Monday, June 28, 2010

The Day Off.

It hurts my heart a little that Nick Drake is used so ubiquitously in commercials.  He died, quite a long time ago and his songs sing the reason why.  Now his music sells cars and coverage.  He was very important to me, very private.  The music is all.  The commercial use is obscene.  Even though, I have to say using Christo and Nick Drake in the same commercial is inspired.  It is still..a commercial.

Where does art live by itself?  Does it have to be adopted and used by the larger industries who spend so little money supporting that art?  I'm flummoxed. I want to say to advertising agencies..."Earn the right.  Know where the art began.  Understand the context."  I'm whistling in the dark, dear friends.

My day off.  Today.  I spent most of the morning sleeping, I'm happy to say!  I talked to my dear husband, then dealt with a couple of actor issues.  I am always available to talk to my actors and help them.  I took a couple of fabric grocery bags and headed off to a new (to me) grocery store.  I bought way too many bottles of liquid!  The climb back to the apartment was easily my workout for the day!
I dropped off my purchases, set off again and wound up at a used book-store.  Bought a book!  Went on and bought the soup I really like from Safeway and stopped in at the State Liquor Store to get a bottle of vodka. Got to be prepared for TECH WEEK! LOL. Ran into a couple of my company members... wandered on. Got my nails done.  (Are you surprised?)

Came home and baked some chicken for the week ahead.  I have to stop eating the greasy offerings around my apartment.

I took some pictures.  Oh, I know you are waiting on baited breath!

Yesterday was Pride Day in Seattle.  The festivities took place right outside our rehearsal room.

Man on Stilts:


Bare-breasted women celebrating:

More celebrating.

A man in a wedding gown...The space needle with a rainbow flag.  Too cool.


That was yesterday.

Today, I looked around, walked and finally took a picture of the wind chimes.  Seattle has set up a display with bells on many trees on the walkway between Seattle Rep and the Intiman.  The bells send up an amazing music, jingling in the wind.  Look closely, you can see the bells. 

Seconds from my apartment building are these wonderous flower beds.  So colorful and so full of life.
I call this the "magic fountain."  Truly, it draws people from everywhere.  Weird ethereal music plays...  People sit and listen, children jump in the water...it is all very satisfying.Weird and wonderful.  Children everywhere.

Seattle is like a dream town.  Never quite real.  Something else is ... over there.  (The Cascades!)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Dummy In My Apartment.

One night, not too long ago, I had the occasion to baby-sit a dummy.  A puppet.  It is like living with a clown.  Scary, you know?  I had to set him straight.


He left the next day.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Pictures of Seattle.

My apartment building in Seattle.  I'd like to say it is crooked because the street is steep, but really, it is just my camera work!  I am on the fifth floor in the back, and to the left.  (Uh, Stage Right.)
 
I've been wandering around a bit on my days off and found trees with these amazing flowers.  I don't know what they are.  
  

I wandered up a very steep hill.  The view of the sound was breath-taking.  Again, I'm a little off-kilter. It must have been the steep climb!  (I am not drunk!!!)


On my way back down the hill I took some pictures of the surrounding neighborhood.  Look at this house and garden!  Wow!
 
Here is a close up of some of those gorgeous flowers. 
A very lovely place to visit. 

The next week I headed in the opposite direction.  I rode the monorail downtown.  This is what I found:Really, I don't know why I can't hold my phone straight.  Must be the rain.

Finally, I got close enough to Puget Sound to take this picture.It is a little dark, but then, so was the day.

Seattle is really an amazing city.  I have more directions to take, and so much more to explore.

We are ramping up into tech.  We start tech next Tuesday and have our first Preview a week from today.  Yikes!  We had a wonderfully successful run-thru today with two more scheduled over the weekend. My book is written, my paper-work done.  Bring it on!  (I love tech!)

I will have many more days to wander the streets of Seattle.  I might even be able to find a park or two.  I so miss my husband, I wish he could share this adventure with me, but without him, I will roam alone, content that we will be together again in a little more than 7 weeks.  Not so long, after all.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Show.

We are heading into tech.  We've had a truncated rehearsal process because most of the company has done this before.  We actually need the rehearsal because much of the piece is re-thought and with 4 new company members, we need to give them time to contribute and come up to speed.  Crazy.  Two weeks, and then tech, on a very delicate show.  Crazy.

We are doing very well.  I am one of the new folk.  I've had to come up to speed very quickly.  It is good.  A little disorienting, but good.  I am one with my newer actors and am finding ways to greet and meet my experienced ones.  I only want to help and make the process as clean as it can be.  I am hoping my company is coming to realize this.

I want to say we had a good day.  Every day we've had in rehearsal has been a good day, we've learned, we've grown, we develop the story. Every day is HARD!  The subject matter is so difficult and so important, we break down often.  Sometimes, just a bit.  Sometimes, rehearsal stops.  We stop.  We regroup.  We try it again.  A difficult tale to tell. Very hard on my actors.

But, Oh! What a glorious horrible tale that needs to be told!

I am back in the thick of things.  I am happy.  I am working my heart out.  It is good.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Some Kind Of Wonderful.

As I arrived at work today, one of my wonderful crew came up to me with an armload of towels.  ??? (my face.)  "It's pouring today.  These are in case your actors get wet."  So sweet!  I looked at the skies.  Had I missed something on my way to work?  I wore a hat because it was drizzling.  By the time I got to work it was sprinkling with some actual rain, but "pouring?"  Made me think of the song, "It never rains in California, but girl don't they warn ya, it pours, man it pours."  Okay.  "Pouring" to me, is a torrential downpour; my husband standing in two feet of water in the backyard.  The streets un-drivable. The pelting rain so thick you can't  really drive on the freeways.  Doesn't happen very often, but this is my definition of "pouring."


I was at Trader Joe's the other day.  (Up an incredibly steep hill... another story.)  It was cloudy.  The sun would peek out occasionally, but to me, it looked like rain.  The checker clearly said to the person in front of me, "Enjoy the sun!"  The sun?  What sun?  I hadn't seen the sun all day.  It was not what I would call a sunny day.  Heck, I hadn't seen the sun all week!  As I walked back down the incredibly steep hill, passers-by remarked, "Isn't it beautiful today?"  I didn't want to seem unfriendly in this very friendly town, so I smiled and said, "Why, yes!"  (I was cold. There was an icy breeze. But, then, I'm from LA, if it gets below 70 degrees I'm cold.)

Some days start out beautifully sunny.  By my first break most days the clouds have wandered in.  By the time I walk home, I need a heavier jacket!  Different kind of weather here!  Today it drizzled all day, okay, occasionally it actually rained.  It never "poured."  (But thanks for the towels anyway!)

Our perceptions change so much depending on our environment.  It is quaint in a way.  Quaint of me, and quaint of Seattle-ites.  We judge everything by our experiences.

I am loving this town and I am loving my show.  My actors are a terrific group of people, some new, some old.  We have a long journey ahead of us, and I can only look forward.  I get up each day happy and excited to go to work.  My director and I have truly clicked and love working with each other.  I feel I am doing important work and I am so satisfied.  I am a week from tech and already my assistant and I are getting ready.  We can't wait.

I've some pictures, but I think I'll save them for next time.  Next time I want to talk about the beauty of this strange new place... Seattle.  I think it is some kind of wonderful.

  It says   Next at
Intiman Theatre
  Ruined

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Tales From A City.

Once I worked with Anne Bancroft on a show, many years ago in LA. After a matinee, Anne asked me, "Where can an Anne Bancroft and a Mel Brooks go for dinner around here?"  I said, "...what?"  Louder and with emphasis this time,"Where can an Anne Bancroft and a Mel Brooks go for dinner around here?" I said, "Are you asking me where you and your husband can have quiet dinner?" Her exasperated reply, "Yes!" I sent them off to the local restaurant owned by those few who understand stars.  I thought at the time, "they live on some other plane." I look back.  I laugh.

One week gone, 9 weeks left.  Time does tick away, doesn't it?

I love what I've seen in Seattle.  I'll have to explore further tomorrow.  I had dinner with one of my cast members tonight and we had a great time, getting to know each other, finding out we had worked with some of the same people and inevitably complaining then gossiping.  We talked about South Africa and how well we will all know each other... later.  We talked a little sports and a little politics.  My new friend is too young to remember Anwar Sadat.  So, I told him about Sadat. (President of Egypt, Nobel Peace Prize winner for trying to bring peace to the middle-east and one of the good guys, assassinated in 1981.) We talked about California and New York City. He told me what he wants to do and see while here in Seattle.  (Fishing, rafting, exploring...) We laughed. All in all, a very nice comfortable dinner with terrific company.

Tomorrow is my first day off on this new journey. My regular readers will smile, but, I have to get my nails done!  Pre-production is unkind to my manicure. I did a load of wash last night (another of those great apartments with a washer and dryer in the unit.) But, I think, after all, I'll need to take a walk.  I will stroll and take pictures. It is green out there and spring-like. I'll be looking for flowers, but we'll see what strikes my fancy.

With apologies to Lord Byron:
She walks in silence, like the night,
Of cloudless climes and starry skies.
And all that's best in dark and bright,
Meet in her aspect and her eyes.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Seattle Again.

I've become enormously annoyed by the incredible amount of trouble I've had getting online to post my blog. I think the problem is with the server. It is odd, and strange. I can get to a certain point signing in
with Safari, then… “we can't reach google/blogger… they must be busy.” Or Firefox. The icon spins and spins and then says “done.” The page is blank.  I go through aol and I reach the page that allows me to write my blog! I start to type and aol “unexpectedly” quits. Again and again.

Initially the servers wouldn't let me upload photos. Now, I can't upload photos to facebook! What is up with that? Truly… Aren't I visiting the home of the internets? Is this not where all this technology was invented? Do I have to go back to California to post?

I am writing this on a word document that I hope to either send to my husband to post, or email to myself at work and see if I can get on there. (No, I haven't tried yet at work. Silly! I'm working!)

Okay. Enough about all of that.

Seattle is wonderful. I was a little disappointed the Trader Joe's here did not have some of the same wonderful products I'm used to. But, there was enough and some new things I'd not seen before. 2 buck Chuck is 3 bucks here. Alas. Berries are more expensive. I forget, we grow all this in CA. Washington has to ship it. Adds to the cost. I bought some beautiful string beans and some new frozen dinners. I love the Clementine Sparkling “Beverage.” (A more fattening Coke.)

I have an early sort of pre-rehearsal tomorrow with the new cast members. I am doing a show done previously in Chicago and New York. Most are joining us on the journey, but 4 are new. We will work through the play with the few so they can catch up to the many. We start in earnest on Tuesday next.

We are ready. I've become very fond and protective of my director in the very few days I've been here. The theatre is in a bit of an upheaval, new artistic staff (my director is the new artistic director) and a very young group managing too many things. Challenging. The crew seems solid and are just looking for leadership. I've made friends with the steward.

I like everyone here. I just need middle management to work a little faster, step up… attend to the rehearsal and performance needs NOW. During the apparently long transfer period of transition some personnel have become a bit easy-going. It is okay. Every place has its own challenges.

I met some of my cast members today. I am in love. If they are all as lovely as the three I've met and the other 2 I've spoken to, we will have a grand time together.

I'm jazzed. I'm loving it all.

I'm lonely too. I'm alone and living in Seattle. Yikes… It rains here all the time!

Oh! The Space Needle is… RIGHT OVER THERE! 

Friday, June 11, 2010

Seattle.

I've been trying for days now to upload an image of the Space Needle.  It is so close,  if I walked 2 blocks I could touch it.  Alas, my connection is not allowing me to post pictures up here in the wilds of Seattle.  (Um.. Wasn't all this technology invented up here?)

I like Seattle.  I haven't really seen the sun since I left LA, and although it always looks like rain, it has only rained about 3/4 of the time.  (LOL.)  I don't have a car, so I walk everywhere.  Up and down the hills, shopping and exploring.  It is a lovely town.  Very clean and very smart.

I like the job.  I'm happy.  Rehearsal starts Saturday.  Much to do before then, but I think we are ready.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Missed Chances.

I wasn't going to write a blog tonight.  I'm tired and I have a lot to do tomorrow.  But, floating through facebook, I received a particularly touching message.  I had to share it, because it is about missed chances and true love.

Some background.

Last year, my favorite buddy (maybe, my best friend) in high school and I found each other on facebook.  He gave me his phone number and we talked for hours, just like we'd done, oh so many years ago.  It was great to find the years meant nothing.  We were still just as close as we'd been discovering the newest "Who" album together, sitting on his bed at 3 in the afternoon.  We never "dated."  We went to some things together when neither one of us had "a date."  We loved each other in a way that supported us both through all those difficult teen-age years.  I lost touch with him as we went off to separate universities and separate lives.

He is married now, with a daughter.  (How lovely!)  He is happy and very successful.  He is a journalist and broadcaster in a very large market.  I recently commented (yes, on facebook) that I was continually amazed by him.  He wrote me a private letter back thanking me for the compliment and asked what I was doing.  I told him I was going to South Africa and how I'd never been that far away from home.  I (jokingly) asked him to go with me.

He replied, "I would have, in 1972..."

I smiled.  I smiled a sad little smile.  I'd no idea!  I was too stupid to see the love in front of me.  He was too smart to risk spoiling the wonderful relationship we had.

We have lived our lives apart, marrying and having children (or in my case, nieces and nephews);  both happy with our choices.

I wonder, if I'd known, what I would have done.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Chance Encounter.

Many years ago, (a long time ago and far far away) I was sitting at a table in the Conservatory at the Mayflower Hotel in New York City.  (It is gone now. Alas.)  I was with my colleagues and we were talking about the show we were about to rehearse.  (It might have been The Turtles, it might have been an industrial for Pontiac.  I don't remember anymore.)

There were only two parties in the restaurant at the time.  We numbered about 6 or so.  The only other table had three people.  2 men and a woman.

I looked over, as I arrived, and said to my colleagues, "Look, it is Julian Lennon and Axl Rose."  One of my coworkers  mentioned he'd really like an autograph from Julian for his daughter (yeah, right) but he didn't have the courage to ask for it.  I said I'd do it.  I went over to the table, introduced myself, pointed to my cowardly colleague and Julian graciously gave me an autograph for the daughter.  Axl asked me, "Don't you want my autograph?"  I smiled and said, "No, thank-you."

(In retrospect...)

Later, we noticed Axl get up and go to the piano and play a few chords with a bit of rhythm.  We didn't really think much about it.  We were involved in our own conversations.

The bar closed.

I was staying at the hotel.  Julian and his guest said good-bye to Axl and left the hotel.  I found myself walking with Axl to the elevator.  He put his arm around me and asked me what I'd thought of his musical attempt to impress Julian.  I hadn't really listened and his mini performance didn't impress me, so I said something innocuous and supportive.  He smiled an endearing smile.  We rode the elevator together and got off on the same floor.  We were living next door to each other!

He was lovely and gracious and walked me to my door.  I said goodnight and thought no more about it. The next night... he clearly had a party in his hotel room.  Very Loud.

He came to me the next day, apologized for the noise and promised it would never happen again.  It never did.

Nice.  Nice to meet him and talk to him.  He was such a gentle man.  I mean what I write.  He was a gentle man.  Nice to meet Julian too.  He was a gentleman.  So good to see.

I've felt very protective of the two of them and engaged with them ever since. (Though I've never seen either one again.)  It was the moment. The chance encounter.