Adventures in the Rain -- NY Fringe Day 4

I know I'm copping out and I promise a more complete and story worthy version of our NYC adventures at a later time. But for now the lists are all I can do!

More rain, wet again...I'm getting used to it and kind of starting to enjoy it
Showing Sean Manhattan in 3 hours or less: Central Park (the southern tip), Rockafeller Plazer, Radio City, Times Square, Chinatown, Little Italy, the financial district, hot dog in front of the New York Federal building
Subway back to Brooklyn
Seeing Sean leave :( We'll miss him
Dinner with Greg at great Pizza place
Walks around SoHo and the village while waiting for our late night show time
Coffee at Starbucks
Amazing show
Late night ride back to Brooklyn
Still Raining -- still wet
Late night conversation with great friend
Sleep around 5am
Up at 9am off for another adventure in this fantastic city :)

Opening Day -- New York Fringe Day 3

Walking to Starbucks
More rain
Walking to theatre
Opening show at The Cherry Pit
Stage Managing a show in New York City -- Still can't quite believe it
Mets game with Greg -- more rain
late night subway rides
walking through our section of Brooklyn in an attempt to find a diner that was actually to stops away from us -- more rain
diner conversations at 4am
walk back from subway -- more rain
normal life just won't seem as exciting anymore

Walking in the Rain -- New York Fringe Day 2

Thoughts, Memories and Adventures from Fringe Day 2:

More Rain!
Pulling prop and costumes suitcases through the subway system
Ignoring the dirty looks from the commuters as we squished ourselves and the giant suitcases into the already packed L train
More walking in the rain with luggage
Tech run at The Cherry Pit
Playing with a light board that has 40 channels, all working
Dunkin Doughnuts coffee
Getting lost, turning around
Getting lost again, turning around again
Union Square Farmer's Market with Sean, Ryan and Matt
The G train towards Church Ave -- scratch that, the G train towards Queens
Grocery shopping in Brooklyn
Making Lasagna with help from Sean for the cast dinner
Dinner with cast and friends
Wine and Beer
Ms. Pac Man, Beer, bar in Brooklyn
More time with cast
Back to bar for more Ms. Pac Man
Bars that don't close until 4am
Crawling into bed at 4:30am
Slowly falling in love with this city

And So It Begins -- New York Fringe Festival Day I

We have arrived in New York Fringe Festival! All of us along with our postcard, programs, props and costumes, we're all here. I still can't completely believe it. Perhaps it will begin to set in tomorrow as we go through our tech run at the theatre.

Sean, Jen, Corwin and I arrived bright and early this morning off the Los Angeles red-eye. I was quite proud of Sean and I as we managed to correctly take the airtrain from JFK to Jamaica Station and successfully get on the E train to Brooklyn. That's when things started to go wrong. We were supposed to take the E train to Ely/23rd and switch to the G train. It seems that the G train is currently being renovated and so we were told to get off the E train at a different stop and take the free shuttle. We did that, but the bus driver told us to get off at the wrong stop and so we ended up walking, with our luggage, in the rain, approximately 1.5 miles from Queens to Brooklyn. I can't even begin to tell you the number of odd looks we got from native New Yorkers. As my step-brother later said, it was probably because we looked like a really odd homeless pair. So that was the first time I got wet today. Since then I've been able to say the words "I'm wet again" about 6 more times.

Which leads me to an important piece of information -- It rains in New York in the summer -- I know, I know, being from Philadelphia this bit of information really shouldn't surprise me. I can't quite say I was surprised by it, more insulted by it. It does not rain in the summer in Los Angeles, end of story, no exceptions. Rain complicates things and it makes you wet.

I'm sure I should have much more to say about today, but considering that I've nearly been up for a full 24 hours and I need to be up a bit early tomorrow I'm not sure I'm quite thinking properly right now.

What I do know is:

1. I am in New York City (Brooklyn to be precise)
2. I will be here for 9 days!
3. Tomorrow I will run a tech rehearsal in a theatre in New York City
4. My name is printed in a Playbill program as SM of Friends Like These
5. I will forever be grateful to Greg for writing this incredible piece that has given 5 actors, two designers, a director and me the chance to be performing in New York
6. I will forever be thankful to Sean, the director for asking me to share this adventure with him
7. I absolutely have the best job in the world


Good night New York, I can't wait to see adventures what you bring us tomorrow.

Sunday Happiness

One of the highlights of my summer has been rehearsing and running Super Sidekick. I realized looking through my blog entries that I've barely mentioned it, but it has been the fun haven among the running around and business of all the other productions. I can count on Super Sidekick, both the play and the cast to make me smile. It's just pure fun and for a few hours every Sunday for the past six weeks that's what we've been able to enjoy, pure fun. Sadly it closed today but I wanted to record some of my highlights from the past six week adventure into theater for children.

* The addition of the new song, Final Encounter and that Scott did manage to get to sing some of it.
* The incredible fight choreography done during the song that had children standing up in their seats because they were actually afraid for Inky
* The child hecklers, that when prompted to repeat the phrase, "Don't Feed the Bears" responded with "Do Feed The Bears" and Scott's quick response to the little six year old "Excuse me sir, but do I come to your place of business and heckle you, I don't think I do!"
* The little girl who wanted to tell Inky all about her fear of the dark, so much that he had to tell her they could talk about it later.
* The sold out houses
* The kids who couldn't wait to meet Inky and the Princess after each show
* The adorable ninja koala ears and choreography
* The weekly intermission cast Scrabble game

I could go on and on as there were so many good memories from this show. For now Super Sidekick goes back on the shelf, it may reappear next year for Hollywood Fringe and if it does I will happily take my place as the stage manager of this adorable musical.

For now attention must turn to Friends Like These and our New York adventure. A week from now I'll be in NYC. I'm not sure it's sunk in yet, I'm not sure it will until I'm on the plane. We have a lot to do this week, including fed-exing a box of costumes (that's the easy part) and a box of prop weapons, (that's the hard part, how exactly does one send a bunch of PVC pipe and foam wrapped in duct tape across the country. Some of these pieces are taller than me). I'm hoping the guys at the Fed-Ex place won't laugh too hard when I bring everything into their store and ask them to pack them for me.

As my summer winds down I realize I owe huge amounts of thanks to Greg Crafts, he is the writer of both Friends Like These and Super Sidekick and without him my summer would not be nearly as exciting. Because of him I get to go be a Stage Manager in New York for a week and because of him, my Sundays have been exceptionally enjoyable. I can't really ask for more than that!

The Old Script

No matter how much I try I can't get myself to use the new Friends Like These script. I actually printed out the newest version, something I haven't done for the previous two remounts of the play. The new version with re-writes incorporated into the script, the intermission removed and all the other changes neatly typed in placed was hole-punched and placed into a new black spiral notebook, but I can't bring myself to switch to it. I like my old one, the changes are written in pencil, it has three generations of set changes, and lighting and sound cue notes written in the margins, it has names of original cast members, understudies, and now new cast members scribbled on blank pages. It's somewhat like my security blanket, with that script I know the show, I feel safe and at home, I know each page, I know exactly where each cue is written. It's the difference between a brand new book and one that has been read so many times it's dog-eared and creased. Both tell the same story, but one feels more comfortable, more lived in, more read, more loved.

I went to rehearsal tonight fully intending to use the clean new script, to write in new cues, get rid of the clutter of the old generations of this show, but I just couldn't do it. It felt like I was cheating or ignoring the history and the past lives of the production. And so after a few seconds I made the decision that the shiny new script in the new black spiral notebook will not be accompanying me to New York next weekend, I will be carrying the old one, the one with loose pages due to the holes wearing out, the one with all the pencil marks and re-writes written in above and below other lines, the one in the familiar light blue notebook with the blue and purple post-notes sticking out to mark the sound and light cues, the one that reminds me in big capital letters to "WAIT FOR BRIAN" so that I never again cut him out of the last part of a scene, that's the one that will fly to NY, that is the script that will go to the theater and that is the script that will watch the last five performances of this show. It seems fitting, this script and I started this journey together, it seems appropriate that we should get to finish it together.

The Muppets Take Manhattan Or Closing Two Shows

I know -- it's an odd title for a post...bear with me! It's one of my all time favorite movies, who doesn't love the Muppets? (by the way, the word Muppets is not in my spell-check. How can such an iconic franchise not be recognized by spell-check?) Anyway, I love that movie and in more than one way it seems a bit appropriate to title my post "The Muppets Take Manhattan." I'll explain.

As I was watching the second to last performance of Twelfth Night and the final Patriotism Unleashed cast last night the lyrics to "Saying Goodbye" from Muppets Take Manhattan started running through my hear. For those of you unfamiliar with the song it's goes like this:

Saying Good Bye,
Going Away,
Seems like Goodbye's such a hard thing to say,
Touching our hands,
Wondering why, it's time for saying goodbye.

Saying Good Bye,
Why is it sad?
Makes us remember the good times we've had,
Much more to say, Foolish to try.
It's time for saying goodbye.

Don't want to leave,
But we both know,
Sometimes it's better to go.

Somehow I know we'll meet again,
I'm not sure quite where and I don't know quite when.
You're in my heart, until then,
It's time for saying goodbye.

Want to Smile,
Want to cry,
It's time for saying Good Bye

Sappy? Perhaps, but it's what began running through my head. I really don't like saying goodbye to great casts and this song kind of embodies all of my closing night emotions. All good shows much come to an end and the sad part is that like the song says sometime we will meet again, but it won't be under these conditions, it won't be this play or this theater or this exact group of people. And ending it does remind you of how much fun you had creating it and at the same time, there is a feeling that it is time for it end, go out on top, with sold-out houses, that's always the best way to close something. As always I will miss these two casts. I've been blessed with fantastic groups of people this summer and will miss hanging out with them on a weekly basis. I'm guessing the local bar down the street will also miss us hanging out on weekly basis!

Before I continue to explain the title of my post, I have to share one small story from our second to last after show gathering. Last night I had to laugh because the bartender yelled out "Last Call" and eight people immediately responded, "Thank You Last Call" For those of you not in theater, it's standard procedure that when the SM or someone else says something like "5 minutes to places" or "ladder coming through" the standard response is "Thank you 5 minutes" or "Thank you ladder" it ensures that everyone heard the announcement. So hearing the automatic, "Thank You Last Call" response made me smile, you can take the actors to the bar, but you can't truly take them out of the theater!

So the second reason this blog is titled The Muppets Take Manhattan is because in less than a month Friends Like These will be in Manhattan. Now, I'm not saying we're muppets, although, I'm guessing there may be times when we'll feel like the muppets, rather clueless, but having a good time being clueless and I'm not really expecting any breakout dance/musical numbers to happen over a late night dinner in a diner, but I do think it will be an adventure that will give us many stories to share for months to come.

So after tonight, Twelfth Night will be done. Noah will not have to wear bright yellow leggings and be cross-gartered, Jim won't have a reason to grab Jenn's boob, Darci won't need to put her hair in pin curls to wear two different wigs, Julia won't need to worry that her veil will unhook too early, Tom won't need to load six different instruments into the car every weekend, Paul won't need to perfect his "drunk hair," Chris won't need to worry about being boogered by Julia, Carlos won't need to spend 90% of the play moving furniture, Tracey will no longer make us laugh with Fabian's improvisational outbursts. Courtney can finally focus on one show instead of three, Sacha won't have to give Shawn piggy back rides, and Erica and Jessica won't need to avoid the set changers while they are dancing. They will have one last circle of actor love tonight, have one more great performance and then we will head to the Lativan Center for one last post-show gathering. Tomorrow we will all wake up with different agendas, the words, the blocking, the set changes, the costumes of Twelfth Night will slowly drift from our heads, new shows will come up and this summer will become a good, but distant memory. And so Twelfth Night cast, I shall end by saying, "want to smile, want to cry, it's time for saying goodbye!"