Embracing Life

Torrid Affaire opened this past weekend. Opening night was nearly sold out, it was incredible. The amount of love and support this show and I have received is truly amazing. I've said this before on this blog but it's worth saying again, I do really believe that I have a charmed and magical life here. It's something I probably dreamed about as a kid, not this exactly, but something similar. Surrounded by friends, doing something you love doing, in general being in love with life. And at this moment I truly am in love with life!

It's taken me a while to say that and the road to get there has definitely not always been smooth, but now that I've found that place I want to cling to it and never let it go. I don't plan on seeing it leave anytime soon, but I've discovered that pure contentment can be elusive and it doesn't always come in the form you think it will come in. I've learned you have to search for it, dig it out and then truly revel it in it. I'm beginning to see that the more you embrace happiness and contentedness the longer it stays and the easier it is to find again.

Everything I have here in LA, my roommates, my incredible friends, my jobs (both paying and non-paying), my adorable kittens, the creative outlets, all this has fallen into place as I settle into my early thirties. I have embraced this life and it has embraced me. It's an incredible feeling.

I received my first directing review this week. It was filled with exclamation points and while the grammar may not be the best it was kind and complementary. I'm posting it below so there will be a record of it somewhere. It won't be the last review with my name attached as director.

While I'm not giving up stage and production managing I have absolutely fallen hard for directing. When I was acting back in December I never felt "it." I kept waiting for the excitement, the "thing" whatever it is that actors crave, that makes them want to go out on stage every night. I never really understood it until now. Acting didn't do it for me, but directing does, I finally know what the "it" is!

Torrid Affaire Review:

Theatre Unleashed presents Andrew Moore's comedy TORRID AFFAIRE, a rather playful romp about a group of five women as they gather together to torment one another as they face their own personal selves.
The setting is a rather shabby yet comfortable living space. A group of five twenty-something women meet for a "Torrd Affaire" party. This sort of party is related to a Tupperware event. However, the products shown are not meant to hold leftovers. These products are more of a sensual nature that range from body oils, scented candles, outerwear, and even battery operated "toys" one can't find at Toys R Us! As the leader of this group offers what's available, every one of these woman reveal a few secrets! Among the tales and stories that are told, this little evening comes out toward its end--and perhaps with a few of these personal devices falling into the hands (among other places) of these ladies!
This play is very funny and witty, full of smart lines that one can relate to especially if one is of the demographic as depicted on stage. Sure, the humor becomes "blue" in nature at times, but it's more geared toward playfulness that something rather offensive! The cast of players that depict the five, consisting of Taryn Chaifetz as Molly, Darci Dixon as Melanie, Ana Therese Lopez as Charlene, Annamarie Mignini as Camille, and Katie Sikkema as Esther, hold their charm as robust and as the post-modern people that they are. They aren't sappy, but they do know what's going on! Erin Scott is on helm as director of this one-act play that appeals to all!
Also seen within the cast is Joshua Morrison as Jonah, the humble "man servant" that is a modest milquetoast that is ironically, the only male character in this play!
It's been a well known fact that when the girls get together, anything goes--or almost anything anyway! TORRID AFFAIRE is a little comic gem that is short and sweet. In addition, it's naughty yet nice indeed! Oh, yes...it's also for mature audiences only! But you already knew that! (Right?)

TORRID AFFAIRE, presented by Theatre Unleased and performs at The Sherry Theatre, 11052 Magnolia Blvd. (east of Lankershim Blvd), North Hollywood, until March 6th. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday nights @ 8:00 PM. Reservations and information, call (818) 849-4039. Visit the website at http://www.TheaterUnleased.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACCESSIBLY LIVE OFF-LINE

(Vol. 15-No. 8-Week of February 22nd, 2010)

Today We Fight

This will tell you my state of mind, I woke this morning with two phrases from movies playing in my head. The first one, “Take it to the mattresses.” While I know that it originally comes from The Godfather, in my head it was coming from You’ve Got Mail. Hey -- I’m a girl alright, cut me some slack. The second was “Today We Fight.” It’s part of a longer monologue that has been playing in my head today. I’ve already divulged that I am a bit of a Lord of The Rings geek, so get ready – this will only confirm that for you. In Return of King, Aragorn is leading what is left of the armies of men to the Black Gate to what they believe is certain death. In his speech he says, “there may come a day when the bonds of men come crashing down, but it is not this day, today we fight.”

Now this may be a dramatic, but I was sleeping and it’s what my brain came up with. That phrase though, “Today we fight” has become my mantra of the day. Due to sensitive issues I can’t really explain the details, but it has been a day to fight for something worth fighting for, to believe in something that grew from excitement and passion and to realize that it will be alright. And it will be alright, I said to someone in the past 24 hours, we are tornado proof, we may shift around a bit and shake a little during the actual storm, but we’ll still be standing once the clouds disappear. And what’s more we’ll be all the stronger for it.

Listerine

Yesterday I was rinsing out travel size Listerine bottles to make prop body oils for Torrid Affaire. I realized that the smell of Listerine reminds me of my grandfather. It was an odd realization. A certain smell so clearly identified with a person. The memories of him were so strong. My grandfather, Jeremiah Kennedy, Boppy to me, was truly an amazing man. He was married to my grandmother for over 50 years. Together they raised my mom and my aunt, over the course of those 50 years he suffered from an eye condition that eventually caused him to lose his sight. He was a talented vocalist. He had strong opinions, was very intelligent and he was one of my biggest cheerleaders. He always wanted to know what I was doing, how I was doing and no matter what I said, his response would always be, "well you certainly are busy out there, keep it up, we are proud of you."

My grandfather died four ago. So much has happened in those four years. The biggest change occurred just 6 months after he passed away, that's when I was asked to stage manage for the first time. It's when the pieces of the puzzle that make up my life in Los Angeles all started to come together to form this amazing life that I truly love.

I know that when I moved here six years ago my grandparents were a bit worried. Why would I give up a nice teaching position with a nice income in a nice midwest town to move to Los Angeles? I know to them my decisions probably didn't make sense, but my grandfather never expressed any of that doubt, not to me anyway. I wish I could tell him everything that has happened in the past four years. I know what his response would be, "well you certainly are busy out there, keep it up, we are proud of you." I also know that where ever he is, he is probably saying that anyway!

As I get ready to add the word director to the long list of things I've done in the past four years, I wish I could tell him about it. While he may not have appreciated the subject matter of Torrid Affaire, I know he would be proud of me.

Even after four years I still miss hearing those fifteen words, "well you certainly are busy out there, keep it up, we are proud of you." I know they may not sound like much but they were full of love.

It's funny how a smell can bring up some many emotions and memories isn't?

A Whirlwind...

Life is crazy right now. Torrid Affaire is in full rehearsal mode. We open two weeks from this past Friday. We'll be adding props this week! Last night was our third successful 24 hour festival, Sex, Love, Rock n' Roll and Beer: A Day if the Life of Cupid. I am constantly amazed at the enormous amount of talent Theatre Unleashed possesses. Each play was well written, the actors were off book and our host was fantastic. A good night of great theatre.

Today I wrote my director's statement for the Torrid Affaire program and thought I would share it here:

"Directing -- it's not a word that was ever supposed to be next to my name, and yet here it is. I blame -- no I think our Associate Artistic Director Jacob Smith and our president and the writer of Torrid Affaire, Andrew Moore for this. In the past eight months I had two conversations that led to the reason why the "directed by Erin Scott" appear in our program. Eight months ago Jake asked if I would consider not only being his stage manager but also being his Assistant Director. I believe my first response went something like "Really? Me? Um...okay." And then the fear set in. I'm not a director, how could I possibly be any use to him that way. Rehearsals started, it took me several weeks to feel even slightly comfortable, but Jake was patient and let me find my directing style. At that point I knew I was hooked.

The second conversation happened in December. Andrew and I were cleaning the lobby and he mentioned he had found the perfect person to direct Torrid Affaire. He then told me he thought I should do it. Me? Really a full length play? I said yes and started on a whirlwind journey that led us to tonight. While directing Torrid Affaire the voices of Jake, Andrew, Carlos and Jeff all great directors I've stage managed for were constantly in the back of my head. The four of them along with several others are truly responsible for the words, "director, Erin Scott." I hope you have as much fun watching Torrid Affaire as I had directing. Thank you for coming and enjoy the show!"

Everyone Died

And that was the perfect end to the run of Friends Like These. 4 gunshots, blackout and curtain. I hope they took it all in, I hope they remember what they created on that stage. It certainly was the definition of the magic of live theatre.

I woke up this morning feeling very sad. It took me a few moments to determine why my glorious Saturday morning of sleeping in was being interrupted with sadness and then all of sudden it came rushing back to me. Tonight would be the end. The true night of lasts, the last time I'd have to go to Carl's Jr to pick up prop food, the last night Sari would cover her hair in lotion and draw in some of the thickest eyebrows I've ever seen. The last night that I would bring Ryan his preset hanger at the end of the show, the last night we'd use the slurpee cups that 7-11 refused to give us for free, the list goes on and on. It truly was a night of lasts.

The sadness, the desire to not move on is particularly strong for me. I've been with other shows that I've loved, but usually when a show ends I'm ready for the end. It feels like it's run its course and it's time to say goodbye. This one is different, it's not done, and I'm not ready to say goodbye. Not to the play, and especially not to this cast. They are such a unique yet cohesive group. True professionals, anyone working in theatre, television or film would be lucky to cast any of these six amazing actors.

We didn't actually say goodbye to each other. The plan is to go to Hollywood Fringe in June and hopefully New York fringe in August. With those plans in our heads, it is a bit easier to walk away for now. If I had actually said goodbye tonight I think it would have been something like this, "As a stage manager you hope for a cast as talented, professional and nice as all of you are. I will miss your smiles, and your hugs, I'll miss seeing you each weekend and most of all I'll miss watching you perform. When I called you to tell you we'd like to offer you a role in this show I had no idea we were putting together such an amazing group of people. We were truly blessed to find all of you, thank you for making my job incredible easy." I could go on, I could embarrass each one of them by telling them how incredible they are and how much each of them contributed to the production. I won't, I think they know, at least I hope they do!

So for now, the book holding Friends Like These has not been closed, it has merely been bookmarked. It will be set aside for a while, but like all favorite books, we'll rediscover it again in the near future, dust it off, re-read it and fall in love with it all over again.

Thank you Matthew Scott, Ryan J, Sari, Sarah, Alex, Jacob, Vance, Sean and Greg for letting me be a part of this fantastic journey.

Goodbyes and Beginnings

We are two thirds of the way through our remount of Friends Like These. When we first started this journey back in July 2009 with casting I don't think any of us imagined it would last this long. We were fortunate to know back in October when we closed FTL the first time that it wasn't goodbye. The remount had already been planned and we knew that roughly 10 weeks later all of us would be gathered together again for part two of this incredible journey. Last night we said goodbye to one of our original cast members. Alex won't be with us next weekend. We have a fantastic understudy joining us, but it was definitely hard watching last night, knowing that would be the last time (for a while at least -- currently the plan is for Friends Like These to come back in the summer at both the Hollywood and NYC Fringe festivals.) that this cast will perform together. I'm not ready tocompletely say goodbye to this show and this cast.

When I came home last night I changed my facebook status to "I have probably seen that show at least 50 times including rehearsals and I could probably see it at least another 50 more. They never cease to amaze me, how incredibly talents they are and yet how humble and nice they are to everyone. Together they have created something that is truly special. I hope they know that :) I do hope these five actors really know much life they have breathed into this great script. I will miss them and I will miss Friends Like These after we close next weekend. For the moment I will tell myself that this isn't goodbye, it's just "see you in a little while." That will make next weekend easier.

While I prepare to put Friends Like These off to the side for a bit, I am preparing for my next project, directing, Torrid Affaire. Auditions were last Sunday and our first couple rehearsals were this past week. So far I am in love with the process, the cast and the show. I discovered my least favorite part of directing so far is the casting. Too many good people for only 6 roles. If only I could cast them all. Other than a brief moment yesterday, when I had a slight panic that someone had accidentally left me in charge, it felt pretty natural. I have to thank the directors I've worked with over the past 4 years. Observing them has been an incredible introduction to the world of directing. The frightening part for me is that we only 17 rehearsals. 17 rehearsals until we open -- that's a bit crazy. Good -- but crazy!

Unexpected Sadness

As I walked into our theatre this morning to prepare the space for company auditions I found myself walking down the aisle to the stage and being overcome with a strong feeling of emptiness and sadness. Not for myself but for the space. It struck me as odd that a feeling like that could come from a building, from an empty stage and yet it was very powerful. Perhaps I'm a bit of a romantic and it had something to do with the dimly lit stage and the ominous rain clouds outside, but to me as I walked through it felt like the building, the stage, even the seats were sad and lonely this morning. As I gathered chairs and swept the floor I tried to figure it out. What occurred to me was maybe it wasn't sadness, maybe it was a mourning over the loss of the packed house from the night before, two shows back to back both nearly sold out. Maybe the theatre was sad, cold and empty not knowing when that excitement and energy would return to it's space. I wanted to reassure it somehow, tell it that we'll all be back next weekend, different crowds, but the bright lights, the voices, the audience, the cast we'll all be back to perform again, to make the space come to life and be happy again. I'm not sure how to convey that to the four walls and 36 empty seats, it's not really a conversation you can actually have. I hope our auditions today helped cheer it up a bit, make it feel useful and alive again.