I got a call today to come in for one more interview at Orchard Supply Hardware on Wednesday. I'm excited and hoping it goes well!
These last few days were a flurry. Friday I participated in Bindlepunks' PULLED FROM THE SACK, a 24 hour play festival. I met with a bunch of writers at 8pm, and we had until 4am to finish our short plays (five to ten minutes long). I wrote one seven page play and trashed it (rambling, no real point to it), then wrote a second seven page play. I finished fairly early and was able to nap for about three hours, though all the conversations around me sort of intruded on any kind of a good sleep. :)
At 4am, the directors came in, went into another room, and read all the plays. They chose eight total. Mine was one of them. :D We had a break of an hour or so before auditions.
At 8am, the actors gathered. We had all been emailed a selection of monologues the morning before. So we went in, one by one, and did our chosen monologues (paper in hand). Four of us had chosen one monologue, and we were asked if we could come back and do another or do one we already had. They wanted to see more drama. I did my "Supermother" monologue from BUG by Tracy Letts.
The directors then came into the room and told us their casting. I was put into two plays. The first was POINT OF VIEW by Suzanne Birrell (a RASHOMON-style plot wherein the same story is told three times, each from the point of view of the person setting up the story). The second play was HURT by Brent Beebe, about an abused woman who learns how to stand up to her husband in an unconventional way.
I had the same director for both plays, Janice L. Wessner, and she was fantastic. She took specific approaches to both plays as the subject matter demanded. I had a great experience working with her.
My play, PAVLOV'S VISIT TO SHROEDINGER'S WORLD, was well-directed by Eric Hayes. It starred Bora "Max" Koknar as Dog, Clara Sao as Cat, Brent Beebe as Scientist 1 and Victoria Ann Spencer as Scientist 2. They all did a fantastic job of bringing the script to life. And it was so exciting to see something I had written being performed live that very night!
We had a paper tech rehearsal around 6 or 7pm, then we had about two hours to grab dinner and get up to the Dragon Theatre in Palo Alto by 10:45pm. Curtain was at 11:30. I freaked out a bit when I realize my lines hadn't been cut and taped into my prop book for the first play, but I ended up tearing up my script and placing it inside. It worked well. I wanted to memorize both plays, but as difficult as it is to memorize in one day, it's even harder on lack of sleep! For the second play, I rewrote my lines (and cues) on index cards. That worked wonderfully. By 1:15am or so, the show was done. I got to go home and sleep. I was in bed by 2:15am. I woke up at 11:30am on Sunday, still tired and very, very sore. For HURT, I had to get shoved onto the ground twice, and was well taught by fight choreographer Michael Daw. Unfortunately, I practiced this fall a LOT. Sunday morning I woke up and felt like I'd gone to the gym and did thirty push-ups (hey, I haven't done any in a couple months), and a billion lunges (mostly on my right leg). Here it is, Monday evening, and I'm still sore! That said, I want to get to the gym this week and keep the strength building, since I've already done the preliminary soreness bit. :-)
All in all, I had a fantastic experience!
In addition, I found out on Sunday that I've been cast in ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS at Dragon Productions (the same theatre I did PULLED FROM THE SACK at). Hooray! We start rehearsals in March. :D
Today I managed to vacuum around some of our windows. The construction people are coming out Thursday to clean up the insides of our house that were damaged (minorly), and we need to have all of our stuff moved five feet from the windows. So we're gonna be busy moving stuff the next few days.
My mom treated me out to Bella Mia in downtown San Jose for lunch. Yum.
Well, I'm off to the store for a new binder to put ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS in as well as my print-out of Anton Chekov's THE THREE SISTERS since that's the "play within the play" we'll be working on. :D
SUMMATION:
Acting - Two short plays done on Saturday night, just cast in ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS
Bicycling - My sore muscles kept me from getting on my bike this morning. Hopefully tomorrow!
Cats - Missed me on Saturday, but their back to the "usual" today!
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