johnstephenking

I'm currently at about 35,000 feet on my return flight. The weekend in Chicago was definitely a whirlwind trip, especially Saturday.

Friday, I got to the city around Noon, ate lunch and headed over to my friend's place where I was staying. I had invited some Corn folks over to hang out, but it ended up not happening. Instead my friend and I went to the cocktail bar on his block and had drinks. He's a regular and the bartenders know him by name. I had three drinks my friend had five, I think. He was drinking beer, I wasn't. Anyway, we only had to pay for three of them, which was nice, especially since I was drinking $10 martinis.

Saturday, I headed up to my old neighborhood to meet a friend for lunch. I wandered around a bit. Not much has changed. It kind of felt like I never left. Later that evening I went to see another friend in a show, which was hilarious. I had a drink with her then headed into Lakeview to catch the Belmont Burlesque Revue at Midnight. There were some seating mix-ups, and I ended up having to watch the show standing from the side, but it was still a good time. It was nice to see my friends again that are in the show, one of whom will probably be commenting on this post eventually. Afterward, I went to the bar with them. Unfortunately, I could only buy one drink because the stupid ATMs (I tried three) were have service problems, and the bar only took cash. I still had a good time, but it was annoying.

Sunday, I had lunch with my oldest brother and his wife who are living in the city due to school. I took them to a Spanish Tapas place that I used to go to after work sometimes with friends from my first Chicago office job. They liked it, and I was definitely in the mood for it, since it had been so long since I ate there. I went over to their place after lunch for dessert and to visit a bit. Then, I went back to the apartment, took a nap, played some SNES, watched some MST3K, and just relaxed until my friend got home from work later that night. Then we went back to the cocktail bar on his block. There was only one bartender, the staff had all gone home, and there were no customers. I made the mistake of not drinking beer, because I could have kept track of my actual alcohol consumption. Instead, I had a couple of chocolate martinis (which were awesome), and the bartender loaded them and put a lot into the shakers. Oh, and we did a shot of bourbon. I got hammered.

This morning I had to wake up much earlier than I would have liked, with one of those queasy hangovers. I hate those. That of course made the train ride and flight take-off fun. And, now I'm up here posting, and I'm probably going to have to shut down soon.

All in all, good trip, just too short.

First, before I get into my rant, I'll give a little wrap-up to the show. We had a good closing weekend. I blanked a couple of times during my scenes, which was annoying, but overall not too bad. Most likely it will be the last time I perform in that theatre, not because I won't work with the company again, I probably will, but because the the artistic director is fed up with the way the city is handling the management issue with the building. She's currently looking for a different venue. It's a shame, really, because I like the space. Oh well.

Now, onto the rant. It's been raining, a lot. Three weeks ago we had a 500 year flood. I had to take a different route home on the flood day because the road I usually take was impassable. The next time I did drive down that road you could see the dirt line in the trees where the water was. It was higher than my car by a good margin. We had a bit of a respite, but it rained all this week again. We've had like 15 inches more than average already for the month, and the month isn't even over.

To give you a visual, this is a picture of the Scream Machine, one of the roller coasters at Six Flags over Georgia, during the flood:



So, needless to say, I'm sick of rain. Right now my current fear is that it will rain on Halloween night during the big annual party my friend throws. It's the only party she throws during the year, that should give you an idea of the scale. I'm not concerned that it will be canceled. It would take more than rain to do that. Also, it rained last year, and good times were still had by all. I just don't want to deal with the rain and inevitable mud in the backyard.

With my trip to Chicago coming up next weekend I've been keeping up with the extended forecast for Chicago, mainly to decide which coat to take. I'm thinking about playing it safe and just taking my wool coat, overkill if it's in the 50's at all, but I'm not sure I want to risk it being cold and only having my lightweight jacket. Anyway, I look at the extended forecast today, which is showing all the way to next Sunday, and what do I see? I see a 60% chance of rain for the ENTIRE weekend. Granted, Chicago weather changes at the drop of a hat and the chance could dwindle to nothing by next weekend, but it still irritates me. I can't seem to get away from this damn rain!

*grumble*

We had a pretty good opening weekend. Friday's crowd was big and responsive. Saturday's crowd was a little smaller, but still responsive. We only had about twenty on Sunday, though, and they were very quiet. The show did finally come together in the end. Hopefully, this coming weekend will be even better.

Well, the preview was fairly successful with only one hang-up. One of the scenes/songs takes place in the executive washroom. Originally, we were supposed to have three separate "sinks" on casters. Well, that turned into one big "sink" that we all have to crowd around and as of last night was not on wheels. Last night was also the first time we had to deal with it. It changes blocking by just being there, and it's too small for all of us to fit behind. I want to drop it and just pantomime the scene, but the director doesn't want us to pantomime it. So, it looks like tonight, before we open, we'll have to re-block that scene/song, which is annoying. Hopefully, it will be on wheels tonight, because that would definitely help.

Other than that, not a bad night. Here's hoping tonight goes well. We already have at least 75 reservations.

Oh, on a completely different note, I will be in Chicago Oct 23-26. I don't know how many people I'll get to see or what. I just wanted to put the word out.

Last night's dress rehearsal went MUCH better than Tuesday night. The set is actually done, just about, and most of the technical and costume issues were resolved. Of course, it took cast members volunteering to help out that really pushed things along, so I'm glad they stepped-up. There are still some issues, but the show is presentable. Now, I just need to go through some of my own stuff to make sure my characters come across the way I want them to.

Last night's rehearsal was a clusterfuck technically. It was the first time running with lights, and the "elevator." The set still wasn't done, there was no glow tape on the black rolling platforms that end up in the wings from time to time. The actor playing Bud actually tripped and fell over one in a black out, because there was also no light backstage right. We only have one stage manager who has to deal with the curtain, and do scene changes. We really need a running crew, badly.

I was not happy after last night. I'm very concerned that this is going to really be a disaster. We have an audience tomorrow night, we're missing costumes (including mine), the costumer has been flakier than usual, so people don't know which costume to wear when. The whole tech issue is just bad, and communication is practically non-existant. I'm actually to a point where I'd be perfectly happy if we just canceled the show. I'm also debating whether or not to tell my friends and family not to bother with this one. I'm going to see if things are any better tonight, but I really don't know if we can pull things together by opening night on Friday, much less for the preview audience tomorrow.

As you may recall I was nominated a few months ago for a MAT award for my performance as Mortimer in The Fantasticks. Well, the ceremony was last night, and I won! Unfortunately, I was the only one nominated from the show (there were four other nominations) to actually win. But, hopefully it will translate into increased traffic for Button.

Speaking of Button, the show is in much better shape. Our runs have definitely helped bring some cohesion, and I think everyone has an idea of how it's going to shape up now. Tonight we have our tech rehearsal, and then we'll go into dress rehearsals starting tomorrow. We have our first audience for a preview on Thursday, and then we open on Friday. It'll be a short run, only two weekends. Here's hoping the last pieces come together.

The once character that had not been cast as of last weekend was finally cast, and the actor they got was one of my castmates from Mousetrap. I kind of feel sorry for him because he's going to have very little to do in the show, but he's getting paid.

We start our runs of the show tonight. Hopefully, everything will start to come together tonight, hopefully.

We have an audience in two weeks. We still don't have anyone to play an important (but not very big, fortunately) part in the show. Rehearsals have been disjointed and disorganized, and I'm concerned. Last night I actually started to wonder if the show might just get cancelled, although if that were to happen it would most certainly be the death knell for this theatre company.

We'll be doing stumble throughs of the show tomorrow and Monday, and then running the show all next week. Hopefully, things will start to come together starting tomorrow. Hopefully.

I had intended to spend the bulk of this past weekend memorizing lines and lyrics for the show. Things didn't quite go as planned.

Friday night I could have gone to a poker game, but didn't so I could work on lines. I ended up spending the evening in IRC and IM. Saturday I had rehearsal. It was my first real in depth music rehearsal, and it went well. I've actually got most everything in my head (more or less), which is good considering we're supposed to be off-book musically tomorrow night. I knew I would be heading to the Tavern to see opening night of As You Like It, so I figured I wouldn't actually get back to working on the show until Sunday. I figured I wouldn't be too late getting home.

I did not account for the underground party that I was invited to by one of the Tavern staff at this place down the street. I had been drinking, so of course I thought this would be a good idea. Well, after only being there for maybe half an hour, the guy who invited me noticed that his wallet was missing. We never found it, and we left because it wasn't fun anymore. However, instead of getting dropped off at my car to go home (I was sober at this point), I decided to go to someone's house for a while. I got home a little bit after 5AM.

I don't know if it was residual exhaustion from the previous weekend of Dragon*Con or what, but the lateness (or earliness, depending on your point of view) combined with that sheer exhaustion kept me in and out of bed all Sunday. I was just so tired. I had trouble getting motivated to do anything, much less learn lines. I did, finally, do some memorizing, but not as much as I should have. This week I plan to get to the theatre early so I can cram. I do know that this will mean I definitely have to buckle down this coming weekend, because we open on the first.

After updated my Facebook status about the loss of the choreographer, I got a text message from the director saying:

"Just so you know . . . he didn't resign . . . No need to worry or make others worry."

I replied that I was just going by what he mass e-mailed to the cast, to which she replied:

"Man, I knew he was going to do something stupid like that. I had intended to talk to everyone about it face to face."

Then, after a brief e-mail exchange with another friend of mine, she told me this about the choreographer:

"he . . . had just recently been promoted to an entertainment construction lead, then all of a sudden he was gone....none of us were told why, he just sort of went away...apaprently this isn't the first time something like this has happened...."

I doubt I'll ever know exactly what happened, but it doesn't sound pretty. It seems so far like we're going to have more drama behind the scenes for this show than we will onstage.

I just got an e-mail from the choreographer to the cast. He's dropping out of the show. We no longer have a choreographer. This does not bode well.

One final remark about the show. Thursday night, one of my conflicts from the beginning, I was working at a charity Star Party. Thursday's rehearsal was the first vocal rehearsal, and I asked the director to make sure the music director knew I wouldn't be there. Well, a few minutes after 7:00 on Thursday, I get a call. I let it go to voicemail, because I was working. A minute or so later, I checked my voicemail. The stage manager called wondering where I was. I had to get someone to relieve me so I could call her back and tell her that Thursday was one of my conflicts. I guess the director informed her about the rest of the weekend, because I didn't get anymore calls.

Moving on. Today was the last day of Dragon*Con, and the last day of the second annual Skeptrack at Dragon*Con. This year I made sure to get out of the track room from time to time and actually have a look around the convention. You can see some of what I came across in my Flickr stream. I have only added basic tags to those pics. When I'm not so tired and have the time, I'll go in and change file names and add descriptions. I have more pics too, but unfortunately hit the monthly upload limit. I won't be able to upload anymore this month, which is annoying.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun again this year. I met new people, and caught up with some I met last year. It's going to take me a few days to decompress, though. It's weird. I was in the same city where I live. I even slept in my own bed at night, but it still felt like I was somewhere else. One interesting topic that came up was the role of the humanities in skepticism. Since skepticism is about science, where do those of us without much, if any, scientific training fit in? It's a question that I'll be thinking about for a while. I know one person, who will probably read this at some point, thinks that I should actually be on a panel next year discussing this very issue. We'll see.

Right now, I really want to go on the JREF cruise in March. I really, really want to. I just don't know if I will have the money or time.

I think that's enough for tonight. I barely scratched the surface of the past few days, but I'm tired and I have to go back to work and rehearsal tomorrow. It's time for bed.

One more thing about the show situation. The contact sheet apparently had an second page it shouldn't have had. The stage manager I was worried about wasn't able to do the show, so the second stage manager listed is the only SM.

And, the director told me that the tech rehearsal on the night of the MAT awards is without actors, so I can go to the VIP reception.

I just got a reply to my e-mail about the conflicts, and the director said there were too many to schedule around, so she just did the schedule. If I can't be there, then I just have to find out what I missed, which is fine I guess.

And, as for the MAT awards, the cast isn't called for that tech rehearsal, so that works now.

Finally, I took a look at the contact list again, and I noticed there are two people down for stage manager, so I guess maybe we have two. Hopefully, the second one can make up for any slack from the Mousetrap SM.

Mousetrap went very well. We had good word of mouth apparently, and our houses grew throughout the run. Some things bugged me, however. Mainly, the disorganization of the process. I blamed most of it on simple inexperience. The show was the director's first professional show, so she's still learning and that's fine. But, some stuff still bugged me like her apparently not reading the script thoroughly enough, not taking notes, or something along those lines. Some of the blocking ended up being awkward because of particular plot points that were said in the text dealing with where people were when the murder happened, etc. Things that should have been plotted out from the beginning but weren't and then had to be fixed in the middle of the rehearsal process. Also, a lot of the sound cues had the same issue. Some of them never got fixed. For example, in Act II characters specifically state a few times that the radio was "blaring" when the murder took place at the end of Act I. The radio never got even close to blaring through the entire run. Anyway, it was just little stuff that bugged the hell out of me. I kept my mouth shut some. I mainly spoke up on glaring problems. The show ended, and I moved on to the next show at the same theatre.

I thought things would be better. I'd be working with the same director from The Fantasticks. Well, something has happened for the worse. I think most of it can be blamed on the fact that the director, who is also artistic director of the theatre, is being pulled in too many directions. Since Fantasticks, the company has taken over management of a theatre building. This means that the artistic director has to run the building, and try to keep it in the black. This has lead to her having far too much on her plate. As a result, I think this show may suffer.

On my audition sheet I gave this entire upcoming weekend as a conflict. I also e-mailed her again more recently reminding her of the conflict. Two weeks ago the director e-mailed everyone about the schedule, but forgot to actually attach it. I started bugging her a bit to send it. It never got sent. Since it never got since, and because a previous e-mail had erroneously stated that the first rehearsal would be yesterday instead of Monday, there was confusion about when our first rehearsal would be. We ended up having it last night. She finally sent out a schedule this morning. I look at the schedule, and the first thing I notice is that I'm called this Saturday. I can't go this Saturday, it was a conflict. Also, I looked farther down and there's a tech rehearsal scheduled on the Sunday of the MAT awards. Well, I thought the director was going to go, and we usually don't rehearse on Sundays, so I didn't worry about the awards ceremony. I bought a VIP ticket for $25 that includes a reception after the ceremony that I don't know if I'll be able to attend.

Then there's the stage manager. This was another frustrating aspect of Mousetrap. Our stage manager wasn't at most of our rehearsals. When we finally got to dress rehearsals I had to go be the asshole to make sure she did her damn job and gave us calls, which were inconsistent throughout the run. The running joke became: "I wonder if we'll get five tonight." Well, for some reason the stage manager is our stage manager for the current show as well, and guess what, she was nowhere to be found at our first rehearsal. And really, if the director didn't have time to e-mail the cast with the schedule, then the damn stage manager should have done it!

I'm just not happy with the whole thing right now. I don't know what songs I'm in and which I'm not. What makes me feel really bad is that I really like everyone at the theatre (and they pay), but I don't think I can do this again, not with this level of disorganization. As much as it saddens me to think about, this may be my last show with this company. We'll see.

Around 2004 the Metropolitan Atlanta Theater Awards were founded. According to their website, it was formed for actors in volunteer/community theatre would get recognition, since the other awards in town are Equity only. Although, I think the MAT awards, as they're known, has grown to encompass all non-Equity companies.

I got a call last night to inform me that I've been nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Minor Role for playing Mortimer in the Fantasticks. My name isn't on the website yet, as they haven't officially announced the nominees for the "Musical" category. The ceremony will be in September, so I won't know if I've actually won until then, but it's kind of weird that I've been nominated for an award. It is exciting, just weird.

I, of course, will let everyone know what happens.

I figured out what to do with the stair unit from the Tavern. Meet my new shelves:



Here's the full story. My computer desk came with a matching bookshelf. While I'm happy with the desk, the bookshelf was a piece of crap. Over the past year and half the shelves started bending in the middle shortly after I got it. I didn't even have anything heavy on them. Here's a pic:



I had thought a while back about replacing the particle board shelves with real wood, but never got around to it. Earlier last week I had the idea about taking the steps of the stairs to remake the bookshelf. It took me all day, mainly because my screwgun kept running down and having to be recharged, but I finally got it. I took one of the pieces of facing between steps to reinforce the bookshelf. It's that black board in the middle. It's not perfect, but it's much sturdier than the old one, and this one won't bend.

Next month the Tavern will be dark so that the stage can be rebuilt, something that's been needed for quite some time. The show running this month, Irma Vep, required a different sort of set than usual, so some of the stage pieces were removed to be trashed. When I arrived last night to see the show, I walked past a pile of stair units outside the back of the theatre.

After the show I was talking with one of the other actors who also helps out with construction and painting. He told me those stair units were going to be trashed. I suddenly had the idea, because I can be stupidly sentimental sometimes, that I should take one home. Then I had a flash of sanity, and decided I'd take one of the treads, not the whole unit. I grabbed a screw gun and attempted to dismantle one of the units. I got two screws out, but then realized the other two screws would be harder. One was stripped, the other was underneath one of those tread applications you can stick to stairs to help with traction. I realized all of the treads (the boards, not the application) would have similar setbacks.

I thought about a little more, going back and forth in my head, before finally making a decision. I waited for everyone to leave, drove my car up to the back of the theatre, put my seats down, and opened the trunk. Unfortunately, the trunk opening was too small. I had, however, gone this far, so I wasn't going to give up just yet. I put the back seats back up, folded the front seats down, and moved them all the way forward. I then proceeded to jam an entire stair unit into the back of my car. I still am not sure how I actually managed it. That, however, was not the hard part. The hard part was getting it back out, which I did as soon as I got home. I really didn't want a bunch of neighbors staring at me as I try to get a large wooden stair unit out of my car.

I finally got it out, dragged it to the front porch, and went inside to bed. This morning I awoke with only one question on my mind: "Why the hell did I bring an entire stair unit home?" I mean, I don't own a house. I don't have garage to store it in, or maybe a deck to add it to. I live in an apartment, and will continue living in apartments for the foreseeable future. Now, I have this heavy thing to move around with me too. I moved it to the back porch, and I think I'm going to dismantle it. I'll need to get special bits to remove the stripped screws, and I'll have to figure out where the screws under the traction application are on each step. Fortunately, I do have time to figure it out. If all else fails, there's always a crowbar. Once it's been dismantled, I don't know if I'll keep the whole thing in hopes I'll eventually live somewhere big enough that I can put it to use, or if I'll keep a tread or two and trash the rest. I don't know yet.

It's finally here, my first three day weekend at my new job. Monday will be the first holiday I will actually get a full's day pay instead of just $25.

At the moment I am sitting in a McDonald's waiting to head over to the Movie Tavern around 7:30 to meet friends who are going to see the new Terminator movie. I really had no intention of seeing this movie in a theatre, but I figure if it sucks, at least I have beer. It's just as well I didn't try to go home, because traffic was horrendous today. Everyone is trying to get out of town for the long weekend. Ironically, I was able to get here in about an hour and fifteen minutes. It probably would have taken much longer than that to get home. There just aren't many alternates going that direction.