Well, dear readers, it is the start of a brand spanking new week and it is also the start of a brand spanking new Sunday, a Sunday in which I shall do nothing but relax and attend to some business that I definitely must attend to. For you see, we are making a cast change in the play. As most of you know, I have been going back and forth about this for some time. The combo platter of several things has finally pushed me over the edge to make the decision. One, the actor in question continues to give wildly different performances from night to night. Friday night, he forgot lines, had no energy, lost laughs, blah, blah, blah (that is three blahs). He was better last night, but still all over the map. Three weeks ago I was ready to replace him, and I was talked out of it by my producers. Two weeks ago we learned that he’s rehearsing for another play, and he refused to come to any pick-up rehearsals. So, last week I began to think again about replacing him. The problem all along has been that no one seems to be able to even think of another actor who could do it. And so, the only alternative was, for better or worse, me. That is why I’ve been waffling so much, because I really didn’t want to have the anxiety of learning and performing the part with basically only having a week to do so. You’d think after watching the show as much as I have, on top of having written it, would mean I’d know it, but that’s not the case. Oh, I know about half the lines well, but it’s going to take everything I’ve got to get the other half down and then get the whole thing in my head so that I’m completely comfortable with it. The good news is that I do have the blocking down perfectly. The other thing that finally put this over the edge is that it looks like we’ll be taping the final two performances in hi-def, with a look to perhaps selling it. It isn’t 100% yet, but it’s close. I did not want the play taped with an actor who, for whatever reasons, has not been able to play the character as I wrote it. And I think everyone here knows that I have tried, and tried, and tried. I’ve tried every way you can try. He’s a very nice fellow, and I suppose he’s a good actor, but he certainly isn’t serving the play or his fellow actors. I’ve been running lines and blocking with Matt, and we already have 100% more rapport and friendship (which is what these two characters must have), and it just makes the play work better. It’s not that I’m such a great actor, or even a better actor than the other fellow, but I do “get” the part, and I do understand what function the part must serve in the play. In any case, I’m completely petrified about it, but will just buckle down Winsocki and get the play into my head. The good news is that it’s only twelve pages of dialogue – some longer speeches, which I know pieces of. I just have to get the rest down. I’m going to try to find someone to come over today to just run lines with me over and over again. Then Matt and I will be getting together every day this week to go over our pages. Thursday night, we’ll have a rehearsal on the set, and Friday night on I go. On Wednesday or Thursday, we have to shoot the two video sequences – a cameraman friend of mine has offered to do them, and we’ll have a teleprompter for those, because they’re long speeches and it all has to go down in one continuous take, and there’s no way I’d be comfortable enough by Wednesday to learn them by heart. So, send your best vibes and xylophones for learning the lines and doing a good job – I’ll need them!
Yesterday, in addition to beginning to learn the lines, I also had a read-through of the new musical. David Wechter and I read all the parts and, as these things always are, it was illuminating. Happily, a lot of it works really well – very funny stuff, and the songs seem to work nicely. And some of it we’ll wait to see how the actors do with it, and what the audience reaction is. And some of it was so horrendously bad I couldn’t believe it. There was one endless scene in act one where we just looked at each other and said, “What the hell?” I’ll be redoing that scene this week, and there was one scene in act two that we know will be funny, but which needs a lot of help and clarity to make the joke work. So, over the next week-and-a-half we’ll be doing the fixes, and then we’ll have a table reading at LACC with the musical theater workshop (MTW) students. After that, Miss Tammy Minoff came over and we worked on the song she’s been doing in class, and it’s much better now. We also ate some lunch, and then we toddled off to the theater for the evening performance, which was quite good because we had a very vocal and lovely audience.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because now that I have let the cat out of the bag, I must get to work on learning lines, something I thought I would never be doing again.
Have I mentioned that I am having high anxiety about taking over this role? I must also figure out my wardrobe for the show, so we’ll be calling our costume designer to help out. I’ll be wearing something similar but I’m a completely different size and shape, so it all has to be different. Oh, well, it’s only four performances.
Of course, I also have a million other things I’ll be doing this week, so it’s all going to be very interesting. I have this week’s two classes, I have to do the musical’s rewrites, I must figure out an order for the short story collection, along with a title (I’d chosen the title – which will obviously be one of the titles in the collection – but no one really likes it as a title for the collection. So, we’re trying to figure out which title will work best and sound interesting. I also have a couple of meetings. But mostly, it’s lines, lines, lines (that is three lines).
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, learn lines, watch a DVD or three, and gird my loins for my first performance Friday night. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Sunday – free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, now that the cat’s out of the fershluganah bag already.