Happy Mothers' Day, Everyone!
My parents are traveling, so I didn't go down the shore this weekend to see my mother, but I did phone earlier in the day and they are having a lovely time driving from their place in Florida back to New Jersey.
The two performances of Arabian Nights on Friday and Saturday went well, despite Friday's show being a bit rough due to our having been off for six days. My friend Eric came Friday night and didn't hate it, which was very nice of him.
If you're interested in catching the show, tickets have been available on Play-By-Play, the ticket papering service. You have to be a member (which I'm not), but, if you are, it's been there.
One funny thing happened on Saturday. Well, maybe "funny" is the wrong word. Here's the thing...I developed a particular recurring bit over the course of our rehearsals and my scene partner for the scenes in which I'm doing this bit picked up on it and together we built it into a nice little thing. In fact, our director praised the bit in notes we got just before the opening.
So okay...
Well, we're in one of those scenes on Saturday and I look across the stage and realize that one of my fellow actors had actually stolen my bit. Wow. For those of you who aren't in the business, this is pretty much not done. People have famously gotten fired for stealing bits from their show's more famous headliners. Actors are supposed to come up with their own business unless the director has specifically told them to copy another actor. Problem is that, when this happens, it's the person complaining who tends to look like the bitch, rather than the person who did the stealing.
Hmmm...
Well, lucky for this actor, I don't particularly care. If we had more performances than we do or if this was a higher profile project than it is, I might say something. But it is what it is and I don't care enough to call this person out for doing this.
Truth to tell, my impression is that this actor doesn't have a whole lot of training or experience so I'm choosing to be flattered that he'd want to steal a bit that I created. I have a lot of tools in this particular toolbox and I'm not going create a stink because this person doesn't have as many tools at his disposal as I do.
But I did spend the whole rest of that scene on Saturday thinking "HEY! BITCH STOLE MY BIT!!!"
So today was my day for running into random people on the street. I love that about New York. If you live in an area where you drive from place to place in cars instead of walking around, you really miss this aspect of life. And it's fun. And totally random.
I saw Person #1 on 26th Street as I was leaving an audition and heading up to temp job interview. This was a guy I've done some work for in the past it was nice to catch up for two minutes on the sidewalk.
Person #2 was someone who'd been at a show I'd volunteer ushered at on Sunday night and recognized me. He stopped me to talk for a minute as we passed each other on 5th Avenue.
And Person #3 was a friend from Village Light Opera who I ran into on 9th Avenue as I was finally making my way home from all my travels today. We also took a few minutes to catch up on the corner before heading off in opposite directions.
You just don't get this kind of stuff when you're tooling around town in your car. Just one of the many things I love about urban living in general and New York in particular.
Hey! It's me!
This article was a long time in gestation. Originally, I got hooked up with this writer from The New York Daily News by Jeff. I was in the UK and the writer and I spoke on the phone for a good long while about the health care situation in this country and how specifically that related to my life. Then, she sent a free-lance photographer and got some shots of me around Tim's apartment and in the front yard of his building. As you can see, the shot that was used was me in Tim's kitchen.
That was back in February and the story has just made it to the Daily News' website. It's not in the print edition of the paper, but you can't have everything, can you?
The performance this afternoon was a bit lower key than last night's, but the audience still seemed to like it. I've been thinking and I've decided to go ahead and post the details. Come if you're interested in seeing me in something. If you're not, no big deal.
Arabian Nights
Michael Chekhov Theatre Company
45th Street Theatre
354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
Friday, May 9th at 7.00pm
Saturday, May 10th at 3.00pm
Friday, May 16th at 7.00pm
Saturday, May 17th at 3.00pm
Note: There is a another cast that performs the show on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7.00pm during the run. I'm sure they are terrific, but I'm not in the show at those performances.
Admission: $18. (Kids under 10 get in free.)
I've heard that tickets have been available on at least one of the popular papering services that many people here in New York utilize. If you're a member of one of those, it's probably worth checking out to see if the show is listed.
So the play I've been rehearsing opened tonight. Despite a stressful rehearsal period that rivaled any I've endured, we got the thing open.
And it went well. I was pleased. People seemed pleased with my work. So, okay.
I haven't written much about this one here, because the rehearsals have often left me frustrated and stressed, rather than feeling creative and fulfilled. Or creatively fulfilled. I'm sure you know how that goes.
So I've been torn about inviting people to this. It's been available on at least one of the papering services and I've advised at least one friend to pick up a ticket that way if he's interested in checking it out.
Here's the thing...this is more children's theatre. Which is fine. But I don't know anyone with children of the appropriate age, which is, say, 6-10 years old or so. And it's hard for me to ask my friends to pay $18 for children's theatre, me or not. Hence the papering recommendation.
I'm going to think on this and may post the full details tomorrow. In the meantime, if you want the details, drop me a line and I'm happy to provide them.