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September 4, 2007:

FINGERS RUN AMOK

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, eearde – whoa, fingers run amok! Did anyone notice that my fingers ran amok right there – just out of the blue or, at the very least, out of the orange, my fershluganah fingers suddenly ran amok and I said whoa because frankly who needs fingers run amok and heaven knows if I hadn’t stopped it would have only gotten worse. So, fingers are not running amok any more, so let’s begin again.

Well, dear readers, even though it was the end of the Labor Day weekend, I, in fact, labored. There, isn’t that much nicer when the fingers don’t run amok? Yes, I, BK, labored, and so did a few people connected with a little show we like to call The Brain From Planet X. Prior to laboring, I did manage to get my first full night of eight hours sleep – I hope to do that every night from here on in or from here on out. I just have to post the notes a little before midnight East Coast time and then I must get right into bed and I must fall asleep immediately. In any case, I woke up feeling not so groggy as I have been, and I toddled off to rehearsal soon thereafter. We’re in our new rehearsal hall and I must say I’m not so crazy about it and neither is my choreographer – forget that it’s ugly and doesn’t have a mirror, but it has a linoleum floor, which is not that safe to tap on. There was nothing to be done today, but I’ve alerted my general manager that we could have a potential problem once we get back into running the numbers full out, which will be in the next couple of days. Our leading man, Rob Evan, arrived and we just dove right in to teaching him all his music. He was pretty prepared and so that went pretty quickly. What a lovely voice he has, too, and what a terrifically nice guy he is. And like the rest of our company, he’s happy to be there and really likes the show – it’s amazing how that little thing can make everyone want to do a really good job. After the music rehearsal, we dove into the blocking, which he picked up very fast. He and Amy get along great and they look good together. I let him find his own way and as soon as he saw where Amy had gone, he “got” it right away, and by the end of the blocking session he was already finding interesting readings and levels – most importantly, he’s extremely likable and he understands the tone of the show and his character. I couldn’t be happier. We all lunched at some jernt and I had an Eyetalian sandwich. We blocked almost everything, save for the couple of scenes where there are a lot of people onstage with him, and then our choreographer began blocking him into the group numbers, sans other people. In case I haven’t mentioned it, our choreographer has agreed to choreograph our fundraiser, so I’m very excited about that. After rehearsal, I decided to just go home and do some stuff on the computer. I had a couple of pizza slices from Sal’s Pizza, my local jernt, and I must say they were quite yummilicious.

Last night, in between doing stuff, I half-watched several things I’ve seen many times before, all on TCM. They included the brilliant Chris Marker short, La Jetee, one of my all-time favorite films, long OR short, and one I never tire of watching. After that, they showed John Boorman’s amazing film, Point Blank, another film I never tire of watching. This time around, I really got a kick out of Carroll O’Connor’s performance. After that, it was Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing from 1956. Watching it was fascinating, because I realized that this film would have only been show in 1:85 in 1956, but all video transfers have always been full frame. So, for the first time I watched the compositions carefully and, of course, there’s completely extraneous headroom in almost every shot. Now that they’re reissuing his later films in their theatrical ratios, perhaps they’ll do The Killing and Paths of Glory that way, too.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before my fingers run amok again.

Today, we continue blocking Rob into the group numbers, and then I block him into the two major scenes we haven’t done, which have a bunch of other characters in them. I think Wednesday is all review, and finally Miss Alet Taylor joins us on Thursday, and we put her in and teach her all her new stuff that day.

If any of you East Coasters haven’t booked your tickets for the show, you should do so soon as I’m told that certain performances tend to sell out quickly, and I’ve already been told that both our opening and closing nights were selling very well even before the regular tickets went on sale last Saturday.

I haven’t decided whether to have a meal with friends this evening – I’ll have to give it some thought and see how tired or not tired I am. I would like to try somewhere new and interesting, so perhaps I will.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, buy a new toothbrush (the one I have is too soft and it annoys me), and do some work on Ye Olde Laptop. Today’s topic of discussion: What’s the best pizza you’ve ever eaten? Where did you have it, why was it so good, and what did you have on it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I do my best to not let my fingers run amok.

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