In Which the Blogger Sounds Like Her Mother

Over the years, Dearly Beloved,  you have no doubt heard me complain about the country music Ramona plays at the shop.  It took a while but, after a year or two, it began to grow on me. I got to where I could recognize different voices and even put names to them.  I developed a sort of appreciation of the wry humour prevalent in the genre.  Humming some tunes...singing along with others and still cringing over a few--I got by.  I mean, it's not KUT.org, but I could live with it six and a half hours a day.  I would even think about some songs at other times...I've written a few entries about country songs.  In short, I have worked out an uneasy alliance with country music.

Well, Dearly Beloved, I got back from Spring Break to find (shudder) pop music playing on the radio.  O, I am undone!  Where do they get this stuff?  It's like a bastard mix of techno and hip hop with a soupçon of disco thrown in.  It is, in short, a headache that spreads from the top of my head, yea verily unto the fillings of my teeth.  I have contemplated digging into the Urban Dictionary to find out what some of the lyrics mean (just what is a "disco stick" and do I really want to know).  The lyrics (those I can understand, anyway) range from banal to bleeped.  The play half a dozen songs in rotation all day long.  I have heard the same song six times in a single day.  No, really.  I'm not imagining it.

I have to wonder whatever happened to rock and roll.  You know...the stuff my mother used to complain about and make me change the station away from whenever she came in the house, back when I was in school.  The stuff she said gave her a headache and set her teeth on edge.  "Maybelline,"  "California Dreaming," "She Loves You..."  It was all the same to her--horrible.  Somehow, I can relate.

Ramona says she needs a change every now and then (this is the first time in the six years I've been there).  She says it helps her creativity.  One must not interfere with creativity.  Of course one must not.

~help me~

Love Letters

 

 

 



After the unfortunate cancellation of "Death and the Maiden," Sam Bass was scrambling to find something they could quickly put up to try and recoup some of the losses incurred.  Much to my delight, they decided to produce "Love Letters," a perennial favourite for fundraisers everywhere. 

I was asked to play Melissa for a nine-performance run.  This made me happy on multiple levels--I had never done the show and always wanted to, it distracted me from the pain of having to cancel "Maiden" (losing a friend in the process), and it made me feel as if my theater was forgiving me for screwing up the show I was trying to direct.  Many thanks to the Sam Bass Board; specifically Lynn Beaver and Frank Benge.

We got a nice review from Broadway World: 

They are all telling me it wasn't my fault that "Maiden" was cancelled.  It might not have been, but it was my responsibility.  Directing is sort of like being the president of a very small country...the buck always stops at the director's desk.  In this case, I got crosswise with a friend and actor, and he walked out of the show, nine days before opening.  As it was a three-character play, the part was much too large to get another person to come in that late; hence the cancellation.

I will carry memories of this one for a long time.

~Sitting at the theater with the Eric Nelson, the set designer for "Maiden," just looking at the beautiful set he had built, and  that we were about to strike without anyone having seen it.  Eric said, "You know...maybe we should leave it for now.  I have a feeling we shouldn't strike it just yet."  I really didn't want to take it all down, so I agreed.  It turned out to be just perfect for "Love Letters."

~We held a "wake" for the set (It really was lovely), which gave us a chance to complain to each other about actors who don't stick with their commitments AND drink the Good Scotch and cheap wine.

~Then, there was the night Lynn had to blow dry her butt before making the obligatory Curtain Speech...she sat in a chair on the back deck after a rain.

So, what threatened to be an absolute disaster turned out to be a lot of fun.

Now I have to start mourning the loss of my friend (who has asked me not to try to contact him, has unfriended and blocked me on Facebook and stopped going anywhere he knows I might be).

Fine.  Not the worst thing that has ever happened to me, Dearly Beloved.  Carry On Regardless, right?

Steubenville Apologies

http://espn.go.com/high-school/story/_/id/9062015/two-steubenville-high-school-football-players-guilty-rape

This is a link to the most complete version of the story I have found.  The whole thing is revolting.

Two boys have been convicted as juveniles.  There have been no charges related to the fact that these teens were moving from party to party, drinking all the way.  No adult has been charged with serving alcohol to minors.  The kidnapping charges have been dropped.  The kid who actually filmed the rape and put the video out on the internet has not been charged.  Pretty sure there were more kids involved than just the quarterback and wide receiver.

After the judge handed down the guilty verdict, the quarterback apologized for the fact that video of the rape was circulated...said something like, "The pictures should not have been released, should not even have been taken."  No apology for the rape itself.  The little shit still sees using and humiliating a drunk girl as one of the perks of being a High School Hero.  The wide receiver had a nice little sob-fest in the courtroom, "Sorry to have put you guys through this," with no indication of who "you guys" actually are.  They were sitting there, getting hugs and pat-pats from their families and lawyers.

Nobody said, "I regret ever doing this."  No one has referred to the girl as a friend, classmate or even a human being.  They don't care that another person was hurt, damaged and ruined.  They are just sorry they got caught.

This is about the rape culture.  There were dozens of tweets captured and published where kids indicated that the girl deserved it, wanted it...but even if she didn't, it sure made for an EPIC party night!  They don't think of it as rape for a couple of reasons.  First, apparently, they used their fingers and not their underdeveloped penises, and second, she wasn't screaming and fighting.  She was drunk and unconscious.

The quarterback's parents were all upset because the police came at 1:30 AM to get their precious son (I suppose they were embarrassed to have that seen by their neighbours), and even some of the news media have been upset about they boys' lives being ruined.

Nobody has been standing up for the girl.  Nobody has said that it is wrong for these damn jocks to feel entitled to have whatever they want.  One of the stories going around says that the girl did that sort of thing all the time.  Another said she was set up by a jilted boyfriend.

Internet defenders of the victim have been saying that they hope the boys get done to as they did by her...but doesn't that make us just as bad as those kids?  We don't have the excuse of youth on our side.  All we have is the desire for vengeance.  Seems to me that somebody's desire for vengeance might be what started this particular mess in the first place.

If any of my grandsons want to participate in school sports, you can bet your ass Grandma will be all up in their business, nipping any hint of such an attitude of entitlement in the bud.

Edited:  New link.  It seems there is a law in Ohio requiring that witnesses to a felony report it.  Oh...and the boys' attorneys are appealing.  Of course.  Because a slap on the wrist is just too, too damaging for these poor little boys to endure...  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/18/174608680/after-steubenville-guilty-verdicts-grand-jury-to-weigh-more-charges

"Death and the Maiden," the Play that Wasn't

Look at this.  Isn't it pretty?  It's not quite finished...it was supposed to have some bamboo mats and stones painted on the terrace.  And a curtain over a door that you can't see in this picture.  A very talented and awesome set designer put this together for "Death and the Maiden."  It is this designer's first production with us.  I hope it's not his last.

Because the show isn't going to happen.

We had a short rehearsal period anyway, as it is a Spotlight production, and we lost one actor early on, due to a family emergency.  With only three characters in the show, each of the actors has a lot of lines, and that one had the most.  Still we did manage to replace the actor, though the actor kind enough to come in and help us was a little nervous about the amount of work that had to be done in a very short time.  But that wasn't the problem.  Or at least, not the worst of it.

The worst of it was a rather reluctant actor, with whom I got crosswise during the last show we did together.  Having said he would do the show, he told me a few weeks before the beginning of rehearsals that he had decided not to.  I tried to replace him, but had no luck.  The original actor said he would do the show after all, so we settled in to rehearse with one willing actor, one nervous actor and one actor who would rather be elsewhere.

Last night, he decided he would really rather be elsewhere, and now he's gone.  With nine days till opening, there is no way he can be replaced.  The show is over before it has begun.

All that work creating this beautiful set, and all the work on the part of the other two actors, all the work done on publicity design...all wasted.  Not to mention the money for royalties, scripts, publicity, fabric, lumber, paint and other things for the set.

This show meant a lot to me.  I am utterly devastated.

A Fresh Start

"Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" is over.  It was fun, a learning experience, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  I got so much positive feedback (besides the reviews) that I feel stoked and ready to embark on my next project, the much more difficult "Death and the Maiden."

This play walks a very fine line among vengeance, madness, healing, forgiveness and political expediency.  It was made into a movie in 1994, with Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver and Stuart Wilson.  I have never seen the movie.  I have seen the play once, done very badly.  I swore then that I would someday direct it myself, and I thank Sam Bass Theatre for allowing me the opportunity.  I am also grateful to Frank Benge, Cathie Sheridan and Ben Weaver for being willing to travel this line with me.  It will be an adventure, and, given the powerful cast, will probably go far beyond what my mind is capable of seeing.

We start tonight.  I will keep you all posted.

Reviews! Two of Them! Woot!

http://austinentertainmentweekly.com/2013/02/12/frankie-and-johnny-romance-without-the-fluff/

CiCi Barone has been a good friend for a long time, and I was delighted to see her writing for Austin Entertainment Weekly.  I am glad she "got it," in spite of the fact that she had some reservations about the script and the nudity (sorry, CiCi...there was supposed to be a notification about the nudity, which, in fact, does exist at the reservation site).  Thank you, CiCi, for a very nice review.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2013-02-15/frankie-and-johnny-in-the-clair-de-lune/

Thank you, Chronicle.  In spite of not liking the script, you liked the show.

So, folks...three more performances.  Valentine's Day Special--two tickets for $20.  Be there.

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

We opened on Friday.  The show is all sorts of awesome! 

I'll tell you what, though...it's a lot more work to mount a show without Sam Bass theater having my back.  Kudos to Summer Lyn Bryant for producing this. 

Summer and Ben are doing a wonderful job.  It's not easy to tell a story with just two actors, but they manage to do it very well.  We are still waiting on the Chronicle review...I sure hope their reviewer liled it.  I'll post that link when it comes out.

Meanwhile, if you're local, there are six more shows...