Author: sychela

Categories
Beginnings Theatre Work

Opening Seagull

I’ve never been an opening-night gifts kind of girl, for several reasons.

1) You’re working so hard leading up to opening, there is little time for thinking up and assembling gifts/cards/inside jokes;
2) Opening, while exciting, is still smack in the middle of the job.  So there is less sentimentality and fewer feelings of “OMG I’LL MISS YOU GUYS!!!” than on closing night.
3) Closing, being the end of your job, is also when you sometimes get tips.  So I’m always potentially more excited for closing than opening.  Not that tips usually happen here in this job.  But, you know, they have a couple times.  And that’s cool.  But never on opening.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve done any kind of full-cast gifts since…Recent Tragic Events in New York.  For Sunlight (my first MTC show, you may recall) I gave the stage manager very specific in-joke gifts.**  But since then, I just haven’t done anything for anyone.  Bad PA?

Seagull was no exception to my “I totally didn’t do anything for opening” tradition.  I got cards from a few people, which is super sweet, especially since as far as the cast goes, I met them last week.  But while the actors were all sporting tiny airplane bottles of vodka and cognac – no one hooked me up!  Bummer.

Opening is cool and all, but I mean…I never dress up for it (just wearing all blacks) and I duck in and out of the party to grab some hors d’oeuvres (pesto ravioli, chicken satay, lots of things on sticks, plus cheesecake and brownie bites, and of course the ever present red-or-white wine), but mostly it’s about doing work.  Then it’s like 11:30 so I just want to go home.  So I sneak out the side door and go.  I’m much more likely to stick around for closing, especially if I’m not planning on being back there in 2 weeks for another job.

The ME did give me a book of crossword puzzles to work on backstage during the show, which was one of the most thoughtful opening night gifts.  And everyone was super nice – even after I dropped and shattered two prop glasses in the lobby, drawing everyone’s attention and full silence.  Thank God for whoever shouted “Opa!” first.

I heard of one (kind of generic, but cool) opening night gift for actors.  You give them a pen, a highlighter, and a pencil, with a card:

To sign your contracts – may they be lucrative;
To highlight your lines – may they be plentiful;
To write down your blocking – may it be downstage center.

Cute, right?  I’m curious about other people’s opening/closing night gift traditions…thoughts?

PS. The show went well (although the tally of broken things got out of hand: a belt, a brooch, a journal, a walking stick, the 2 glasses I broke…).  The audience was a typical loving and supportive opening night audience.  The cast was charming and friendly.  At one point during the show the stage manager asked me to go check on one of the actors when she came offstage, because he had never seen her “shake like that before” during her emotional scene.  The other PA and I were like, “Heath, we’re pretty sure she’s acting.”  But she got a kick out of him checking on her.  So yay, Seagull is open!  And life will go back to normal-ish.

**My gift for the Sunlight stage manager was: an eraser (because she spent the entire rehearsal process trying to keep track of this one pencil she had that still had a tiny stub of an eraser); a chocolate truffle bar from Trader Joe’s (because she kept sneaking into the dressing room to steal bites from the actors); and a squeeze bottle of pickle relish (because one of the actors was constantly dropping the line “with great relish!” and we would wait for it every night of the run).  LOL, by far the best show gift I have ever given.

Categories
"Other people" Work

Whole Awkward

In Whole Foods the other day I was standing in front of the chocolate section, trying to decide what was the closest to a plain old Kit Kat.  (Why only fancy chocolate, Whole Foods?  Why only special brands?  That’s your major flaw.  Sometimes I just want Yoplait or Diet Coke or M’n’Ms.)  A woman with flyaway gray hair came up behind me, carrying a reusable grocery bag with a cat on it, and, while selecting fruit leather, said, “Where’s Jam.”

At least that’s what I thought she said.  But maybe she was asking for Jim.  So I ignored her.  Until she looked right at me and said, “Where’s jam.  Do you work here?”

“I don’t work here.”

“Oh.  They wear dark colors here.”  I was wearing all black, having just run over from tech.  (Wearing all black in a not-well-lit intersection also caused me to be almost hit by not one but two cars.  But that’s another story.)  I didn’t have an answer for her.  I guess I could have said, “They also wear green aprons.”

Then I reached for a bar of dark chocolate with candied orange, and she asked, “Is that your normal brand?  Chocolove?”  I guess she was trying to show we were just friends.  Eye roll.

I said “No” politely and then hightailed it for the checkout lane.  I think she stayed behind to look over the 2011 “Bohemian Cats” calendar with all the cats doing needlepoint and stuff.

I feel like this happens to me a lot.  I am constantly getting asked where things are.  Not even, “Do you work here?”  Just straight up, “Where’s the conditioner?”  When I know where the thing is, I’ll just tell them.  This happens at Target, at Trader Joe’s, at Whole Foods.  Maybe I just look competent.

Categories
Beauty

Move over, Nina

Over the weekend, I had a total Black Swan moment where I accidentally and absent-mindedly scratched my hand on a piece of pointy wire.  But it was backstage, so it was dark, and it didn’t sting, so I didn’t realize until a few seconds later that there some some smeary blood on my palm.  I excused myself to the first aid kit and patched myself up, but I still have 4 very thin, very shallow cuts in my hand that I don’t really remember making.

So now whenever I look at it, I sing myself the Black Swan theme.

This is me:

Categories
Awesome Books Fiction Not awesome

I hate when someone else gets the good idea first

There’s this guy who has set out to tweet an entire novel.  Here are the salient points.

  • He is tweeting 5 or 6 days a week.
  • He started on 1/11/11 and intends to finish on 11/11/11, so it’ll be 10 straight months.
  • It appears that he tweets more than once a day. (Looks like about 100-150 words per day, according to his website so far.)
  • It’s about a girl who lives on the streets in Berkeley, and she gets a cell phone and starts tweeting.  Apparently the point is that it will circle back around and be about the redemptive qualities of social networking.

Here are things I don’t like about it.

  • That I didn’t think of this first.
  • That he’s writing it day by day…I feel like if he doesn’t plan ahead and outline at least a little bit, how is he going to create a good story?  I suspect reading this will be a waste of my time.
  • I don’t really care for all the text speak.  I get that the medium is twitter, but it’s obnoxious to read all the 4s and 2s and Us and Rs and thxs, etc.
  • So, doing the math…there’s no way this thing can be much longer than 25K.  That’s not a novel.  So I wish he would stop calling it a novel.

This is a really interesting concept and now it’s something that I’m just thinking about, in the way you just let things marinate.  I think it could be a really amazing way to “publish” something.

I’m reluctant to put his website here, because I don’t want to give him any traffic, lol.  This is an awesome concept and I love the idea that the book speaks to social networking bringing about redemption.  So it bums me out that a) so far I’m not impressed with the writing or the story, and b) he’s hardly committing if it’s only 10 months and less than 30,000 words.

But, his website is tweetheartnovel.com, and you can follow him on Twitter and get all the text-speak updates if you want.  (I’m not.)

Categories
Awesome Beginnings Exercise

Personal trainer Chris

Speaking of things I meant to say before…last Monday (!)  I met up with a personal trainer at my gym for a “fitness orientation,” which is basically a trial personal training session.  Going in, I mainly just wanted to get some advice and tips on things like form and strength training.  How many reps, how many sets, how much variation, etc.

His name is Chris and I picked him out from his picture on the wall of trainers.  Well, and he came recommended by their staff.  I didn’t really want a hot girl trainer, and he looked nice.

It was just a 50 minute session, and we spent half of it talking about fitness and goals and diet.  He raved about Weight Watchers.  He was super encouraging and nonjudgmental.  As you know, I’m always paranoid about getting “sold to” but if this was all him just pitching for a sale, he did it super well.  He really talked about my goals and my plan like it’s something that I’m achieving now, rather than this brand new regime I have to undertake.  He was very optimistic.

He said he likes to focus on “functional resistance training” (I might be making that up?) and said that before he throws someone in to lifting weights he has them work on being able to lift their own body weight.  (That sounds gross and sad.)  So we ended up doing a lot of planking, “bird dog,” bridges, one-legged bridges, and squats.  All super sloooooow and controoooooolled.  All things I’ve done before but it makes a huge difference having someone correct every tiny aspect of your form – I really felt the difference.  (And then REALLY felt it the next day, and the next day.)

Being able to include a personal trainer in my budget is a major goal for me.  Even if it’s only once a week.  Or even less than that.  I think being accountable to someone, and also having that support and help and guidance, would be awesome.  So one more thing to add on to my list of 2011 resolutions…

Categories
Drew Sentiment Theatre Work

Greener grass on the other side

I am so far behind in things I want to talk about.  Case in point: I wrote this yesterday (Saturday) in a notebook sitting backstage at tech, but this is the first chance I’ve gotten to sit down at a computer.  So here goes:

I’m working on The Seagull at MTC, and we started tech today.  Yesterday during our staging day, I was moving props or something and I had one of those “oh snap” epiphanies where I realized how crazy lucky I am: working backstage at an actual theatre, and getting paid real money for it.  I had a nice little glowing ten minutes or so, but like all good things, the euphoria didn’t last forever. 

(Although I’m still happy.)

Yesterday was Drew’s birthday and I wish I had been able to hang out with him.  Or even hang out today.  Or tomorrow.

We spent so long on opposite schedules that, last fall, when we were suddenly both working daytimes, home together in the evenings and on the weekends – well, I just got used to it quickly.  Used to it, and you might say, taking it for granted.  So now, even though it’s just for the next month, it’s frustrating to be back on that schedule.  I always feel like I’m missing out on something.  For example:

-Drew’s birthday
-Glee, and friends dinner night for the next 4 weeks
-2 out of the 3 episodes of Watson on Jeopardy (Watson is the computer competing against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter – I’ll get to the see the first episode but not the second and third)

I guess I should worry less about missing TV.

I remember I survived this before.  This is temporary.  Paying dues.  Eye on the prize, and all that.  But I think it’s clear what my goal is here for 2011.

PS. The grass really is greener onstage – check it out!

Categories
Awesome Being a girl Friends

Photo documentation: Davis, and apple pie

Last Saturday Liz and I met up in Davis and hung out for the day.  “The day” included lunch, Borders browsing, cheapie manicures, visits to our senior year college apartments, and cupcakes.

 

The best thing we saw was this guy advertising…ice cream?…and putting his dog to good use.  The dog is dressed as a banana split, and his name is Hudson. 

Yeah, we talked to the banana guy while we were stuck at the light turning left, so we could take pictures of him.

(Banana guy, if you stumble across this, you made our day.)

***

Tonight I made an apple pie.  I think it’s the first time I’ve ever made an apple pie.  I did not make the crust, because I thought that might be a little too ambitious.  But other than that serious mark against me…I think it’s a pretty good pie.

Categories
Drew Sleep talking

Sleep talking! Part 5!

In the last week, I have twice ACCIDENTALLY startled Drew while he was sleeping on the couch.  The first time I made the mistake of walking through the living room while talking on the phone, and I guess my voice was just too much.  The second time I just stood too closely to him.  Both times he woke up suddenly with a yelping sound, which in turn scared me.  So, a lose-lose situation.

So last night I was trying to figure out how to wake him up from the couch without producing any terrifying noises.  I turned the volume on my laptop up, hoping that all the little chimes and noises would do the trick.  I turned the TV off, then on again, then off.  I shut the bathroom door loudly.  Finally I picked up my keys from the couch and dropped them, and he sat up.

Drew: “…Wha?”
Me: “Nothing…what?”
Drew: “What happened?”
Me: “Nothing, but I think you should go to bed.”
Drew: “…What did he say?”
Me: “…What did who say?”
Drew: “…WHAT did the SPOON say??”

Then I started laughing and then he started laughing and then he went to bed.

Categories
Awesome Beauty Being a girl

This is feminism at its best, baby

So I guess Drew and I could be watching any one of the movies we’ve got waiting for us (Winter’s Bone, Rabbit Hole, The Fighter, or even Going the Distance) but instead we find ourselves making a big pot of coffee and channel surfing, and landing on the Miss America pageant.

Miss America should not be confused with Miss USA.  Miss USA is the Donald Trump organization which came under fire last year for using photos of the competitors wearing nothing but paint.  Miss America is the scholarship program, which includes a talent portion.  (Thanks, Google.)

The talent portion tonight included such gems as a ballet dance to Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” which appeared to be cribbed from the movie Centerstage, Irish dancing to the Riverdance finale, and a bunch of girls singing medium-well.  But the best talent, hands down, belonged to Miss Arkansas, who did a ventriloquism act with two dummies, singing “I Want To Be A Cowboy Sweetheart.”  Gold.  She yodeled while throwing her voice!  Or threw her voice while yodeling.  You know what I mean!  It was actually pretty impressive.

Later they moved on to showing and naming all the previous Miss Americas they could find, from the 1940s on.  All the women stood on the stage and one cameraman ran around filming all of them in order.  The women kind of all looked like substitute teachers, at least until we got into the ’90s.

Here are some interesting facts about Miss America:

– The first Miss America pageant was on Sept 7, 1921, at Atlantic City.  At this point it was just a 2-day beauty competition.

– In 1935, Talent was added to the competition. At the time, non-white women were barred from competing, a restriction that was codified in the pageant’s “Rule number seven,” which stated that “contestants must be of good health and of the white race.”

– No African American women participated until 1970, and until at least 1940, contestants were required to complete a biological questionnaire tracing their ancestry.  Vanessa Williams was the first African-American Miss America (1984).

– For some reason, contestants in Miss America pick really fugly evening gowns.  I can’t figure out why.

Other highlights of the evening’s program: seeing Miss New York hike her evening gown up around her hips and sprint across the stage to change for Talent; watching the chick who was hosting chase down contestants and shove her microphone into their faces, only to have them answer, “Sorry, I didn’t hear the question!” and bolt into the trailer to change; getting a sly wink from the 1952 Miss America.

A good solid two hours of entertainment, although I think Miss USA is a better production, and I wish that Miss New York had at least made it into the Talent portion, because I’m 80% sure her talent was going to be stripping, based on the costume she was wearing.

Categories
Awesome Being a girl cars Family Religion

Attitude of gratitude

This morning before work, I drive down to Redwood City to pick up sub paperwork and the forms to take to my 9:00 am fingerprinting appointment.  So I get to the school, park, go inside the office for, like, 8 minutes, and when I come back out, my car will not start.  Like, it doesn’t even make any noise when I turn the key.  What??  So I call Drew’s dad and tell him what’s up, and he says that it sounds like a dead battery and that he’ll come down.

So I sit in the car and fill out my paperwork, and then I read a little bit (Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup, who also wrote Slumdog Millionaire), and the sun is out and it’s not too bad.  I do have to go back into the office and ask if I can reschedule my fingerprinting, as there’s no way I’m getting there by 9:00.  But they say to just come on over whenever.  Occasionally I turn the key in the ignition and see if it’ll start.

Drew’s dad shows up a little after 9:00, and as he walks up to the car he says, “See if it’ll start.”  And of course…it does.  Flawlessly.  Not even hesitantly.  Wtf, Saturn??  His dad is totally cool about it and says that he needed to come down that way anyway, and that he’s used to cars suddenly acting fine when he shows up.  But jeez, he had to drive half an hour to me at 8:30 in the morning…I’m afraid I’m going to get booted from this family for being a bad daughter-in-law.

I’ve had no more problems with the car for the rest of the day.  So the only logical explanation is that I needed to be detained in Redwood City this morning for 45 minutes.  I wonder what disaster I avoided?  I guess it doesn’t have to be something on my way to the county office (fingerprinting) – it could have been something I would have run into in San Francisco, or even on my way home this afternoon (I ended up staying later at work because I didn’t get there until almost 11:00).

Anyway, whatever it was, I’m grateful.  Having to sit in the sun this morning and read is by no means a hardship.  And I have to assume that someone is looking out for me.  So…thank you!!