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Describe ME in ONE WORD... just one word in a comment.

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quiet

like snow in my ears
quiet comes demanding sleep
asking nothing else

the visit stills me
slows my ticking clocks
opens my eyes

in stillness I look up
from the malestrom
from my petty today

finding myself
in the midst of the sky
with no fear of falling

bouyed beyond today
looking into tomorrows
breathing in the clouds

I see in all directions
for great distances
where dreams shimmer

I originally published this on Tribe. Here it is again.

Rows of windows facing the sea

OMG I'm having a blast with this play. I've made some nice friends, really. As one of the cast pointed out, we've spent a few months together, first in cliques and finally now, as a something of a family. That was right on the mark.

We had two shows today. It sounds like double your fun, but it is actually like triple your fun and quadruple the tired. The early show featured my best New Jersey wise guy as Studley, then the evening brought the return of that French guy, Guy. Tomorrow promises the return of Nigel the English fellow. The cast gets a kick out of the accents and it is a great deal of fun. Today at the beginning of the show I had to decide which accent to use. I chose about three seconds before my first line.

I will admit to my back hurting a bit from the Spanish Panic where we lift the girls during the dance. It looks good, but apparently I'm 45 and out of shape for lifting young ladies. Too bad.

I just had a festive adult beverage to celebrate today's shows (with two olives!).

This weekend I saw, out of distance comes perspective, out of the mouths of babes, wisdom, and in a first impression, insight. On reflection I see that which I had overlooked, the joy in a smile, and the love in a simple look. Thank you to all of you who gave me these gifts, even though you have no idea that you did. What a beautiful weekend this has been, and it's only half over.

We have another show to go in about 13 hours. I better go to bed! Nighty noo noo Tracy.

The sweetest thing

Last night when I got home my little boy came up to me and asked me for a hug. I hugged him and he held me for quite a long time. Then he told me, "I love you daddy". He held me some more and I told him I loved him too.

It was all so pure and simple, without depending on anything or meaning anything other than what was said. It was truly the only thing between us at the moment. It choked me up a little.

That was the sweetest thing, and it made me feel very special indeed.

How did she stay awake

Well there are only nine more Mattress shows left, four of them next weekend. Crap. It's getting so fun and then it's gonna end way too soon. Tonight Sir Studley had a fantastic French accent.

The cast was extremely amused.

Hello party people, we need to get the cast parties going already. Maybe I'll start mixin' martinis in the green room like Dickens Fair, or not given the ratio of young punks youthful actors in the chorus. Speaking of youthful exuberance, those little darlings decorated my car for me last night. Surely this is a sign of great affection.

So now that the accent has been put in place, it is time to bring out even more overacting. I'll see what I can come up with.

Oh yeah, I need to go back to work again tomorrow. I took Thursday and Friday off being sick. I got a lot of sleep which helped immensely with the feeling bad. Now I'm feeling pretty fair.

Next weekend should be fun fun fun fun with a show Friday night, two on Saturday, and a Sunday matinee. We'll be living and breathing the show all weekend. We'll be trashed tired but I totally can't wait.

Way down deep I'm demure

Mattress is a really fun show, and I have to say that the people in the cast are pretty fun too. We had a little meeting of the festive adult beverage committee last night here after the show.

There was lots of laughing; and we didn't even have the Jester in attendance. Even the dogs had a good time.










It could have been the martinis but I think it had something to do with my evil plan to replace Sir Studley's voice with that of Stuey from Family Guy (Stuey is that ridiculous football headed baby who has the over the top British accent.) coupled with some "homeboy from the hood" improv lingo as I deliver my few and trivial lines. I can hear it now...
"Yo yo jester, tickle my funny bone."

I crack myself up.

Blogaversary

Ironically, I have nothing to say today so I'll fall back on:

B(. )( .)bs!

Knights

Knights of the realm, Sir Studley and Sir Harry. (Really just Bob and Les)

The bling is the thing. The ladies tell me I look like Mr T. (thanks sweetie).


Oh, don't forget to come see the show. (Especially you Grace.)

She's in the moat again

Last night's opening of Once Upon A Mattress was glorious. Good times. The show was spot on and the audience really enjoyed it. The musical numbers sounded great, the jokes all worked (OK almost all of them worked) and in the end there was lots of clapping and smiling.

After dashing to get into street clothes, I discovered my cousin and her husband in the lobby! What a surprise. They chided me for not telling them about my previous work at Broadway West since it is only a mile from their house. The rest of the gala was fun and pretty much what I expected. (Read "nothing to write about")

(This is starting to sound like that frickin Ned Flanders wrote it. Hmmm.)

After the gala there was some backstage drinkin' and giggling that went until the producer said in effect, "time to go home so I can leave please". We made sure that our mutual friend got home safe.

Before the show started there was a cast call outside the theatre. (It was cold out there!) There was the usual speechmaking, blah blah blah, but then I was completely surprised to be awarded with something called the Captain's Cape Award which is a big ole red cape that is decorated with gewgaws from all of the other shows. I get two tickets to the opening night of the next show (Mame) and I also get to further decorate the cape and present it to the next winner.

Let it Snow

Well, it snowed here and the temperature is about 20 degrees below normal. So we went out in search of snowmen and a snowball fight.


We found what we were looking for.

We have an opening for a princess

OK, we did our preview for the show tonight, and the audience liked it, they really liked it! Plus it is really friggin fun. Not quite as exciting as Naughty French Postcards, but really fun. The family came to see the show tonight and they laughed and had a good time. Sharon had lots of notes to give the director and costumer, but I was able to fall back on the "it's not up to me" defense.

Exhibit A: Effeminate makeup for Sir Studley. Um, the director said: Everyone needs even rosier cheeks, except Bob.






Exhibit B: Shirtless Bob in a doublet is not authentic at all and the costume shows his beautiful downy soft underarm hair when he does his (ridiculous) studley poses. Too bad; that's what the costumer and director wanted.








Costume note: Now I know what a dance belt* is. It feels very, um... different.

Whatever. The show is very entertaining and a hell of a lot of fun. All of the cast and the staff in the company are really great and I feel very welcome and supported. I'm having a blast and that is, of course, the whole point anyway.

Am having really nice double martini (with two olives!) to pre-celebrate opening night. The producer told us there were lots of seats available for opening night (Saturday, today, hello) and to remind people that there was FREE CHAMPAGNE AND FOOD included in your $26 ticket. I hope to see each and every one of you there in about 18 hours or so.

*Dance belt = hyper-thong to corral the man parts

One more week

One more week to my blogaversary. Can you stand it? Everyone is doing it.

I still haven't done one of those "100 things about me" lists. I suppose that's the next thing, but I wonder if it will just be used by identity thieves for evil social engineering exploits. of course if they read the flaming scroll they already know all this trivia crap.

Better living through theatre

Today (Sunday) started kinda lousy. Nothing was going right and everyone was cranky, even yours truly. We mostly got over it. I went off to tech Sunday for Mattress which you are all coming to see, and the ladies went to a renfaire thing.

Now I warn you, the next part is graphic, remember, I'm playing Sir Studley after all.

The costume I am wearing includes padded sleeve things that make it look as if I have big are muscles (which I do not). The rest of the costume consists of a doublet (think fitted bodice and rather short skirt) that I wear loosely laced OVER MY BARE CHEST. (I warned you.)

Needless to say the female members of the cast were all quite amused at the sight. My dance partner for The Spanish Panic (who is 14 years old) proclaimed that she could no longer dance with me since it was too creepy to dance with a hairy chested man. I didn't point out to her that I had the hair under my shirt the whole time we have been dancing up until now. She will just have to get over it. I have a picture of me in the costume but I am too lazy to post it at this hour.

Lots of rehearsing was tiring but at least I'm less cranky than this morning. The show is really coming together now that we have an orchestra.

See you at the show!

How cool is that

I can't believe it's Thursday already. OK I can, but I don't have to like it. My show opens in a week (Saturday the 11th). We're still working things out in rehearsals which are now going straight through til opening night. That's OK, but I'm concerned about the music. Some of the songs are still really far from amazing. That's too bad since the ones with the problems are not the really hard ones. Hmmm.

I'm sure it will all get sorted out. As these things go, it will be like that fellow in Shakespeare in Love said, "It's a miracle."

Hey, let me tell you the greatest thing about being married to my sweetie. This morning when I groggily dragged myself into the bathroom to shower I saw a note on the mirror. It said, "Please unclog the toilet in the kid's bathroom. XO, Me." Isn't that just the sweetest thing, putting a little love note at the end of the request to do something yucky. She loves me and makes it plain in everything she does. I'm tickled pink. (Hi sweetie! XO, Me!)