Well, dear readers, it is really late and I am really tired and I must really write these here notes in a hurry because I simply really must. I’m home late because not only did I attend a fun opening night at the Group Rep Theater, I then met friends after (a mom and daughter – daughter was having a tough time at a new school so I wanted to give her a pep talk), and then Doug Haverty, who was in the show, joined us. That is why it is almost two o’clock in the morning as I begin to write these here notes. Really.
Yesterday was one of those days that just kept on keeping on and I could never quite get ahead of it, so much so that my window to jog passed and so for only the second time in three months I did not do a jog. And I think that’s probably wise, as doing a jog seven times a week is not only hard I’m not sure it’s not harmful in some way. The body needs an occasional break from jogging is what I think. I got eight hours of sleep, had a ton of e-mails to go through and answer and saw that the auto payment for my unified billing for landline and cell had been processed. This bill has been going up all year and my phone habits have not changed one iota so I got really irritated and we’ll come back to that later.
The big thing I had to deal with is that the date for the staged concert benefit of The Brain from Planet X had to change. When they gave me that date, the head of the department e-mailed everyone to make them aware of it, and not a one of them responded, so he assumed it was fine. Well, they have a show in tech that week so apparently it’s not fine. Of course the problem is I’ve booked a lot of folks. So, I was offered November 1 and 7. The former is a Tuesday, which I didn’t love, and the latter is a Monday, which is fine. He pushed for the latter as doing some nice tech stuff will be much easier. The real problem is there’d be a Kritzerland show the day before and I can’t do that, so, after checking with everyone who’s been cast so far, the seventh worked fine, so I will simply cancel the Kritzerland show that month, just as we cancelled the November show last year. I’m fine with that as it means I really only have to come up with one more themed show for the year, since December is our annual holiday show. And I think I’ve decided what the October show will be, which means I’m actually ahead, as we have to take January off since the first Sunday is the first, and I already know what the February and March shows are, so I don’t have to worry about what the April show is until February, which is great. So, November 7 is now set in stone. I’m also happy to say we’re pretty far along in the casting. I’ll use some LACC students, but most of the ensemble will be brought in so we have good tappers for The Brain Tap. I’ll have the full details as we work them out, and as soon as I finish casting the last couple of roles, I’ll tell you the grand group we’ve assembled.
Then I had a little meeting with an actress who has a one-person play she does (playing a plethora of characters). I read it, and enjoyed it, and she’s looking for a director. She told me she’s met with three people (including me). We had a nice meeting and I explained how I like to work, and that I don’t do any projects that aren’t fun in some way or another. She’s done this before and she’s looking to take it to the next level. I opened the meeting telling her I wasn’t sure I was the right fit for it, but that I liked the writing very much and liked her as an actress and that I thought it could be interesting if there was trust between us. She’ll go away and figure it out and let me know. If she wants to, then I have to decide whether I want to. But it’s a very short rehearsal time of two weeks and it’s just two performances, so we’ll see what transpires.
After that, I went and had an egg salad sandwich. I came home and wanted to do the jog, but I was so irritated by the phone bill, that I called AT&T to discuss it. It turned into an over an hour horror show – they kept passing me back and forth like a damn tennis ball to this person and that person and at one point I just went off on someone so loudly that they finally got me to a person who knew what they were doing. In the end, I will now save twenty dollars a month on the bill, so that’s good. But boy was I annoyed at the time it took. And there went my jog window right out the window because right after that I had to have a phone meeting about the ALS show – starting to figure out if we want to do it again and if we say yes, what exactly we’re going to present that they’ll have to agree with and then stick to. IF we do it again, it would be late April/early May, which is quick. That’s going to be a very busy time, too, as that’s when I begin directing the show for the Group Rep, but it can all work out.
By the time that was finished I barely had enough time to shave and shower and get to the theater for the opening night. Once there, Doug had thankfully had a seat reserved so I didn’t have to worry about getting in the theater first. The play was Calendar Girls, based on a movie I know nothing about. It was an almost completely full house. They had a little after-party, so I hung out at that for a bit, but then went and met with a young gal and her mom at the Coral Café. The teen is at a new school and it’s been really difficult for her the first two days, and I know how that feels so I wanted to give her a pep talk and some advice, but she told me she’s already made a couple of friends. She’ll be just fine in a few days. I had a chicken Caesar wrap so that and the earlier sandwich probably totaled out at 1000 calories, and Doug and I shared a little apple crumb pie that was very tasty. So, I don’t think I did any damage. Then I came home and it was late.
Today I believe can be mostly a ME day, other than I have to write a little commentary for the little thing I do for a film music person every year. Unfortunately, this year he chose a really silly date – the day after the Kritzerland show, so it’s daunting, but there’s much less material this year, so I only have to write about six introductions to the songs, and an intro for the evening. Other than that, I’ll eat, I’ll jog, I’ll hopefully pick ups packages, and I’ll relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite songs of Flaherty and Ahrens? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully dream of miracles that need to happen, really. Really. And really.