On the Stage

I've always loved curtain calls, they're so much fun to do. Run out from the wings and bow to your ever grateful audience ;-) No, really though, to run out from the wings give a big grin and bow, it just feels good, and you're done with the show for the night and hopefully you did well!!

Well...we got our curtain call rehearsal last night, and for the first time ever I have the last bow! I'm so excited, and it feels so good :-) I just hope I can stay healthy the rest of this week for the performances and perform my little tushie off!!!

Last night went great. Basically how I describe it is, if last night was the show we are giving to the audience it would be great. There are some things that need to tighten up and lines that can be sharper, which we can tighten up tonight, so by Wednesday it's drop-dead fantastic!

AND AND AND

I set this post aside for a few minutes and now I'm back to say V just picked up the programs from Copyworks that I designed and she said they look great, AND because I designed and did everything but print it I saved the troupe $700!!! WOW! That feels good. And that will look great on V's budget she'll turn in at the end of this show.

Wish me "break a leg" for the rest of this week. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully, to tell you how tonight's final dress rehearsal went, but then after that I'll be off of work for a week and a half (for performances and for V's family in town) so I more than likely wont post until I come back to work. Though I'll try to pop in next Monday after all the performances are over to let you all know if the show went off without a hitch or not!

SEE YA!

I played a bad boy like this from 5th grade through my senior year of college. Ok, so 5th grade-high school I wasn't playing as shiny of an instrument, and it was not a four-valve, but college I was playing a beauty like that.

I got one for Christmas from my parents 3 or 4 years back and I haven't drug it out to play it that much, and it has a sticky valve (got a non-brand off eBay, guess I get what I pay for) and so I need to take it into Reiman or some place and have it worked on. But MAN I miss playing!

We had one kick ass band in high school (1's at every level of competition) and an even kick ass-er band in college. We played some heavy duty stuff and it was the time of my life. Band/Choir/Theatre at college was just the best! I live for those activities, and to have band/choir rehearsals everyday for an hour each, and then most times go to theatre rehearsal at the end of the day for hours and hour was the life! Staying in the dorm with my best buddies and eat at "the rot" as much food as I could shove in my stomach...fantastic.

But sometimes that big band, beautiful sound we made...I miss it.

Hopefully tonight I'll be able to drag out the 'ol "euphie" and play some...afterall, I don't have ITW rehearsal tonight.

And V's mom and dad and brother are coming from Washington tomorrow for a week!!! Excited!! Then NEXT Saturday her sister and her husband come in and stay for a week!! And I get Monday off, then go to work Tues and Wed. then take Thursday and Friday off then the entire next week off...THAT, my friends, is exciting!

Last night went considerably better!

The only problem was that my Baker's Wife was gone for the first 45 of the show! She has to work late, and so I had to do a number of scenes without her, most of the time with someone saying her lines for her and then when we had to sing it was either me counting until my part, or the conductor would sing her part...that was tough, but then when she came back all was good.

I didn't mess up any of my songs (well I missed one two word two note part of a song but we moved right past it).

Tonight I'm really looking forward to making things tighter and smoother. The orchestra and I had some problems staying together on "No More" but that is party because that's the second time we've ever done it, and, I wasn't counting :-/

I'll def. need to review my song and how long notes should be and rests and what not. There's always room for taking your own liberties, and I do that, but there are parts where I should be counting and I'm not, I'm just feeling the music and when to come in.

I've never been the greatest counter in the world. I rely a lot on feeling and knowing when to come in and what not, and it does work tremendously for me, but there are times when I need to count, and I do that no problem, mostly. But it is virtually impossible for me to count WHILE singing, so if I feel like holding my note out for more than 2 beats, knowing I am only suppose to hold it for 2 beats then 4 beats of rest then back in, and I hold it out longer AND don't count, then it's tough to know when to come back in without a solid cue from an instrument in the orchestra, which I do NOT have in "No More" for parts of it.

Sondheim is notorious for not giving you shit to work with in the accompaniment parts for his musicals! There is most definitely something going on down there in the pit, but it's nothing that helps the singer!

Sondheim is the most difficult musical theatre shows to do. Most difficult rhythms, most difficult lyrics, most difficult note structure...it's fantastic! and I love it!

I have been having a bitch of a time getting my mic to stay taped to the side of my face (because I sweat a lot...) and FINALLY my sister came to the rescue with actual face tape used in theare for this purpose, so, my mic was stuck to my face last night and it stayed there and it was a life saver! Thank You!

We shall see how tonight goes...!

After 2 nights ago's rehearsal I wasn't so sure this show was coming together fast enough but that almost always feels like the case at some point or another, and last night was just one of those off nights...after last night's rehearsal I know it's there and I know it'll happen, we just need to keep working at it :-)

Last night went HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!

Grrr, it just really knocks you down when you fuck up and do a horrible job at rehearsal. It was generally a rough, off night for everyone, three of us stopped during our solo songs and just BLANKED and had to get help from the conductor to get back on track. It just knocks you on your ass. I've lost virtually all confidence at this point, at least until I can do it without messing up. And it's on "No More" the song I've NEVER messed up. I love that song, it's my bread and butter. Grrrr....and I know I can get on track, and immediately after I said the wrong words I knew I had said the wrong words, but for some reason it just left and I just needed help, I guess. But then, last night it happened to Baker's Wife and to the Witch, the exact same thing. It must have been just one of those bad nights you have. I try not to let it get to me too much. In fact, I'm rarin' to go again tonight and get a good night under my belt again. We're running the entire show tonight, which rocks my world.

I love rehearsals, I love performing the Baker. I'm excited as hell for performances.

Meritt, I think I didn't mention in my nervous post that if I'm NOT nervous, then something is wrong! I need to be nervous to be on my toes and keyed up and tuned in. If I'm not nervous, then I'm nervous that I'm not nervous. But man is it hard to take all this nervous energy sometimes, it'll drive you nuts this feeling will sometimes!

Oh, there is still quite a ways to go for ITW, makes me a tad nervous, but shows ALWAYS come together, and this one will too. We're on the cusp of being great, and we'll get there, I know we will.

The program should be printed up today, it's nice to have that done. There's only one problem with it and I don't know how to fix it, so I guess we're stuck with that.


[CINDERELLA & BAKER]
Into the woods,
It's time to go,
It may be all
In vain, I know.
Into the woods-
But even so,
I have to take the journey.

[CINDERELLA, BAKER & WIFE]
Into the woods,
The path is straight,
I know it well,
But who can tell-

[BAKER & WIFE]
Into the woods to lift the spell-

[CINDERELLA]
Into the woods to visit Mother-

[BAKER'S WIFE]
Into the woods to fetch the things-

[BAKER]
To make the potion-

[CINDERELLA]
To got to the Festival-

[CINDERELLA, JACK, JACK'S MOTHER, BAKER, WIFE]
Into the woods
Without regret,
The choice is made,
The task is set.
Into the woods,
But not forget-
Ting why I'm on the journey.
(Little Red Riding hood Joins)
Into the woods
to get my wish,
I don't care how,
The time is now.

[JACK'S MOTHER]
Into the woods to sell the cow-

[JACK]
Into the woods to get the money-

[BAKER'S WIFE]
Into the woods to lift the spell-

[BAKER]
To make the potion-

[CINDERELLA]
To go to the Festival-

[LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD]
Into the woods to Grandmother's house...
Into the woods to Grandmother's house...

[ALL]
The way is clear,
The light is good,
I have no fear,
No no one should.
The woods are just trees,
The trees are just wood.
No need to be afraid there-

[CINDERELLA & BAKER]
There's something in the glade there...

[ALL]
Into the woods,
Without delay,
But careful no
To lose the way.
Into the woods,
Who knows what may
Be lurking on the journey?

Into the woods
To get the thing
That makes it worth
The lourneying.
into the owwds-

[STEMOTHER & STEPSISTERS]
To see the King-

[JACK & MOTHER]
To sell the cow-

[BAKER & WIFE]
To make the potion-

[ALL]
To see-
To sell-
To get-
To bring-
To make-
To lift-
To go to the Festival-!

Into the woods!
Into the woods!
Into the woods,
Then out of the woods,
And home before dark!

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nervous. It's one week and one day away from SHOWTIME and I am nervous as HELL. I always get shit-ass nervous though.

AH, so many things I wish I could share, so many things going on in my head, some having to do with Into the Woods, some not. Alas, I cannot, so I wont. I don't really have anyone in my life I can just open up to though, without fear of rejection or judgement, so that kind of sucks, maybe I SHOULD start another blog, but...I wont.

A friend of mine got back from NYC where she saw NINE shows, I did blog about this, remember? And she got me a crap ton of ads and playbills from all the shows!! It was like CHRISTMAS when I opened the package. AND...AND...she got me a personalized autograph from a leading lady on Broadway...none other than SUTTON FOSTER! How kickass is that?! She's such a good friend!

One week..................one day...............showtime................nervous

The set is not done yet, and the picture is blurry, but there is me, baker's wife, little red and granny.

I have been a skipper of blogging as of recent, sorry. I'm really busy, at work and at home with the rehearsals and everything else that's normally making me busy. I probably will be in and out until the week after my show too, since my in-laws are coming to hang out, so I'm taking the whole week after my show off to hang out with V's sister and her husband the week after the show and her mom and dad and brother the week of the show.

Things are going well though, the show is coming together, I'm getting really nervous, even though it's 2 weeks away, but that's also part of the reason WHY I'm nervous!

I'm still chugging away though, keep me in your thoughts if you have the time, I'm still thinking about you all!

This is a funny moment between Little Red and I when I take her cape. (out of costume except the cape in this pic.)

Last night we moved into the theatre! It just adds so much to actually be in the performance space, up on the stage with the lights and the ambiance. I am very happy with how the show is coming together. We have 17 days until performance, and there is DEFINITLY still work to be done, but it's all so exciting! We're actually doing it, it's coming together, it's running smoother. We're starting tech rehearsals (mics, lights, sfx, etc.) and soon dress rehearsals and from Tuesday on out we have rehearsals with the orchestra!!

That will be SO much fun to have the orchestra under us, yet at the same time so nerve-wracking. Because if we get off on the counting or beats our piano player can just catch up or slow down, however, the entier orchestra will not be able to bend and mold to us, we have to do it right. We have to come in on the right beats. And these songs are NOT easy. I've said this before, and if you know music and Into the Woods, you know how difficult Sondheim is. I have a few songs I need to jump in on like the and of 4 and another time on the and of 3 during a vamp while I'm delivering lines so I can't really lend my ear to hearing the vamp, it's all hard and all confusing to explain. Sorry, just rambling away.

BUT!!! We have a orchestra pianist now!!! The show CAN go on. Well, almost. We need a percussionist, or we're in trouble. We can do without the other things we're missing (though we'd rather not) but we need a percussionist.

We're getting closer though, and it's all so exciting!!

Kaia is EXCITED to go to The Wiggles!!

Daddy is EXCITED TOO!!

LOTS of people going to see The Wiggles!!

"Thanks for the AWESOME shirt, Daddy, but I DON'T want my picture taken."

"I suppose...maybe a half smile, but NO more!"

Ooooooh, the set :-)

The set without flash

One of two big screens. They had video cameras there that were broadcasting onto the big screens. Though we were in the balcony they were still great seats, so I didn't ever look at the screens.

"Let's get this show on the road already!"

Look at me and smile Kaia!

There ya go!

The obligatory arm-length shot of Daddy and Kaia having a good time :-D

"I'm all for taking pictures now!"

(We are getting a drink of water, waiting for the show to start.

"Alright already with the pictures!" (LOL)

More set photos. (This is when Daddy thought he had ALL NIGHT to take pictures...little did he know)

A good song came on the big screens and I made an excited face, so Kaia wanted to rehearse her excited face as well.

Yay! The announcer dude is out! He has an Australian accent...I LOVE IT!!

(This is when my camera started flashing a battery at me...I turned it off and waited until The Wiggles came out. Then the rest of the night was get a couple pictures, get the flashing battery, turn it off, turn it back on to get a few more, flashing battery, turn it off. Etc. Which SUCKS because I planned on taking a LOT of pictures and some videos and I COULDN'T. I hadn't used the camera in FOREVER, so I assumed the battery was full.)

THE WIGGLES!!!! IN THE BIG RED CAR!! Perfect entrance!

Seriously, you don't know how excited I was to take Kaia to see The Wiggles! They're international superstars, and they're all real. They were singing, dancing, laughing. I wish I could have gotten closer, I wish I could have talked to them or something.

Front and center Wiggles :-D

"In the Wiggles world, in the Wiggles world"

Dancin'

All of our friends are there! Henry the Octopus, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword (personal favorite of mine) and Wags the Dog.

Yeah, you go girl! Dancing in the aisles!

Murray and Captain Feathersword dancin' for something...I can't remember what they were doing.

"Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack Cock-a-doodle-doo"

It's all over :-(

Bye, bye Wags!

Bye, Bye WIGGLES!! Thanks for a great show!

It was 1 hour 30 minutes and it was all totally worth it. Loved it! Kaia loved it! Good fun.

I've been crazy busy recently!! Any and all free time has been spent on the program for Into the Woods. But, if I do say so myself, it's lookin' pretty darn good!

Tickets went on sale Monday! < Carnival barker voice> HURRY HURRY HURRY, get 'em will they're hot! < /carnival barker voice>



Rehearsals are going pretty good. I was really happy with Monday's rehearsal. We just went through Act 2 but it seemed to go very well. Minimal line forgetting, lyric forgetting. We keep going at it and all will be fine, I'm sure. There's some work to be done, inside of rehearsal and outside of rehearsal, but it's good.

I could actually write FOREVER about rehearsals, my opinions, what's been going on, good, bad, the people I love the most, the people I like, and the people I don't like. BUT...seeing as how this blog is NOT anonymous...I wont.

Othen than that...not much else. Kaia is doing good, she's hilarious! My aunt and uncle were up to visit from Illinois, and I couldn't believe it, but she warmed right up to them! She's getting so much better and being a little more outgoing.

I am going to the eye doctor today...oooooooh exciting, I know!

The in-laws will be here in 17 days and 24!! I'm excited. And in 22 days I'm taking 7 days off of work!!!! And in 20 days I GET a day off for Memorial Day!

I applied for some jobs that I"m excited to see if they go anywhere.

I think that's about it. So sorry to everyone out in blog world I normally come and comment on :-( I've been a horrible slacker!! Sometimes I just get around to read and move on...I still love ya though! ;-) Yes, you...no, no...not YOU, you go on now, I'm talking to you.

There are only two rules to this game and you MUST follow them.


1. You can only say YES or NO!
2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone asks!




Have you Ever:


Taken a picture naked? -- yes
Danced in front of your mirror naked? -- yes
Told a lie? -- yes
Had a one night stand? -- no
Been in a fist fight? -- no
Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back? -- yes
Been arrested? -- no
Fooled around in your parents house? -- yes
Ditched school to have sex? -- no
Slept in a bed with a member of the same sex? -- yes
Seen someone die? -- no
Kissed a picture? -- no
Slept in until 3? -- yes
Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by? -- yes
Played dress up? -- yes
Fallen asleep at work/school? - yes
Touched a snake? -- yes
Ran a red light? -- yes
Had detention? -- no
Been in a car accident? -- no
Pole danced? -- no
Been lost? -- yes
Sang karaoke? -- yes
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? -- yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? -- no
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? -- yes
Kissed in the rain? - yes
Sang in the shower? -- yes
Gave your private parts a nickname? -- yes
Ever gone to school/work without underwear? - no
Sat on a roof top? -- yes
Played chicken? -- no
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? -- no
Broken a bone? -- yes
Mooned/flashed someone? -- yes
Had sex with your socks on? -- yes
Slept naked? -- yes
Blacked out from drinking? -- no
Played a prank on someone? -- yes
Felt like killing someone? -- yes
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? -- yes
Cried over someone? -- yes
Had sex more than 10 times in one day? -- no
Had/Have a dog? -- yes
Been in a band or played an instrument? -- yes
Taken more than 10 shots of alcohol ? -- no
Shot a gun? -- yes
at someone? -- no
Played strip poker? -- yes

As most of you know, I do rarely get stressed. Things just don't usually get to me bad enough to get stressed. Pretty calm and collected. But I'm stressed right now. This program for Into the Woods just isn't coming together like I hoped it would, and there are outside forces that I depend on to get me some things and that isn't happening and I'm running out of time and I don't feel like it'll be up to standards and it's a little overwhelming. And this ontop of all the other things going wrong with Into the Woods and just life in general, it's a bit stress worthy. And our wireless still isn't working and I don't have time to try and fix it. I just want to be actor...I don't want to know what's not getting done or what's going wrong. I don't want to do the program anymore.

I'm stressed.

This is me singing "No More" in rehearsal Monday for Into the Woods. This is a little embarassing to post, so I may delete it if I get too self-conscious. I'm the first guy singing, then you should recognize my voice from then out. I have the younger voice. The other guy who sings is the mysterious man. Should be easy to figure out who I am. He just sings a part in the middle then I finish out the song.

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This is my "Look what this hen just laid in my hand!"

Here is a snippet from the interview Paul Rudd did with broadway.com it sums it up nicely and I really wanted to share:

After your success in movies and on Friends, no one would have been surprised if you'd given up theater, and yet you continue to do low-profile readings in addition to full productions. Why?
I love it! Theater is the most enriching and thrilling thing to do as an actor. It trumps movies and all that other stuff. People say, "You must love the instant feedback," and we're all attention whores for sure—that's why we choose this profession. But it goes beyond that: There's something magical about a shared experience in a theater, with actors and an audience. I don't know if the audience members realize just how huge a part they play in a production. How they are determines how we are, and when it all works, it's magical. I still remember plays I saw 15 years ago; it's resonant in a way that films can't be, even though I love movies. It's right there, and when it's over, it's over. There's something so cool about that. And there are so many great plays to do! Last but not least, it is the one way to improve as an actor. When you have to do the same thing every day and try to make it work every day, you get better. You understand subtext and character dynamics more. I read scripts differently because of the plays I've done.

Our wireless internet is broken and we can't seem to fix it, so we're very frustrated with that, and there's really no one to call to come over and help us fix it. After being on the phone with an out-sourced Indian fella I can hardly understand for a good 2 hours without fixing it (while his voice I can hardly hear and mine is blaring in echo right back out the phone at me) I finally hung up because I was literally going psycho. I guess I'll have to try again later and hope I get a better connection and a better Indian dude I can understand.

After a day of trying to fix it I was just plain DONE though, I had given up, so now if we want the internet we have to take V's laptop over to the end of the couch and use an ethernet cord hooked up from her laptop to the back of the modem up on our TV and sit there and use it.

When wireless internet doesn't work properly, it is a day ruiner. It just frustrates me beyond most anything in the world. The otherwise calm and collected Lars just wants to throw things or curl up in a ball and cry. I went through the problems with the D-Link guy (that's where our router is from) and he got me to the router set up wizard and got off the phone (those guys just want ot get off the phone as soon as possible) and said it'd work after I did the wizard. So I did it (keep in mind we've had this router for about 3 years now and it's always worked) and so I did it, and I set a name for our router (the reason it doesn't have a name is another long wireless internet not working story) and encrypted it so it was security-enabled and then was done. Unhooked the hardwired shit and refreshed the available networks. Our router showed up, security-enabled and all, and so I hit connect and it went looking for the network or whatever and popped up a nice "this network could not be found in range" or some shit and said to refresh the available networks again...so I did, and NOTHING was there. I proceeded to go over this a number of times with the Indian fella and went through some other shit and then he said he'd transfer me to the network guys, and after being on hold for 10 minute (on the phone for about 3 hours total) I gave up, hung up, and said FUCK IT. Earlier in the day I had talked ot the Mediacom guy who assured me it was nothing with their connection and everything was fine on their end, it must be the router, which I believed to be true too, so then is when I called D-link.

UGH IT MAKES ME WANNA SCREAM!!!

Doug? Making a trip up this way anytime soon? :-D