"Toooooomorrow!"

Today was an easy one. Spent the morning at Upham's doing some rehearsin'. After some quality Scott time we all went to a Sushi place in Brookline. It was wonnnnderful! Had a Bento-Box and some green tea and spent some quality time with the other actors :)
We then made it out to the theatre in Roxbury to do some scene change stuff...random--whatever...
I then made it home with a quick stop at Panera before showering and heading out to "The Spa" in North Andover for a 30 minute massage. It was nice! :) Def too short but I am NOOOOOT complaining!

Tomorrow starts technical rehearsals which I am sure will be intense--but nothing we can't handle. Should be fun to finally see the show as it wil be.

That is about it for now.

PEACE

"Oh, What a NIIIIIIGHT!"

Oh this was a DOOOOOZY of a day kiddies!
First off, I was late to the call time today because I was run off the road on the wrong exit...whatev...there is nothing I could do about that one, right?!
So then we unloaded the set into Roxbury Community College's Theatre. This took until lunch-time--which to be honest, is not bad at ALL!


That is the set after we got it up in the new space.

We then moved on to make-up/wig class which turned out to be hours of entertainment, mind you!
Everyone got the basics of the make-up down pat. After that we went on to trying on our very expensive and incredible wigs and facial hair. This all took a few hours in order for us to get it all right. The following pictures document our goodtimes with wigs and make-up!







When everyone was done with make-up and wigs they were able to leave. Nick and I had to keep working for the day because we had to do voice-overs for the show out by the Mass Ave/Newbury Street area. We got there early and so we decided to go get some good ole Wendy's for dinner--CHEAP AND GOOD!
As we sat...we heard a bit of a commotion only a few feet from us. The commotion was the start of what MIGHT have been a gang fight! About 6-8 men got into a BRAWL right there in the Wendy's. I won't get into details but let's just say that there was plenty of throwing of punches AND bodies as well as blood and unidentified weapons that came out of nowhere. There is a longer version of the story but it is best TOLD not TYPED. "WHERE AM I AND WHAT IS HAPPENING" is all I could think.

Nick and I proceeded (with caution) two doors down to the recording studio to do our voice-overs for the show. We were TOTAL rock stars...We even had MTV following us--documenting every move we made. I finish off this blog today with a pic of NIck in the AWESOME studio we recorded the stuff in.



and so...PeACe! :)

"Yesterday..."

Yesterday we loaded OUT of Upham's Corner in Dorchester, MA. It was a hoot considering that the four person crew that was HIRED to help us didn't show up and we had to lower the huge set down four flights of stairs with only actors/techs and staff members from the company. We also had the help of the professional rigger, Bart who held the pieces via his CROTCH to lower them down. He was a trooper. It was a hell of a day but made us stronger in the end even though it ROYALLLLLLLLY pissed almost everyone off overall...but there was nothing at all we can do.

We had a few breaks and during those times we decided that it would be healthy to try on the random wigs we found there and take pictures of ourselves...Below you will also find radom pics from the day!

Actual Rehearsals are OVVVVER!

Just another pic of the set...this time in black and white. Why not!?
So today was our final run for the producer and designers and it went very well. Today also marked the last day of actual rehearsals for the tour. Tomorrow we will be moving to the theatre (at a community college mind you!) to do all of our technical rehearsals until we leave.

Now I just want to point out to everyone that to do all this will mean taking our set apart and moving it down 4 stories by a PULLEY SYSTEM! hahahaha...
Gotta love the clause in our contract that says "you will be ask to do other duties as well when they arise"...I guess we all didn't realize that hoisting our MASSIVE set down a four story Masonic Temple thing was included in that! Buuuuut we will do it like champs and just get it done becasue we must--with nothing but smiles...because frankly we are the shit. Nuff said!

The rest of the week will be spent getting settled in with our makeup, costumes, wigs and all technical aspects of our huge-ass show. I forsee a LOT of "Harry Potter" reading...hoooooopppefully!

I can't wait to actually be on the road doing the show and seeing parts of the country I never thought I'd visit (i.e. KALAMAZOO!) Amaaaaaaaazing!
But we gotta get through this week successfully to get to that point and I think we are in a good place to do so...The feedback from today seems to indicate very minor issues as we go into tech which is a lot better than other casts so it seems!

And that's about it...I have nothing else to say

goodnight!
PEACE

Early Chamber Pictures!

SOoooOOooOOOoo...I have finally had a free moment to put my rehearsal pictures up on here. It has been a busy week and it will only get busier from here...but that is juuuust fine because we leave Boston to start touring in less than 2 weeks! AHHHhHHhHhhhH! I am very excited about it all but there will be lots of hard work in these upcoming weeks before we peace out of Boston.

Tomorrow is our "final" run for the producer before tech rehearsals start and I think it will go well...I just need to trust myself.

Ok...so here are the pics I've taken so far--



Quimby posing for Senior Pictures on the "Red Chief" rock!



Weird picture that makes the person in it look like a ghost...



This is the "not-so-harp-looking" harp...I don't think THE Harpist would approve! :)



Nick and the Chamber sign...not much more needs to be said!



Scott directing "The Lady or the Tiger" (and possibly day-dreaming about the food was going to cook for us!)



This last picture is just a cool black and white I took "backstage" at the rehearsal hall.

So there ya go!
Off to bed am I for the run tomorrow needs all of my energy.

PEACE

That is the face I made today after a small, pleasant and very efficient doctor asked me to turn my head to the left and cough today. YES! That is riiiiiight kids! Today was physical day for The Dept. of Transportation. After peeing in a cup and looking every which way (up left down right...close one ear and tell me the number you hear etc) I am officially able to drive a 26 foot truck around the country. Apparently all it takes is a female doctor touching your "Whoo-Haa" and the reassurance that you do not have diabetes to be able to drive a massive truck around like it is a Honda! Nonetheless, our group trip to the Logan Health Center thing went fine...despite the fact that we almost ran out of gas and got lost along the way. DAMN BIG DIG! grrrrrrr....but thanks to "google earth"(ie Nick)--we found our way just fine!

Last night I stayed with Anna at our mutual friends house in Cambridge. We sampled (and by sampled I mean drank a lot of) wonderful scotch and watched "the craziest accidents" on TV for the whole night. It was a wondefully relaxing night. What was NOT wonderfully relaxing was waking up and slipping in the shower...falling full force on my right arm and right rib cage! HAHAHA!....of COURSE I fall like this in my oldest friends shower...and NO--I was not still drunk! I don't know how it happened. It still hurts but I'm sure it is fine...it was more on the funny side than anything.

Tomorrow is "do the show two last times before the Producer sees it again" day! What makes it all better though is that our director is bringing us lunch tomorrow! :) :) :)

Time for bed...
Peace!

taking things less personally

After 2.5 weeks of getting into the "Chamber" swing I have found that it is hard to establish what my actual role here is. Yes...I am hired as an actor---but so far it has seemed to me that I am mostly a puppet. This is ok because it is a challenge and as my dearest Anna said, "It takes a good actor to be able to be a successful puppet for someone" (that is paraphrasing mind you, but close enough). This is true...it takes knowledge of the actual craft of acting to be able to accomplish living in the moment of someone elses reality and puppetry on stage. What I mean by this is that the artistic powers that be want what they want out of these characters leaving no space for the actor to create a character for themselves. It seems to be getting harder by the day...

Normally when you enter a long running or already running show you have the obligation to do some set blocking and create a cohesive character around the specificities that are involved...This company however wants to recreate the same exact situations and characters that have been done for the past 30 years. They have not given much time for us to actually explore and create real people within the specific style that they want conveyed. We are NOT the same people/actors from the past 30 years...I think that is the hardest part about this...

What I have found most challenging is learning to NOT take notes and major changes personally because in all actuality almost all of the choices "I have made" have not actually been made by me. Most of the things I am doing onstage have been the direct result of being told exactly what to do and how to do it. I have no problem doing that here because it is a very specific style. If a director or producer wants something extremely specific, I am able to deliver that and will learn to make it real and personal for myself. What I cannot really deal with is doing what person A wants and then having person B change it and have person A get mad and then have person C try and remedy it only to piss off both person A and person B and then have me be stuck in the middle hoping that they are not thinking it is a reflection of my acting ability. I KNOW that was a very long run on sentance...but bare with me.

Basically, I have found it hard to do my job here because there is nothing cohesive coming from the creative team. I am very much able to do what someone tells me--but when 3 or more people are telling me what they SPECIFICALLY want and that what they want is what everyone wants...frankly, i get very very CONFUSED. So basically i have learned to just let it go and roll with the punches whilst working hard. There is only so much one can to do please everyone at all times. The challenge for me has been finding a happy medium and learning to take things less personally.

The feedback we have been getting is not necessarily a reflection of our ability but rather one of what needs to be accomplished for an end product. Learning to let go of my racing mind has been helpful in the past few days.

And so the week continues. Hopefully Nick will show me how to add pictures to my blog tomorrow (I KNOW this is a very simple thing to do...but alas I am still new to the BLOG WORLD!). Strangely, Anna is staying with one of my oldest friends in the world for the next week (MANDO!) and so I get to see him and hang tomorrow night and I couldn't be more thrilled! :)
The little things are sometimes the things I look forward to the most!

Goodnight World....
PEACE

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen!

Sooooooo...today was our run for the Producer of CLASSICS!
It went well...surprisingly well actually.
To be honest, I was expecting recasting and pandemonium after she left but that was certainly not the case.
The biggest problems that she had with the show were things that we had no control over in the first place.
We did what we knew and now we have the rest of the week to work on it. It seems as if we are in a good place--perhaps even a better place than some of the other shows that have gone out...though that is only rumor!

For the most part I agreed with the comments she gave me specifically. The problem though is that I was doing exactly what I was told to do by my 3...count 'em 3 directors! It is hard to be the middle man with hardly any creative power in a theatrical venture. So I am not taking anything she said personally as if it is my fault that she did not like some of the performances. All the actors were doing as they were instructed by each given director. She said we looked confused and well...we are! So Our main director, Scott (who we all love and feel very fortunate to have mind you) let the Producer know that we are being pulled in all sorts of different directions by different people and there in lies the reason for our overall confusion.
My hope is that she understood this and took it to heart for the next time she sees the show.

This is one of the more interesting structures for working on a show that I have ever been involved in. We do not really have much creative freedom because they are trying to produce a specific product...and I understand and respect that. After this week of reworking things I think that what will be important for my sanity will be to bring some sense of actual creativity/acting/craft to the boundries in which we are held.

Overall the day went a lot better than I thought it would...'cause let's be honest--I really thought that it was going to be a COMPLETE wash and that the shit miiiiiiight have hit the fan.
Luckily this was not the case...
The Producer even complimented us (in a way--through our director) saying that this is one of the best casts she has ever assembled...SO that is something to be positive about! :)

So the week with continue with much work to be had and it will surely be a "grand adventure" until tech week!

Until next time...
PEACE

Phew!

Sooooo...we showed up at rehearsal today to find that our early run for the producer was moved to tomorrow! Thank God! We get one day to clean things before she sees what we've got to show. We are in good shape but another day after a day off is a nice buffer for it.

We have to just have fun and do what we have been and we'll find out what she thinks after. I mean, it is a big deal but stressing over it will do no good whatsoever. So yay! Tomorrow will be fun and we'll just have to trust what we know and the work we have done so far!

Allllllriiight!
Must go...I'm watching the one show I'm in as I type and gotta go pay attention! :)

Peace!

"I'm Breakin' Down...Dooooowwwwwwwn....Dowwwwwn!"

I dreaded today's reahearsal all week. Today was the day that we did "The Fall of the House of Usher" for the Artistic Director/Writer/Creator etc...(all the same woman mind you). I am not afraid of her by any means--in fact I really like her but the fact that this piece is completely her creation is a bit daunting. The whole week was leading up to this for me even though I have another day of rehearsal tomorrow...Didn't matter--today's rehearsal was what counted.

Of course we all built this up to be WAY more than it ended up being. At first it was a bit trying and a little terrifying but as the day went on we (the actors) built a great relationship with the Artistic Director. After I let down my guard and also let go of my fear of being wrong (which is saying a lot for me) I grew into the part of the "Narrator".

We had a bit of a mental laughing breakdown in the middle of rehearsal (we being all us actors AND the Artistic Director). I was so concerned that I was going to fuck up "her baby" (as it had been called) that I could not for the life of me do something as simple as pick up a cup at the right time. After about oh...5 tries we started laughing (which I NEVER thought would happen at this specific rehearsal) to the point that she was crying. It was a moment of sheer brilliance which made our day so much better from then on. It was like an ice breaker. Once we established that we were all HUMAN there, everything came a lot easier to me/us.

We worked very hard for the rest of the time at perfecting the specific style of the show but also learning how to incorporate actual acting into it. We found moments that I can see getting to the point of being actual acting instead of puppetry.

I left rehearsal today feeling like I had accomplished something and also that we had all come to an understanding that things aren't as hard as they seem.

We ended rehearsal with the ABSURDLY AMAZING opening music for the show...(insert sound clip here...if ONLY you could hear this shit...), danced around the room forgetting anything that stressed us or made us upset and revelled in the fact that we laughed our asses off WITH the Artistic Director on the day that we had dreaded all week. We also forgot about how a certain cast member and myself had been having small, kind of psychotic breakdowns at points (no names mentioned...yet) and realized that it is up to us to keep each other in check!

I look forward to keeping this sort of free-sprited, happy, playful attitude for the next four months! Hopefully it will be something that stays throughout the tour and afterwards as well...We shall see...Here's to hopin'!
:)

Again...with a smile I say goodnight...and DAMNIT I don't care how stupid it sounds!

PEACE

oh...and don't forget to read the good stuff at www.cube-side.com

Rehearsals have begun! Home in Boston...

SOooo...
I am in my second week of rehearsals with Chamber Theatre and it is a very different theatrical experience than others/most I have had. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I am thinking more positively these days and so I keep reminding myself that I am a working actor who can pay his bills doing what he loves to do. Over the past two weeks my castmates and I have learned the extremely specific style involved in doing theatre that is based off of literature. This company has been in the works for 30 years and so they have a very clear idea of what each "story" within the show must be.

At first I found this to be very strange and unsettling but it has grown on me. I don't mind molding myself into extreme genres because it actually is a challenge. I will admit that at times I crack up laughing, thinking to myself that what I am doing is so ridiculous (and sometimes not really even acting)--but I know the in the end that the trick is to make what I am told to do into something real for myself. If i don't do that I will go friggan nuts...

The stories are:

The Fall of the House of Usher
The Ransom of Red Chief
The Lady or the Tiger
The Open Window
The Most Dangerous Game


Nonetheless...the people I am working with are the shit...no joke. The director is serious enough but also very playful, knowing that at times what we are doing is in fact kinda ridiculous--as do the other actors and techies. And THANK GOD everyone in this tour has a wild sense of humor and adventure. I don't think I could do this or at least have as much fun doing it if I wasn't working with the free-spirited kind of people I am working with. That is definately a blessing I am very happy about.

We have been working on the set with the actual props and set pieces since day one which is amazing. I haven't had that happen with any show I have done. The show itself is crazy complicated. Each of the stories have either crazy fight choreography or at least a good amount of physical comedy. I have a lot of these things to do myself. For example; in one of the stories a little "boy" (really a girl, but that is just details really) jumps on my back twice, kicks me, punches me, runs me into walls and huge "taller than me" rocks and on and on and on...It is a BLAST! A little tiring but still a really incredible time each day.

I cannot keep saying how wonderful it feels to be a working actor. I am happy everyday. I have started to get that "I feel like a kid" sorta feeling back as well which is really really really nice...Doing this show is the true essence of playing. I don't have to take myself seriously (and believe me...NONE of us do) and I think that actually allows me/us to really let go and just PLAY. And that is what acting is all about...Playing and Creating! :)

So with a smile...I sign off for now and go to bed...For in the AM I have to drive the 15 seat passenger van that we will take around the country back into Dorchester for another crazy long day of rehearsal! Oh...and we named the van "Grandma Fucker"...not like someone who does this to Grandma...but rather a Grandma NAMED Fucker....just wanted to clear that up!

Until next time...
PEACE