Busy Weekend.

Tonight, Z and I are going to the opening of Oedipus at the Guthrie. I have high hopes for this production. The buzz coming out of it is fantastic. I've actually never seen Oedipus performed. Isn't that a shame?

Tomorrow, we are going to Pigs Eye's production of Henry V. I am apprehensive about any interpretation of a favored epic in the tight performing space of the Cedar Riverside People's Center, but we shall see.

Sunday, we are going to Theatre de la Jeune Lune's The Miser. Everyone is telling us we must go see it, so off we go.

I'm excited about this weekend for two reasons - one, we'll be out and about. Secondly, two of the shows will be a most educational experience, and (most likely) in the best possible way. I've been awful about going to see shows, and my imagination and skills as a director have suffered for it.

I'm also very glad that I have no other obligations this weekend, so that I may sleep during the days. Well, there is possibly Gluek's tonight (depending on how long Oedipus goes), and we do have to meet some people at G0 on Saturday, but that won't be a chore since we'll already be out. Z does have rehearsal for Measure For Measure on Sunday, but I don't have to go. So, I can just sleeeeeeeep. Yay sleep!

Errata.

To all the New Englanders who were trying to tempt me their way when I complained about the cold and ice here, I say: Neener.

I will not mention the 6 inches of snow we're currently getting. I'm just glad we live right behind the Guthrie right now, so we don't have to deal with idiot drivers.

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I am very sad that Satsuma season is over. I am trying to console myself with Clementines, but they are not the same. They are dry and bitter compared to the sweet juicy tartastic goodness of mandarin oranges. I've never found a citrus fruit that I like as much as mandarins. Hell, only raspberries and cherries top mandarins in my Pantheon Of Fruit.

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Rehearsal is going well. I only wandered onstage for a total of 10 minutes out of a 3-hour rehearsal session last night, but my attention was absorbed by Leading Women: Plays For Actresses. I tore through 5 full-length plays - which I will review in my next post.

I'll need to bring crosswords or something to work on during shows, though. I'll have a lot of downtime, but not enough to allow myself to be absorbed into a book. Besides, I enter an incredibly private headspace when I'm reading, which is not conducive to performing.

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Have I mentioned how much I love our treadmill? Because I do. It's so easy to just hop on for 20 minutes and then hop off. I could never do that with running outside - I either need to bundle up or apply sunscreen, and once I've gone to that trouble, I don't want to have it be a wasted effort, so if I don't have enough energy for a full run, I may as well just stay in and nap, and then I get out of shape. I do miss the outdoor runs, but they will return soon enough.

Other good things - If I feel like doing a hill workout, I can just program it in instead of having to calculate how many blocks I've run and what that distance is in my head and where I should go next. It also keeps me to a strict pace, which I'm incredibly lazy about doing on my own.

I'm a little obsessed with getting into shape right now, because I fear what the costumer will put me in for Measure For Measure. I am playing a whore, after all. I did have the goal of getting into super shape before the end of 2004, but I got a little derailed. I look upon this as catch-up. This week has been very good, with some sort of exercise occurring every day. (Monday's was before my tummy rebelled.) I hope I keep this up.

I think I love the treadmill most because it gave me another context to run in, so it revitalized all of my running. Yes.

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Ganked from lysana - my Humor type:

Sunny/Dark: 1/10
Dry/Gross: 5/10
Traditional/Offbeat: 4/10
Active/Passive: 6/10


You are a SGT--Sunny Gross Traditional. This makes you a John Hughes.

Your sense of humor makes you the ultimate every- person, just I'm-a try not to trouble nobody. You're laid back. Like la-a-a-aid back. You might be from the Midwest.

You enjoy the occasional weird or dark humor, and the right joke out of nowhere can really make you laugh out loud. In fact, the funniest stuff for you is the stuff that takes you off guard. If you can see it coming, you don't want to see it arrive.

You probably don't think this site is all that funny. So it's weird that you're here. I appreciate it, though. Maybe I'll cut back on the ranting and say something nice for a change.

Your Active humor score of 6/10 means you are ju-u-ust right. You're probably pretty popular -- a walking social lubricant. You know how to take someone from on edge to relaxed, and from relaxed to larfing. You're kind of like an episode of Arrested Development. That show is good. Anyway. Rave on, funny one.


If you want to take it to find out yours, go here.

Scripts what I've read.

Here are the threatened/promised reviews.

Again, the scripts are from Leading Women: Plays For Actresses. I can read incredibly fast, which is how I got through 5 in 3 hours. I also skimmed the last one.


Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin (this is a pseudonym, widely regarded to be a front for John Jory, who founded the Actor's Theatre of Louisville)

This play reinforced my conviction that I do not like "Jane"'s voice, that I think she's too pretentious and self-referential, that I'm flat-out annoyed by her prideful cleverness. It's a play that centers around a production of The Three Sisters in San Antonio but is cast in New York as it is being produced by a regional theater. The three sisters are played by a Hollywood starlet, a fresh, naïve young girl who's just moved to NY from Texas, and an older, worn, bitter woman who's been in over 200 Off-Off Broadway shows, who happens to be in remission from breast cancer. There's slapstick, there's "poking" at racial stereotypes, and there's a character that interrupts and meta-critiques from the audience, who turns out to be a critic. For a newsletter. There are no words to say how much that trope puts my teeth on edge. (The "audience member" interrupting and providing meta-commentary.)

So, no. I didn't like it.

Collected Stories by Donald Margulies

Two woman show - one 55-61, one 24-30. It follows the arc of the relationship between the two of the them from professor/student to mentor/protégée to the sudden but inevitable betrayal (not really). Not bad. It's sort of All About Eve meets Dinner With Andre. I like it - it's a nice character study and it has some good things to say. I don't like Margulies' habit of telling-not-showing, but that it is a criticism of his stage directions, which the audience is generally unaware of. I just think he doesn't give the actors or the directors enough credit or latitude.

Breath, Boom by Kia Corthron

Incredibly cinematic. Its main thread follows a woman, Prix, from age 16 to 30 as she goes about her life as an Original Gangster and how she interacts with her homegirls, rival gang members, fellow inmates, and her parents. It was so episodic that I think I need to read it again to get a firm handle on it. It's pretty as all hell, though. Very well-written.

Five Women Wearing the Same Dress by Alan Ball

Easily my favorite of the group, probably because it skewers weddings, bridesmaid dresses that look like floats, and "society" culture all in one neat little package.

Smoking Lesson by Julia Jordan

This was the last one I read, so I'll have to go back and read it again so I can pay full attention to it. I have an affection for it because it's set in Minneapolis. "Smoking Lesson takes place under the railroad trestle where three Midwestern girls once found a drowned child. Every year, the girls return on the anniversary, and tonight, their fifteen-year-old leader will tempt fate with the older male drifter accused of the crime." That description doesn't do it justice, but it's better than what I can come up with.