Long Time, No Update

Yes, it's been awhile. The 3rd show ate my soul and just recently spit it back out again. That and the fairly grueling schedule finally caught up with me. I couldn't sleep enough. Still can't.

Urinetown is going well - it's absolutely hysterical, a complete send-up of other shows. Our cast is pretty darn brilliant and rehearsals have been fun.

Monday morning made this whole week interesting. Some punk on the street where the Production Center is was selling puppies on the side of the road. By selling, I mean for $30 a pup, and he was holding two in a hand. And not treating them as a proper dog owner should. The props person, CS, who is a staunch animal lover recruited our stage manager, JL, who is a huge dog lover and off they went. They saved all 5 pups from this creep and he nearly got decked by both ladies for being an insensitive human being.

Suddenly, our work family was playing host to five absolutely adorable pit bull mix puppies. It's highly likely that they have more than one dad. One of them looks distinctly boxer-like, at least in coloring. They all had fleas, and as it later turned out, worms. We took them to get their first set of shots as well as to get dewormed. Our entire cast contributed funds to offset those costs as well as the cost of rescuing them from the evil man. Every rehearsal break, there are at least a handful of cast members/staff members in the props shop playing with the puppies. These puppies went from no love to lots of love. They are really lucky puppies. And they're absolutely adorable. Once they got dewormed, they started feeling so much better. Their personalities are really beginning to shine.











Aren't they adorable? One has already found the way into the heart of our Props Assistant, M, but four are still looking for loving homes. The runt may have found a home with one of our Seven Brides cast members, but he's awaiting landlord approval.

I'll miss them when they're gone but I'm looking forward to them finding new homes with loving families. Meanwhile, they're a great diversion!

Halfway There

We're just over the half-way point in the season. Two shows down, in rehearsal for the third, and in just a few weeks, we'll be open with the next and starting on the fourth.

This past week was a long one - our day off fell on a Friday instead of a Sunday because of Independence Day, so when we came back to work, it was immediately into tech and went all the way through until closing night. The early tech process as described in the previous post was long, but in terms of running the show, it was a light, and easy show. And a fun one. The dancers dazzled the audience, and the assistant stage managers enjoyed the calm before the storm on a busy show like "Seven Brides".

Today was the first day off in awhile that I have not ventured outside the apartment on a photography mission. Truth be told, I'm exhausted and just wanted to enjoy watching TV that I wanted to watch and post pictures from the past week on Flickr instead.

Check the Flickr link for most of them, but here's a preview:

Loooooong Day

In musical theatre, there are very long tech days called 10 out of 12s. That means we're called at 12pm and go until 12am, but have a 2 hour dinner break from 5-7. Usually, these days are long and seem to last forever. But especially so on this show. This show is all about the dancing, and the lights. The set is static, there are just a smattering of props... and we don't have costumes yet, except for dance shoes.

Which mean that there were three very bored assistant stage managers backstage last night. Not to mention a restless, and later, slap happy, cast. The other two ASMs read... a lot. And I of course, broke out the camera, and experimented with low light photography. Not taking pictures of the people, but of the set and lights. Those pictures I still have to filter through. You most likely won't be seeing those for awhile.

Highlights of the very long never ending day included CM and EG randomly rocking it out (and by rocking it out, I mean hotel piano bar style, not rock concert). CM would start singing some piece (Straighten Up and Fly Right, Night and Day, etc), and EG would just accompany along. The amount of music in that brain and hands is just incredible. Other highlights included our sound engineer getting punchy in the later hours and randomly playing the nun's pre-recorded opening to the Act II finale "Climb Every Mountain" from "Sound of Music" which caused shouts of laughter from a majority of the theatre. Another highlight included the director asking a singer to dance off the stage with some "twirly shit". Twirly shit she got, as BS took her at her words. Definitely worth it as the ensemble and tech table alike howled in hysteria.

Those moments were few and far between, but all in all, made it a bit worth it. Today's rehearsal is a little shorter and includes some orchestra members. Tomorrow they'll dance with the orchestra and then add costumes in the vening. Such is the life of summer stock theatre. Did I mention we'll start rehearsals for Show #3 on this upcoming Wednesday?!

I filtered through the fireworks pictures this morning and reduced them from 400-odd to about 150-odd. I'm really pleased with how many turned out so well... I just have to decide how many I'll posting and upload them at work (faster connection).

Stay tuned.

And here it is:

Click the Flickr link to see them all individually.

Fireworks!

I couldn't let today go by without a post and a little story. I took about 500 pictures tonight of fireworks, but haven't the energy to fully go through them and see how many frames are duds. I just watched with one eye (after focusing) and just pressed the shutter... a lot. So I'm sure there's more than a few empty frames until I started calculating the delay between firework shoot off and my shutter.

Fireworks pictures are forthcoming, though I'm not sure when due to my intensive tech schedule, starting tomorrow.

But before I sign off for the night and crawl into bed to sleep as much as I can in prep for a 80+ hour week... I must leave you with this little story. Today, my only quest was to shoot fireworks with my nifty new camera. I've shot fireworks before with my little Fujifilm FinePix back in Lake George and they turned out well, but I was excited to see what I could do here, armed with a better camera, a tripod and more knowledge.

After unsuccessfully talking any of my colleagues into joining me, I settled on visiting the fireworks spectacular promised by the neighboring city, Bethany. Glad I decided to arrive early to scout a good locale, as apparently the Bethany fireworks were popular. I finally parked on a side street off a main drag (39th) and started walking towards the park where I knew the festivities were being held. As soon as I could hear the sound coming from the stage, I decided to settle down on the north side of the street.

While sitting there, and I was chatting with my mom on the phone, killing time, a Cairn Terrier and her owner walked by. Like I do whenever I think I spot a Cairn Terrier, is cry "Is that a Cairn?!" and get the owners attention. Nine times out of ten, I'm right and they're shocked that I don't think it's a Scottie or a Westie. I inform them that Cairn owners know their Cairns and that I (meaning my family) have two. So I struck up a conversation with the woman and found out that said Cairn's name was Chelsea and she was 14 months. She was adorable. I met her big human sister and her dad as well. They were camped out nearby and her mom was simply taking her for a walk. We ended up chatting for about a half hour about Cairns, dogs and even my job.

Then we waited for the fireworks to start. Boy, did I pick the location to be. They were being shot off in the field right behind me. I had a FRONT ROW SEAT.

So I just turned the camera on, checked a few of the shots through the viewfinder and just kept pressing the shutter... no kidding. My arm even started to hurt because it was tensed and I had to switch to my left hand. Since the fireworks were being set off from one location, I mostly just pressed the shutter and also got to enjoy it with my own two eyes.

I think I've ended up with some decent shots which I'll soon share... in addition to my new canine friend, Chelsea. But for now, I'll enjoy my foray into fireworks photography and the hospitality, kindness and friendliness of Oklahomans. And go to bed.

Night!