grey skies are gonna clear up

Been up for eight hours on two hours of sleep, and it's only noon! Man and I are literally on opposite schedules - he went to bed just as I was leaving the house this morning. Albeit I was leaving at five AM to work a SpikeTV Pros VS Joes event at Madison Square Garden. Now I've come home, crawled into bed, and awakened him so he can get to work by one.

Lots is new, and lots is awesome. Man moved from Texas to NYC, and we are having a time of it. We did, in fact, have champagne in Tennessee on New Years' Eve. We are nearly moved out of the apartment on 106th street, which is depressing, but onwards and upwards! We are moving uptown by a few blocks, into Mom's apartment - as she is moving out, to live with Teach! It's quite the shuffle. Most of our days consist of downloading an absurd amount of movies, trading pants, working weird hours, doing RTC biz and chattering to each other in strange voices.

Heath Ledger died. What the fuck.

I got this fantastic job, working with kids in the Drop-Out Prevention Program at Norman Thomas High School, here in Manhattan. I'll be directing the first play they've done in 15 years, and I think we'll be writing an original. The woman who hired me was interested in putting up "Waiting for Godot" with a similar design to the Out of the Nest production I did a few years ago, but when I got to the site, the kids seemed way...disinterested in that. I'll take my cues off them and see what we can put together. Either way, I'm following through on the promise I made to myself when I walked out of the Central Park Boathouse in May 2007 - if I have to starve first, I will make my living in the theatre realm, and I will not take a shitty full time bread job.

And I have nearly starved (in fact, still working on crawling out of the hole a bit, but I can see the light) waiting for a job - this job - the right job. Here I am. STOKED, man.

And look out for the RTC, because we are about to do a HUGE marketing and fundraising push...because we have all kinds of good stuff up-n-comin.

2008 SHOW SCHEDULE (thus far):

1) Tango Ballet Performance
by Sophomore Dancers at Talent Unlimited HS
When: February
Role: Costume Designer

2) Decades Ballet Performance
by Junior/Senior Dancers at Talent Unlimited HS
When: March
Role: Costume Designer

3) Beckett Shorts including Catastrophe, Play, and Come & Go
by The Real Theatre Company at Trinity High School, Talent Unlimited, and possibly other schools
When: Throughout the spring
Role: Director/Producer

4) Untitled Show
at Norman Thomas High School
When: May
Role: Producer/Director, possibly Playwright

5) Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
at Talent Unlimited HS
When: May
Role: Costume Designer

6) How I Learned to Drive
by The Real Theatre Company at Theatre Row (directed by PJ)
When: June
Role: Co-Producer

7) Gorey Stories
by The Real Theatre Company
When: October
Role: Director

8) Bye Bye Birdie
by The Real Theatre Company
When: December
Role: Director


Holy...gosh. It's only January and there's 8 shows booked. I'm terrified, but that's like catnip for me. I wanna put that list on the floor and roll around in its wonderful fantasticness.

Oh, and as of yesterday, I've been fingerprinted by the Department of Education - I'm in the system, man. Eeeeek!

second morning

There's a thing I do that I think must be very specific to freelancers and people in the arts. It's called the Second Morning.

So you get up for the first time. You're running just barely on time to make a morning appointment for your Bread Job, an audition, a rehearsal, a something. The Something takes an hour or two, you finally eat something. You head home. Then, when you put your key in the door, the Second Morning begins. It's still very much daylight, and it's although it's 2 or 3 or 4 PM, the house is still in a state of 10 AM. You make coffee. Maybe you even get back in your pajamas. Take that shower you didn't have time to take when you breezed out for the First Morning. You check your email.

I love Second Mornings. I'm already on the go, so I'm more inspired to do all the personal work I have to do - theatre paperwork, character research and the like - but there's not that nasty time factor when there's a pressing outside world appointment impending. The outside world has been handled. Now all I have is a show to attend tonight, when the sun is down. The day is mine, and I can face the rest of it in sweatpants.

-----------------------

The Playhouse time is fairly complete. I got a strange cameo role in the Final Plays - I'm the Madonna in a Pintauro short called "Fiat." I am slightly disappointed, but I think it might turn out to be a surprise. And I can't look a gift horse in the mouth here. I'm involved in three other productions that require my immediate attention, and I've totally neglected them in favor of being a Nei-Play slave. Now I've been given the time to work on these things. And get a real job. So, to add to the list I made months ago, 2007 shows now include:

#6: "Footloose" at Talent Unlimited High School
I will be: the costume designer

#7: Undetermined Real Theater Company Straight Play, starring Sessoms
I will be: the director/producer

and work for "Greece is the Word," (formerly known as "Untitled Greek Mythology Play") at Hunter Elementary, and the RTC production of "Hair" are in full swing.

-------------------------

Mom & I are each other's primary collaborators. I usually have a second and a third floating around, and it seems the primaries in 2007 are definitely Sessoms and Swank. I got very lucky, because...they both kick major ass, for very different reasons. The things I have in development for 2008 and beyond seem so much more possible because of the two of them.

Last night, after our final Gary Ramsey presentation (oh thank heaven!), Swank, Sweetheart, Daisy & I met up with Sessoms at Blackstone's...in daylight, which was truly bizarre. The bar was full of suits, so we ate our food, drank our beer and headed up to my place. Boss & Metro are in Disneyworld, so it was a weird Maggie Moon-hosted party, and Swank became my co-host (I bought eggs to dye and halfway through our shared bottle of Hypnotiq, had a very difficult time figuring out how to hard-boil them, so he assisted). With Sessoms came the ever-mysterious Professor and another first year, Goldlist. Somewhere along the line, far into the alcohol, past the egg-dye, the SceneIt! and the altercation with my {gap-toothed lazy bitchass} next door neighbor, Sessoms & Professor are in the bathroom having one of their talks, Daisy & Sweetheart are thumbing through my Hippie book together, and Swank and I are dancing about. Goldlist exclaims, in frustration:

"This is just great. Here I am with the adorable redheads, the glam-rock biters, and the crazy drama couple. Great."

Later, when it was nothing but the biters hanging out, I spilled my life dream for Swank's perusal. He got a grin on his face that made me feel like a magician.


Today, I got a job at the Central Park Boathouse. Looks like Daisy, my old directorial pal Nikki, and me shall be hash slinging hostesses this summer. Unless something more lucrative comes along.

I'm imagining myself living in abundance...

loosen up my buttons, babe

but you keep frontin
sayin what you gon' do to me
but i ain't seen nothin'



The juxtaposition of such wicked bad dance pop along with the type of day I've had is weird.

The morning began strangely. I woke up an hour late, which never ever happens. Jetted out the door with Metro in a cab, Boss opting to nurse one of her many many illnesses and steer clear of "stage combat" class. I checked my bag for scripts. Check. Checked my brain for what the day entailed.

It's a rough thing, a fult tilt NP day. If you do it right. By the time I get to the point where I can sit on my bed and try to complete non-NP work, I have:

1. read, had critiqued and re-read a Showcase scene
2. written another Showcase scene
3. learned Spanish choreography
4. played class stage manager
5. gotten my Joan LaPucelle monologue on its' feet for Gary
6. rehearsed "Danny & the Deep Blue Sea"
7. done 40 minutes of alignment
8. bought and read half of a teacher-recommended book on myths & folklore

So then I talk to my primary collaborator - Ms. Mom - and get the lowdown on the pages she needs for the Hunter show she's directing and I'm writing. I get a phone call from Ms. Nasty, and arrange to help her with her choreography. I re-read a Greek myth, cross-reference online, write the scenes Ms. Mom needs, make notes in the Hair diary, practice my song for NP twice and somewhere in there, cook dinner and do laundry.

AAAAAAAAGHHHHH.

Inventory makes it even more frightening. I know we only have a month of class left, so I have to remember NOT to think about it, and merely soldier on. Because a lot of REALLY REALLY good shit is going on, and I thank God & the fates for that. Pausing to take stock is not an option.

Although, on Saturday, for my birthday event, pausing to take drugs IS an option.

Judge away...with seven days of my schedule, I reserve my right to recreate when I turn double 2s.