Monday, November 29, 2004

Which came first? Drama or drama?

So was the term drama created as a comparitve term to describe situations that are as crazy, hectic and problematic as can be in drama productions or was it the other way around....

Whatever... either way they both exist in this situation.

Ok, so at the same time I auditioned for Death of a Salesman I had also auditioned and got accepted for the ensemble role of Tyler in Merrily We Roll Along over at Holy Cross. It's been going on for the past few months here and there, not too hard of a rehearsal schedule, then along comes last monday. That's when the shit hit the fan.

First thing was that the producer abruptly resigned, which is a nice way of saying she bailed and couldn't be bothered with the show any more. Cited in the resignation were comments about increased workload and the fact that there were more problems in the show than were known when she signed up. I can understand that but you work with the directors and other administrative people to replace you BEFORE you resign.

Her resignation was followed rather quickly with the resignations of the Marketing and Fundraising directors. They cited their own concerns and used the producer's resignation as the final nail in the coffin.

Following this the rehearsal pianist resigned citing his own concerns on the viability of the show based on the recent mass exodus. This was then followed by two ensemble actors resigning over the next few days.

Thankfully it seems that, as it should, the show will go on. We've replaced parts that needed replacing, cut out of the script entirely areas that weren't needed with the reduced ensemble, and have replaced the producer. Fundraising efforts have been restrategized and are moving forward to cover all the costs of the production. The initial concept of the stage design has been revealed to the company and it looks good. The remaining company is pumped about the production and looks to be fairly gung-ho about it all.

Life wouldn't be interesting without drama, right? Right....?

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving

Well I had a great time visiting the families. Got to see my little cousins, Abigail and Aiden. Both are absoultely adorable. I think Abby is two and Aiden is almost a year now. Aiden is getting so big so fast. I got to hold him for a little while and then put him down for a nap.

After visiting Grammy and all of mom's side of the family I stopped at Dad's. I ended up having a small arguement with my brother because he was pushing my buttons about a bit of weight I've gained. He does this EVERY time we get together. Every time I think he's grown up a bit and matured he once again proves why I can't stand him.

After that I made my way into Boston to have dinner with Nick, his sister Joselyn, Gabe, Jen, Steve and his mother, and Keith. Dinner was wonderful and Nick made a wonderful Turkey. Richard and Patrick showed up a bit after we finished eating from visiting their respective families.

It was good to see Patrick again. We got a chance to catch up, dish some dirt, relate issues and generally do some of the active things best friends do, as opposed to the AIM conversations every few days when we are both on at the same time.

Later that evening Patrick, Richard and I went out to Campus at Man Ray in Cambridge. It was a blast and the guys were hot that night, especially one of the gogo boys. DAMN! *sigh* I really do need a man right now.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

What a show!

Well the last of the people at my post-performance party just left. Amazing, two nights in a row the party has gone past 6:00 AM.

It has been an incredible time all around and it was an incredible party with everyone here both last night and tonight. I can't wait for New Voices 23!!

Saturday, November 20, 2004

End of Salesman

Well tonight is the final night of Death of a Salesman and I'm sad to see it go. This has been an incredible, wonderful, heart-wrenching production. Hearing Linda (Spavis) scream "NOOOOOO" every night as Willy (Jake) gets into the car to crash it is just incredible, as well as seeing the relationships of Willy, Biff (Jim) and Happy (Dan) deteriorate over the course of the show. I've had so much fun becoming a part of this group of people and getting to do something that I didn't have an opportunity to do as an undergraduate.

After this I have continuing rehearsals for Merrily We Roll Along, which will actually be a larger undertaking now that I'm the understudy for one of the lead roles. After that I will be trying out for New Voices 23. I am completely enjoying getting involved with theater and fully exploring my "thespian tendancies". ;)

Friday, November 19, 2004

Been a While - Update Part 2

Ok, so when I was last writing I was talking about work stuff. Now on to the rest of my life over the summer up until now.

Let's see, first off is that I moved from my apt. on Bowdoin Street to my new place on Dean Street. The new place is great and has 2 floors, one of which is a full finished basement. It has a built in bar, 2 refridgerators and a dishwasher. I'm sooo excited that it has a dishwasher. That has to be the all time best thing EVER!!!

The next thing is that i was involved in a musical revue. It was a collection of Sondheim songs with a few other composers thrown in for good measure. It was quite a quickly done show. We had one rehearsal in July and then nothing else until August and then from Sunday through the following Saturday when the production occured, my life belonged to the revue. Its funny, "hell week", as final production week is known as, is usually a lot of work and very stressful and this was no exception, but amazingly this worked very well to counteract the heavy dose of work related stress I was dealing with at the time. Without this production to escape to every night I think I would have had a hard time dealing with work.

I made a new friend over the summer as well. Donald, a Lamda Chi Alpha brother from RPI came up to work for John Minasian for the entire summer. Donald and I hit it off very well and became very good friends over the course of the summer. He's a pretty nice guy, for a Republican ;).

Since September started I've become involved with a new vocal group at WPI, theater at WPI and musical theater at Holy Cross. As you can tell, after the revue I got bit hard by the theater bug.

The vocal group is the Vocal Performance Lab. This is kind of a workshop group. It is audition only and I've been brought in, like one of the women, as a professional singer. *grin* I'm a professional.

Through that I got invited to try out for the February production over at Holy Cross. They are doing "Merrily We Roll Along" which is a musical by Stephen Sondheim. I'm playing "Tyler" as well as ensemble and I've recently been named understudy to Charley, one of the leads.

I also tried out for the B-Term show at WPI. We are doing (right now as I type actually) Death of a Salesman. Its a wonderful show. I play "Stanley" which is the waiter in the restaurant scene. I've had such a blast and its such an experience and a priviledge to work with such incredible people. I've forgotten how much fun this can be.

It was also fun to have Donald come and visit unexpectedly last week. It was good to catch up with him as to how things had been since he went back to RPI. It'll be fun to have him back up for a longer time in the winter.

So in the department of love life there's been absolutely nothing. nada. zilch. No crushes, no interests, no nothing. Honestly this is the first time in my life I haven't been crushing hard core on someone. I also really haven't had time for a relationship right now so I guess it's ok.

Finally I'm moving along in the quest for my condo. The purchase and sales agreement is in with the lawyers and I'm just waiting for them to resolve everything.

Well that finishes the update and brings most everything up to date. I'll try to start updating more often.