Today's Playlist

Crosby, Stills & Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Nico - These Days
The Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun
Lou Reed - Romeo and Juliet
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger
David Bowie - Young American
Led Zeppelin - Hey Hey What Can I Do
Todd Rundgren - It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference
The Velvet Underground - Stephanie Says
The Allman Brothers Band - Melissa

This is the end... Part II

So... the beginning is the end is the beginning. I hope whatever is next comes along soon because I don't know what to do with myself.

This is the end...

So Dirty Hands has run it's course. There are a few things to do yet, but the performing is done. We've got to strike the set, put costumes away, return props and clean the theater and green room.

Things I'll miss about the show:
performing it
seeing the cast and crew every day
seeing the progression in every one's characters
figuring out my character

Things I won't miss:
the crazy hours
doing a show that lasts 3 hours
not sleeping much for the last 3 weeks
my shoes

oil

10% of U.S. oil usage goes into making plastic. 10%! I know that plastic has made much of the modern world possible. It's lightweight, strong, and can be molded into just about any shape. We are currently importing 55% of our oil. If current trends continue that should approach 70% within a decade. Outside of the plastic that has been burned (which releases a myriad of toxins into the air) all of the plastic ever made is still on the planet. World wide, the bottling industry uses close to 100 million barrels of oil a year. 100,000,000 barrels. That's just in the product itself. That doesn't include shipping. And really, the amount should also include the oil used for the workers to drive to the factory. All of this is just to say that there should probably some discussion of all of the uses of oil, and not just for transportation and heating.

Me at Intermission during final dress rehearsal

Final Dress

Well, our last rehearsal before we open is nearly upon us. Last night went pretty well. After a shaky run of the second half of the play, we finally got it right the second time through. I finally feel like I understand what is going on. I'm glad I'm taking tomorrow off from work. I will give me a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep and get some laundry done. Maybe a trip to the grocery store as well. I fell like I haven't done anythink but work and play practice for weeks. It's strange to think that 10 days from now it will all be over. I think I'll need a new hobby to fill the time. Maybe knitting. I have always wanted one of these.

Today's Playlist

Pearl Jam - Once
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Nightingale Song
Jeff Buckley - Eternal Life
Phish - Free
U2 - Heartland
Radiohead - True Love Waits
James - Low Low Low
Dave Matthews Band - Proudest Monkey
The KLF - Build a Fire
Guns N' Roses - Yesterdays
Bush - Warm Machine
Cracker - Euro Trash Girl

Dirty Hands IV: The Return of the Existentialists II

We made it through a full run for the first time last night. Aside from a few hiccoughs, it went pretty well. Plus, somehow, we dropped 20 minutes from the run-time without changing anything. I'm betting we drop another 10 tonight and at least 20 more over the next 2 nights. That would bring us in at 2 hours 40 minutes, including intermission: which is pretty awesome considering how many pages the play is. (For those of you keeping score at home, the play is 114 pages long.) Anyway, there is enough going on that it doesn't really seem that long, if you were worried. I actually felt pretty good about my performance.

Dirty Hands and the King of Communists

Performance week has finally arrived. We open in about 104 hours. We'll be rehearsing about 20% of those. There is a lot of work yet to be done, but I think we will be ready on Friday. I'm pretty sure I know all of my lines. The test will be tonight when we run the show in its entirety for the first time. It's strange to think that after all of the time that we've put in, two weeks from now it will be all over.

The best part about this week is that on Saturday morning, right after opening night, I have a call back for another show. Thankfully, rehearsal won't start for that one until the fall, so I'll have a few months to recover my sanity.

Today's Playlist

The Strokes - Hard to Explain
Radiohead - All I Need
R.E.M. - Texarkana
Robbie Williams - Feel
The Wallflowers - Josephine
Oasis - Little by Little
The New Pornographers - The Jessica Numbers
Ryan Adams - Sweet Illusions
Alkaline Trio - This Could Be Love
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Live - Pillar of Davidson
U2 - Peace on Earth
The Cranberries - Bosnia
The Who - So Sad About Us

Dirty Hands II: The Return of the Existentialists

Our show opens a week from tonight. The nerves started hitting this week, which is good. It's sort of a theatrical fight or flight response. Amped up pressure helps move things along. It has also helped knock off some of the running time. At the beginning of the week it looked like a 4 and half hour show. As of the middle of the week it looked like 3 hours. I'm pretty sure we can pare it down by another half hour. So what is this show about, you may be asking yourself. Well, here is the abstract:
What does it mean to be a patriot or a terrorist in a time of war, especially when alliances keep changing? Meet Hugo, a political activist grappling with this question in the half-fictional country of Illyria. Jean-Paul Sartre depicts a land that is clearly ravaged by war and a people who share a basic human desire for survival. But patriot or terrorist? It all depends on who's looking through the lens.

For some this is an easy idea to wrap ones head around. Of course our definitions are based on our own personal views. And of course I understand that my views are coloured by my experience. For others, not so much. What's right is right. Of course my views are correct. If they weren't, why would I believe them? Anyone with an opposing view is absolutely wrong. Truth is a static thing, they say. But is it? I leave that to you, gentle reader. Are you able to separate yourself from your prejudices enough to understand the other? I hope so. In the end, when the bullets are done flying, if we can't talk to each other, there's little point. I hope you all come and see the show. Cheers.

there they're their

I am constantly amazed that most of my co-workers have not managed to figure out which of these is which. I am also amazed that there are people in the semi-professional world that don't know the difference between tolerance and tolerable. Seriously, one of them is a deviation from a standard and the other is capable of being endured. I mean, how hard is that? If there is any argument against English as a national language, it's this: most of the native speakers here don't really speak it anyway.

Dirty Hands

We've been working on the show now for almost a month. Opening is 2 weeks from tomorrow. I'm not quite at the freaking out stage yet, but I'm sure I'll get there soon enough. The nice thing is that we've got a bunch of full runs coming up which should help with my brain problem. As soon as I remember what I'm supposed to be saying I'm sure I'll be fine. If I had to guess I'd say that I'm 70ish% there. The problem is that the 30% yet to go is the most intense part. I guess it is probably time to lock in and get it done.