You Can't Spell "Theatre" Without "The"

When Matthew & I were first starting out, he'd come over to my apartment & was checking out my dvd collection and pointed at the musicals stash and said, "What's that about? Were you in those or something?"

It's funny how much I've been thinking about that question recently.  Dammit, he's so good at that and he doesn't even MEAN to be.

In, maybe 3rd grade?, we read a play and I loved everything about it, the way it was formatted, that it took multiple people to read it out loud....etc.  So, I wrote my own starring the Christmas tree and my brother.  The tree spoke with flickering lights I'd blink on and off while doing voice over from underneath it while my brother played his part standing next to the tree.  If you ask her, my mother will not remember this happening.

We did some plays and puppet shows in church, but during high school, I missed out on any sort of drama club because it was either unavailable or I was already working and didn't have time for extra-curricular activities.
Luckily, that's the only thing I'd ever really say, "If I had to do it over again..." for.
Apopka High School did two productions while I was there, Our Town (yes, I cried) and Show Boat which had the most impressive stage boat set I'd ever seen.  That fucker was two stories and REVOLVED in 2 separate pieces so the outside of the boat was one set and the inside of it another.

My grandparents owned a music store when we were growing up and were into musicals, so The Music Man and The Sound of Music were annual staples and I was obsessed with one of my grandmother's music boxes that had a couple dancing while a Phantom of The Opera song played.
Maybe it's a genetic thing that I'm a musicals fan.  My favorite is when someone says they "hate muscials" but can then sing along to most songs in the movie versions.
Like my mom says that she hates musicals (...or just most things...) but then knows all the songs from Fiddler On The Roof, or Porgy and Bess, or 7 Brides For 7 Brothers.

Rent and Ragtime are probably my two freakin' favorites and Chicago would be the show I'd almost certainly die to be in.
Perhaps in another life.

Last week, I teased a little about being over at Mad Cow.

About a month ago and after a few weeks of bugging the Production Manager, and email bombing the overhire program alias, I received a reply asking if I'd be interested in being a Stage Manager for some upcoming shows. (there were a lot of strange high pitched happy noises that followed simply due to receiving a reply)  My response to them included the fact that I'd be starting out completely green and that it would be better for me to jump into an Assistant Stage Manager position first so I could eat everyone's brains and gain their knowledge.
After doing some homework, what I liked about this was that it paralleled my old gig as a Sales Associate/Inside Sales Support but instead of a District Manager, I now have a director.  Instead of a sales team, there's a cast of actors.  Instead of the operations team, there are the production teams.  There was a slight sense of familiarity making it not completely feel like I'd be a mermaid out of water.
So, for the past couple of weeks, I've been playing the role of Assistant Stage Manager for Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

As soon as I found out which show I'd be working, it was time for more homework.
First, was a viewing of the Liz Taylor/Paul Newman/Burl Ives 1958 movie version.
Then I found out that Tennessee Williams hated that flick, so I went over to YouTube and found a Jessica Lange/Tommy Lee Jones/Rip Torn 1984 PBS version...which was pretty stinkin' great.
The father/son relationships and struggles being a strong and common theme, I told Matthew that his freakin' family was ripe for a Tennessee Williams play. If Mick is reading this, I'm sure he'd agree.
My next round of homework is more research on Tennessee Williams and to read a book one of our actors wrote.

Will keep you guys posted as we go.

The show opens Friday 3/21 and runs until Sunday 4/20.

KAREN:     If you need me...I'll just be...uh....down at The Theatre.
(...cue strange high pitched happy noises.)

CURTAIN

Thursday Thank-Yous

To Brian Stokes Mitchell for appearing out of, seemingly, nowhere on 9/23 just off Times Sq. while Willie and I were walking off our Shake Shack and after I'd been watching clips on youtube of and listening to the soundtrack for Ragtime all week leading up to that trip.  It was truly a magical moment.  And you didn't even know it happened.


To all you turds that 'liked' & commented on the Little Orphan Annie photo that Willie posted on facebook:  when I was a kid, my mother used to have my BFF's mom perm my hair.  It would end up looking like a little old lady's do (haha I made you yodel).  I'm naturally strawberry blonde.  A ginger.  People called me Annie.  I hated Annie...with her stupid hair and empty blank eyes and ugly dress and dumb song.
The sun will come out tomorrow, you can bet your bottom fuckin' dollar.

To the kid at the food place that giggled with me when I ordered a medium #2.

To the radio station for playing Dirty Deeds immediately after I'd heard it...twice, I think...in the living room.  The living room version was pretty damn good, I gotta say.  I don't even like that song.  But then, I don't like AC/DC either.

To Brian for making me retune my banjo.  That's a good thing to practice.

To John for giving me a flashback to 1995 when I heard the AOL "Goodbye".


To Sugar Ray for making me realize how difficult it is to get someone to go with you to Epcot on a rainy Weds night to try and catch 1 of 3 performances on the last night of your trip.
I knew they wouldn't play my favorite song anyway.


And to Pannacakes, who uttered a great sentence today, "He had two arms when I was growing up." when we were talking about Def Leppard.  I just looked it up and he lost his arm NYE 1984/85.  You're not that old, darlin'.

Abbey

This is my 6 (almost 7) year old cousin, Abbey.
She's obviously a shit ton of fun, but for whatever reasons, we don't see her that often.
We saw her this past weekend, but I think the last time I saw her was in September?...when they stopped by to see our deck that her dad was working on.  Until I stopped to think about it, it really didn't seem like it had been that long.
That time, she came upstairs to my lair and started pokin' around.  She disappeared behind the closet curtain and reappeared with a fake plastic chainsaw and a huge grin.
She also saw this print that I have in the hallway, and when we were sitting downstairs chatting, she tells me, "I like that picture of the girl with the lollipops."

Anyway, back to this recent visit.
We got monster hugs before we could even put down the things we brought and then she ran off to show Matt her tennisballyellow shoes (he has a pair of these that he wore at her request).
After visiting for a bit, she disappeared and reappeared holding a box.
This box was full of game.
My eyes lit up after reading "Memory" on the lid.
Memory was one of my freakin' favorites, too.  I even have a memory game on my ipad.
This Memory game took up the entire table.
Everyone said I would lose.  They said that she stacks them up and you get either one match or none.
I think I racked up a whopping 7, maybe 8 matches.
Abbey's a little shifty though - you gotta watch her.  She doesn't like showing the 2nd card she flips and will put them back down in different spots.
I told her she should always say, "IN YOUR FACE!" when she wins whatever she's playing.
Later on & just after dinner, she sat on my lap and made up a game using the napkin rings that were on the table.  She was playing with my mom, sitting next to me, when mom said, "HA!  I win!" and I said, "Mom, what do you say when you win?"
Mom shouted, "IN YOUR FACE!"
Shortly after that Abbey won her made up napkin ring game and there was more shouting and then she looked at me with big blue eyes, giggled, farted* on my leg (three times, she'll tell you), and then hid under the table.

Later, from the living room, she grabs my hand and says, "Come here.  I want to show you something."  We go to the computer where she pulls up some Barbie Game page where one of the games is like a babysitting thing and there's a little girl you have to navigate through a Barbie Dream House with obstacles and the object is to get her to the toilet before she pisses herself.  Once she's on the toilet, she makes a face, you hear a noise, and when she gets off the toilet, you see yellow water and a floating turd get flushed.
Here - if you don't believe me, go ahead and see for yourself.

Abbey's coming over this weekend to go swimming.  I'm sure there will be more similarly entertaining stories to share.
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*farts are called "boom-boom"s in their house, apparently.  doesn't exactly roll off the tongue & "farts" is funner to say.

Confession: David Copperfield Made Me Cry

Some of you may or may not be aware of my previous super powers.
There was another time, when I was about 13 or 14, I was captivated by David Copperfield flying on some tv special.
He made me believe that I could fly, too.
I remember laying flat on my back and wishing myself to fly so hard that I cried when I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn't hovering over my bedroom carpet.
Maybe it was because I wasn't wearing a billowy black sweatshirt with an audience full of applause and majestic music playing.



HAHA...kids are stupid.

SC - I Can't Stop Laughing

plank safely.