disturbia

Currently waiting for Verizon to come by the Bread Job and install new phone lines. They've got an hour and fifteen left in the designated window. I am not particularly optimistic. My experience with these guys and the demons over at Time Warner Cable is equally wretched.

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Aussie has been mentioning her interest in starting a monologue group up for actor-practice. I need to keep my chops in good working order as well, and I told her I would be psyched to hang out, tweak, critique and help shape one-minutes, two-minutes, Shakespeares, contemporaries, etc. once a week. We could work out of the Commune in Queens (where Aussie, PJ, Sessoms & Miss Kim all live), or all throw down about 5 bucks and rent a TR or Shetler space. I'm more in favor of the rental; rehearsals in a house tend to be distracting. Anyone interested?

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Man is sound board op for King of Shadows down at Theater for the New City. I went to the opening with Sessoms on Sunday. Besides the room being downright frosty, it was a decent experience. The sound design (done by the delightful M.L. Dogg) was actually my favorite part - in fact, the design of everything was gorgeous. The performances were a little, er, confusing to me - a lot of the show seemed muddled, and very disconnected. I kept wanting to yell "Talk like humans!," but I don't know if this was the fault of actors, director, or writer...or if it was done intentionally.


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The first "real" theatre work I ever did in NYC, I was 17. I had an internship at Chicago City Limits, and I was submitting my ten minute play "Spoons" to every address I could find. The very prolific Theatre Studio Inc. Playtime series picked it up. I was stoked.

I wound up doing a bunch of things at TSI around that time - acting in several other plays, doing a few different runs of "Spoons." It wasn't particularly glamorous, but it was a really great, friendly way to get broken in to the theatre scene. I haven't been back to TSI since 2003, when I performed as Sudi in a show my friend wrote called "Sudi's Day Comes." I hear they got a new space, revamped their programs (they're caled TheatreVision now), and I keep seeing their calls for directors in Backstage.

So...I bit the bullet, and sent an email saying whattup.

I recieved a response pretty quickly, and I gather I will be directing a...something?...for the Octoberfest Bar-ometrics Pressures Festival. Rock n roll.

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In Other News:

-Congrats to Daisy for booking Theatreworks Christmas Carol tour!! Daisy definitely has the biggest rack of any Tiny Tim ever. I am allowed to say this cuz we is BFF.

-Please come check out RTC's Bal Masqué, to raise funds for our 2009 season. We have some really wonderful performances planned and will be silent-auctioning off a lot of cool shtuff - framed, signed David Bowie artwork, an original '79 Rocky Horror poster, tix to NY City Ballet, baskets of alcohol...come!

-I don't know what to be for Halloween yet. This is not good!

you walked me down 14th street

Summertime...

What the fuck is going on, dude?

I feel very disconnected from my life, man. Kinda floating above it, glancing at it, and giggling. Brother is over, listening to angry Eminem tracks (it's a nostalgic thing, I gather). I'm hangin out in a cowboy hat, from PJ's collection (he used to sell hats and soap for extra cash...), and anticipating an evening of Chinese food and Batman Begins. I am surrounded by a pile of incomplete work and emails.

We're producing a show at NP in August, that PJ is directing. The title being tossed around was "Will It Hurt?" but it strikes me as inappropriate (despite it being apropos of the content) and makes Sessoms think of anal sex, so at the moment, it's still without a name.

Ah, we've moved on to bluegrass. The original version of "Man of Constant Sorrow." Highly recommended.

Out and about in the village with Sessoms, Rye and eventually Boss proved highly successful, and soothed my soul. Going out and getting plastered is not the answer to life's problems, but it definitely helps on occasion. Especially when dancing, wicked DJs, ghetto mixes of Smirnoff and vitamin water, purple shirts and intrigue are involved.

Ah, we've moved onto the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Brother proves to be a mildly skitzophrenic DJ.

I did manage to snag a new bread job, thanks to my ever-generous friend Mr. John Gallagher, who helps me out more than I feel I deserve. (Oh no, Brother has returned to the living room with months-old dregs found in various drawers - "We don't have to scrape the bowl!" he declares gleefully) Other things on the ol' noggin':

-How to keep Jive in the country...what is life without a giddy blonde to take you out to watch soccer and speak Italian? What is life without long, bi-or-trilingual messages about lord-only-knows left on your voicemail?

-Rufus Wainwright's "14th Street" on a constant loop

-...occasionally interrupted by Pat Benatar wailing "We Belong"

-celebrity chefs

-the Grand Guignol and how to recreate 19th century blood effects

-Gas prices. If I'm assistant to the director on "Digger" and Ariel in the Tempest, I will, presumably, be driving. And thus, filling a gas tank. Blast!

-your mom...


xoxo

cleaning out the closet

I must face it. I'm a freakin' pack rat. I have so much junk, and half of it isn't even in my apartment.

So, as it pours outside, and I am thusly relieved of my Legally Blonde-hawkin', I stay put and try desperately to part with some of the crap that I own. Some of it is really nice crap. Please, if you are interested in owning some superfunky cool clothes, let me know. I want them to have a home.

If my life were a reality show, I would say that these last few months have been "like, such an emotional rollercoaster." Only, like, I'm not competing for Bret Michaels affections, or the key to Tila's heart. I am no one's rock of love, nor am I particularly fierce. But man, I rocked me some shows in the last few months. That whole list is down, and now, after a week of post-show depression, I'm teeter-tottering back onto the horse to pick up all the projects I dropped during my frantic gallop through the spring.

Oh, oops, there's US, better grab that. Oh fuck me, I dropped all of the RTC season shows too? Crap.

There's only so many shows a person can pull off at one time. Boy did I learn that the hard way.

Last night, in between screeching phone arguments with Man, Daisy & I helped Aussie & PJ repaint their old room white - having just moved into their full-on HOUSE in Astoria. As we slathered on a few coats of the cheapest paint the local hardware place could offer ($17.99 a can, and it lived up to its price), and danced around the perimeter of their abandoned bed-bugged bed, PJ started up the theatre nostalgia questions.

PJ: What was your first role in a play?
Aussie: I played a daisy in a spring performance.
Me: I was Mother Earth in Snow White. Even though there is no Mother Earth in Snow White.
Daisy: That is so Woodstock.
PJ: So what were you, Daisy?
Daisy: I was Maria in Twelfth Night. In Shakespeare Camp.
Me, Aussie, PJ: Whoooo, fancy!

I like my friends.

I need to pack for Woodstock. Now everything looks so cleaned-up and serene - even Man, who's asleep on the couch - I don't want to leave it. But I have more closets to gut through up there, and a Grandma to visit.

xoxo
M

award show thought

I would really like to win one of those, like, right before a big Nei-Play reunion or something. A Tony. Yeah. I said it. I would like two other people I know to win some also. And I'd like 'em all to be for the same show.

I would file this under "do-able."

Come on. Don't act like you don't want one too.
You know you spend tonight planning your speech.
You wouldn't be a normal performing artist if you didn't.


We did a wicked-fun photo shoot this morning for the PG project (Boy, Man, Aussie, PJ, Babydoll, and Boy's boy all took part)....for which it was difficult to wake up on time, as I spent last night watching the Nei-Play Shetacular 2008 and drinking altogether too much. Last night actually marked my first time ever leaving Blackstone's in a good mood. As I reflected to Man when we arrived home, it was much due to the fact that I {well, we} were able to do 'the fun part' of acting like single people, but still wind up at home with each other. I will be the first to admit, I flirted SHAMELESSLY with a couple of people (cough...cough...Kiwi...cough), then ran around with Man actually unhooking girls' bra straps...yeah. And I managed to exit the bar in this jovial mood! Most nights I've spent in a shameless flirt at Blackstone's end up with me, or one of my girlfriends, crying or almost-crying, and storming home drunk and unhappy. So score for changing history!

Um...over n out.

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!