Week 10/24, Callback, World Cup Love

So first off, my training is still moving right along. Scheduling has been tough so I have had to utilize the dreaded treadmill still. For example, Monday night I had a theatre audition so I hit the gym afterward. I will do the same this evening as I just found out I got a callback for the same show. After this week the long runs increase steadily before there is another recovery week. Bring it!

Scheduling will stay challenging if I am offered a role after tonight. Rehearsals seem to be Monday through Thursday, 7pm - 9pm and even some weekends. The show performs in September. My marathon is only a month after that! Eek! :)

Other than running and theatre related stuff, I have been enjoying my favorite quadrennial event - the World Cup! USA made it out of the "Group of Death", but they did not survive the knockout round. I enjoyed three of their games out surrounded by other soccer fans. One outing was at Power & Light District with thousands of other fans cheering on team USA!
Now that my home country is out, I have been cheering on my heritage  country of Germany. Deutschland! Yesterday they killed Brazil in their home country. 7-1! Today the Netherlands and Argentina play. My brother is rooting for the Netherlands and is calling a World Cup final of 6-2 Germany over Netherlands. Could be! We'll see. Soccer is really growing here in the states. Most MLS teams now have their own soccer specific stadiums and are charging ridiculous amounts for beer. That's when you know they're doing well.

Enjoy the game!

WTH Am I Doing?

Someday I will be consistent with this blog. I think I'm going to make a bet with myself that for now I will attempt at least one post a week. I'm guessing my posts will mainly consist of theatre and running related topics as these are the activities consuming my world currently. My mind is all over the place though, so don't hold me to that. There's something else...or I should say someone else, on my mind these days too. So that might get slipped in.
At a dinner party this past weekend, someone asked me what my blog was about. I sited my tagline.

For now, I am currently kicking off "Hell Week" for my current show, "Fertilizer". Hell week is the week leading up to a show that consists of technical and dress rehearsals. We are completely off book and on our own now. No calling for lines from the stage manager. If you blank, you either hope your fellow actors will help you out or you wing it. "Show conditions people", as the director would say. These are the rehearsals where we take all of the dialogue and blocking that we have learned and we make our character our own. I love these rehearsals. I think about the audience reactions that are to come in just a few short days. I thrive off audience reaction. You hold for laughs so no dialogue is lost, you hear the gasps of shock when they've pieced something together and you feel the change of atmosphere as they sob. Every show is different! Responses vary from audience to audience.
We will run for two weekends then I will have three days before rehearsals for my next show will begin.

The rehearsal schedule for "Let's Murder Marsha" will be much more intense as we only have a month before we open. I look to have a rehearsal every week night in March as opposed to our regular Monday/Tuesday schedule leading up to hell week.
So far, I have nothing planned right after the close of LMM and I believe I will need a little break.

Yesterday I auditioned for a show that will perform at the Fringe Festival in July. I should hear something from them over the next two weeks.

Well, I'm about to work on my other activity, running. It's sunny and warmer today than it has been, but it sounds awfully windy.

Acting Update

'Doubt' just closed this past Saturday evening. I portrayed Sister James in the parable. 

The film came out in 2008 starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. 

The play consists of only the four main characters. It was a different experience for me as I have been in mainly comedies. Being in full habit I had really only my face to work with to convey my emotions. This drama was thought provoking and I was honored to be a part of the cast. I only wish more people would have come out to see it. Comedies do tend to draw a bigger crowd and the crowd is larger still when the title o the play is one in which they are familiar. Steel Magnolias had a wonderful turn out for example. I can only hope that more people will be willing to explore theatre outside the box more often and support their local artists. 

Next on the horizon for me is a full length film. This film originally was a short that we began working on a year and a half ago. As with many of these local, small grouped endeavors the usual issues came up, money being a big one. Now the film has investors, has been expanded, has added a full crew and well on its way with filming beginning the end of October. I am reading through the script now and I will share more details as I embark on this film journey. 

Past that, I know of the possibility of auditions around Christmas time for a play that would keep me busy the beginning of the new year as my boyfriend will be deploying this December. This next year I shall keep myself busy with acting, possibly more modeling and the like in the hopes that it will not only fill my always hungry creative side, but also make time go by more quickly and smoothly while my love is away from home.  

Bus Spot Auditions

Wednesday night I auditioned for the newly formed theatre group in my home town. Their first show is 'Bus Stop'. I have auditioned for the role of Cherie. My audition consisted not only of cold readings from the script, but also of singing 'That Old Black Magic', which Cherie performs in the show. I feel fairly good about my audition, especially my singing. I almost never get nervous acting, but singing can give me the jitters a bit. Fortunately I controlled my nerves, which were few anyway surprisingly, and I sang pretty darn well, twice. He had me sing in more of a western style after I did my rendition. Also he said act like you think you're being sexy, but really you're kind of awkward. I apparently did this spot on and had them cracking up!
I got the e mail today that I have been called for a callback tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking forward to it. I'm curious to see what my competition is.
I also have a fitting tomorrow for Kansas City Fashion Week, which is February 25th - the show I'm in. Then Sunday afternoon I have a quick shoot where I'll have a quote painted on my body.
I'm glad Monday is a holiday then I suppose. Perhaps I'll bake something and then give the baked goodies away because they're not on my diet.

Back on Stage!

And my goodness you have no idea how good it feels to be back up there!
I have been cast as Sugar Lee Thompkins in The Hallelujah Girls. We just finished our second week of rehearsals and tuesday night we ripped off the "kissing scene" band aid. It's really not that big of deal, but it's like the anticipation gets the better of you. This is supposed to be a passionate moment between these two characters and the theatre is small so there is no room for "miss kiss". I'm sure I'll get somewhat nervous before each kiss, but it will get easier.
The show runs December 1 - 3 and 8 - 10.

Theatre Life

In the next couple weeks I will be performing in one show, learning blocking for another and reading through my lines for yet another show because I am a professional and someday someone is going to see that and theatre will be all I will be doing. No more full time office job. No more part time job. Just theatre. Paid theatre! Not that that is what is important. I've done plenty of unpaid performances and I will continue too. I do because I love it!

Next weekend my current show, A Flea in Her Ear goes into performance. It will run for two weekends the latter of which, that week I will start blocking for my following show, Woman in Black. It performs the weekend after the closing weekend of A Flea in Her Ear, which is Halloween weekend. Fitting, as Woman in Black is a ghost story. We'll have a Thursday night show, two Friday night shows (one at 7 pm and one at midnight) and a Saturday night show. Then I will go right into rehearsals for The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society's Production of A Christmas Carol. That...is a mouth full, to say the least. That show will perform the first weekend in December. 
Before that though, I will be a model for two different designers walking the runway at an event the weekend after WIB.

So, that break that I said I was going to take after these first two shows...noooot going to happen.
The director for A Christmas Carol came to me though, e mailing me about how she had heard about my wonderful performance in Steel Magnolias as Shelby this past spring and said she wanted to cast me. I let her know about my November conflicts with the runway show, the Simply Tasteful party my mom and I got suckered into throwing (at my place), the tickets I have to see the Rep's production of but what else, A Christmas Carol and I let her know that I did not yet know about Thanksgiving, but that in the past I have traveled out of town. I assured her I am quick to memorize however. (Not sure you're supposed to end a sentence with "however". Oh well.) Oh lest I forget, I also work my part time job Wednesday evenings. I must work as many wednesdays as I can until tech week since I have been not working them over the course of this current show.

She informed me that the show was not terribly line heavy, that it was more involved blocking/movement wise. Last night the director of WIB came to my theatre where I was rehearsing A Flea in Her Ear to have a fitting for my turn of the century ghost costume for her show. Also she recorded my voice for a few of my lines in the show. The costume is incredible by the way! She also brought me the Carol script. I'm not sure what this director considers "line heavy", but I'm not even through Act One yet and I'm seeing that I'm going to be doing quite a bit of highlighting. Not a problem though. I will simply start working on my memorization that much sooner.
I'm actually extremely excited! I haven't really done a Christmas show since Jed's Holiday Wish in 6th grade in which I played a Genie granting one wish to a young boy on the eve of Christmas. So much for Santa.

So the plan is to then have the rest of December off and come January audition for Sealed for Freshness. That will get me half way into February and by then I'm sure I'll know of another upcoming audition. In fact it will be about time to head to Minneapolis again. Better luck this second time, I hope!