to adjudicate A Moon for the Misbegotten. A friend recommended an Irish pub near the theater; after checking out the menu online, I decided to make an evening of it.

Tomorrow I'll audition for Condensed Mikado and Merry Widow. I do hope the company will be willing to let me play with them despite my as-yet-unknown Birdie rehearsal schedule. I'd be delighted to do either show: Mikado would mean a lead (which would be exciting!), Widow would only be chorus but presumably I'd get to dance. Either way, I'd be very pleased.

Someone might need to arrange an intervention...

OK, so I was just cast in Bye Bye, Birdie, which runs the 1st 3 weekends in May. Because Mae Peterson is a relatively small (but choice!) part in terms of stage time, I'm hoping that'll mean a light rehearsal schedule, so I'm still going to audition on Sunday for the company doing Condensed Mikado and Merry Widow (I do so love Lehar's music!), which run in March and April, in hopes that I can get the 2 rehearsal skeds to mesh. The company, of course, may have other ideas about that.

As if that weren't enough, I finally agreed last night to design costumes for a show being produced & directed by a couple of theater friends. Both of them have done lots of costuming; I only agreed because they can be my safety net. They tell me the show's set in the 50s or 60s and has a cast of 13, so this should be comparatively easy; not like trying to costume a viennese operetta, with a cast of thousands, from scratch. I'm nervous, but also looking forward to this.

Just call me "Mae Peterson"

The Bye Bye, Birdie director called this afternoon (only about 15 hours after they sent us all home after callbacks last night - that was fast!) - they want me to play Mae Peterson, mother of Conrad Birdie's manager. More later; I gotta get some sleep...

Snow!

After an eerily mild January, it finally turned seasonably cold a few days ago, and this afternoon it started to snow! The forecast is for only an inch or so, so no snow day tomorrow, but I'm just glad January is finally behaving like January.

The Midwest has had it worse. Kansas City got several inches of snow, and my sister in Tulsa reports 4 inches of ice! After being out of school all week, the kids were getting so cabin-feverish that they drew some lines with food coloring, pulled out the pool noodles and a wheel off a toy, and played hockey in the back yard.

I get a new costume!

In the course of discussing whether I could lend one of my foundation garments to one of the other Ruddigore choristers, I learned I'll need it myself because I'm getting a new costume, made just for me! This is happy news because usually I get a costume from the company's stock, adjusted to fit (or sometimes not). I always need alterations for any costume the least bit fitted, and because standard sewing construction doesn't usually leave as much seam allowance as I'd need, I'm used to either providing some of my own costume pieces or resigning myself to something that doesn't really fit very well. Getting something that will actually be made to my measure is very good news indeed!

Enough, already!

Managed all of about 3 hours at work today before the migraine got so bad I couldn't concentrate (but before the nausea started). This is the 3rd in 4 days, but today was worse because Monday's migraine took my last Imitrex (the refill didn't arrive until this afternoon). So to help the mega-motrin along, I downed 20 oz. of Mt. Dew and two 20-oz cups of coffee. Even with all the milk I put in my coffee (alright, all the coffee I put in my milk), that's still a LOT of caffeine in the space of a few hours. So I wasn't sure if my stomach was upset because of the caffeine or the migraine. It did eventually back off, but not until late afternoon. So much for everything I wanted to get done at work. Or at home, for that matter.

OD'ing on theater stuff?

I'm heading into a theater-intense period. Saw my first of 3 Saturdays' worth of shows the other night (and won a great raffle prize - a headshot package), 2 voice lessons this week to prep for 3 auditions (and, if I'm lucky, one callback) next week, and will be adjudicating my first show this coming Saturday. This is on top of Ruddigore rehearsals, of course. Oh, and I keep looking around at the unfolded laundry and a dishwasher in need of emptying, wondering when that'll happen. I had hoped to get a lot of that done Monday, but a migraine rather put paid to that scheme - I did manage to finish the Christmas cards at long last (now that it's past even Orthodox Christmas!), but that was all.

Between performing in Ruddigore, adjudicating my assigned shows and seeing friends in their shows, my schedule is packed solid through the end of February and March is filling up fast. Yes, I did have every intention of using "theater therapy" to keep me from feeling sorry for myself while TW is deployed, but I also need to be sure I leave myself time to sleep. Might have to start scheduling that, too...

A goodie from my e-mail

And if anyone knows who came up with this gem, please let me know so I can credit it properly.

HAD THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR HAPPENED TODAY

"Order the signal, Hardy."

"Aye, aye sir."

"Hold on, that's not what I dictated to the signal officer. What's the meaning of this?"

"Sorry, sir?"

" 'England expects every person to do their duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability.' What gobbledygook is this?!"

"Admiralty policy, I'm afraid, sir. We're an equal opportunities employer now. We had the devil's own job getting 'England' past the censors, lest it be considered racist."

"Gadzooks, Hardy. Hand me my pipe and tobacco."

"Sorry, sir. All naval vessels have been designated smoke-free working environments."

"In that case, break open the rum ration. Let us splice the main brace to steel the men before battle."

"The rum ration has been abolished, Admiral. It's part of the Government's policy on binge drinking."

"Good heavens, Hardy. I suppose we'd better get on with it. Full speed ahead."

"I think you'll find that there's a 4-knot speed limit in this stretch of water."

"Damn it man! We are on the eve of the greatest sea battle in history. We must advance with all dispatch. Report from the crow's nest, please."

"That won't be possible, sir."

"What?!"

"Health and Safety have closed the crow's nest, sir. No harness. And they said that rope ladder doesn't meet regulations. They won't let anyone up there until a proper scaffolding can be erected."

"Then get me the ship's carpenter without delay, Hardy."

"He's busy knocking up a wheelchair access to the fo'c'sle, Admiral."

"Wheelchair access? I've never heard anything so absurd."

"Health and Safety again, sir. We have to provide a barrier-free environment for the differently abled."

" 'Differently abled'? I've only one arm and one eye and I refuse even to hear mention of the word. I didn't rise to the rank of admiral by playing the disability card."

"Actually, sir, you did. The Royal Navy is under-represented in the areas of visual impairment and limb deficiency."

"Whatever next? Give me full sail. The salt spray beckons."

"A couple of problems there too, sir. Health and Safety won't let the crew up the rigging without crash helmets. And they don't want anyone breathing in too much salt - haven't you seen the adverts?"

"I've never heard such infamy. Break out the cannon and tell the men to stand by to engage the enemy."

"The men are a bit worried about shooting at anyone, Admiral."

"What? This is mutiny!"

"It's not that, sir. It's just that they're afraid of being charged with murder if they actually kill anyone. There's a couple of legal aid lawyers on board, watching everyone like hawks."

"Then how are we to sink the Frenchies and the Spanish?"

"Actually, sir, we're not."

"We're not?!"

"No, sir. The Frenchies and the Spanish are our European partners now. According to the Common Fisheries Policy, we shouldn't even be in this stretch of water. We could get hit with a claim for compensation."

"But you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil."

"I wouldn't let the ship's diversity co-coordinator hear you saying that, sir. You'll be up on disciplinary."

"You must consider every man an enemy who speaks ill of your King."

"Not any more, sir. We must be inclusive in this multicultural age. Now, put on your Kevlar vest; it's the rules."

"Don't tell me - Health and Safety. Whatever happened to rum, sodomy and the lash?"

"As I explained, sir, rum is off the menu. And there's a ban on corporal punishment."

"What about sodomy?"

"I believe it's to be encouraged, sir."

"In that case... kiss me, Hardy."