Directing Fool
Chrysalis Clark tapes a pair of shows this Thursday to submit to the Seattle Festival of Improv; one full 30-minute show during the Big Yellow Bus slot and one quick 15-minutes show during the Open Court slot. Chrissy's boyfriend, Louie, is not only kind enough to loan us his camera for the shoot, but to digitize and burn the footage the next day so we can FedEx the package out to SFIT before the deadline.
I just got hired by Wing Night to be their director. It was one of serendipitous things where I had an off weekend from CC and did a pick up sub gig with WN, while concurrently working with a trio of WN peeps who were heading down to the Gainesville Improv Festival. Both the mini-WN and the full WN rehearsals went well and now I'm a hired gun. Bang! On a nice note, the WN crew at GIF had a good show. Bang! Bang!
I'm doing some pick up sub gigs with Mess Hall although, yikes schnikes, I pulled a boner of a move last night. I was absolutely positive that rehearsal began at 7:30 when it had, in fact, begun at 7:00. I was hanging out at Sayjal and Chrissy's beforehand killing time and watching Sayjal's Sonic commercials only blocks away from Gill Park. So when I strolled in 10 minutes early I was actually 20 minutes late. D'oh! I kept the rehearsal moving and on point, ran over a little bit to make up for lost time and at the end waived my coach's fee ($5/head). Seriously, I was unprofessional and made them wait for me for 20 minutes, so there was no way I could take their money in good faith. It was the least I could do and I treated it as a little lesson in humility for myself.
The other week I subbed in to give show notes to The Riot, the incubator team that I am slated to run for four months starting in January. It was an interesting experience to try to give notes without stepping on the current director's toes...which always the case any time I sub in for show notes for any group. The worst part was I was operating on four hours of sleep when I gave the notes so I was (restrospectively) worried I was rambly, discursive and disjointed. Well, come January, I'll be much more rested. Hopefully.
Plinko is fighting scheduling issues. I gotta get on that and totally Tim Gunn it--Make. It. Work.
So, tons of directing, not so much performing. Need to rectify that...
...And Again...
Ah, Second City TourCo auditions.
Again we dance.
And again I step clumsily onto your foot.
And again I watch glumly as others gracefully ghost about the dance floor.
And again I drink with friends, laugh and hope the best for them.
Because I know...
...again we will dance.
Quick hits
I'll post an update in a bit. A quick pair of viral vids lingering in my draft box for like 3 weeks. Which makes them ancient, antique vids in interweb time.
DRIVE THRU (vid)
Why just order when you can sing?
WAR ZONE (vid)
Classic album covers battle to the death
Curses
I should be asleep. Or at least sprawled in bed digging into Ultramarines or some Vonnegut. But I'm not wired that way. My body wants to stay up past 1 am and sleep till noon. Stupid body clock.
Something the Playground Theater did this schedule was give a show to the members-at-large--people who aren't on a Playground ensemble but contribute enough to be considered a member of the theater. Because of my work on Big Yellow Bus, Open Court and other projects, I became a member-at-large. Sadly, the show was cancelled tonight as there was no house for tonight's show. Nothing sucks more than seeing the clock tick down to Go Time and seeing only the other performers in the theater.
Ah, well. Chinese food and DVR'd shows take the sting out of all disappointment.
I'll be back the PG on Wednesday night to catch the debut show of the incubator ensemble "The Riot." The Riot is the first incubator ensemble to run under the tri-director method--during the ensemble's first year, three different directors come in and work with the group for four months, giving the ensemble three different POVs and approaches to the work. Jorin Garguilo is running them right now, I'll do a stint starting in January and Roger Payton will take over in May. Jorin gave the most humorous analogy about our roles: Jorin was the warm and supportive mother, I was the no nonsense father and Roger was the cool older brother who had already gone to college.
Damn, I wish I was the cool older brother.
And of course I'll be back at the theater on Thursday for Big Yellow Bus. With Roger and Lisa doing most of the grunt work, it's become more of a pleasure than it used to be for me; for the longest time I was pretty much 'do everything Johnny' and it became a bit of an onerous chore to run the Bus (even though it was so worth it afterwards). I'll probably stick around and do Open Court after the Bus the next couple weeks to sharpen my chops for the impending SC audition.
So three nights of PG face time with Friday off from improv and then back into directing a couple of rehearsals this weekend.
Goddammit, why can't I make a living do this? Or at least pay some of the bills?
SONABITCHCOCKMOTHERFUCKERASSMUNCHJERKFACESHITHEAD
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKITYFUCKFUCK
sorry.
A fun week my friends
Highlights of the last week:
WednesdayFinally getting Jorin Garguilo, Kristen Studdard , Jessica Ring and Erica Gerdes
in the same room for a trial rehearsal for my next directing project. Due to schedules, we won't be able to meet again for a couple of weeks, but every one hit it off and it looks like this one will have some legs. My initial thought is I want to direct something character-based and folks seem game for it.
ThursdayThe Big Yellow Bus crew had a closed cast (no guests) and did a solid show to a nice house at the Playground with a P.I.P. in attendance--I use P.I.P. (Pretty Important Person) because V.I.P. seems a bit too heavy handed. Like every self-critical improvisor who's ever been in good show, I felt that everyone else in the cast did great and I was meh. Still, it was fun time for both the audience and the cast.
That night, the BYB Maintenance Crew (Andy Carey, Roger Payton, Kat Gotsick, Lisa Linke, Lauren Lapkus and I) snapped some PR pics:
FridayTook the day off of work and had a social meeting with aforementioned P.I.P. at SC, before and after which I kept running into lots of improv peeps I knew in the SC lobby. Lots of smiles of bits ensue. I then tooled over to River East 21, bumped into Chip Aucoin and he spontaneously decied to catch "The Departed" with me. The movie is awesomely hilariously horrifying. And after that, I ran into Dayna LaRosa right outside the theater and walked with her to the Red Line. That night, I beheld the awesomeness that was the Battlestar Galactica premeire.
Friday was a total nerdgasm: Improv, Movies and Sci Fi all in one day.
SaturdayDirected a Chrysalis Clark rehearsal. Truth be told, I really, really dig these guys. Roger, Andy, Lauren, Chrissy Swinko and Kirk Mason are talented performers who are genuinely good people. It makes everything from rehearsals to shows to socializing all the more enjoyable and satisfying.
Continuing a trend, we snapped some PR pics afterwards:
Sunday
Woke up early for a one-off directing gig with John Abbott, Jessica Ring and Kat Leahy of Wing Night. The Wingers are going to the
Gainesville Improv Festival and wanted an outside eye on their form, which I was more than glad to spare.
I then got to watch the Bears OWN Buffalo. Now
that was a nice capper to a fun weekend.
Speaking of...
The Ultimate RPG Table (site)
If you're gonna nerd out, NERD OUT LIKE A MAN!
Speaking of Make Believe... (vid)While the
World of Warcraft episode was tits, Good Times with Weapons is the best South Park episode ever.
Speaking of Warcraft... (vid)Take all things in moderation, including Warcraft.
Speaking of Video Games... (vid)
Inside Edition's 1988 piece on Super Mario Brothers.
Speaking of Mario... (pic)The grim future of Mario. (And here's
a bonus Mario painting.)
Speaking of Art... (vid)
Concept trailer for game-in-development, Limbo. Totally getting a Out of This World for the 21st century vibe out of this.
Speaking of Vibes... (site)
The Hoff says KITT was gay.
Speaking of the 80s... (site)
John Rambo lives!
Speaking of Violence... (vid)
Wax the car, sand the floor and tornado kick that dude.
Speaking of Nothing at All... (site)Hypnotic...can't stop listening...can't stop watching.
Too much
The other night, I swung by Mullen's for Jessica's birthday party and then over to John and Margaret's garage party. It was a Saturday night, in Wrigleyville, after a Cubs night game.
I felt overwhelmed.
Too crowded.
Too loud.
Too bright.
At some point in my life, I would have revelled in the cachophony. Sucked it in. Fed on it. Thrived on the honks, shouts, bumps and drunken vitality of it all.
And now, all I wanted was to haul ass out of Wrigleyville and retreat to my tiny bedroom.
It made me feel old.
