A fern fanatic in the making?

I may have to watch myself, that I don't become a fern addict. Having seen that they're pretty forgiving plants, easy to grow, shade-loving and largely deer-resistant, I've been planting quite a lot of them this year. The nurseryman out at the cabin is broadening his selection; when Mom & I went by there yesterday, he had more varieties than he did just last week. I love the novelty of the Frizelliae - the fronds look like they're strung with innumerable tiny fans (although most of the sites I checked describe them more as "green pearls"). The E. Indian holly fern is a rich, dark green with yellow along the main rib, the autumn ferns are just starting to turn colors, and I got a tassel fern hoping it'll be a nice contrast to the others.

I've also bought lady ferns and royal ferns this year, and Branford ramblers and a few others last year, though some of those didn't come back. (The deer mostly leave ferns alone, but apparently they find the new, tightly curled fronds quite tasty.)

The Chief wants to build a few more raised beds out at the cabin. One actually will get more sun than shade, so he'll probably put in a summer ice plant or two. The other will run across the base of the deck; perfect place for more ferns & hellebores.

I'm considering dropping some daffodil bulbs into the new beds if we get out to the cabin again before it gets too cold. I put 2 cardinal flowers in the sloped bed along the long side of the foundation of the addition for a shot of red amid all that green, but the daffodils will bloom earlier in the season. As long as they can cohabit peacefully with the hellebores & ferns, those beds should look very nice indeed next year.

The ferns I bought yesterday got planted here at the house. The 2 Frizelliae went in behind the hellebores in the bed next to the a/c compressor, while the 2 autumns, 2 E. Indian hollies and the token tassel went into a bed between the driveway and the house that already has one fern (no idea what variety that one is; might be a Branford rambler).

That stretch is one of the beds the Chief bordered this spring and now is quite the mixed bed - working from left to right, or from the front of the house to the rear, we have: a bright fuchsia impatiens; the toad lily the nurseryman gave me as a bonus after I loaded up on hellebores & ferns; a chunk of lilies-of-the-valley that I transplanted from an even shadier spot in hopes that they'll actually bloom; and an assortment of daylilies, vinca, some purple flower whose name I don't know, and the ferns I planted there this year.

I was quite busy in the garden - in addition to planting all those ferns, I moved one hellebore from the Chief's calladium bed to the hellebore bed, where it replaced one that had died. One of the 3 I bought yesterday ended up in the only empty spot in the bed under the mailbox. With luck, that will fill in the last possible spot in that bed that the local kitties could use as a litter box. (The other 2 hellebores I bought yesterday went into the stepped bed at the cabin, filling a couple of empty spots.) I even planted the huge potted mum we got from one of the guests at last weekend's party out at the cabin. Now we've got a nice, big splash of yellow on that side of the house.

Funny, I don't usually get the urge to plant in the fall, but I did have fun getting good and dirty setting all those plants. The house next door just went on the market Friday and a realtor was showing the place this afternoon as I was out there weeding, digging holes and generally making a mess. Hope I didn't scare 'em off!

I know my "gardening muscles" will hurt tomorrow, and I fed a surprising number of biting insects despite the bug spray, but it was worth it.

And if the Chief does indeed get those additional beds built next spring, then I guess I'll be forced to go back to "our" nurseryman and get more ferns. Wonder what new varieties he'll have in stock by then?

Good & bad together

The weekend at the cabin was a little rocky, as my dad's personality can be off-putting, but we had good weather and a very nice dinner last night.

Mom & I went to the neighborhood nursery, where I picked up 3 more hellebores and several ferns (E. Indian holly, Frizeliae, Autumn and Tassel). Probably because the Chief & I have been such good customers this summer, the nurseryman didn't charge me for the 2 Cardinal flowers (lobelia cardinalis) I picked up, and even gave me a toad lily that's got about half a dozen open blooms, with several buds on it.

Bad news: Mom told Dad, the Chief & me Friday night that one of my brothers-in-law just learned he's got early-stage prostate cancer (and he's only in his 50s!). I talked to said BIL this afternoon and he sounds pretty positive, especially as the doc seems to think they found it early enough that the prognosis is excellent.

Sad news: a gentleman I knew through both social dancing and community theater just died Friday. He'd had a good, long run, but he'll be missed.

Good news: Learned that a friend will be directing a show for one of the companies I work with. Now to work up a really good audition for that show, so I can get into it.

Observing Labor Day weekend

The Chief & I had an open house at the cabin Saturday afternoon. We had perfect weather for it, so the 18 or 20 guests could enjoy the breezes and the view out on our deck. Yesterday we spent much of the afternoon on the "open house tour" the development runs on Memorial Day & Labor Day weekends. Again, good weather for it, and when we can do the tour, we like to see what other people have done with their places, get contractor recommendations, and generally take advantage of the opportunity to compare our place with the others there. (We usually end up deciding that our place is ever so much nicer than anything else in the same category and proceed to count our many blessings.)

I came back this afternoon and am avoiding getting ready for the work week, while the Chief remains out there getting the place ready for my parents, who will be arriving Wednesday. I'll only get to see them for the weekend, while the Chief will get to entertain them until they leave again Monday morning. Good thing he gets along with them, and they think he's great!

And as a fitting end to the weekend (this one's for you, Mom):

Frazz

"Little Nell"?

We recently hung up a hummingbird feeder out at the cabin and started getting visitors almost immediately. Unfortunately, they weren't all hummingbirds - we also get a lot of wasps or hornets or whatever they are. More often than not, any of these vespids will chase off any hummingbirds who dare to try to feed on what we put out for the birds, not the bees.

The Chief doesn't like these bullies, and will sometimes grab the flyswatter and go outside to do battle, nearly always coming back in with at least one or two more "kills" to his credit. (He has yet to be stung; I hope he can continue that record!) These sallies generally arise when he looks out the window to check the feeder and sees that "Little Nell is under attack!" For some reason, he decided to name the hummingbirds after a flying James Bond gadget of the same name, which the Internet tells me was featured in You Only Live Twice.

Anyone out there in the blogosphere who knows how to discourage bees, wasps, hornets and the like from freeloading at our hummingbird feeder?

Another skill gleaned from community theater

Last night the Chief & I reported to a local community theater to help with their set. Their The Foreigner opens a week from tomorrow. The play is set in a fishing lodge or something like that; the wide "planking" of the walls already looks quite impressive. While the Chief helped with the power-tool work (I think he deliberately didn't wear painting clothes so he could play w/ the power tools), I spread a bit of paint around.

Painting the front of the main platform was nothing special, but when it came to doing the door frames, I got to learn a new technique - creating wood grain! Seems there's this special tool that the internet tells me is called a "graining rocker". Drag it through the wet stain, rock it occasionally to make "knots", and there you go - even close up, it looks like real wood grain.

We also got to see the director during a rehearsal break. He's the same person who directed me in Birdie 2 years ago, and for whom the Chief & I both teched Godspell. As the set designer and another painter and I were saying, this is someone for whom you'd do a bit more, just because he makes absolutely sure you know he appreciates you.

The actor who played Albert Peterson to my Mae Peterson is in this show (at least the 4th time he's worked with this director; he loves him too) and we got to see him during the same rehearsal break, when someone brought him on stage to show him where some of his entrances will be. When he spotted me, he lit up and cried "Mama!" I wonder if he remembers my name? :D

Clever doc

Thursday I almost included a bit of fingertip among the dinner ingredients. The doc who steri-stripped it told me I'd have to keep it clean & dry for 5 days. In addition to more steri-strips, he gave me a few exam gloves, with instructions to cut off a finger and slide it over the "patient". So far it works just fine - I waited until after showering to change the "glove" and was surprised to see how well it worked. And it's so easy - no trying to juggle ointment & bandaids w/ one hand.

Yes, it's too early to think of Christmas but...

The leader of my church choir has been soliciting music suggestions for the Advent & Christmas seasons. One of our members, after protesting that it's still August, still summer - too soon! went on to suggest a parish Christmas carol party. Any interested parties could just show up in the church social hall, free to bring instruments, voices and perhaps snacks, and we could sing ourselves hoarse. I think that sounds like a WONDERFUL idea! I sure hope it happens.

I don't know if the Chief would come - he's not much for singing. However, if I can assure him that some of the parishioners will be bringing their babies and toddlers, I'm sure I'd have NO trouble persuading him to attend with me.

Is Facebook "ruining" blogs?

Have you noticed that some of your favorite blogs aren't being maintained as they once were? Ever wonder if perhaps the writer is posting status updates to Facebook instead?

When I go days (or a week or more) without a blog post, it's usually due to one of these reasons: 1) nothing new to write about ("geez, again with the plants!"); 2) too busy, or busy recovering from being busy, to write. I don't have internet access at work (Uncle Sam doesn't want us checking Facebook or shopping on line on the taxpayer's time), but obviously lots and lots of my FB friends do, or are still on summer break or otherwise have more time for FB than I do. Seeing how often some of them update their status makes me wonder if that's taking the time they used to spend blogging...

Another FB phenomenon I'm sure you've noticed along with me is the number of FB "friends" who are people you don't know all that well, if at all. Sure, we all have someone we can call in the wee hours in a crisis, but how many of your hundreds of FB friends fall into that category? Some of my FB friends are people I did a single show with, X years ago. That's OK, as long as they don't mind that I've blocked all the quizzes and nearly all the apps. But I do wonder sometimes why someone I haven't heard from or laid eyes on in a number of years wants to "friend" me - (brings back of hand to forehead with a melodramatic flourish) am I nothing more than a notch on their FB belt? :-)

Rearranging the furnit-, um, flora

Chief mowed the front lawn today, decided it was too humid to do the back. Instead, he decided this would be a good day to plant the hellebores we bought a coupla weeks ago. (North side of the house, so at least we were working in shade.) He dumped in a big bucket of compost and 2 bags of real topsoil (the stuff we'd bought at the exchange was mostly clay!), mixed it all up, then dug holes so I could install the hellebores. I also moved another one over from another bed. One of the new hellebores was looking awfully sickly; we're hoping it'll revive now that it's properly planted.

The Chief had dug up what's probably lilies of the valley and moved them to build the bed we just populated. I took the displaced plants and put them in the hole left by the hellebore I moved, then dug up a fern that was hanging in from last year and put it in the bed along the driveway. Assuming it continues to hang in there, it'll be the first of a variety of ferns I want to plant in that bed. Ferns will certainly be an improvement over the weeds that occupy most of that bed, along with some vinca and a few daylilies.

Where did the evening go?!?

Came home from work and started right into food prep: Brownies for work, salsa for the weekend, veggie lasagne ditto, involving lots of chopping, shredding, grating and other mutilation of vegetables. More friends at the cabin this weekend, need to make sure we can feed the vegetarian as well as the carnivores. But why did I think it would be no big deal doing all this in one night?

Doing our part for the local economy

The Chief and I are planning to put some new windows in the kitchen and went out Friday after I got home from work to see the finalists. We're getting casements! Only "lunch money" more than double-hungs, which surprised me. From there, we went for dinner at my favorite Italian place, where I had the fettucine verde. Spinach noodles, big chunks of eggplant, plenty of ricotta - I love it so much, I almost always order it when we go there. Last stop Ikea, where we got a heapie-cheapie bookcase to use as shelving in our bathroom at the cabin, some $10 folding chairs that we'll use for the open house in a few weeks, and a throw rug to put by the back door to catch the worst of the dirt we track in.

Yesterday we stopped by Borders on the way to E's birthday party because I had several gift cards burning a hole in my pocket. I ended up with 4 CD's (2 musicals, 2 Ella Fitzgeralds) and 6 or 7 books. It was FUN walking outta there with a big bag of goodies, nearly all of them for me! (I did get a few books for friends' new baby.) And I still have one more untouched gift card...

This afternoon, the Chief decided on the spur of the moment that it was time to restock our wine supply, so off we went to buy for ourselves and for the open house. We also stopped in at the Base Exchange to look for a few things. We ended up with a bright yellow metal colander (my grandmother's has long since earned its retirement), a few kitchen gadgets for the cabin, and 3 more CDs, including a 3-disc Dorsey Bros. set. The Chief then wanted to check out Barnes & Noble, where I bought yet another CD and a book for myself and one for a gift. We also stopped into Williams-Sonoma and found tattersall tablecloths on a HUGE sale - nearly 80% off! We took our half-price tablecloth to the register and learned that it was further reduced, so we went back & grabbed the other size and ended up getting both for less than the marked-down price on the larger one. (This is where the textile junkie does her "got a HUGE deal!" dance.)

The things for the cabin are in their "staging area", the books are shelved, the CDs have all been loaded on my iPod, and I can't wait to finish my library books so I can dig into these new ones.

Happy Birthday, both of you

The Chief & I went to a 50th-birthday party Saturday for a friend I've known since we were in our 20s, and I've known E's wife almost as long. Some of the other guests were people they've known even longer. They were smart and ordered in BBQ, then supplemented w/ add'l sides and a wonderful carrot cake from a bakery. (We contributed a home-made peach pie.)

Today I went to a 60th-birthday brunch a former colleague threw for herself. I was a little apprehensive about going when I realized I wouldn't know anyone but the birthday girl (the Chief didn't even know her, so he opted to stay home), but I needn't have worried. I ended up having a nice chat with one woman who promised to e-mail me her pie crust recipe (calls for vegetable oil for the shortening, and soy milk), and a friend or cousin of the birthday girl who teaches "everything!" music at the elementary school level but is also interested in language. Talking food, music, language - lovely! M decided to do this at her synagogue to accommodate the crowd of 40 or so, and they put on a nice little brunch spread - bagels, cream cheese, lox, hummus, some wonderful baba ghanouj, a mixed-greens salad w/ strawberries in it, then an excellent sheet cake & make-your-own sundaes. M's 2 sisters presented a slide show of old family photos starring M - I think we all loved seeing her in ringlets, Mary Janes, and party dresses.

It was fun seeing the similarities & contrasts in the 2 parties and their honorees, and I'm glad I was able to attend both. Happy birthday, both of you.

Touch of theatrical withdrawal

I gotta get to a show soon. I haven't seen anything since my Fringe show closed a couple of weeks ago, and because of planned travel there's no point in my auditioning for anything yet, which makes it a bit sad to have to delete all the audition notices that have started hitting my Inbox. :( A local company is doing Gypsy - maybe the Chief & I will go see it so I can get a theater fix.

Peachy

The Chief bought more peaches this week; a LOT more peaches (3 quarts). Not as ripe as the last batch, but now that I'm once more in possession of the "good" peach pie recipe, I'm sure they'll bake up just fine. Though I still can't find my pastry cloth and rolling pin sock...

Come by the house in a few hours - it'll smell wonderful!

Parties and perambulations

All of a sudden we're looking at a nice string of parties and travel. This past weekend was the block party with our cabin neighbors. This coming weekend brings a 50th and a 60th birthday party, we're planning an open house out at the cabin for Labor Day weekend, and hoping to host my parents there the following weekend.

Travel includes a long weekend trip to Williamsburg, another long weekend at the Outer Banks, and our week-and-a-bit vacation in England, which takes us within shouting distance of holiday trips to NYC and KC.

I don't see how I'll be able to do any shows that open before December at the earliest, which means the Chief won't become a Theater Widower again for a couple of months.

Flora & fauna

The Chief & I spent the weekend at the cabin, the highlight of which was the 4th annual block party. The hostesses managed to get the one nice day of the weekend, and temps barely in the 80s - perfect for lounging around under the trees and visiting with part-time neighbors. We also met a couple who own a place a block or two over and who sided their home with log siding a few years ago. The Chief was very interested in hearing about how they did it and took the husband back to our place to get his opinion on our doing the same. After they'd been gone a while, the wife & I went back to find them. I ended up giving her a tour of the place. She admired the quilt I'd found for the upstairs guest room (see below); turns out she does a lot of needlework. I'm hoping to get a chance to see her wares; might be suitable for Christmas presents.


We saw a lot of deer this weekend, several hummingbirds (makes me want to load up our feeder), and even some wild turkeys wandering across the road as I was heading home. No woodpeckers this weekend, but that was my first turkey sighting in 2 years, so that makes up for it, I guess.

We went over to the nursery again and left with 4 more hellebores and a walnut sapling. The walnut is only a couple of feet tall; a "volunteer" the squirrels planted in one of the pots meant for sale. The nurseryman got it for free, so he gave it to us as a "free to good home". Now to find out what we need to do to make sure it doesn't up & die on us (like the parsley plant I bought and managed to kill).

Florida-lush impatiens!

When we used to visit my parents in Florida when they were doing the snowbird thing, I used to be terribly jealous of the magnificently lush impatiens they had down there. We'd come home, I'd wait eagerly for late March to get my own bedding plants, but my impatiens never got as big or lush. Last year, in fact, they barely got a foothold; we never did figure out why they fared so poorly.

This year, however, has been a banner year for my impatiens. We had a very cool, very wet spring that lasted well into June, and even at the end of July we've had very few days with highs in the 90s and have enjoyed relatively low humidity. My impatiens seem to be loving that - they're the biggest, lushest flowers I've ever had - I may even have to move a few because they're crowding each other so!



Better still, I have a bonus - some tiny little volunteer violas (I think) that somehow managed to sneak into the impatiens bed and hold their own against the bigger, bolder flowers. Can you make out those tiny little splashes of yellow & blue amid all the pinks?

Thoughts on directors

Most of the shows I've done have been musicals or operettas and in nearly all of those, I've been in the chorus/ensemble. I've learned a lot watching how the principals did their thing, so that when I was cast in a small role, with 75 lines (Comedy of Errors, Abbess Emelia), I wasn't completely at sea (even if I did keep waiting for the rehearsal accompanist to show up). Aside from a comment from the director during the "cut-up" rehearsal ("I don't know where that came from, but keep it!"), I didn't get much in the way of direction. Since I had one of the smallest roles in the show and the 2 romantic-lead couples pretty much carried the show, I didn't think much of it. I did have a scene with one of the female leads in which I thought she was misinterpreting the language. The director said nothing, so I did the same. To this day, I don't know if the director was just that hands-off or really didn't realize the error.

When I got my first lead, as Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, I similarly got very little specific direction. In that case, I think that was largely because the director had her hands full, as she was also playing Katisha. I did go up to the AD at one point and ask her about a scene in which I felt a little adrift; she reassured me that my instincts were just fine, but she'd say something if she thought it necessary. It probably also made a difference that the director realized I probably knew the show better than she did, having done it once already and seen several productions of it. At one point during the run, she even teased me that "you probably could play just about any role in this thing!"

I thin the most direction I ever got was playing Mae Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie. There was one scene the director kept running because we just weren't giving him the right reactions. That was about the physical interaction; I don't remember getting any direction about line readings, though I did ask about a couple of pronunciations as I worked on a New York Jewish accent.

In fact, looking back, I think all the directors I've worked with have avoided giving specific line readings (at least in my hearing), even in cases where I thought the actor in question was either doing it incorrectly (that one Comedy of Errors scene) or that a different reading might have served the text better or been more in character.

Being fairly new and inexperienced in having lines to give, I think I'd feel more comfortable if a director would address my line readings, whether to tell me I'm on the right track or to tweak an emphasis here or an intonation pattern there. Not sure if that's driven by insecurity, a desire for more attention, or just my love of all things language.

Similarly, I'd welcome suggestions for ways to bring the character to life physically as well as verbally - a gait, a gesture, posture, etc. At least let me know if I tend to, say, thrust my head forward or to stoop in certain situations if those don't suit the character or, worse, affect my vocal production.

I wonder if this kind of general, hands-off style is typical of all directors, or just those in community theater. Looks like it may be past time for me to sign up for an acting class or two and get some insight.

Fruit pies are in season

I baked a peach pie Wednesday for the Chief's birthday, and an apple pie yesterday. The peach pie wasn't a big success - had to use a recipe with almost no seasoning, so I had to guess at what and how much to add, and I didn't have the thickener (instant tapioca) it called for, so it was pretty runny. It didn't help that I added too much water when making the crust, so it was pretty soggy. Fortunately, the Chief had scored some wonderful farmer's-market peaches, so the peaches themselves tasted MAH-velous!

The apple pie was full of Macintosh apples - turned out a little dry for my taste, but the Chief thought it was absolutely fine, claiming he doesn't like "juicy" pies. I watched the water when making the crust this time, and used butter instead of milk or an egg on the top crust, which made it nice & crisp.

But I sure would love to know where my pastry cloth & rolling pin sock are hiding. I have dishtowels that will do in a pinch for the pastry cloth, but I need my rolling pin sock to keep the dough from sticking. Ah well, I managed, and the Chief never noticed the difference.

"Get out of Hell free"

My Fringe show has closed and cast & crew have all been given our "get out of Hell free" cards. The last show was the worst - a leaky pipe had shorted out half the sound board, so that we could only just hear the higher-pitched notes in the sound track. I think we should've given the audience a refund and a sympathy card for suffering through our attempts to sing along with a sound track we couldn't hear. The reviews were just short of scathing - the reviewers did keep in mind that they were reviewing people, with feelings, who were painfully aware of their shortcomings. I just checked the ratings of the 100+ Fringe shows - on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being "Pick of the Fringe", we were one of 4 shows to get a 1.

One lesson learned from this - I will do my utmost to avoid at all costs doing another musical with a canned sound track. Even when I did a show with our 2 accompanists behind the set, they could at least hear us well enough to adjust when we got out of synch with them. The best situation is a conductor you can see, waving that magic wand that keeps us all together (assuming we're paying attention to it, of course), but after this, I've learned NEVER to take live music for granted, even if they're placed where we can't see them. As someone else mentioned, it's easy to understand why the Broadway performers supported the musicians' strike!

Other lessons
- Check the MD's credentials to make sure he or she has done this before, successfully.
- If they can't come up w/ an audition accompanist, ask whether there'll be a rehearsal accompanist. If not, don't audition. (I admit it - trying to learn my music from an mp3 was a huge challenge, which I never met to my satisfaction.)
- Try to work with companies that tend to get an audition turn-out greater than the number of roles being cast. Stiff competition for roles tends to produce better performances than little or no competition.
- Working with the playwright can be challenging if said author/lyricist/composer can't maintain a degree of objectivity about his/her "baby".
- Theatrical talent and savvy can come in teenage packages.

Domestic perfume?

TW's birthday is coming up, but he decided he didn't feel like going out to dinner last night after all. Instead, I made one of his favorites - pot roast, with homemade mashed potatoes and Moroccan carrots. That and a bottle of wine made for a very nice dinner, and the smell of the pot roast as it simmered in the crockpot all day permeated the house - yummmm!

Over too soon!

That was quick! My cabaret workshop has come & gone; Monday thru Thursday working on mic technique, patter, delivery, arrangements, etc., culminating in a little performance & reception for family & friends last night. I think we all sang the best of the week. I'm even pretty happy with how I did, despite forgetting a few chunks of the 2nd verse of "Distract Me". There were more friends in the audience than I'd expected - not just my husband, our songwriter neighbor and another neighbor, but my last voice teacher (one of my classmates is taking from her) and a few theater friends. I always feel better knowing I have friends in the audience.

It was fun: the 10 of us in the class had ourselves a little "love fest", cheering each other on; I enjoyed the singing despite my memory lapses; working with our brilliant accompanist made me feel like a pro - I wanna do this again! Fortunately, our instructor e-mailed us all to say there'll be a "weekend intensive" version coming up sometime this fall. I responded immediately, asking to know the second a date is decided so I can keep that weekend free.

I'm in love!

The accompanist for this cabaret workshop is brilliant. He's been able to play with apparent ease everything we've thrown at him (20 songs in a pretty wide variety of genres), has the style of each, can improvise intros, bridges, vamps and endings, and gave me a couple of little delivery tweaks that are perfect for one of my songs. He plays with joy & enthusiasm, and absolutely radiates his love of this stuff. The man's an absolutely gifted accompanist, too - when he's playing with you, you'd swear he's breathing right along with you.

Can you tell I'm a fan? :D

FUBAR

Shoot me now! Today I gave what was easily my worst theatrical performance EVER. I have the first vocal entrance in the first musical number of the show; I couldn't tell where we were in the music, so I completely missed that entrance. And it went downhill from there. Late or missed vocal entrances, actually forgot a bit of choreography (and at least 3 people told me they were wondering where I was, because I was the one they were cueing off of, heaven help them!). Fer cryin' out loud, I even skipped a costume change, which made me late for a subsequent entrance because changing out of the wrong costume took longer than changing out of what I should have been wearing. Which meant the rest of the cast had to ad lib until I got out there. And by the time we got to the last musical number, we were having a helluva time hearing the music (apparently, if it's loud enough for us to hear on stage, the audience can't hear us over the music), so I was screwing up right, left & center.

I know, I know, I'll do better tomorrow. Lord knows, I've got nowhere to go but up! But right now I just want to pull out of the show, move to some remote location (I hear New Zealand's nice) and lie low until today is forgotten.

The one good thing is that TW didn't come to see the show, so he didn't have to witness me going down in flames. At this rate, I don't know if I'll let him see it; too mortifying.

That was good.

Wednesday I went to a cabaret performance by the woman teaching the cabaret workshop I'm taking next week. Tech Week-induced scrambled brains meant I got there just in time for the last few songs, but I really enjoyed those few. L has an incredibly versatile voice and is a wonderful performer. Now I'm seriously psyched for this workshop next week; gonna be fun!

No fair!

So, the usual tech week exhaustion, this because I didn't take any time off work, not because we have marathon rehearsals every night. My idiot body clock woke me up this morning at 5:30 in anticipation of the alarm clock, obviously not realizing that it's SATURDAY and I actually get to SLEEP IN! Or would have. After about an hour of lying in bed, with show music playing non-stop in my head, I gave up.

I might try to go back to bed for a bit, but with a few things still to do before a theater company annual meeting at 11:30 and a Fringe speed-thru at 3 before our Opening Performance at 5, I don't expect my brain to downshift sufficiently that I'd actually be able to sleep.

A short respite

Learned that my voice teacher's recital, originally scheduled for early August, is now getting moved to September or October. That means the rest of my summer is rehearsal- and performance-free as soon as my Fringe show closes July 25th. I feel so much better prepared for this year's recital that I'm actually looking forward to it. That's a big change from last year's, when I'd only been taking with this teacher a few months and was nervous about my recital pieces right up until I started singing. Still, it'll be nice to be able to relax a while.

Feeling better about this

Sunday night's rehearsal was pretty bad, and last night's was HORRIBLE! One of my fellow castmembers shared this afternoon that "the audience looked like they were in pain"; probably an accurate assessment. We were dropping lines and missing vocal entrances right, left & center, even places we'd never had problems before. Maybe we were thrown by having enough room to work for the first time ever. (I had reserved my church's social hall and taped out the dimensions of the stage we'll be working on.) Whatever it was, I was about ready to slit my wrists in despair.

This afternoon we had just over 3 hours in the space - our only rehearsal there before we open on Saturday! It went much better than last night (it pretty much HAD to get better; couldn't have been too much worse), so that now I'm almost optimistic. ;)

It's been weird not having a proper tech week. Every other show I've done has been able to load in the weekend before opening or, in a few rare cases, even earlier. This gave us upwards of 4 nights in the theater with the sets, sound, lights, etc., and each rehearsal ran at least 4 hours. I'm still a bit nervous about not getting to work in the space again until we have an audience, but we did well enough today that the nerves aren't unmanageable, fala Bogu.

Another thing making this a weird tech week is that today's tech was in the afternoon; I was home and done by 5 or shortly thereafter. I can go to bed early during Tech week! What a concept! And tomorrow we have no rehearsal at all, so I'm going to the cabaret performance of the woman teaching the cabaret workshop I'm taking next week. (Which reminds me - I'd better start solidifying that memorization - we're supposed to have both our pieces memorized when we show up for the first session on Monday.)

This being a Fringe Festival, the 5 core venues are booked pretty tightly. In practical terms, that means we only get to show up an hour before curtain and half an hour before they start letting the audience in, and get into the dressing rooms only 45 minutes before curtain. We have 2 rooms perhaps 8 feet square serving as dressing rooms. They have mirrors and room for a clothing rack but nothing else, so I'll need to remember to put my make-up on before I leave the house on performance nights. Heretofore, I've always put it on after I got to the theater, perhaps because I could leave my stuff there. Not here. We do get a 2'x4' area where we're storing the cubes that are serving as set pieces, along with a few other large items, but costumes, props and personal items have to be cleared out within 15 minutes of the final bow.

Enough already!

Why is it that all the media seem to feel obliged to cover Michael Jackson's death, memorial and the legal wrangling in such detail? When he first died, you'd have thought the man was the Pope, JFK, Gandhi and a Nobel prizewinner, the way the event was getting 24/7 coverage. The man was talented, no question, but he wasn't a head of state or leader of a major (or even minor) world religion, he didn't cure cancer or bring even a temporary peace to the Middle East.

And it's not as though nothing else important is going on. Iranian protesters are still demonstrating (or trying to) against the outcome of that country's presidential election, North Korea continues to threaten to fire missiles at S. Korea, Japan, Hawaii or anyone else it can reach, the Chinese government is hammering their Uighur minority, things are heating up in Afghanistan... Sure, those events are happening far from home, but they deserve more than a tiny little "crawl" along the bottom of a full-screen showing of the "Thriller" video for the umpteenth time.

MMMint

TW and I were out at the cabin last weekend, checked out a farmer's market and, as always, overbought. I ended up making a batch of blueberry muffins yesterday to use up a pint of berries while they were still fit to eat, had the last of 'em on my cereal this morning. I also bought a parsley plant and two mints - one peppermint and one spearmint. The mints are now in nice, spacious pots out at the cabin, so we'll have fresh mint for iced tea. Yummmm.

A little pressure off

Just got an e-mail from my voice teacher. She's rescheduling her studio recital from August to sometime in September or October. That means that the performance-free part of my summer will now start July 26th, after my Fringe Festival show closes, instead of 2 weeks later, after the recital. This is a good thing.

But I'm not ready!

TW pointed out to me last night that my show opens just 2 weeks from tomorrow! ACK! I am so not ready! I've got 2 scenes where I definitely do not have my lines memorized yet (TW has promised to help me run lines this weekend - so much for a relaxing weekend at the cabin). Worse, I'm still learning nearly all the music, and we have one number we haven't even gone over yet. Yike!

We had our first of only 2 choreography rehearsals earlier this week. Straightforward stuff, fortunately, and easy to memorize.

I realize I've been very spoiled with the musicals and operettas I've done up to now. This is the first musical I've done where our "accompanist" was a CD, not a human. I have to completely relearn how to learn my music, since it's often hard to hear my musical cue in the accompaniment. Complicating things is the fact that the stressed syllables of words often do not fall on the downbeat and much of the music is irregularly syncopated, making it very tricky in places to get the timing right.

If I feel under-rehearsed, I'm sure that's due in no small part to the fact that our rehearsals have been scheduled for only 2 hours instead of the 3 I'm used to. You can't cover nearly as much material if you don't have that 3rd hour, but our director has tried very hard to make sure the middle- and high-schoolers in the cast aren't up too late on a school night, so we've been stopping at 9 p.m. Now, though, we work until we get as far as we need to, and we may well lay on another rehearsal. Not that I want to give up a Sunday (I've loved having no weekend rehearsals for this show), but boy, do I need more rehearsal time!

I suspect I'm not the only one who feels that way, too. Some of us have some dance background, some don't, but the music is presenting particular challenges. Not only is it hard to learn, but several people have expressed their frustration that they don't read music, aren't used to singing harmony rather than melody, etc. This has sometimes meant spending 10 minutes or more on a single, tricky phrase, which means we haven't gotten nearly as far as I'd like. (Yeah, I know; I gotta quit being such a nervous nelly and learn the stuff, already.)

OK, enough whingeing; back to learning my lines & music.

This T-shirt made me chuckle.

While waiting for my train this afternoon, I was passed by someone wearing a T-shirt that read "Jesus hates the Yankees". When I chuckled, he smiled and said "Right?" Must be a Boston fan...

This is gonna be fun!

Met this morning w/ the woman teaching next month's cabaret workshop so she could vet my choices for a ballad & up tempo. She OK'ed my choice of Distract Me from Wooing the Lorelei for my up tempo. This is very cool, as I'll be singing an original piece, probably with the songwriter herself sitting in the audience!

I like this woman - for all that I walked in on a Saturday morning, recovering from a migraine and with my voice still sound asleep, she ran me through a few warm-ups and commented on how she liked my voice.

The friend who told me about the cabaret workshop takes voice lessons from this woman and has proposed that she & I work w/ her to find 2 guys and put together a modest production of Jacques Brel is Alive & Well & Living in Paris, or at least selections from same. With the Fringe production, recital and cabaret looming large, I haven't had time to think about it for at least a month, but now that I've met w/ L and gotten to play cabaret a teeny tiny bit, I'm getting excited about this project again.

A little thing, I know...

... but still. I contacted customer service for the rental car company I used on last month's business trip to find out when my rental would be credited. The woman responded using the title "Mr". Um, no; check out my profile and you'll see that my first name is not one I've ever heard of used as a boy's name, isn't an either/or name (e.g, Chris), nor is it one like Ashley that used to be a man's name (think Ashley Wilks in Gone With the Wind).

When I responded with a follow-up question, it took her a full week to get back to me. Again addressing me as "Mr". Methinks their customer service rep training program could do with a little work.

Does anyone train these guys?!?

A week ago Friday we had a security system installed. The installer had some problems (the phone line he was hooking it into was the old-fashioned kind, where the phone company used to have to send someone out to physically attach a phone to the wiring) and the job ended up taking nearly4 1/2 hours - completely wiped out my Friday night! We then had to have him come back because the air conditioner was no longer kicking in - seems he'd stapled through the thermostat wiring. Oh, and he'd left one of his tools behind, while forgetting to leave any of the "protected by" stickers he was supposed to give us.

Today TW was at the cabin to let in the installer for that security system. (We'd had some pilferage out there.) He first called me when the guy had been there a good 4 hours to tell me how bad a job the installer was doing. First he had to cut the wiring a couple of times because he kept getting it too short, then he ended up cutting the phone line, which we'd just had installed a week ago! =:o TW wanted me to talk to the guy who'd written up the order and express our, oh, "dissatisfaction", shall we say. I outlined the problems we'd now had with two of the company's installers - jobs that should have taken no more than 3 hours for both (according to what the first installer told me) were taking at least 3 times that because the guys couldn't seem to get it right the first time. If we'd had to take time off for work for this, it would have been at least one full day, possibly two. The promotional guy had suggested giving the installer a tip because he'd be spending so much time in transit instead of on a job; I think you can imagine how much of a tip that guy's going to be getting...

Another victim of the economy? Sniff...

Yesterday my long-suffering husband allowed me to drag him to the new location of the local fabric mecca. What a shock! The new location has barely 1/3 the sales space of the old one, the notions department (ribbon, trim, buttons, other findings, etc.) was much smaller than in the old location, the selection wasn't nearly as nice or as well displayed. Given the reduced sales space, they had to display less; I wouldn't want to see them return to the model of their original location, which was so crammed with goodies you couldn't see half of them, and you could barely move. The less-appealing displays are probably (I hope!) due to the fact that they only just moved - they only reopened Thursday. Still, it was disappointing and very sad to see an old friend in reduced circumstances.

And the Chief had a disappointment when we then proceeded to his preferred home improvement store. The staff at this one was really bad - the ones near the check-out were copping an attitude with each other, it was hard to get their attention to get some assistance, and then they had to hunt to find someone who knew how to get the Chief his military discount.

So much for boot camp

Well, the Chief is sending his home improvement bootcamp Recruit home 3 weeks early. The plan called for a LOT of sanding and painting of the cabin's deck and other exterior surfaces, and with no more than 2 non-rainy days in a row since the Recruit arrived and the same forecast for at least another week and a half, the Chief reluctantly decided to throw in the towel. Tomorrow morning they'll be at the airport almost before the sun is up, and by early tomorrow afternoon, the Recruit will be back in the bosom of his loving family.

While they weren't able to do any painting, they did get a bed or two built on the slope alongside the addition. The Chief was pleased with his Recruit's work, so I'm looking forward to seeing it and installing some hellebores and ferns. I'll have to post pictures (if I can get the computer to acknowledge my camera).

Not such a bad weekend after all.

No, the roofer still hasn't called, and it absolutely POURED earlier tonight - flooding streets and flinging a few smallish hailstones, just for fun. The leak hasn't reappeared yet, but given the forecast - more rain the next coupla days - I figure it's only a matter of time.

The weekend wasn't a total waste despite not getting out to the cabin. I spent Friday night getting an alarm system installed (or reinstalled; another company took over from the one who did our original installation). Took 5 hours, mostly because the tech had so much trouble getting the wiring right. Ah, the joys of owning an older home.

Saturday, however, in addition to getting a few things done around the house, I actually got to have some fun - a friend and a cabaret performance downtown that I was actually able to attend because I wasn't at the cabin. Sunday evening I went to a G&S "cabaret" and ended up sitting w/ a friend and her friend. In fact, I was teasing her about packing the house because two of the next few couples into the house were friends of hers. The music was fun, so was the company.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...

We've been getting rain, sometimes quite a lot of it, 3 or 4 days a week for at least 2 weeks now. It brought with it the usual woes - migraines and creaky joints - but the last straw for my tolerance was when I got home last night to find that the roof had sprung a leak. And then found another leak this afternoon. Because of all the rain, our roofer's phone started ringing off the hook about a week ago, so as I told him when I called this morning, I wasn't expecting immediate service. No, I just hoped my position on his waiting list wasn't too far back.

The one ray of hope to which I cling is that he only lives a few blocks away; maybe he'll be able to swing by on the way to or from one of the customers further up the list.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that I had been planning to go out to the cabin for the weekend. Instead, I find myself sitting by the phone, waiting for a man to call. Haven't done that since the last time the Chief was deployed. :D

Still crazy

... and getting crazier. Tonight is my only night this week to get my stuff together to go out to the cabin this weekend. So what have I been doing? Wasting my time on the computer since dinner, instead of doing laundry, getting the recycling out to the bin, collecting the stuff to go to the cabin, paying bills...

Another crazy theater weekend

Got home from my conference, stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the airport, had about an hour to put away groceries and get ready to go right out again to work "box office" for a nearby community production of Measure for Measure. Nicely done, and the woman playing Isabel was wonderful - gave a moving performance.

Today it's off to see Man of La Mancha, done by a company that tends to do a good job in its small space. I've done a number of shows with the guy playing Don Quixote; I imagine they cast him as soon as he opened his mouth at auditions.

And I just reserved my ticket for a G&S "cabaret" next Sunday. Busy, busy, busy.

Weekend house party (or should that be "cabin party"?)

We had 2 couples join us at the cabin this weekend. We know 3 of the 4 people through theater, and enjoyed meeting B's wife, a bibliophile who was happy to answer all our questions about her Kindle. I've decided the best thing about a "house party" like this is that you can have nice, long uninterrupted chunks of time with your friends instead of chopped-up conversations - 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there. It was very gratifying to see the relaxed smiles on people's faces, hear them comment on how well they slept or how nice it was to be able to linger over dinner.

The Chief & I have sort of settled into a division of labor for these things - no matter which of us cooks (usually me, though he usually helps), he usually insists on doing the dishes while making coffee for those who want it. He loves playing host and I enjoy feeding people (having grown up in a big family, I loved having up to 7 of us around the table), so it works out well.

We didn't get fancy with the menu because I wanted to spend my time visiting, not cooking, but we didn't need fancy to have a good time. We're already talking about when we can do this again.

Smiley face

My sister forwarded this. The original offered it as a reason to do a full, 360-degree check in front of a mirror before leaving the house. Me, I'm more old-fashioned - a slip would have the added advantage of making the skirt hang better.

Recruit has arrived

My nephew arrived without incident and is now safely ensconced out at the cabin with the Chief, resting up for what my sister has dubbed "Home Improvement Bootcamp". The poor Recruit doesn't know what the Chief has in store for him, but he'll find out first thing in the morning. I wonder which project will come first on the list...?

Amazing!

This fossil, named "Ida" (pronounced EE-da), is amazing for its completeness! Not only a 95%-complete skeleton from a period when paleontologists get excited about finding more than 1 or 2 bones, but skin, fur, and stomach contents. I think the media description of her as a "missing link" is sensationalist hyperbole, but it really is an incredible find. Cool stuff!

More Ida info:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0521/1224247034331.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/19/ida-fossil-evolution

On the lighter side, see what abovetopsecret.com has to say on the matter:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread465091/pg1

And here's an a propos variation on the Google logo I got from a friend's blog:

Nice little surprise

They announced by e-mail this afternoon that they're letting us all take off 4 hours early come Friday! Hooray for starting my 3-day weekend at the cabin that much sooner, and maybe beating the worst of the get-away traffic! The Chief will be happy, too, because it means I'll be able to give him that much more help getting things ready for our weekend visitors.

More plants

The Chief and I spent the weekend at the cabin, starting to gear up for the company who'll be spending Memorial Day weekend with us there. In addition to decluttering, hanging pictures (how long ago did those picture rails go up in the new bedroom?!?) and running errands, we managed a trip to the neighborhood nursery. We were loading our buckets of compost, 2 ferns and 1 bleeding heart into the car when I saw something I wasn't sure I recognized and asked about it. Turns out I had spotted a very healthy section of hellebores, which they've just started selling. We ended up adding 3 of them to our haul. Because they're still a year away from blooming (seems they don't bloom until their 3rd year), we won't know until early next spring what colors we just bought. The Chief now has another project for my nephew to help with - a bed near the cabin's front door where we'll plant those hellebores. They assured us the deer won't eat them because they're poisonous, and they spread if the conditions are amenable, so I'm hoping our 3 little hellebores will become a nice, lush bed of them in a few years. Probably not as nice as in the picture, but we can dream...

Great weekend!

Just got back from a long weekend watching a good friend graduate. I'm so impressed by her accomplishment - single mother of many, working full time, yet she still managed to get her Bachelor's. As she put it, "It took me 31 years, but I did it!" Needless to say, those of us in her "cheering section" did our best to make ourselves heard when her name was announced and she walked across that stage for her hard-won diploma.

I'm so glad I decided to stay the extra day, as it gave us some time after Saturday's whirlwind of activities to have a satisfying chat and get caught up. Even better was the fact that my maid of honor not only managed to make it, but surprised us by bringing her parents! She had both the graduate and me getting a bit misty-eyed - what a lovely surprise! The three of us managed to do a surprising amount of catching up in the short 24 hours she was in town, and she shared my hotel room the one night she was in, which gave us that much more time to visit. The 3 of us are already talking about getting together for a "girls' weekend" at the cabin.

Yorkshire vacation!

Yesterday we bought our plane tickets and today we booked a B&B for a lovely week in Harrogate! We were able to find a fare that will run us at least $150 less per ticket than we thought we'd have to pay, and we'll be staying at very conveniently located B&B in this room. We'll be going in late October, so it'll be chilly and probably rainy but that's OK. I lived in Yorkshire for year (nearly 20 years ago!) so I know what I'm letting myself in for. We'll pack sweaters, rain gear and walking shoes and have ourselves a great time: introducing the Chief to my former landlady, taking one or both of them to Betty's tea room, exploring the local sights, perhaps touring a "stately home" or two - can't wait!

Pollen as bio-weapon

Saturday my allergies were so bad, I sat out that night's performance of Follies. I was in such bad shape (sneezing fits, eyes streaming, nose running, constant coughing) that I knew no one would want me anywhere near, let alone doing their make-up. I was so bad off, I was even getting an upset stomach, headache and sore throat.

Yesterday & today I'm still uncomfortable, but it's nothing like as bad as it was Saturday. According to the weather report on the news just now, that's because today's pollen count is 1730-ish, which is miserably high (the non-sensitive start feeling uncomfortable when it hits 200 or 250; those of us with allergies start feeling it when the count's at around 100 or lower). Saturday's count, however, was at 4539! When I was half-joking on Saturday that the count was in the Lethal range, I had no idea how close I was to the truth!

The news is full of swine flu symptoms - sneezing, coughing, itchy/runny eyes, sometimes diarrhea or vomiting. My first reaction was that it sounds indistinguishable from "pollen poisoning"!

All in

Yesterday I braved the pollen-saturated air and got the last of my bedding plants in the ground: one each speedwell, a pine-knot-strain hellebore or lenten rose, and elfin and limegreen thyme. They went into the same sunny corner as last year's phlox. And yes, the three budless plants are now starting to flower - white. And one last laggard is starting to come in with white-edged pink flowers. That corner of the front yard is now quite colorful - pink, violet and white phlox (the 2-tones are only just starting to open), blue speedwell and one or two random yellow dandelions. Now if the flowers would just fill in and cover that awful orange-red clay...

Blown away!

(NB: If there's a chance you'll be reviewing the show, read no further.)

Follies opened last night and all I can say is WOW! I was able to sit in the house for most of it and was blown away by the much-deserved audience response. Every number got a big hand and the production numbers were all very enthusiastically received. I suspect the only reason no one got to their feet at the curtain call was that they were too tired by then from the waves of talent washing off the stage, because they were certainly making enough appreciative noise! The show was not without its glitches, but they were minor; they certainly didn't seem to detract from the audience's appreciation.

This company has the luxury of a big stage - the whole floor of the building where I did Pirates last year could probably fit on that stage 3 or 4 times over; more, if you include the wings. Plenty of room for the cast of 45, and plenty of overhead, so they could put the showgirls with their 3-4-foot-tall headdresses on the top steps and they'd not seem the least bit cramped. The lighting designer did a masterful job of making the changes, features and highlights seem natural and flow smoothly, and some of the special touches do a brilliant job of enhancing the story-telling. And this from someone who always notices costumes first and lights last, if at all.

This is essentially a one- or two-set show, depending on how you count the large pieces that get moved in and out depending on the scene. The orchestra overwhelmed a couple of the soloists in a few places, but not severely, and their internal balance was very good. The singers are quite good, and there are a lot of "star turns" for several of the "Weiseman Girls" which are all very well delivered. The production numbers are incredible - beautifully executed and costumed - and the Act I bolero was like a scene from any of a number of old dance movies. Wonderful! In fact, all the choreography is the most ambitious I've ever seen in a community theater production, and generally well done.

And omigosh the COSTUMES!!! Some of the showgirls' headdresses are full of ostrich feathers and as much as four feet tall! The costumes are just as over-the-top. The Busby Berkely-style costumes for 2 of the production numbers reminded me of some of the first musicals, as did the choreography. The former Follies girls are generally in beaded or otherwise glam dresses, the wigs that most of the cast (even the men in one of the production numbers) wear at one time or another suit the costumes well - it's an incredible accomplishment and makes for an eye-popping stage picture.

My own contribution seems tiny in comparison - I'm doing the make-up for just one of the former Follies girls (she's legally blind). I have to age her a good 30 years or so, and am getting to be a dab hand at the age lines and creases. I'm still getting the routine down - each night the make-up designer tells me I need more shadowing or I've forgotten to line her forehead - but I joked with "Heidi now" (as opposed to "young Heidi") last night that by the time we close, I'll have it down to a science.

Earthworm in the kitchen

Yesterday morning I was going thru the usual motions when I saw a crooked something on the kitchen floor that looked a little too regular to be a stick. It was a dirt-covered earthworm! I can only assume it came from the flower boxes we had brought into the kitchen the night before because the overnight temperature was supposed to get down to the freezing mark or lower. The compost I'd used with the potting soil often has worms in it, so I'm guessing my little visitor was an escapee. I escorted it outside to a nice little bush, where I hope it's much happier and aerating the soil there.

More flowers

This afternoon I finally planted the flowers I'd bought for the flower boxes on the deck railing. Lobelia, violas, dianthus and (something) - some of them are not looking too happy right now, but I'm hoping they'll bounce back shortly. But wouldn't ya know, not an hour after I'd finished, the Chief told me we may have to bring them in tonight, as the forecast is for lows in the 20s tonight!

The first of our tulips opened today and the phlox is just starting to come into its own. A few of the plants are just a couple of days from their peak, though 3 of them still don't seem to have a single bud. I'm still hoping they're just a (much?) later-blooming variety.

Working the Fringe?

This will be the 4th year for the local "Fringe Festival", which I think is modeled on Edinborough's. For about 2 weeks in July, individuals and groups present a very wide variety of theatrical and other presentations. I just auditioned for one such production, a variation on the Christmas Carol theme.

It was an unusual audition in several ways. First of all, it was at the MD's house, not a classroom, church hall or other such venue. We also had to sing a cappella, as there was no accompanist available. I wasn't terribly thrilled with my singing - blasted pollen! - and I didn't go as high as I might have in my range testing, but I didn't see them cringing or wanting to put their fingers in their ears, so I guess it wasn't too horrible. ;-)

The reading was one of the more fun I've done, especially as we got to read each scene twice. I got to read 4 different characters: a stage manager who was less than pleased w/ the props, a bit player considerably less than pleased with her role, a sharp-tongued jealous fiance, and a somewhat insecure actor. All of 'em were fun, and I could hear them reacting with chuckles, but the best bit was when I was reading that last character. My friend & fellow actor is trying to reassure me that I'll be fine in performance and "offers" to bring in some kids as a distraction during a rehearsal. My character thanks him for the laugh, then asks "Tell me you're not serious!" I couldn't see the directors' reactions, as I was looking at the person reading the other character, but I sure did hear them laugh at my slightly panicked reading of that "Tell me you're not serious!" line. And doesn't every performer love to hear the audience react!

They have 2 more nights of auditions, so it'll be at least Friday before I know anything, but the director did tell me before I left that she definitely wants to use me. The big problem is that I've got that 5-night cabaret workshop that happens to run right smack in the middle of the festival, and the festival organizers won't announce all the performances dates & venues for another couple of weeks. In other words, the director won't know until then whether that workshop is a conflict or not. (I'm hoping & praying "our" performance dates don't fall then!) She & I had already discussed the problem last week, as I wondered whether I should even bother auditioning. She told me then and reiterated this afternoon that she's actually willing to consider double-casting me in a role. I find that both generous and flattering, especially as she told me this when I was one of the very first auditionees, and it would be so much easier for her to drop me from consideration so she doesn't have to deal with that uncertainty.

Lotsa moving parts in this one!

Follies had its first tech rehearsal today. It was quite a marathon; the 3 of us who showed up for the make-up tech were there a good 5 hours, and the cast and other crew had another 2-3 hours to go. This production has a cast of about 45, most of whom have to wear at least one wig; one poor woman has four different wigs depending on the scene! They opened with designers' notes and announcements; the lighting designer announced that he had about 200 cues to set and apologized in advance for the necessarily painfully tedious process of inching thru the show to set those cues.

You'd think, as I did, that make-up wouldn't be too difficult; set it and forget it, right? Wrong! A scant handful of the cast have the same make-up throughout. Most change theirs from Act I to Act II, and some change it yet again during Act II. In addition to the make-up changes, there's a lot of "specialty" make-up, involving unusual effects (e.g., covering natural eyebrows and "drawing" higher ones) or special techniques. For starters, several people need to be aged, so the make-up designer has been instructing us in those techniques. The showgirls all get "ghost" make-up, and many in one of the big Act II numbers are to be made up to resemble Dresden dolls. This is going to be challenging, especially as there isn't nearly as much space as we could wish for the logistics of all these changes; little wonder they're telling cast members to get to the theater as early as possible.

Tired

As usual once the trees start pollinating, I'm tired - trying to breathe that stuff is work! Which is why, when I only lasted 15 mins on the treadmill yesterday, and I get a little winded after taking the stairs to my 3rd-floor office, I don't beat myself up about it.

And work's been rather trying - I've spent a couple of days this week working on administrative stuff that shoulda been taken care of ages ago but which refuses to settle (doesn't help that one office completely and utterly dropped the ball on sthg important). Today I only got half a day for "real" work, as I had a lunch meeting (at least it was a useful one), a briefing, then had to take off early for a doc's appointment.

Let's see, 8:30 - bedtime! zzzzzzzzzzz

Jumping up & down and squealing!!!

I'm all set to travel to my friend K's graduation in about another month. I'm hugely proud of her - single mother of many, working full time while earning her degree - and looking forward to cheering myself hoarse in celebration.

As if that weren't enough, I just learned that my maid of honor, who used to be my roommate but now lives thousands of miles away and whom I haven't seen since her brother's wedding several years ago, will also be at the graduation. I can now look forward to a weekend of hugs, tears of joy, and probably much swapping of G&S quotes.

My MoH and I "mother henned" each other so much and got along so well, I'm sure there were those who wondered if we were a couple, and our friend the graduate was like another sister and often spent her non-custodial weekends at our place. The prospect of getting to see them both again, at the same time, has me over the moon - it's too much happiness!

It's alive!

The phlox I planted last year hasn't been looking so great. While everyone else's in the neighborhood seems to be at or near full bloom, ours was still looking winter-dull. Until this weekend, when I noticed that most of them have buds that are just one nice day from opening. Can't wait to see how they do!

We also realized that grape hyacinths grow the flower, then the stem. I don't know why I never noticed before that the little blue clumps form up first, then the stem comes up underneath to raise the clump out of the green blades.

Signs of spring at our house

1. We start getting out and playing in the dirt. (The Chief's current project involves building a bed w/ pavers and planting caladiums and other shade-lovers in it.)

2. One or both of us trot off to the nursery and spend too much money on bedding plants. And this year we might even splash out on a little bitty flowering tree to replace the dogwood on the south side that died a few years ago.

3. When we change the sheets, we replace the flannels with percales. (Though I think we got ahead of ourselves with that this year - lows near freezing last night!)

4. We can leave the doors & windows open, and do!

5. I inspect the garden when I get home every day, seeing what's blooming where.

Playing in the dirt

The Chief & I took advantage of the lovely weather over the weekend and worked out in the yard. He'd gotten some free (wahoo!) daffodils when he was out at the cabin last week and stopped by a local nursery for some of their good, dirt cheap compost. The daffodils were the first things to go into the ground. I was a bit apprehensive, since spring isn't usually when I'd plant them, but we had some rain earlier today and they seem happy so far.

I also dug up some mats of vinca and transplanted them into the dirt strip down the center of the driveway. I'm hoping they establish themselves more quickly than the cuttings I planted last year. The vinca in general is going gangbusters this spring, so I'm hoping that planting them with some of that lovely compost will persuade the transplants that they like their new homes.

Yesterday I spent way too much money at the fancy-schmancy nursery (the local one doesn't look long for this world - shockingly little stock for April). I got the flat of impatiens planted in the bed under the mailbox and installed 2 little pots of Irish moss at the top of the driveway, where I'm hoping they'll dig in and spread to their hearts' content. I also bought 2 varieties of thyme, a hellebore and lots of different plants to go into the flower boxes for the deck railing. Oh goody - more excuses to play in the dirt! :D

Emotional adoption?

Having no kids of my own, and with my nieces & nephews living a plane ride away, I tend to "adopt" the people around me. And the longer I've known you and the better we get along, the more likely you are to get the "mother hen" treatment. I try conscientiously not to do that at work but in the theater, and with the church group I've been singing with for umpteen years (I've known the kids since before they were born), well, it's so hard not to fuss over them. Some of my theater friends have learned to humor me when I start fixing their costumes, bless their hearts. And when we're all singing, playing, dancing, partying..., it's great. I don't have family living nearby, so they become my family - gotta love it! :)

(It's spring, I just spent too much money at the garden center today and planted a flat of impatiens - I'm in a good mood, what can I say?)

Chorus? or not?

I wasn't called back for Gondoliers, so now I'm waiting for the customary call offering me a slot in the chorus. The Chief would like to see me turn it down because I've been in the ensemble of just about every show I've done with this company. (The lone exceptions were the first time they did Merry Widow (lotsa dancing & one of the Grisettes) and Fledermaus, when I had a couple of lines as a guest at Orlovsky's party and had my "daughters" do their party pieces.

The Chief points out that I've had roles with other companies and I should continue to audition for other companies (which I'm doing) and to audition for straight plays rather than musicals (but it feels so weird to have no music!). He also would like to see me get back to having all my weekends free to go to the cabin or otherwise do stuff together, instead of letting Gondoliers eat up all my weekends.

This could be tough - much as I love the music in Gondoliers, I do owe my long-suffering husband a few weekends, given how many of them Merry Widow ate up. Maybe I'll just help with costumes this time round, usher a performance or so, work run crew or something...

That went well, I think.

Another audition behind me. I think this is the first time I've really worked my audition piece (Katisha's recitative and aria, from The Mikado) outside of my voice lesson. I even scheduled an audition coaching session with my former voice teacher, who knows G&S inside & out, both musically and dramatically.

I've started to get at least a little serious about working on specific technical things lately, which is starting to pay off. I also made myself stage the piece and tried to remember to pull out all the stops for the audition panel. Not sure I managed that, but I'm actually reasonably pleased with how I did, which I can't often say.

I doubt I'll get the part I want (the competition includes a mezzo who's done at least a few leads with the company), or anything but chorus, for that matter, but I think I gave one of my best auditions so far. Now it's up to the panel, whose decision will be based on a lot of things I can't control.

Leaving on a jet plane?

The Chief decided back in December, prompted by watching a few travel shows, that we should take a December vacation to England this year, whereupon we immediately started saving our pennies. Tonight I've spent nearly 3 hours looking into airfares, lodging, etc. The exchange rate is surprisingly low right now - only about $1.45 or $1.50 to the pound. We can only hope that's where it is come December.

Yes, I know perfectly well that all those stunningly photogenic gardens, fields, etc, won' t be nearly as photogenic in December. Still, after looking at all those pictures, I'm psyched about this. Even if it's gray and rainy the whole time, we'll be looking at different architecture, listening to foreign accents, exploring the historic sites and needing all day to walk off our English breakfasts. (Broiled tomatoes and mushrooms - yum!)

Feeling virtuous

No, I didn't get to the gym last week, but I did get there twice this week, despite missing a day and a half of work due to migraines. Weights yesterday and half an hour (and 1.45 miles) on the treadmill today. Not only did I give myself a good workout, but today I kept the treadmill boredom at bay by mentally rehearsing my audition piece: characterization, dynamics, etc. And once the other treadmill users left, about 10 minutes before I finished, I even did a little sotto voce singing. Not as good as actually singing, of course, but better than nothing.

More dancing for lawyers

This is one of the reasons I keep my eye on Facebook - it seems the Washington Post article on Saphira a friend directed me to prompted NPR to do a feature on her too. It comes out in the NPR interview that her school has nine instructors - that's a big dance school!

All of which is just feeding the itch I've already been feeling to get back to dancing myself. A belly dance class would be so much more interesting than the gym at work, more fun (better music!), more social, and great for flexibility to counter "Arthur". And unlike working out in a gym, it's also a performing art, where I get to boogie down to fun music in some pretty spectacular "glad rags". What's not to love? :D

Plans and ramblings

Oh, lots of things coming up - prepping for Gondoliers auditions, pencilling the Follies dates into my calendar, trying to get to other people's shows, determining which work training I absolutely have to do and what can wait (so that I'm actually at my desk more than two weeks at a stretch).

I'm finding that the harder I work to prep for an audition, the more I get my hopes up even when I know how long the odds are against me. If I go in not caring, it's not a big deal when I'm not cast; if part of me thinks that I should get it because I've worked so hard that I must be a better singer, I tend to take it personally. The paradox, of course, is that if I don't work on it, then of course I won't be as good as if I do. Maybe my prep needs to include a little psych session on myself. :D

And of course there are the Holy Week services, starting with Palm Sunday (April 5th this year). Only once have I ever sung all of them - between rehearsals and services, it was like tech week without the sets & costumes. It was certainly exhausting, but singing all that music was exhilarating. I'll have to play it by ear and see how I feel, and how many of the services the Chief might be willing to attend.

Busy theater support day

Busy day - flew home from church to change and inhale some lunch before heading off to a meeting called by the Follies make-up designer. We'll be doing some specialty and some age make-up, so I'll get to learn and practice some new techniques. Sounds like conditions will be cramped, to say the least - a cast of 45 crammed into 2 small dressing rooms and a coupla classrooms, along with their costumes, wigs (at least 50!), props, and who knows what-all else. Tech week really will be hell week as we try to get the logistics down, but we'll manage.

From there I drove 27 miles to a board meeting for the company that just did Merry Widow. I was late because of the first meeting, but was still there for a goodly chunk of it. Since I'm supposed to be the recording secretary (this is the first board meeting since the July elections that I've actually made, thanks to rehearsals and performances), that's a good thing. Now I get to write up my notes and send them to the rest of the board.

Let's see - at least 2 1/2 hours in the car (and 71 miles) for just over 2 1/2 hours' worth of meetings. I think it's a tie between driving and meeting.

"Belly dancing for lawyers"

... is the title of the article I found thanks to a link on a friend's site. Nice, lengthy, positive article about a lawyer-turned-dancer in the Washington Post that also has some footage of one of Sapphira's classes. (Her studio looks tiny!) I've danced alongside many a lawyer myself, so I'm not surprised, and I'm pleased to see that her studio seems to be doing well - 300 students, to that she's hired instructors to help out.

Theatrical update

So I won't be doing Catch-22, not because I wasn't cast, but due to a work conflict during their tech week. A pity, as I would have gotten to play a batch of blowhards & bad guys, which would have been fun. However, the one bright side is that at least I can audition for Gondoliers, which techs in a week later. Now I'm cramming to get a new audition piece under my belt so that I'll be ready when the Gondoliers audition dates are announced.

I'll be helping w/ make-up for a local production of Follies. I auditioned for them, wasn't cast, but hope that this will be a way to make myself known to at least some of the company. And since I'll be working with a "real" make-up designer, I'm sure I'll learn some techniques that will stand me in good stead in future shows.

One of the local professional companies is looking for non-Equity singers for their summer productions. I'm sorely tempted, but first need to find out what the rehearsal schedule looks like. Being a professional theater, they may rehearse during the day. Since I already have a day job, that wouldn't work so well for me. ;-)

I'm already starting to look ahead to the 09-10 season, though only 1 or 2 companies have announced their season so far. I've already spotted one show I want to audition for; a long shot, but I don't mind auditioning even when I know I have only a snowball's chance because of the strength of the competition.

Spring?

I saw my first crocuses of the season nearly 3 weeks ago, and the daffodils are blooming almost concurrently with the crocuses, instead of 2-3 weeks later. The forsythia is already starting to come out, several different kinds of trees are already in bud, the Bradford pears may well be in bloom by the weekend, and even our dogwoods are sporting some pretty healthy buds.

Two weekends ago the highs were in the 70s, which brought all these blooms along right smartly, along with the first wave of allergens. Last weekend, though, the highs were only in the 40s, with the occasional light rain and some pretty stiff breezes. By now we should be used to the way spring loves to sucker-punch us like that, but those warm temps lasted more than 2 days running so we made the mistake of allowing ourselves to believe...

Still, I do love seeing the crocuses. Yes, I know they come up every year, and I even know which yards to watch and which colors come in where, but I still get as excited as a little kid at Christmas when I spot those first purple blooms.

Another audition

In about an hour I'm off to audition for a local production of Catch-22. No clue what the turnout will be like, and therefore whether I have much competition, but if I'm cast, it will certainly be a change of pace from anything else I've ever done.

Pros: the theater & rehearsal location are only about 8 or 10 miles from home, there are a few good pre-rehearsal and post-show dining options nearby, I'd be stretching myself and working with a new (to me) company.

Cons: Catch-22 runs concurrent with another show I'm interested in and for which I want to try for the contralto lead; it cuts into my time with my favorite retiree; I'm a little nervous that I might find myself cast in a show I don't particularly like. But these are problems only if I'm cast. ;-)

Guess we got a brush-up after all

Pity our poor audience last night. We didn't have a brush-up rehearsal this week, but maybe we should have. We certainly weren't at our best last night - our Danilo was ailing (modifying his top notes, speaking a few of the "talkier" lyrics, singing at only about 60%), energy was low, timing a little loose sometimes, some tempi sluggish and in general we didn't exactly give a very tight performance. :-(

Not good news

... though it's too soon to tell whether it's bad news. Lab results from last week's doctor visit were mostly normal; the one anomaly "is a surprise" given the other results, according to my doc. She's gonna refer me to a rheumatologist, which has me a bit nervous about what I may learn. Pray for me!

Still standing

... if on tender feet (gotta get better-fitting character shoes). I survived Tech Week and the green room sweatshop; I only built two Pontevedrian dresses, but I trimmed several - 3 rows of trim, 4 yds each, plus bodice trim. Then there was the sewing of random skirt hooks and hems, ransacking of my stores for accessories & props, and trying to survive the up-ended schedule (getting to bed about 4 hours before my alarm usually goes off for work). My fingers are full of holes now, but the costumes look even better than the batch for the last time this company did the show 13 years ago. Same costumer; it was her first show with the company. She's still costuming shows, getting better with each one, and she sings, too - she's Hannah Glawari.

The first weekend went well, we had enthusiastic houses, especially for the outreach matinee, we sound and look wonderful, and I love having the Chief in the wings (he's helping with set changes).

The chorus doesn't have a lot of singing in this show, but the music is wonderful. I'm bummed that my stupid knees keep me out of the running for much dancing - even the 8 bars of polka I do can be uncomfortable on bad days - but the singing I get to do is feeling really good. The harp adds a lot to the orchestral sound, and the harpist is a stitch. Yesterday he brought canteloupe for green room munchies, with the hollowed-out halves upside-down on a plate with one labeled "Glawari" and the other "melons". (Reference to a joke in the show; the Pontevedrian ambassador mistakenly decodes "Glawari millions" as "Glawari melons".)