I haven't quit...

Hi all, don't give up on me. I've been on vacation. I have made a couple attempts to blog over the past couple weeks but for some reason I can't load my photos from here. So I am planning on making a "best of my vacation" post when I return and get a little rest. Mostly however this vacation has been about rest. I haven't even been bored, so I suppose I needed to just hang out and watch the clouds roll by. When I actually attempted to "do something" world events seemed to conspire against anything happening... on the plus side I have been ignoring my phone and my email and love it. Tomorrow is the final day of 2007 so I wanted to wish you all a happy New Year! Look for future posts by Thursday-ish.

Ah Winter in California

Here is the view outside my front window. It is a windy 55 degrees fahrenheit and it has been raining for a couple of days now. I love this weather. The beauty of living here is that although it gets grey in the winter, it's never truly grey. I still have green plants everywhere, I even have a few excessively sturdy blooms in the yard. The wild roses and the unknown vine that has taken over the fence are still flowering. The rain continues to pound down on my roof and although I would love to just sit by the window and enjoy the gloom I have to pull on my boots and head on down to the theater. But there it is, my postcard for the day. Wish you were here.

vacation mind

I have a strike to do, a strike to prep and a cleaning of my house to do in the next four days and then I am scott free for two weeks. I shall be "Out of Town" to the world at large. However... my brain has already mostly checked out. I start cleaning and get distracted by the things I find. Today I managed to clean my car but forgot to pay my bills or truly make any progress at home or at work on the "Great Cleaning" that must be done. I started to purge my wardrobe and found old projects that I had to pick up and work on right there... I started to reshelve my books and wound up reading for an hour and a half before I finally decided to put it down and make some dinner. I thought about going to yoga but in the search for my yoga clothes I got distracted by the dogs and decided to play fetch instead... I can't remember why I opened up my laptop just now, but I just got done watching some youTube and then decided to check email and blogs... and here I am now. Ah... what was I saying? Ooh look, a butterfly...

Guess that Era (Round 2)

Ok there are some really Ugly beasts today;

I want to know Why oh Why this pant and jacket set was created at all. It was made "exclusively for Macy's" Oh the humanity! Can you imagine this coming down the street at you? And what shoes and make up would go with? Ooh...
70's? 80's? The lack of shoulder pads make me lean towards 70's.

60's maternity?

It's hard to tell from this photo, but this is a three piece set. Because of the polyester that the top is made of I'm pretty sure that this is 1970's but I had to share. My quick google "research" indicates that this was probably an expensive outfit to begin with. It was designed by Ken Scott. The jacket and britches feel like upholstry fabric although the lable says that they are 100% linin. It's bad.

This last one isn't so bad, it has a pretty drape, is possibly a silk velvet. I'm guessing 1940's because it looks like something Ginger Rogers would have worn,anyone have a second opinion?


Thanks again. I am nearing the end of my reorganization and hopefully I've done alright with most of it. When my winter break gets here I'll hopefully be able to post blogs involving more insight and better writing...
:)

Day off?

The biggest problem with having a single day off only once every few weeks is that you put so much pressure on that one day. You wake up thinking "I AM GOING TO RELAX AND HAVE A GOOD TIME TODAY DAMN-IT!" and frankly I get so wound up with needing to relax that it spoils the whole day. I turn into my father on vacation (sorry Dad) where I've tried to schedule my relaxation and my fun and then when it doesn't go as planned I get so frustrated. Today I slept past yoga partially because of the drizzly grey weather. I decided to go to the city and see the Marie Antionette exhibit at the Legion of Honor. There had been a big traffic accident on the bay bridge and I wound up getting stuck going 0 to 6 miles an hour for three miles (yes that ate up about 40 minutes of my "fun" time. In my frustration I decided to take the BART to the city because I'M GOING TO THE MUSEUM TO HAVE FUN. By the time I got off the freeway, onto the train and actually into the city I finally took a moment to breathe and realize that to get to the Legion I would need to take the 38 Geary bus all the way across town. To do that takes around an hour (thus the original impulse to drive in). By the time I got to the museum I would have about fifteen minutes before they closed, and that is assuming that traffic is good and the bus is running on schedule. For a moment I thought about going to the MOMA instead but I've seen their collection several times before and I'm not in the mood for modern art, so I turned around and took the train back to Oakland where I had left the car unsure if I had remembered to lock it or not. This all could have been karmic punishment for blowing off my responsibilities and not taking my car in to get smogged, or something... but really I think I'm just so busy and wound up that I shouldn't even try to take a day off until I can take several days off.

ODC Dance

I found this video on youTube. It's a promo for the dance company and the dance I'm working on right now. I really love this troop. Artistically they are fantastic. They have a precision that is top notch and the choreogaphy is beautiful. This promo seems to have been recorded for the younger crowd but does show a few good samples of the show. The Rabbit costume is amazing. I'm really a bit tired so I'm not going to ramble but enjoy the video and when they get to the "narrator" grammaphone keep in mind that the thing is 20 years old, is worn by 2 to 4 different sweaty dancers per show and only has a velcro-on hood that can be washed--- it's disgusting. The Rabbit head is also old (although this one was actually rebuilt a few years ago) but at least has a lot of ventalation available so it's not so bad.

Have you given up on me?

If not, thank you. Let's see, right now I am in the midst of the Holiday season. I'm running a crazy-busy dance show and still maintaining things at the Aurora... I went in and volunteered for Revels for a couple hours (Merry X-mas Callie), I'm building a chiffon dress that is making me crazy but hopefully will be done by Tuesday... and that's about all. I'm planning on writing a few Christmas/New Year/End of Year/Whatever cards and finishing up some shopping... I'm as always hustling up work (but trying to fit it into the available time slots) and generally running around busy busy busy... hopefully in the midst of all that I'll manage to post a proper blog entry or two but really I may just be about stretched as far as I can go at the moment.

Also I am thinking about making Christmas cookies/baking for friends for the holidays... anybody have suggestions beyond chocolate chip? What's your favorite? One of my favorite holiday cookies are pfeffernusse, they're a lovely German spice cookie that melts in your mouth because they're mostly butter and spices with a little sugar and flour to hold them together... yum!

Ok hope to post soon. Keep checking in. Even if I don't know you, tell me your favorite holiday baked good. :)

Need a good Laugh?

Here it Is! I had this song stuck in my head all day, so instead of purchasing it via iTunes, I elected to purge the tune in my head via YouTube. I had forgotten how hilarious the video was. The song is cheesy but actually pretty good. The video however is full of Michael tossing his flowing locks atop the grand canyon in a matching denim outfit. His shirt is unbuttoned to his navel, his face is dead serious about how he Feels so much more than Love... very bodice ripper here. Between Michael himself, the eagles and horses flying/galloping through fire and the fan comments (go to the video and check out the serious comments left there) My favorite comment was; " One of the best lyrics....Something no one had ever thought about...The way he says that he said he loved but he lied....but then in the next time...Says that it is more than love He feels inside...So much of depth in the meaning" I was on the floor laughing at it all. Perhaps I'm too easily amused. Perhaps it's good to be entertained so easily... either way;
Enjoy;

Where on Earth have I been?

Buried under a heap of costumes.

First I was the costume assistant/coordinator for Sex. A play by Mae West, quite racy for 1926. It's a terrible read, but once you see it on stage with the music numbers, the set, the costumes and the fantastic actors it all makes sense. It's all like watching a cheesy 20's movie. Hard boiled dialogue and all (or was that soft boiled... I always get them confused.) I like it.



Second was Lovers and Executioners. It's a cavalier show based on a 17th C. French play called "La Femme, juge et partie" by Montfleury. Frankly the plot is like a bad Vivaldi opera or an early Mozart opera... bad plot, holes to sink a humvee in, but if the music is good you usually forgive them. Unfortunately this isn't an opera. The whole thing is done in rhyming couplet. Yes, imagine if you will two hours of rhyming couplet along with synthetic music. I cannot comment fully in this forum but let's just say that I love the actors, they're lovely people who are doing their best and I hope the critics are kind.

Next (starting tomorrow) is The Velveteen Rabbit. The ODC dance company's Not-The-Nutcracker holiday show. I've never seen it, I've never run it but I like the people I'm working with and dancers are on the whole lovely self-sufficient people. So I'm hoping it will be a good show. Usually at this time of year I'm working on the Christmas Revels, which I've loved but sadly can't afford to work for the pittance they offer. Perhaps another year. Anyway I'm doing repairs on the rabbit head today. It is both a brilliant piece of engineering and a scary scary bunny head, so here's a video of it. Beware, it will peer into your soul with it's sparkly blue eye...



I've been so busy that Thanksgiving is really going to be great. Right now my plan involves lying around my house. Playing with the dog and watching movies... maybe with friends, maybe just DeWalt. Dinner will include prochuitto wrapped asparagus, a yam, bok choy, and cranberry sauce, maybe I'll make some gravy for the yam... it's going to be great! Day OFF!!!

P.s. If you get a chance check out "Jim's Blog" in my links. He's a talented actor who is currently playing Scrooge at the big LORT A (hot-shit regional theater for those who don't speak the lingo) in San Francisco. Worth the read.

More Berkeley Grafitti

Still too busy to write... but feel the need to post anyway...

Miracle Worker

Sometimes I am left with a task that I have no idea of what to do. Occasionally it's a fun task like "turn this muslin into tree bark" or "make it so that we can remove this 17th C ball gown in 14 seconds"... Today is not a fun problem. I am so frustrated with the boots you see above that I'm ready to just scream. If we had an extra $1000 in the budget we would have had custom made boots for the lead actress. However We do not, so we are forced to make due with what we have. What we have is an actress with extra wide feet. So basically any shoes that fit the length of her foot are painful across the toes or the arch and the shoes that are "close" are still too short and pull up in the heel when she lunges (as you do in a cavalier sword fight). So today I have been wasting the past hour trying to fanagle foam into these boots but make it so that a foot can still get into them without tearing out the padding. I'm giving up for now. Maybe I'll ask my cobbler if he has a suggestion. More likely the cobbler will ask "why can't you just get a pair in the correct size?" Why indeed. :(

Adendum; The cobbler was brilliant. He knew just the right padding to put in. It wasn't a perfect fit afterwards but it was good enough. SIGH!

Berkeley Grafitti

Lost things

I can tell my brain capacity is just about full... or that my world around me is a total and complete mess (in a very literal sense). I have been doing my best to eat on schedule and sleep as much as possible (about 7 hours on most days) but my schedule cactches up with me in symptoms like lost objects and dirty laundry. I have lost the cable that connects my camera to my computer, making photo-blogging really difficult. I've lost a beautiful bracelet that I recently bought... totally bumming me out and hoping that I find it tomorrow. I'm down to the bottom of the clothing I own that isn't completely full of holes (or dress up clothes) so my wardrobe this week has become a combo of holy jeans and velvet tops, or jersey shirts with wool pants... I've lost my coffee mug at work...for the show I've lost an engagement ring and two pair of pliers (although I don't think I am to blame for the missing pliers :/ ) it's all of these little things that all mount up to being really annoying and all I want to do is clean everything because that seems to be the best way to find things. Alas I haven't the time to clean things, I have to spend all available time chained to the sewing machine (where I hope to find my poor bracelet) or there are those pesky hours at night where I am obliged to sleep. It's so annoying. If only I could store up sleeping credits... but then that might not be good. Then people would ask me to work for 24 hours a day because I should have a stash of sleep in my back pocket... alas I ramble now. The end is is sight... but that is weeks and weeks away. Hopefully a day off will happen next week (keep fingers crossed). Hopefully I can organize things and find all of these missing objects before they drive me mad!

this one goes out to my sister...

yea, too busy to make a real post, but here's a shout out to my stressed out sis who's breathing smokey air in San Diego county. Love ya Kelly-bug!

Less is more (Belated Blog Action Day Post)

Hi all. So as any of you who actually know me are aware, I am a costume designer and a wardrobe mistress and a seamstress. As a wardrobe mistress/dresser I am a glorified laundress/butler/nanny/personal assistant. It's not exactly the glamorous side of show biz, but it pays the rent better than the designing part does. On a typical show I end up washing anywhere from two to ten loads of laundry, yes I said Ten loads of laundry (each day). So after about eight years of employment where at least half of the time I am on a Wardrobe crew I've become pretty good at laundry and stain busting... and avoiding ironing when possible.

The chemicals that we use every day including our soaps and cleaning products effect our health and the environment's health so I try to keep my washrooms as "green" as possible. So here are my top tips for keeping your laundry room as healthy as possible

1. Concentrate;
When buying liquids always consider how much of it is water. I like to purchace concentrated products to reduce the amount of water that is being trucked around the country, thus reducing carbon impact and saving shelf space.
My favorite products are;
Simple Green, All Free & Clear concentrated, Liquid starch (not the spray can)



2. Less is more;
Never use as much soap, or OxyClean or fabric softener as the bottle tells you to. I find that using about 2/3 to 1/2 of the company's reccomendation gets everything just as clean if not a little cleaner. Remember, the soap companies are making more money with the more soap that you use. By using less you are saving money, saving gas and saving excess suds going down the drain. Using a laundry-soap enhancer like OxyClean (which I fully endorse) or Borax will make your smaller amount of soap more effective, but the rule is true to the enhancer as well; use less than the company reccomends.

3. Invest in Spray bottles
It's always cheaper to buy in bulk and refill a bottle. In my laundry room I have the following spray bottles;
* Folex Carpet Cleaner-- a "non-toxic" product that works as an all purpose stain treater for everything including grease, stage blood, tomato products, stage make-up and rust, sold at OSH hardware stores (WAY better than Shout)
* Simple Green-- also a good stain treatment (if coupled with some elbow grease and baking soda) and the best surface cleaner I have.
* Vinegar-- yes just straight Vinegar. It helps get rid of iron burns, protine stains and works as a non-toxic glass/mirror cleaner.
* Starch/Water-- it's the old fashioned way of starching, involves a lot less waste than the cans and gets everything much more crisp than spray cans do, I can't believe it took me as long as it did to try it.
* Water-- for ironing and cleaning with. Sometimes dirt doesn't really need much cleaning product at all, just let it soak in some water if it's not a grease or protein stain.
* Liquid fabric Softener/water (a 1:6 dilution)-- I think that Downey sells a bottle of "wrinkle relase" formula for about $5 a bottle, and this is essentially all that it is. I use it to help with steaming and static cling.
*Vodka-- This is an OLD wardrobe trick that comes from Russia's Bolshoi Ballet. Vodka has the miraculous properties of not staining clothes (as isopropyl and rubbing alchohol do) while disinfecting them and making them less stinky. Most wardrobe people prefer Vodka to Febreeze (which mostly masks odor)-- use REALLY Cheap Vodka.

4. Other favorite Cleaning products;
Aside from what I have already mentioned I would like to add;
* Baking Soda-- a good deodorizer to add to the wash, also works as an abrasive for hard to scrub out stains and counters.
* Ivory Soap-- if you're out of laundry soap you can shave it into the washing machine. It works as a stain pre-treat, just get it a litte wet and rub it in (yet again better than Shout).
*The Sun-- hanging things out on the line makes whites whiter, shrinking minimal, gets rid of mildew and Saves energy ( you can make the best of global warming and not contrubute to it)

5. Less Aerosols!
The Health effects of Aerosols isn't something that is published in popular media in the US especially because of how much of our economy is run by corporations. However it seems logical that the aerosol cans are mostly air and when they're spent are dangerous additions to landfills. Ingredients are not listed on most cans, but a little research into their Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) will tell you what is in it.
Check www.msds.com for information on ingredents and known health effects of just about any product you use.
Many products contain metals that can't be healthy to breath in and aerosols produce tiny particles that are easy to breathe in.

***I am strongly against Static Guard. It is mostly alchohol, but 30% of it is propane, butane and Dimethyl ditallow ammonium chloride, which when introduced to water (through leaky landfills or just from evaporation) peaks acid rain production, and kills plankton even from very small doses... I digress greatly but basically there are a lot of complex cleaning products full of ingredients that we are often unaware of.
Instead of Static Guard use a 6:1 concentration of water to fabric softener, or even better a 5:1 concentration of water to vinegar with a few drops of your favorite essential oil to get rid of the vinegar smell.

Well, thank you for reading this far (it's been a long post), I hope it has been useful.

Eco blog pending... (Me vs. the Environment)

Ok, So I am still planning on posting a blog about how I keep my laundry room earth friendly... but today the elements were against me. I've had a chest cold brewing for days now and running around for eight hours a day in a leaky cold amphitheater in October has only made it worse. This morning I was unable to tell the dog to stop barking and resorted to clapping at him... (it worked). I had lost my cell phone and had a strike to do at the theater. For the non-theater folk "strike" is actually a lot of work involving massive clean-up and putting away the show and the wardrobe room in its entirety. I got to the theater and there was a light sprinkle so I stepped up the hauling of heavy items, hoping to get enough into the dressing rooms and away from the theater to keep it all relatively dry... of corse it has been rainy all week and I managed to find the two shelves that were still holding a good amount of rain water and dump it all directly onto my head. About an hour into the strike the heavens opened up into a timultuious downpour. In my wardrobe room the ceiling drips as though in an underground cave but faster... and I had to continue to move my gear. Mind you I am doing this strike alone for reasons that I don't care to get in to and today was the only day that I had truly free to strike. I managed to get all of the non-waterproof items out of wardrobe and all of the costumes back to the shop but was soaked to the core and now I sound like Tom Waits, so I went home early, put on dry clothes and fell asleep at 6pm. I woke up around 9pm and now am sitting here finding that my heart is not in to actually posting the blog that I had intended to. I'm still sick and I still have work to tend to all week. Hopefully though I'll manage to stay asleep tonight and wake up in a better disposition.

Blogger Action Day 2007

Much like my father who was "patriotic before it was popular" I was an environmentalist before it was popular. I was probably an environmentalist from the first day my baby eyes could focus on a tree... thus I am eager to see the fruits of this blogger action day that is coming up on Monday. Everybody with a blog is encouraged to blog about the same topic all on the same day. This year's topic is the Environment. It's very trendy especially with Al Gore getting the Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize for "An Inconvenient Truth". However annoying new greenies are when they tell us all that we need to save energy and that the Earth is going to be incinerated by a big ball of global warming (like it's new news) I appreciate that they have joined the band wagon that had been started long ago with oh say; Jimmy Carter, Edward Abbey, Ansel Adams, Thoreau, John Muir... and so on and so forth. Yea, I'm a member of the Sierra Club, I vote with the Green Party, I bought my car based on the expected MPG, I pick up litter at the beach because it's there... welcome to the party. I am both thrilled and annoyed at the new coverage that our environmental woes have become so fashionable to discuss. I am irritated every time the electric company informs me that I can cut my electric bill by "lowering the temperature of [my] pool". I glance around my room and count the standard light bulbs... um, zero... and I look outside for my pool... hum maybe there's another way short of bribing my landlady to get us double pane windows... However I am always happy that a greater population is becoming cognisant that their actions and their consumption affects the world they live in. That said, I encourage all of you with a blog to check out the link, register your blog with http://blogactionday.org (check my links on the side), and join in the discussion. Also if you do post for blog action day leave me a link to your site, I'm eager to see what everybody posts.

Rain at the Theater

Last night we called the show on account of rain

We ran the show until the rain became unberable and the ceilings (i.e stage floor) began to drip with streams of brown rain water...

We were all so happy...



This morning we all got here and mucked out several inches of standing water from the floor so that we could get the place running for a student matinee (with an understudy)... and tonight we are almost dry but exhausted and going on with a different understudy... blogging is mostly limited to pictures since actual communicatiion skills have been reduced to a series of grunts and hand gestures... here goes another one.

service please...

I took myself out to breakfast today. As I was glancing over the menu I thought, "I could make most of this at home myself, why did I want to come here?". What's more is why haven't I felt like cooking anything in a month? Why is it I've been eating nothing but cereal at breakfast? As I sat there stirring cream into my coffee I realized that I've been spending way too much time catering to everyone else's needs. At work I'm making sure that twenty two people are dressed, pressed and polished for the stage. At home it's just me and the dog, since my roommate's out of town, and I'm busy making sure that he's fed and walked and happy. I think it's been too long since someone asked me what I need, so really just going to the cafe and having somebody check on me to ask if I had all the correct condiments or enough coffee was exactly what I needed. Someday I'll find a balance for all of this... I hope someday soon.

Good News

I spoke to my Grumpa today and he is in good spirits, feeling good.
Yay!

This is my Grumpa

This morning he is going to the hospital at 10am, he is going to get a pacemaker. Hopefully the surgery will go well and he can resume alot of the activities he's had to give up.
But I worry.
I just found out that he's going in the morning so now I'm a little nervious, and upset that he called me back while I was at work. So anybody who is reading this, no matter your theological leanings, please give my Grumpa (Morgan) a little shout out to God for me. Thanks.

How was tech week?

It was long... could have been worse;


but really I use about 8 ounces of stage blood and then I get to clean it all up... ten loads of laundry... lost my dresser to an unfortunate family emergency... 10 to 12 hour work days... and it's all turning me into a melodramatic martyr who can't write in complete sentences anymore.

the fruits of neglect

As I am sure my total neglect of corespondance has proven, I have been excessively busy these days. We're putting up an oversized production of King Lear involving blood, eyeballs and gobs and gobs of laundry. Yesterday I did eight loads of laundry!!! One of my washing machines broke so I was at work until 2:30am. That was most unhappy. Today I was going to be a good costumer and replace collars for my show at the Aurora but looking at how long that will take, I've opted to let them suffer one more day and go buy a new shirt tomorrow... thus giving me time finally to post a blog. Today I've finally got a little time to spend at home, cook myself breakfast and water the "garden".

I am perpetually amazed by the fecundity of Berkeley. Outside my gate we have several oak barrels that my landlady bought when she lived in the big house in front. We inherited some tomato plants from her, my neighbor planted a chili pepper and I planted basil. All of us are pretty lax about actually caring for the plants. I water them once every three days or so. Now we have more tomatoes than we can eat, a basil plant that needs pruning every time I think about it and chili peppers on the way (they are supposed to be red, so I think they've got a little more growing to do). In my hometown (Idyllwild) we worked and fretted and carefully nurtured our gardens and were lucky to get potatoes, beans and rhubarb. It seems like we don't deserve to have this many tomatoes because we neglect them so much, but I am so happy to have them anyway. A tomato and basil salad is a nice snack to have when you're tired from washing up a yucky mess of stage blood. Will try to post more soon.

You know what you need today?

Shatner.

It's been awhile, so here's a little joy.

Attend the tale...

of Sweeney Todd!

Tonight I saw Sweeney Todd at ACT. It was the John Doyle version that had been the 2006 revival on Broadway. It was BEAUTIFUL. I hadn't known that it wasn't an all new version and had done no research on it in advance so I was mostly curious to see if they had changed the old Eugene Lee set, which is usually essentially a big box where the barber shop is located on top and the pie shop is the lower level. The coolest effect that the box usually does is where Sweeney slices a customer's throat who then slides down a chute while the box is rotating and shoots through into the meat processing room in the back and is promptly moved into a storage unit or furnice or giant meat grinder (depending on the show). The "box" was really a very elegant solution that has been used in countless productions since the original in (1973? I think.) Here is a clip of it, you really only need to watch the beginning to get the idea... couldn't find the throat slitting scene though;


The Revival version is stunning. The whole show takes place in a room made with a slatted floor and back wall. In the center of the back wall is a shelf that reaches towards the ceiling with a piano at the base.



When the curtian rises at the top of the show, we see a room filled with Victorian-esque musicians and a man in striped pajamas and a straight jacket staring out at the house. The man is ungagged and the straight jacket is removed just in time for him to sing the first line... "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd..." In the center of the stage is a black slatted coffin. The lid is lifted and from inside the coffin rises Sweeney Todd. Throughout the show they use the coffin as Joanna's room, Sweeney's office, the pub table, and so on and so forth.

I had initially been looking forward to seeing a bloodbath that I would not have to clean up but after seeing the very first scene I knew that it was going to be stylized. A throat being slit was made gruesome by red light and a bucket of blood being poured into another bucket, real foley sound.

I was so happy to see this show. There were no "pie" props, there was no literal blood, there were no realistic backdrops or fog. It was all in your imagination. This director actually wanted to take his audience on a journey that engaged the audience and made us meet them on the way there. I get so sick of theater that tries to be as realistic as humanly possible. It's just spoon feeding the audience and doesn't make them get involved. Film does verisimilitude pretty well, theater is a totally different medium and I am of the school that thinks we don't need to try to compete with film. I thought that the new version lacked some of the human connections that the traditional staging did very well. It wasn't as tragic when the beggar woman was killed or clear about the relationship between Mrs. Lovett and Toby (which is usually heart-wrenching). I think that it was partially a little more stilted with connections because the actors spent a lot of time facing out towards the audience rather than looking at who they were singing to. An added element to this production however was that every actor with the exception of Sweeney played an instrument. (The Sweeney in the Broadway version looks like he played acoustic guitar, but ours didn't) The casting was amazing because each performer had to play the appropriate instrument, look the part and sing the range of their character. It wasn't %100 on the money. Antony was a little tubby but had the most amazing tenor that it was fully forgiven, and the Beadle who is usually a 50ish fat guy was played by a drop dead georgious 30-something, but again between his acting and voice, all was forgiven. The judge played a muted trumpet, the lovers both played cello, Toby played violin... this was all live sound and as a former violin student it was obvious that everyone holding a stringed instrument had been TRAINED for years on their instruments, I can only assume the wind instruments were also played with expertise. I'll say it again; It was Beautiful.

Here is the clip from the Tony's of the revival production. I think it gives you a good sampler of the show. I wish I could have taken you all with me because most of you that I know read my blog would have loved it as much as I did. Sometimes it's nice to just be an audience member.

Labor Day Weekend

Well, what am I doing for labor day weekend? You're looking at it. I have three shows this weekend, which isn't so bad really. This particular moment however is a little dull. Usually there are people who hang out after the show but not this weekend. The bridge that connects the east bay to San Francisco is closed all three days so everybody is riding public transit and leaving early because of how long it takes to get home. My assistant is sick and went home earlier... so here I am waiting on laundry, alone. Sigh.

Monday; I get the whole day off! I can't wait!

Riddle me this;

Wouldn't it be easier to make eight button holes than eight hook& bar sets and five snaps?



... just a thought.

Patient must not be allowed to lick wounds.

Poor Dewalt got a foxtail gouged all the way through his foot. We were sure that it was a wire or glass, but it turns out it was just a wicked terrible weed. Now the dog has had a foxtail in every possible orafice except (knock on wood) his eye, and now he has his foot to add to the collection. The vet said that sometimes dogs can get foxtails so far up their noses that they can puncture the brain. What a horrid plant! Dewalt had it removed surgically and now has to wear a cone for the next two weeks. Originally he Hated the cone but now he is determined to not let it get in the way of leading a normal life. The advantage of the cone is that now the neighbor dogs, who usually bully him around, are now scared of him in his big darth vader like helmet.
The foot two days ago;

The foot today;




Ok, I'll do my best to find better things to post about than the dog. I'm just trying to keep these posts positive and other aspects of life are too frustrating to post about right now.... Until the next...

Dirt and stress

What a day! I spent the morning working for the Aurora Theater, and then snuck out at 2pm. I washed and vacuumed my car for the first time in over a month (ick!) and then I set to work on my "garden". I did not take a "before" picture because I hadn't initially set out to accomplish quite as much as I did.
It began with the lavendar bush. The shrub had taken over half the sidewalk so I initially set out to reduce it. I started cutting and found that the branches were all full of leaves and weeds. I ripped out dead sweet peas and an errant blackberry sprig. I raked out dead lavendar and grass. Then I began clearing away the grasses along the base of the bush, which lead to ripping out clumps of grass from what once was a flower bed. Then I decided that the rose bush right next to the lavendar had become too unrully. I trimmed it away from the hose spigot and then I trimmed the branches that had taken to growing along the ground.

Meanwhile the ants began to swarm and spiders tried escaping up the front wall of my house, I almost felt a bit squeamish thinking about them all retreating to the inside of my house. I treated the wall with some Chinese "death chalk" and continued.

I trimmed back the mint that had grown to weed status where it all bears thick stems and rough unuseable leaves. I continued to clear almost all the way to the place where you can see in the picture what looks like a hot mess of weeds. Then I planted the sweet basil plant that had been gifted to me over three weeks ago. It should be much happier in its big oak barrell than it was sitting in a small pot in the midst of our weeds.
The physical labor that did not resemble theater work and the final product that came from it actually improved my mood threefold. Which is a good thing because despite the fact that this was my "day off" even CalShakes insisted on sending me emails that had to be answered "immediatley"... eye twitching here... back spasiming just a bit... I think I have to go back outside and spend some time staring at the front of my house again. When I get a little more time off I'm going to plant something new in there and finish the job.

Backstage

ooh pretty...


Sorry, still working too hard to be a good blogger, but here's a backstage shot that I love.

What were you doing at 3am?

I was surfacing from a trance where in I sculpted this Dali mask. I got off of work at 1am, and had done about half of this work, but then spurned on by frustration and a touch of anger I was motivated to be productive and finish it all in one sitting... mind you I took on this project against my better judgement... I'm not getting paid enough to do fine craft work and I didn't run the manner of execution by the designer... I was just struck that this was a project I wanted to do because it looked like fun... basically even if it doesn't make it on stage I'll still be fine with that, but I love the result. Now we wait for it to dry and pray that it doesn't all fall apart...

Here is the original Salvador Dali photograph the mask is based on.

Here is the mask (drying and in progress)

a couple of detail shots...

So sleepy

Nothin' much to report... just wanted to put up a new post... the dog and I are spending our down time relaxing.

feng-shui

A new Theater company to work for; The Aurora Theater, located next to Berkeley Rep...

... and this is my room.

It's dark and doesn't flow. The fitting space isn't convenient or big enough...

It really is the basement, but right now it FEELS like the basement...

So tomorrow I will be working on making it a more hospitable place to habitate.

I already bought a bunch of plastic storage bins and drawers for little things... so I'm actually pretty excited to be able to move everything around and make it all more beautiful. Hopefully an update will come later showing massive improvement.

Double Show Day

Today was a day dreaded by all. The double show day in the middle of July is usually the hottest and most uncomfortable times at Cal Shakes. Today we were fortunate enough to have a show that was probably only 90 degrees, whereas in the past this time slot has been as hot as 120 on deck! Our leading man did not melt and our actors in hell (Don Juan in Hell... Shaw) made it through without heat stroke. There was a little frustration surrounding melting scenery and general personality conflicts magnified by the heat and potential heat stroke... but we've made it. One more show and then we're on to the next... I'll miss this cast though, they were quite lovely.

Happy Birthday to Alex

Yes another Leo Birthday (and one more to come). For those who do not know the handsome fellow on this post, he is one of my dearest friends in the whole world and I have now known him for twelve years! He is the other half of my brain which explains why I can get scattered at times (the other half of my brain lives in Hamburg) . His mother and I agree that he sometimes takes himself too seriously, but I think that he's been working on that a lot in the past decade. Alex is a brilliant scenic designer, a detail oriented artisan, a philosopher and has a sparkeling soul.
Yay Alex!
Wish I could take you out for a celebration today but I'm afraid my teleporter is on the fritz.

Karma

Notice the reving of the engine; Mercedes' safety feature here makes the airbag sensativity increase when the engine is at high speeds (or just revving like this)... ouch.

Happy Birthday Mom!

A poem I found for my momma;

My Treasure Chest is filled with gold
gold... gold... gold...
Vagabond's gold and drifter's gold...
worthless, priceless dreamer's gold...
gold of the sunset... gold of the dawn
gold of the shower trees on my lawn
poet's gold and artist's gold
gold that cannot be bought or sold...
Gold.
-Dan Blanding



You were a really cute little kid (creepy how much my baby pics look like yours)...

Sending a b-day card soon... just trying to get my act together... so it will be a real surprise when it gets there.

I Love you.