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Lately I have been more than neglectful about moving it along with this project, especially the more imminent final cut of the short outtake. I was planning to do some work Friday evening when I got home from the Free Shakespeare! show, but I just was in a bit of a funk so I did nothing.
I haven't lined up actors lately to do the voice work for the faux commercial. I sort of had one for this weekend but we couldn't get a confirmed appointment time. So this morning I went ahead and recorded a few voices for some of the commercials and I may have to do more.
August 15 (Sundance submission
deadline) is not too distant.
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About to head off to the annual DTG smorgasbord that concludes the theatre's
in-house theatrical awards, The Murphy Awards, named after Murphy's Law.
I'll let you know who the winners are.
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Wednesday night I'm going to record some a cappella vocals by one of the cast members for use in the stage performance of the show.
Plus, I have had a brief pre-production meeting with Director Greg Smith Friday about the podcast which we will likely shoot next week.
I've already grabbed the royalty free music, as in several past productions from D.A.W.N.Music.
Have done some other incidental preproduction, too; things like creating the text file from which to pull the closing credits roll, filing all the credits that I know at the moment.
As stated before, we do not have permission from Ms. Vogel's camp to use text from
the play in the podcast. I believe that is a tactical error that is far more an
obstacle to promoting the royalty-paid performances than it is any thin protections
of the work that may be feebly applied. But, if they choose that route, then they
are more concerned with money ‐‐ the royalties for the performance won't change
despite whether the house is fuller or not. But the use of the text might just help
put more people in the seats to see Ms. Vogel's work; and I would hope that is what
she wants most.
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This coming Saturday night will be the 2011 Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame Gala and Daytony Theatre Awards.
I am attending to witness the inductions because I like all the inductees quite a bit.
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ACTING AWARDS
PRODUCTION AWARDS
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The push is on. That eleventh hour stuff. Most of my creative time right now is about getting the short into final cut to submit to Sundance Film Festival by midnight next Monday. I bet others are doing this, too.
Last night, after getting home from The Guild (see next) I recorded the radio announcer for the radio programing. Though I only did enough spots to cover the segment that will be the short movie.
You see, the radio programming will continue into the next segment that features Duante Beddingfield along with still Natasha Randall. It takes place in the same setting, "the fourth floor production suite area of WACI Radio (Lite 97.5)," and takes place in the next moment after the segment with Natasha and Craig Roberts ends.
But all I need right now are the announcer's on-airs for the short outtake with Natasha and Craig.
I have about half a faux commercial written and may write a at least one more. If I voice these, I will need top process my voice into a woman's or women's for the one that is half written.
And I'm still thinking I need to shave the cut of the short movie by a few minutes.
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Went to The Guild last night to
record an a cappella vocal for use in the production of The Oldest Profession
only to find that the recording session had to be cancelled. So I used my cybershot
camera to shoot a little bit of the rehearsal as B-roll for the podcast.
Edgar
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Going to The State Theatre tonight to shoot something for Wayne Justice for his multi-media project Edgar: A Mesmeric Passage Into The Life of Edgar Allen Poe, which will open the Springfield StageWorks 2011/12 season, running September 9 & 10 at The State. Here's the text about the show as posted at SSW's 2011/12 season web page:
A live, original, multimedia presentation by Wayne Justice and Shane Smith, Edgar has sparked intense interest among several national Poe enthusiasts ‐‐ biographers and other researchers from around the country have expressed a desire to contribute to the multimedia aspect. We are proud to be a small part of this project, not to mention very excited for Wayne and Shane, and invite you to share in the fruits of much labor! |
As for what I am shooting tonight, I have absolutely no idea, save for that I will
be in period clothing:
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And I may be able to report on an upcoming professional gig in the technically defined sense.
Shortly after the original posting of this day's blog entry I received a call about the possibility of one.
When the time is ripe I'll tell more.
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The background radio programming production is finished. What I need to do now is reassemble the edit so that the programming will be where I want it when the movie is over and the credits roll.
And I have the credit roll to create. I should have a final cut by the end of today.
By the way, the official title of the outtake short: Be Or Not
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Congratulations to
Doug Lloyd,
Don & Lois Bigler,
and
Carol Finley
for their inductions into The Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame, last night.
And congratulation to all the winners of Daytony Theatre Awards for the 2010/11
Dayton area theatre season
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With the exception of attending the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame & Daytony Theatre Awards ceremony Saturday evening, my weekend was about getting the improv movie project short-subject outtake into final cut to meet the August 15 deadline for early submission to Sundance. Unfortunately, I missed that deadline only because, as the submission guidelines say, "All deadlines associated with the Sundance Film Festival are the dates that films must arrive at our office in Los Angeles. They are NOT postmark deadlines."
I did still meet the goal of getting the final cut before going to bed Sunday night -- perhaps about 1 a.m., yesterday morning. I had to personally finish off the voicework for the faux commercials so only three actual actors came in to do voicework for the WACI (Lite 97.5) radio programming: Heather Atkinson, Scott Knisley and Wendi Williams.
After wrapping up the production of radio programming on Saturday I started the mixing of the radio programming before heading to The Daytonys. Sunday I finished the edit of the movie as a whole and began the artwork for the DVD.
Yesterday I went to the Sundance website and to get the application, and discovered that since I have an IMDB account I also have a direct line to join Withoutabox, which IMDB now owns. So I was able to join Withoutabox then submit to Sundance through there.
I actually would have been able to make the early $35 fee if I had compression software that could render the movie file under two gigabytes. Than I could have uploaded yesterday at the early submission rate. Still, I mailed the DVD yesterday on the way home from the rent-payer. $50 entrance fee for the Sep. 2 deadline, which I've met. So, I'm good.
The great thing is that, as the film festival FAQ says, "There are no premiere or prior screening restrictions for short films. Shorts may have been released on DVD, broadcast on television or the internet, and/or publicly screened anywhere in the world and still remain eligible for our Shorts Competition." That means that Be Or Not may be posted at my YouTube account.
Yes, yes, I'll probably embed here, too.
The movie is 15:37, so I'm hoping the extra thirty-seven seconds can slide by. I believe the maximum time limit is fifteen minutes.
The production values are less and less stirring to me as time passes ‐‐ blame HD video! But, if this movie has a saving grace it is the stellar work both my principal actors gave me.
And, just to give some well-deserved kudos, here's to the very good work that the three voice actors gave me, all of them knowing that their voices were going to be buried in the background and rarely more than ambient noise.
Oh, yeah, the final title you ask? As some will know, the first workshop title for the short was The Audition, which is fine but all too generic. I then went with Trying Out Robert, which I was only sold on for a very short period of time. It's a pretty lame, lackluster name. Be Or Not, came to me on my drive into Dayton for The Daytonys. And I knew that was it. It derives from the famous Hamlet soliloquy. Craig's character, Robert, is auditioning for the role of Hamlet. Marian (Natasha's character), who is the director, even has a rather unique manner for Robert to use that soliloquy during the audition.
"Be Or Not" just simply works for me.
By the way, the text on the DVD back cover *(seen above) reads:
The Thespian Collective, the community theatre company in the small town of
Bellcreek, Ohio, has just lost their Hamlet for their soon-to-come
production of The Bard's play. Marian Clark, the director, is holding
emergency auditions in a production suite of the local radio station, where
she works, WACI FM (Lite 97.5). Robert Green is a young actor with some good
amateur credits on his résumé. He's about to experience a
different audition process than he's used to, as Marian puts him through the
paces to see if he makes the cut.
Directed by K.L.Storer
running time: 15:37
© MMXI K.L.Storer |
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Besides Ms. Atkinson, Mr. Knisley, and Ms. Williams, here some other credits
for voicework: George Spelvin, Steven Spillmen, Bob Spoolman, Biff Spikman,
Terrence Spackminn, Jerry Spiffman, August Spelldarn, and Georgina Spelvin.
Other production credits go to such "friends" of mine as Kell Stoor (editor), Derrik Spellman (3rd camera operator), Lee Tonelero (audio engineer), Lisa Spazzman (costume coordinator), and Ken Spookmoore (properties). |
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Tomorrow morning I have an audition for a pro gig from that phone call I reported last week. I still am not detailing the audition or the production, (not wholly sure why), but I may reveal the facts after the fact. Tonight is an evening devoted to preparation for tomorrow.
At The Daytonys I talked with Theresa Abshear, the director of Much Ado About Nothing at Clark State University. Auditions for that are September 13 & 14 and it's up October 28 through November 6. If the above doesn't pan out, this one is a possibility.
I am still looking at Olenna at Springfield StageWorks, which auditions in early December. And, I believe I am still on slate for a callback for August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean at The Human Race Theatre Company next spring. Those callbacks are likely around January.
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I still want to wait until I know whether this is locked in before I tell all. And, believe me, most all of you, (three or four of you five), will not find the reveal to be earth-shattering.
I have had material to study, though getting Be Or Not to final cut kept me from getting to work on preparation for this audition as soon as I could. But I had last night and part of this morning.
So I go take my best shot later this morning.
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This show will mark my first sound design work for the 11/12 season. I agreed last night. By the way, now that I know for sure this is public information:
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CHARACTER |
ACTOR |
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Florence Foster Jenkins | Reneé Franck-Reed | |
Cosmé McMoon | Charles Larkowski |
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Do have some news on this front but not enough time right now to write it out.
Have an audition to prep for....
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Despite that I do not yet know if this is a lock, I guess I'll do the Big Reveal.
The call I got last Thursday was from Kevin Moore of The Human Race Theatre Company. He asked about my singing, for which I replied along the lines that I am a decent vocalist but that my singing voice is way out of shape and practice.
I was offered the opportunity to sing for Scott Stoney for a possible small role as Grandpa Gellman in the winter musical production Caroline, or Change, by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori. The audition was late yesterday morning.
I was sent a pdf of the score pages I would be singing; they were also going to burn a copy of the recording but I realized we had the original Broadway cast CD in the collection at The Dunbar Library on campus and Scott said that version of the song would work just fine.
Thus, over the weekend, I had all the material to prep for the audition; however, there was this final cut of Be Or Not that demanded my focus. Knowing that the audition was Wednesday morning I was not worried; I had Monday and Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning before the audition to get ready. But then my life interfered a little and Monday night was otherwise spoken for.
But I did have the whole evening Tuesday ‐‐ after a much required nap ‐‐ and a few hours yesterday morning. I actually employed my Final Cut Express in two ways to prep. First I used it to edit down the song and burn a sound file of only the section that the sheet music pages covered; then, I was able to use it to play only portions of that selected edit so I could piecemeal my study of the song.
Good thing I could do that, too. The song is "The Chanukah Party," and it is composed in the tradition of a quick-paced Jewish folk dance with fast paced syllables and some Hebrew (or Yiddish) words as part of the mix so there was a bit of a challenge for this gentile.
I also was able to put the edited music file onto my myTouch 4G smart phone, then use a car audio cassette adapter to listen to the clip in a playback loop on the drive into the audition. Then I used ear phones to continue listening right up until the audition time.
I think the actual audition went reasonably well. My voice is a bit out of shape but I still can carry a tune and I have some volume and support, if not what it is when I'm at my peak. But I brought off the song reasonably well. Scott also had me go over just a few bars of another song, just to see where I was in terms of picking things up. I reminded him as we began that second one that, and I quote, "As far as sight reading goes, I suck canal water." He said that wasn't a big concern. It also seemed clear to him i would have no problem with the singing, which is a good thing. So there is room for hope here. But, nothing is a lock until it is a lock.
At least I know it was not a bad audition.
It's also gratifying to get a call about an audition because those casting the show have seen your work and think your talent merits the look. Even if not cast it's a nice thing for the self-esteem. It's better to be cast, of course.
The irony is that I have deliberately steered clear of auditioning for musicals at The Race. My attitude has been that I haven't been in a musical since May of 1977 so I ought to be in a few amateur musical productions before I have the chutzpa to audition on the professional stage for one.
Then there's that whole concept that I am not really all that big of a musical theatre kind of a guy. That does not mean that I am opposed to it; and I have gone after a few in the past, since I've been back.
I am quite all right with the idea of appearing on The Loft stage in Caroline, or
Change.
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The next podcast to go into production after this one is for Neil Simon's Lost In
Yonkers. Hmmm, what do you think my chances are? I'll still give it a try.
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My hope is to do this on Monday.
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If you go back to Tuesday's post and look closely at the image of the back cover of the DVD jacket you will see that it says:
‐‐ notice it's missing an "o." |
Fortunately, no DVD cases have gone out anywhere, so I have made the correction. Though for historical posterity I'm not replacing the offending graphic with a corrected version.
As if anyone needs more proof that I need better
proofing.
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As for the project as a whole, I have been meaning to re-transfer the overwhelming
amount of the footage back off the original DV mini-cassettes into the Final Cut
projects for each segment. In the early days of production I was using my old
G4 Mac desktop tower, which was much less powerful than my
MacBook Pro.
I usually could not import more than about five minutes of footage without Final
Cut freezing up on me. With my MacBook Pro I can now get whole 20-30 minute takes
imported as one file and I believe I am going to start doing that. It may be a while
before I get to editing in earnest and I might as well gradually get all the
segments ready for that time, at my leisure.
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Kevin Moore called yesterday to say that Scott Stoney wants to cast me as Grandpa Gellman in the show, and offered me the role.
I accepted, of course.
So, after several years of auditions I am stepping foot onto The Loft stage.
I am quite thrilled with this, naturally. I was already, as I've already mentioned, most gratified that I got a call where Kevin said, "Listen, Scott and I were talking about you," then after telling me they wanted to see me for the role, saying, "You've given use some strong auditions and we think you'll work well in the role." I later mentioned to an actor friend that at the audition Wednesday they didn't read me, they only had me sing; I said how I felt good that from what they knew of my acting already they didn't need to hear me read.
Then my buzz-kill friend pointed out that Caroline, Or Change is almost an opera, with very little dialogue, "Ninety-eight percent is sung-through. No real reason to read people."
Kill Joy!
Hey! I'm cast! What else?
At the moment I only know two others who are cast. After The Race has listed the cast I'll repeat that info.
Now it's time to start doing my vocal warm-ups every day. As I was prepping for the audition my voice was getting exhausted at a ridiculously quick rate. I also have a Yiddish dialect tape that I'm going to attend to.
Since rehearsal start before the mid-way mark in October, I will have to either wrap the podcast for Lost In Yonkers at The Guild, or have someone else direct it.
I'm also starting to plot how I will employ vacation leave during the course of Caroline rehearsals and the run. I'm not likely to be wanting to report to work at 7:00 in the morning most days, and probably don't want to shift my hours down to leave later. So I'll probably be piecemealing an hour or two a day to the tune of about a total of eight hours a week. Something like that.
Meanwhile, the book and libretto should be in the library for my pick-up in the next
few days, so I can start looking at it.
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Last night I began the process of re-importing the early footage from the DV mini-cassettes into the Final Cut projects, now that I have a more powerful computer (MacBook Pro) than I did in the early days of production for this project, my old Mac G4 Tower desk top model, which I still have, by the way. This, again, makes it possible for me to create movie files of longer duration, like whole 20-30 minute takes as opposed to needing to cut clips off at about five minutes; on the old tower much longer imports would crash the software.
It seems to make sense to be chronological so I started with the first of the official production shoots, the segment with the workshop title, Balboni's, which features Barbara Jorgensen, Crystal Justice, Zara Justice, Elena Monigold, Gino Pasi, and Brett Taylor, and was shot in the basement of the Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape, the home of The Dayton Theatre Guild. I only had time to import Reel 3 (I.E.: mini-cassette 3) with the footage shot from Camera 1, operated by the project's director of photography, Fred Boomer. Tonight it will be "Reel" 4, from Camera 2, with Wayne Justice at the viewfinder.
If I really wanted to be chronologically pure, I'd re-import reels 1 & 2, which are the test shoot in the bar area of the DTG basement, with an improv segment featuring Brett, Duante Beddingfield, and Craig Roberts. I'll probably circle back and get that segment after I've imported all the project proper segments that need re-importing. Some later ones won't as they were originally imported to the MacBook Pro.
"Early Days," by the way, means fall/winter 2008. Yep, this project has been hanging around that long.
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Plans to be in the Adult Acting Class at The Human Race this fall are in peril since the rehearsals for Caroline start before the last two class sessions are scheduled.
There may be a saving grace, however.
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I think perhaps I have managed to re-import all the necessary footage from the project, that which was originally imported on the old Mac G4 tower, now into Final Cut on the more powerful MacBook Pro. I finished the files for the Balboni's segment, features Barbara Jorgensen, Crystal Justice, Zara Justice, Elena Monigold, Gino Pasi, and Brett Taylor.
I also imported the Prison Visits segment with Duante Beddingfield, Crystal (again) and Wayne Justice. That, also shot in the basement of the Caryl D. Philips TheatreScape, the home of The Dayton Theatre Guild.
Then I got all of Balboni's Bar with Duante, Brett, Crystal and Loren S. Goins ‐‐ along with a slew of extras. Again, shot in the basement of the TheatreScape.
Last, I worked on Kate and Dave's, with Elena and Gino. That one, I think, had already been originally imported via the more powerful laptop, but I saw a need to reorganize how I had originally cut up the clips. Though I only needed to make minor changes it was simpler to just start all over again.
So now I'm fired up again about the project and who knows, the ever-elusive
final cut may be at least a little closer.
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Sunday I shot footage of the tech rehearsal.
Since Ms. Vogel's people have refused clearance to use text from the script in the podcast, it is B-roll footage with no sound; though I could use dialogue that is not text from the play, such as Director Greg Smith talking with an actor or crew member. I didn't but that was an option.
Monday night I shot the group interview much like the one done for the Sugar Witch podcast, except that there was no on-screen facilitator/(interviewer) this time, as was Fred Blumenthal for The Sugar Witch.
Having also seen the Sunday rehearsal, and parts of one earlier rehearsal, I had various moments I knew to grab on camera again, so during the Monday rehearsal, I did so.
Then, due to my usual end-of-summer allergies and the temperature dropping overnight
while my fan was blowing full-blast on me while I slept, I woke Tuesday to a case
of laryngitis; so, I stayed home from work and took the opportunity to edit the
podcast DV movie. It was posted by very early morning Wednesday at our
YouTube channel. And,
then at our
facebook page
on Wednesday.
Here's the YouTube link: http://youtu.be/UGcUOiYIpBM
In anticipation of this interview shoot ‐‐ and further DV movie production
in general ‐‐ I picked up a four-channel mic mixer over the weekend so that
I can mix multiple mics into my laptop at the same time and record the
signals into whatever recording software I am employing. Currently I'm
using Garage band,
and frankly it usually works quite well for my purposes.
My intention is to record the audio separately as a general rule. I have done that in the past on a few occasions using my analog four-track cassette recorder only to discover that even when dumping the analog recordings to digital ‐‐ in Garage Band, no less ‐‐ there still is a synch problem. My logic tells me that if I record with a certain machine then play back on that same machine, the speed should be real-time and should synch with the video. But, I have discovered, through the production of the Ravenscroft podcast, for instance, that the analog-recorded audio and the digitally-recorded video play back at a slightly different speed. There is, I'm sure, a solid technological explanation, one I am too technically ignorant to grasp. Really makes no difference, it is what it is. I happened to have recored the audio for the Blackbird podcast using my laptop and Garage Band and found that the synch between audio and video was perfect. I intend to go this route for all DV movie production audio that needs to be synched; thus, the mixer, which got it's maiden employment Monday night. Unfortunately, though it looked promising, the use of the mic mixer on Monday was not successful. A few minutes into the shooting of the group interview of the ladies I lost the volume. So, as has been the case before, including a similar attempt for the Sugar Witch podcast last year, I used the audio recorded on board the DV camera. I believe it was because the one nine-volt battery died. When I bought the mixer on Sunday I did not realize that the AC adaptor does not come with the unit. I bought one before the shoot Monday, but it turned out not be the right adaptor; all I had was one 9V battery that I've had for a couple years, so I'm sure it drained quickly. But I know the mixer will work as I got it to work in sound check both before the shoot that day, and then in one the day before. At least, every time I produce a DTG podcast I make some instructive mistakes, figure out a new work around or two, and discover, or at least try, new cool tricks. Maybe someday I'll be a decent film maker. |
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Speaking of another "In Progress" project that has had its fire rekindled in my heart and soul: a few months back, at a Cinco de Mayo party, as a matter of fact, I mentioned, in one context or another, that I had a mostly finished ‐‐ yet, still, unfinished ‐‐ novel and one of my friends at the party said she'd love to read it.
So, I shortly thereafter emailed her a zip of the whole manuscript. I believe I did, before sending it, try again to fix a paragraph at the start of the novel ‐‐ it has always read as awkward and unduly convoluted and I still don;t think it is in its finished form.
Regardless, I sent the book to her, with editing notes to myself still present. I think there may be a couple places where my "present" rearrangement of some plot points is in progress that may not make sense, since the moves are not quite complete.
Got a quick facebook message from my friend yesterday, part of the original string about the novel, where she said, apparently having now started reading the thing, "Love it! More comments, discussion, etc. to come when I have time to write more!"
So, with flattery in my heart, I am once again leveling designs upon that
project. too.
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In all the time since I've been back in the theatre world here in the Greater Dayton Area, I have not yet taken advantage of "Can Night" at The Human Race Theatre Company, which is the final dress for the production up at HRTC. The admission is whatever one can pay in cash, or cans of food. The proceeds from Can Night go to food shelters or like charities.
Next Wednesday is Can Night for God of Carnage and this looks to be one that I finally can make.
So, I believe I shall.
Too bad there isn't a "Paying Gig" icon attached to my words about this
production.
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You may or may not have already noticed ‐‐ probably not ‐‐ that the banner for the blog and some other things are slightly different.
I Created a new banner that is incorporated as of today. I also created a slightly new look for some of the promotional text below, the items like "AND NOW, TO PROMOTE SOME THEATRE" and the variations of things like "FIRST, A PRODUCTION I'M APPEARING IN" or and "THE CURRENT (or COMING) ATTRACTION AT MY HOME THEATRE...."
They're actually all gif images now rather than actual text, so I could get the blurred shadow effect. The "promotions" is also new, and a gif, for the off-set backing, as well.
Other little graphic changes may come, too. The whole WG site,
may get some refurbishing. 'Course I got to find the time.
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Don't know if I have specifically mentioned this here, but I am not the house manager at The Guild as of this new theatre season. I am still on the board, my official designated duty is "Podcast." This is the first weekend in, what?, five years, six?, that I haven't had some large amount of my focus on what's going on as far as hosting at performances at Dayton Theatre Guild, whether I was actually present or not. Though, instinct has had me focusing just a little bit.
Now, I still will host, and I'm betting a lot more than some of the other board members (please do interpret a snide attitude). In fact I hosted opening night and have pretty much pledged to host all opening nights unless I have a schedule conflict. And I'm also hosting at least once more during the run of The Oldest Profession, next Sunday.
And, of course, my involvement isn't going to wane. The burn-out factor on the house manager job was just smoldering for a while. I may even work the box office every now and then ‐‐ despite how much I hate being responsible for the money!
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I have a copy of the book and the score for the play, so I can get some sort of a head start on things. Truth be told, I believe I don't actually need the whole score, just the sheets for "The Chanukah Party," which I am pretty sure is the breadth of my appearance in the show.
But, why not be familiar with the show as a whole? In fact, I think it is always a
much better place to be.
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Though I have not completely verified this, it looks as if the adult acting class
offered by The Human Race Theatre Company will not be a conflict with the
rehearsals of Caroline, or Change. The last couple session are on Mondays
after the rehearsal period begins. However, it appears that the dark night for the
rehearsals will be Mondays, just like during the production run.
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My plans to finally make "Can Night" at HRTC have been interfered with ‐‐ as usual.
Mr. Director Man (aka: Saul Caplan) wants me to record Reneé Franck-Reed and Charles Larkowski for a production sound design need. So, once again, I will be paying premium for a Loft ticket. Oh well.
I have had one informal meeting with Mr. Director Man as per the sound design needs. Some sound cues are straight forward; others?..........
..........well. . . . . I DO enjoy a challenge!
Meanwhile, I need to get a better handle on what I'm doing for the podcast, since I need to be full-on into the production very soon. In fact, I plan to shoot some footage Monday evening.
One of my hopes for Monday evening is to get DV footage of publicity photos being taken. Not one-hundred percent sure that will happen because I'm not sure I will not be the one who has to take them.
Other than this particular plan, I have not a very formed idea yet what the exact concept of the podcast is, beyond the general promotional necessity.
And, of course, we do have permission from playwright Stephen Temperley to use text from the script, so some rehearsal footage with audio is a given.
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Checked the submission status for
Sundance this morning. The
disk was received on Aug 23. Now, the question is, will I post it on
my YouTube channel, or
will the official release in September take *another form?
*details may follow. |
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Officially start shooting for the podcast tonight.
First order of business is to shoot the DTG house photographer, Craig Roberts, as he shoots publicity pics and program headshots. Then some footage of rehearsal, with the ability (thanks to Playwright Stephen Temperley's permission) to use the dialogue in the final product.
An idea for the concept of the podcast has planted itself and is germinating. I think I have a cool plan evolving. I experimented with a few technical points in Final Cut Express not but a few minutes before posting this entry, and I can do exactly what I want to visually without a problem.
Now to maneuver my schedule in a manner that accommodates the post-production.
Don't know that I'll be wearing the sound designer's hat much tonight, but I will be on Wednesday when I record Reneé Franck-Reed and Charles Larkowski performing a song as Florence and Cosme.
I'll then turn that into the sound cue of an old vinyl 78 RPM record.
Will not be shooting on Tuesday. I need to start trolling for some sound effects I need. I may have most of them but I'm not sure about all.
There's no question that I have some mixing and editing to do. I may need to create some things from scratch, as well.
Tuesday evening will be dedicated to locating what I have, what I need, and laying out the game plan.
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Last week I wrote about how I had picked up a four-channel mic mixer to run multiple mics into my laptop at the same time and mix the signals into the recording software (presently Garage band). I especially want to employ this method to record the audio when shooting movie footage. Thus far. I have only ever once been successful at off-board audio synch recording for any movie project: the podcast for Blackbird.
I tried the latest incarnation of this, running two mics through the new mixer then into my laptop and Garage Band, to record the audio for the Oldest Profession podcast. It failed, but not wholly for the reasons I had determined. As I wrote before, a few minutes into the shooting of the group interview of the ladies I lost the volume and, as in all other cases, save for Blackbird, in post production I had to use the audio recorded on board the DV camera for the movie soundtrack.
The one nine-volt battery powering the mixer died. I had an A/C adaptor, but thought it not compatible. Before the shoot with the Oldest Profession ladies I had plugged the adaptor into the mixer. There was a red light lit up on the mixer that I, at a glance, assumed meant, when on, Power On. Yesterday, while in the store where I bought the mixer and the adaptor, the salesman and I discovered that the red light illuminating probably indicates that the nine-volt battery is low.
At home Monday night I verified that such is definitely the case. I plugged in the A/C adaptor and tested the mixer. It did indeed work. At the podcast shoot last week, I assumed, since the red light wasn't on, that the mixer was drawing no power through the adaptor. I used the mixer to record the audio with only the old 9V battery, and it died soon after I began the interview with the ladies. I actually had an good power source, but thought I didn't.
Lesson learned. At least I know the new equipment will do what I want.
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Shot about thirty minutes of footage for the podcast Monday evening, from which likely less than a minute will be used. The rehearsal footage was on the The Oldest profession, using a desk as a substitute for the baby grand piano that'll eventually be on the Souvenir set.
It's most likely that most of that footage, which gets used, will be b-roll behind the closing credits. Though I may use a particular audio moment ‐‐ at this point I'm thinking it'll be a punch line at the end of the DV movie.
My game plan was to spend last night searching out some of the sound effects I know already I need. Before that, to finish actually reading the script.
But ‐‐ and this is not the first time
this has happened ‐‐ I
ended up sleeping all evening. A lot of that is due to my allergies. Late summer
they kill me, wear me out.
So, I finish the reading the play after work today.
Tonight: we record the song that will become the sound of the 78 RPM record and I
shoot some more footage. Plus,
Mr. Director Man wants to specifically
go through the Act II and get me familiar with the sound
needs.
I have some plays to read. Have for a while. I believe I posted a similar entry some
while ago.
Again, the short order is to finish
Souvenir,
TODAY AFTER WORK. Besides that clear obligation, there's
also a rather immediate need to read
Caroline, Or Change, by Kushner and Tesori,
since I go into rehearsal in about a month and a half. Ought to shortly read
Heroes, translated by Tom Stoppard,
as I am the producer for our forthcoming
DTG production.
Olenna, by David Mamet,
ought to be soon, too; I'm interested in auditioning for that one, which will be up
in early 2012 at Springfield StageWorks.
There are also these:
First, "DOH!" moment number
152,375: Turns out that Can Night for God of Carnage is not tonight, it's
next Wednesday night, and I have verified that I am not needed for sound in the
Souvenir rehearsal that night. So I can, Can*.
*(Sorry).
And in the next couple weeks there are a few other shows I want to see.
And let's not forget The Oldest Profession at
home.
And I'm probably forgetting a soon-to-come show. So, let's see if I actually
make all these.
PLAYS TO READ (STILL):
DOH!
:
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Last night, in the CAC ‐‐
Creative Arts Center ‐‐ at Wright State, we
recorded
Reneé Franck-Reed
and Charles Larkowski
performing Mozart's aria "Queen of the Night" from
The Magic Flute.
Now I turn this recording into the sound of a 78 RPM record disk. There has been a bit of mention that I should add the sound of scratches to the recording, but really I should not. This is period work and the 78 that is played in the course of the play's performance is supposed to be a new product, not a sixty-year-old product. Having scratch sounds all over the recording would be like watching a period movie about the 1920's where all the vintage cars were beat-up and falling apart rather than looking pristine as if they had recently been driven off the lot, or at least not looking much older than a few years.
My plan is to stick the sound of a record player needle touching down on the lip of the record at the start of the sound file. And there is a supplemental sound that I need, but I am at the moment inclined to make that a separate file so the cue can be a bit more fluid during the performances ‐‐ i.e.: the actor who has to instigate the action that requires the sound will not be tethered to that sound appearing on the initial sound file at a static point. Can I be any vaguer?
I shot footage of the recording session; that's likely to be B-role with no sound, if it makes it into the podcast.
The other thing we did, that involved me, was go over the sound cue needs for Act
II. Oh. yeah; I forgot to mention that I also have been
assigned a couple cameo appearances in the play.
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I'm trying to get my singing voice back to a decent shape for the late-autumn production and I must say the late-summer ragweed isn't greasing the wheels.
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So there is some podcast work going on this weekend, but mostly this weekend will about sound design for the show.
And some of it is a challenge. I can't just use some stock sounds in some situations, specifically most of the audience sounds. The sound files need to be tailored to fit the needs of the moments. So there's a bit of harvesting then editing to be done, and it really needs to be done today and tomorrow.
And last night.
I began my harvesting by grabbing audience laughter from several of the on-line comedy radio channels, I finished that this morning, but just the raw recording. Now I have to sift through about two hours of stand-up and pull just raw laughter from in between the jokes, avoiding the comedians' voices.
I also have some amount of stock audience applause and sounds that I will be using.
But pretty much all of it needs to be manipulated or use as an aid to manipulate other sound files.
I have some mixing to do.
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Well, I had every intention of going to see a play tonight, but I don't think I'll make it.
It's the wallet. It's pretty empty.
I also have all that Souvenir sound design work over this holiday weekend so if I'm not in a theatre seat, I'll be home, wearing headphones.
I have such a robust social life.
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Well, I probably ought to be working on the sound design stuff rather than writing this.
Too bad.
I have spent most of the weekend so far on it: Friday night, as I wrote yesterday, and most all of the day yesterday.
Spent a bit of time harvesting a lot of sound files that I am using for the different needs of the audience sounds, but, without going into detail, there is a bit of processing I need to do, including accurately labeling what each sound is, before I can get to the actual creation of the sound files for the our production.
Last night I was up late (as in, into early this morning) and even woke up from an unintentional "nap", but I didn't do much more work. I set an alarm for about 9:00 this morning but it did not wake me. I was up just in time to get ready and head into Dayton to The Guild.
Tonight, when I have finished and posted this blog entry, I'll get back to it. The hope is that I get to the mixing of the sound needs.
I really would like to have most of the sound done before tomorrow night.
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If I can find the time here sometime soon I'm going to edit a trailer of the movie.
There is an unlisted posting on youtube that I've sent a select group of interested people to as a private screening. Not sure how long I'm keeping that page up. I have thought about pulling it down at the end of September. Or I may make the posting public at some point.
But the other idea, which I am not wholly sold on yet is to market the movie through Withoutabox. I haven't thoroughly investigated the specifics and I need to mull over whether I want to make the movie For Sale ‐‐ there are some considerations to contemplate.
But a trailer at some point soon is a high probability.
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Hosted today once again at DTG, but simply as a volunteer, not as the House Manager.
The run has been quite successful. Today was the first of the six performances of these first two weeks that was not sold out, but it was close.
There are a couple good reviews out there:
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I am not at all as far along with the sound design as I had planned.
At least I do believe I have gathered together all the elemental sound files that I need to build what the script demands.
I do have one file built, though at the production rehearsal last night I found the need to alter it, which means shorten it substantially to fit performance parameters. Having my laptop with me, I made the alteration on the spot.
It looks like if I want to get this sound finished in anything like timely I will have to definitely have headphones on at lunch every day. I'm going to have to be mixing on the laptop at lunch every day and in the hours after work before rehearsals and other evening plans this week.
That means I will not be getting into the gym after work, because I have been doing such a bang-up job of getting in there lately!
Will be shooting more podcast footage tonight and Thursday. Thursday, in fact, I will do brief interviews with our two cast members.
It looks like editing the podcast DV movie to final cut will also entail lunch time and those hours after work, next week. I really do need to have the podcast on-line before the September 16 Opening Night.
That would be best.
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I plan on seeing some shows this week:
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Birthday
Dad
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Between lunch yesterday and the period right after work I mixed together quite a few of the sound files for the show,
Only Act I was run last night so only three sound cues, all related to the Victrola and the 78 RPM recording of Florence and Cosmé performing Mozart's"Queen of the Night" (from The Magic Flute) were ran. I had all those cues. I'm pretty much creating the cues in order of appearance.
I made most of the audience cues ‐‐ which is the remainder of the sound needed ‐‐ at The Guild from the booth.rather than mixing them while listening on headphones, I used the actual sound system they are being created for. That's an edge; I was able to immediately fix the dynamic difference between hearing them on the phones and hearing them out of the theatre speakers.
The rest, I have to mix listening with my phones. But adjusting them, if necessary, will not be a major pain.It's just nice to not need to adjust them.
I shot some footage for the podcast, as well. Probably mostly or completely B-roll.
Tomorrow night I shoot the interviews with Reneé and Chuck. I'm thinking about
doing one audio recording, too.
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The adult acting class at The Human Race Theatre Company is on.
There is one big DOH! moment, however: The first class session is next Monday ‐‐ (which is one of the precious few Souvenir tech rehearsals). For some reason I was thinking the first class session didn't happen until after Souvenir was up.
There's already a concession that has to made with the class. Monday, October 10 is the Meet & Greet rehearsal for Caroline, or Change and there are at least two of us in the Caroline cast involved with the class.
It'll be nice to get back into an acting class again. The last one I took was in the
spring of 2009, with
Marsha Hanna.
That was sadly my only taste, of any kind, of Marsha as a director, and one that
left me hungry for the ill-fated chance to be directed in a production by her,
which, unfortunately, will never happen.
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Speaking (writing) of The Race, I am indeed finally, after seven years back in the acting community, taking advantage of the HRTC "Can Night" tonight to see the Final Dress of God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza ‐‐ whose 'Art' I was in several years back in the Springfield StageWorks production.
Two different sets of theatre community friends have seen the Broadway production ‐‐ one couple with the original cast. They all paid at least three figures for their tickets; mine will be some non-perishable foods.
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I did manage to make my first "Can Night," ever, at The Human Race Theatre Company last night to see the Final Dress of God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza.
I enjoyed it thoroughly. Very funny, and of course, having done Ms. Reza's 'Art', I knew to expect some angry humor.
I give the cast kudos for great physical comedy as well as really playing the ranges of each of their characters.
A fellow audience member, who'd seen me in 'Art', asked me which script I thought was better. I said this one. I think it does give the actors and the audience more range of each of the characters to explore. The three men in 'Art' certainly were not drawn too shallowly nor did they lack three dimensions, but the four in Carnage are just, in my mind, drawn better.
Anyway, one down, three to go....
Not JustAnne Foxbank
It's not just New York
originally posted at the
The WriteGallery Creative Web Site on September 13,
2001
appears here by permission |
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CHARACTER |
ACTOR |
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Jay Kurnitz | Philip Stock | |
Arty Kurnitz | Joel Daniel | |
Eddie | Rob Breving | |
Bella | Amy Diederich | |
Grandma Kurnitz | Barb Jorgensen | |
Louie | Saverio Perugini | |
Gert | Rachel Wilson |
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With it now officially being Tech Week for the show it would be rather bad news to report that the sound files for the show are not done, so I won't be reporting that. I finished up at about 3:00 Sunday morning.
Sunday was a bit of a busy day for me. It was Tech Sunday for this show, but that could not happen until after the closing performance for The Oldest Profession. So, I took that opportunity to actually attend the The Oldest Profession. But I had the screening of a film to attend earlier in the day, too. *(see below for both).
My game plan was to get to The Guild in the morning and transfer all the sound files from my laptop onto the mini-disks I am using to run sound, then get lunch, then see the film at 1:00 and then head back to DTG for O.P., then the dry tech and cue-to-cue for Souvenir.
Did I mention I was up till 3:00 a.m. yesterday from Saturday night?
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After O.P. closed, while Lighting Designer/Technician Jason Lenhart focused lights, I did my files transfer. Then we did the cue-to-cue. Strictly speaking we didn't have an official "dry-tech," though, while Mr. Director Man, Ms. Producer Lady (aka: Debra Kent), and Ms. Production Stage Manager took Jason through the script to locate light cues, I did my own little private dry tech, mostly to be sure all the files transfered well. One, in fact, did not. But rather the re-transfer, I will just run that cue off my laptop in QuickTime.
As for tonight, I had thought that I am completely unavailable for the rehearsal, but I will be able to get there, albeit late.
In terms of the podcast, I did shoot the interview with Reneé and Chuck last Thursday at Wright State. And this was that finally-arriving opportunity to get the digital, off-board audio recording for a movie shoot. Everything was working exactly as it should.
Only problem: I did not execute the record command in Garage Band, thus, I am once again using the on-board audio recording, which isn't terrible at all, but does not sound as good as what would have been recorded had I hit the switch.
This is why you need a specific tech for each specific job, at least on a movie or video shoot, and the director should be doing NOTHING but Directing. Perhaps some camera work is okay, but other than that....
I shot some more b-roll footage yesterday, from which the pic on the right up here
is a frame-shot. Either tomorrow night or Wednesday, during Act
I I'll get some final shoots of some portion of scenes,
the footage I'll used as focused on the play content ‐‐ the stuff from which I
needed clearance from Mr. Temperley
to use. I hope I can shoot that footage tomorrow rather than Wednesday. I'd rather
have the final cut on Wednesday rather than Thursday. I hate it when the podcast
isn't available until right before Opening Night. It's going to be too close as it
is, that one day later thing makes it worse.
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Since God of Carnage on Wednesday, I've sat in the audience a few more times:
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Like the Clooney shoot back in March, I have to be very careful and judicious as to what I write about relating to the rehearsal and performance experiences of Caroline.
To some extent I always am. I exercise some good measure of prior restraint. There are things I just don't touch on. If I relate an event or an observation here it needs to go directly to my learning, growth and personal experience. It's fair game for me to discuss, in detail, my mistakes, both in the rehearsal process and in performance. As for others' mistakes: if there's a good lesson to learn from them and I can discuss the mistake in a opaque way that doesn't identify the person, then I will. But I'm not going to show other people's underwear here.
And as for soap-opera-like conflicts and other gossip fodder: I've been back in theatre for seven years now. Anyone who doesn't realize that I have witnessed many dumbassed ego bumps in that time, isn't terribly wise. But that sort of back stage drama is best left there. I've also witnessed more than one hook-up and more than one nuclear melt-down of romances or attempts at romance. None of that has anything to do with the focus of this blog; nor would I endear anyone involved with any such scenarios.
This is a sort of point I've discussed here in time's past. There are two strong reasons to exercise this prudence. The first and foremost is that I find it rude to do otherwise. But, let's not bullshit anyone, close behind that is that I am critically aware that sharing such "juicy tidbits" is not politically intelligent.
It's a small community, our Dayton area theatre. I'm not stupid enough to believe that every single member of that community ‐‐ or any significant number at all ‐‐ are checking on any regular basis to see what this silly little blog has to say. I am smart enough to know that some do check, at least on occasion, a couple probably out of a general curiosity, others, making sure I am being prudent, maybe a few hoping I will slip up and not be prudent.
I'd love to believe I am perfectly judicious and have never offended or angered anyone; I'm not confident that is true, but I do strive for that.
The last thing I want to do is encourage the audition situation where the director I am standing in front of finds me a jackass because of something I've written about them here. I also don't want the legitimate perception out there that if I'm cast, I'll air the production's dirty laundry in cyberspace.
Also, I don't want my colleagues (read: Castmates) to be concerned about such things. I don't want to give anyone involved with a production or potential production to feel a need to distrust me or be wary of me because of this blog. I can't imagine there are not at least a few who already have such attitudes toward me, but I will have to assert that if they do, it's on them ‐‐ I've given them no justification.
These points get intensified as I begin to step into professional productions, those of the Equity and SAG variety. And like the March 29, 2011 entry, any entries I write about this production, rehearsals or otherwise, must tow a very strict line of discretion. I'm not sure exactly what that line is; but, I do know that if I think or feel that it even might be a bad idea to share something, it will stay off these pages.
In that vein, I don't know the whole cast list, but I do know who a few are, the only one's I can name are those I know that HRTC has publicized already: besides me there are Saul Caplan, Kay Bosse (both whom, along with myself are named as "local favorites" in the Inside The Race Fall 2011 newsletter. Also listed there is Yvette William, from Wright State University Theatre>, playing Caroline's teenaged daughter. The Race web site names Tanesha Gary in the role of Caroline.
As for prep, I am at least warming my voice up everyday. I haven't read the book yet,
or sat down to give the one song I know for a fact I'm singing a real studied
look. Next week I start having a bit more free time, so I will become more focused
on pre-rehearsal prep for the show, beyond cajoling my singing voice back into shape
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First class is tonight. It's earlier than I had thought (5:00-7:00, rather than 7:00-9:00), so I will be able to make the Souvenir rehearsal, though I'll be late. I should, though, be able to run the Act II sounds.
My instructor, if I haven't mentioned it, is Kay Bosse, who is in Caroline and in fact plays Grandma Gellman to my Grand Gellman. By the end of November we'll either hate each other or be good friends. Apparently, our class class session, on October 17 is safe from rehearsal conflict as the rehearsals are dark that night. The week before, (the 10th) is the Meet and Greet night for the production, so I don't know what's happening with that class session.
But tonight It's On!
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As it turned out I didn't miss the tech rehearsal last night at all. I was out of class at 7:00 and the run of the show didn't start until about 7:45. The Guild is a fast three minute drive from The Race, so I not only was at rehearsal before it began but also managed to fit dinner in beforehand.
So all the production sound was there.
Well. Save for one that I missed.
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Good opening class.
Kay had each student perform something in an audition-like fashion. I did a portion of the Blackbird manuscript that I could remember relatively close to verbatim. It really wasn't audition monologue material, but the point was more to give her an idea of a skill level, so I used it. So, I suppose in this particular case it was a good choice.
Begs the point that I really never do have an arsenal of monologues to pull out of my pocket on the spur of the moment. I need to change that.
Kay has us thinking about what our favorite play is ‐‐
right now mine is Blackbird ‐‐ and who are
favorite actor is and why. I asked if it could be more than one and she said yes.
Because I have a small group I like. Unfortunately because I don't get to a lot of
professional theatre, all but two of these high-calibre actors are those whose work
I know from the screen. here are mine, for today, in no particular order:
That's a list as it is today, not what it would have been last week or in two
months.
As for October 10, class will end early so Kay and I can head the next block over for
the meet and greet for Caroline.
Was contacted by somebody who is developing an idea for a close-ended web series
that sounds like a great idea. Don't want to divulge more info than that because
it's not my project and it's not my information to divulge.
But I certainly have an interest and hope this leads somewhere.
At this point it would be a no-pay gig, but there is some chance there might be
salary on the back end.
Please don't tell me I'm foolish to do the gig for only the possibility of pay. Pay
is not the first reason I'm doing it. Though elbow-grease investment in a future
more professional (paid) career is part of it, always is.
And if the subject Icon becomes the "Paying Gig" icon, after all, I am
very much okay with that turn.
All of these because they understand keenly and are brilliant executers
of the concept "Less Is More." This is an incredibly valuable
skill in front of the camera but it also has great merit on stage. Petersen
I have had the luck to see twice on stage and I am impressed by how he can
still employ the subtleties of Less Is More and yet be such a strong,
vibrant presence in the room. And all of these actors are those who come
immediately to mind when I think of this seaming contradiction of presence
on screen with subtlety of performance. Though all of them certainly can go
big when it's a good choice.
The freakish landscape of range both these actors possess is stupefying
to me. I am in awe of their immense powers to stretch themselves. Now, my
path did briefly (briefly) cross Philip's,
on the set of
The Ides of March,
but all we did, as I described back in March, was exchange hellos, when I
desired to grab and shake his hand and tell him that I believe he is one of
the most gifted actors to ever appear on screen. I don't know that I have
ever seen him play the exact same personification as he has before. Every
performance is of itself. Pretty much the same for Ms. Streep.
No slouch at playing the subtleties either, Bruce is one high-calibre actor I
have seen on stage, if not a lot, certainly a good handful of times, and
more than enough to have a strong idea of his skill. His stage presence and the
ease in which he commands it is spectacular. He also has his own impressive
range and his non-verbal work (the "internal dialogue," as it were)
is spot on. I saw him as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe several
years ago in Cincinnati and the growing wounding he showed during the famous
Martha monologue was a concrete lesson in how to be present, be engaged,
contribute significantly to the emotion stakes of the moment on stage but not
pull focus from the actor who is the focus of that moment.
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Dress rehearsals are going well. Mr. Director Man asked me to add a crowd laughter sound at a new point, and rather than try to incorporate it onto one of the mini disks, I am running that added cue off QuickTime on the laptop. In fact, I did not mix something, I am using a raw audience laughter file that I procured.
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Tuesday I shot what I am calling the content performance footage, meaning rehearsal performances where the dialogue is heard in the movie. This is the footage that needs Stephen Temperley's blessing to use with the audio (text of the play) in tact.
Unfortunately I was not able to go the concept route I had conceived because there was not enough time. I was going to present at least part of the podcast in the fashion of the old news reels that used to run in movie houses before the feature presentations. But there was a bit of processing needed, as well as some news copy and the appropriate music. I had not yet found royalty free music that fit well and I frankly did not have time to do the rest. As it was, I was at final cut yesterday not too much before it was time to leave for last night's rehearsal.
Now it is finished and posted:
http://youtu.be/6C5PIv_cUjM
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The Human Race is an Equity Membership Candidacy theatre. With my casting in Caroline, Or Change I now have the opportunity to become a candidate for an Actors Equity union membership.
There are pros and cons to becoming a candidate. Actually, it's more the pros and
cons of being an Actors Equity card holder in this local professional theatre region.
A few have weighed in already with cons:
The only problem I have with any of these arguments is that all deal with the absolute of me as an AEA member. They all address the problems of being able to act on a stage in an area like Dayton when there is only one Equity theatre. They all address me not being able to act often because I would be prohibited from non-union theatre, especially community theatre.
But here's the thing: I think it will take a while (some few years at best) to earn the 50 weeks I will have to work in an Equity theatre as a candidate in order to be eligible to join the union. Then when I do make the 50, I'd still have five years to join the union, and I would not be obligated at that point unless cast in an Equity show (after the 50 weeks).
It doesn't seem to me that entering the program necessarily boxes me in, in this market for quite a while. And, who's to say I'll stay here?
Despite the advice otherwise I am leaning very toward declaration.
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Seriously, this is a very lovely, funny, touching show and Chuck and Reneé are wonderful in their roles. Six chances to catch this great show.
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The show had a very good Opening Night.
The audience size was not at all what the show deserves ‐‐ it deserves six sold-out performances. At least the audience that was there, my guess about sixty people, was most responsive.
Chuck and Reneé gave stellar performances, some moments were more crystalized than I'd personally ever seen before. And, the last scene of the play was more moving than ever.
Hurry! If you read this soon enough and you're close enough, you might make tonight's 8:00 show. If not, there are four more chances!
daytontheatreguild.thundertix.com.
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Please don't mistake this for complaining or whining because it is most assuredly neither such. But, I have some strategic scheduling for the next two podcast productions. Caroline, or Change rehearsals start on October 10 and the run goes through to November 20.
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'Nuff said
If it's a mistake, it's not as big a mistake as looking back and regretting that I did not declare.
Okay! "'nuff" wasn't "said."
On a related note: when I was filling out the wardrobe information (measurements, etc.), part of that is one's weight. I had not actually weighed myself for a while. I would have estimated my weight at about 150 lbs.
I would have been.....incorrect. Boy! Would I have been incorrect!
I do have plans for the gym today.
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I've never really identified a favorite play of mine, either. I had to go with what is (and has been) my major focus, that, of course, being Blackbird, as I stated in the Sep. 13 post, above. The reasons are many. Naturally the personal investment I've had and still have in producing and appearing in it is a big factor. But, before that, the fact that it's such a well-written play. There's not the fraction of an ounce of fat in the text. There are so many layers and levels to the text and subtext. Nothing is accidental in the dialogue. The characters are so intriguing and strikingly drawn. The concept is bold and daring and has the audacity to ask the questions it asks and pose the possibilities it poses. And, as an actor it gives two delicious roles to climb into. I'm looking forward to the next play that compels me so much. Perhaps that will be Mamet's Olenna, which ironically ‐‐ and I might add, coincidentally ‐‐ is in the same basic territory as Blackbird in terms of subject matter. The Mamet play is on my radar because a production is up this season in the area.
The second half we got into small groups of two or three and did some contextless scenes, which is a great tool for both actors and directors. A contextless scenes has a small number of characters ‐‐ usually no more than three ‐‐ who have either generic, bender neutral names or, more often, either letter or number designations. The dialogue is all there is, with no scenarios or character descriptions. The dialogue must not be altered when executing a contextless scene.
Monday, my group of three and another group of two did the same scene. We did A:, B:, & C:, the other group had the same lines reassigned to just A: & B:. Our two groups had completely different scenarios and reads.
We closed by doing one of the variations of the Repetition Exercise from the Meisner Technique. We did the exact verbatim version of this. There are few manifestations of the exercise. In one, the first actor makes a statement, and the other virtually mirrors it. Such as:
Each time through the actors give different emotional and attitudinal readings of the lines, bold declarations or angry statements, or flirts, or jealousy or bewilderment, yadda yadda.
There's also a version where the actors follow the lead but move down a path:
What we did was the absolute verbatim mirroring:
The same differentiation in readings apply in all the versions of this exercise.
At the moment I have in my possession library copies of A Practical Handbook for the Actor, (Melissa Bruder, et al), which Kay Bosse recommended and I began reading last night. While in the stacks grabbing that, I also picked up Body Voice Imagination, (David Zinder), this second one because I believe my stage movement can improve greatly. I've taken the chance that based on the title of the Zinder book, it will address this issue.
I'm quite likely to procure my own copy of the first one and, perhaps, the latter one, as well.
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The first weekend of this saw some great work from Reneé Franck-Reed and Charles Larkowski. It also saw some horribly anemic audience sizes, which is a shame because this production is very much worth seeing.
Running sound went well, too. There were a few imperfections, but, ya know, Live Theatre and all. One nerve-racking event came after the Sunday show. The mini-disk cassette with most of the show sounds literally fell apart when I ejected it. I do have all the originals in a production file on my laptop, so it was just a question of re-recording it all on another mini-disk.
Yes: just a question of.....
I went through ten mini-disk cassettes at the theatre before I found one fresh enough to take new recordings to replace the main one for the show. And I might add it was the last one available on site! Not that there was an imminent problem for the production; I did have five days to solve the issue. I have one brand-new mini-disk at home that can be used. We could also convert to another medium if necessary.
Brings to point the fact that new mini-disks are not easy to find. The format is no
longer in fashion, so most of the chain retailers don't carry them; maybe none do.
The disks are almost exclusively a special-order item more easily found on-line. I
suppose I ought to order some, huh?
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After dealing with "The Dilemma of the Malformed Disk" I zipped down the street to catch The Merry Wives of Windsor as produced by Shakespeare in South Park and presented at The South Park Green in Dayton. I was not able to stay as I had to go rescue a friend from a car problem.
I kind of wasn't in what you could call "good attendance," anyway. I got lost looking for The Green and was almost late, thus I was pretty far back in the audience in a situation where neither the stage nor the audience area was raked, so I couldn't see well. Plus, I was already preoccupied with a self-indulgent personal problem, and I had a headache. So, I wasn't the most attentive audience member to begin with. Then I got the call from the friend and I was his last-ditch hope for assistance.
So I'm not even sure why I'm bothering to chronicle this save that I feel guilty for
leaving the performance of some friends.
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The second half of the run kicks off tonight at 8:00.
Russell Florence, Jr. was there, I believe last Saturday night, and has written a rather glowing review for Dayton Most Metro: "Delusions of Grandeur."
Before the show tonight I'll do an audio recording of a specific piece of music from the show. It's not a production need, it's a side recording that will be a "Souvenir" from Souvenir.
I hope to do a stereo recording with two mics on the piano and a third, which I'm renting, for Reneé's vocal. If I can use the four-track in the space without picking up the radio station, then I'll be able to record with three channels, one each of two of them favoring either the higher or lower registers of the piano, so I can get a more robust pan of the piano in the mixed master.
If the damned radio station invades, as it is wont to on my four-track at The Guild,
I'll have to use the little mic mixer and record on
Garage Band. But I won't be
able to send a stereo separated signal onto the computer, so the recording will be
monophonic. Not as desirable.
Frame captures from the podcast production footage, cropped down from widescreen |
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The Podcast for Souvenir
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Both actors were cast perfectly. Take a well-cast production with a good script and good direction (and good production values such as lighting design and sound design thankyouverymuch) and sparks fly.
As for my sound design, the sound needs did not call for the most sophisticated one I've ever done but it had its challenges:
(As she sings the laughter grows till she can't help but hear it....She adjusts her wings, provoking a roar from the house. She shades her eyes to look out. A rhythmic clapping begins, joining the laughter, growing louder and louder....) |
Despite the usual gaffes that will occur during the run of a live show, cast and crew worked like a well-oiled machine (well, um, see below for one "other side of the story)".
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On Friday, I got to the theatre early to record that song performed by Reneé and Chuck. While setting up, the mishap mis-happened. I had set the Fostex four-track up and was walking away from the table; my foot caught the power cord and I pulled the machine off the table; it plummeted some three feet down and tumbled onto the floor.
And there was, indeed, damage.
Beyond a couple knobs that flew off, but were easily re-attached, there is the fact that the machine would not power up. Kind of a problem. My first thought was that I knocked something loose in there. I did open it up to take a look, but where I need to get to is buried under a couple layers of circuit boards and I didn't want to risk causing further damage to the machine. Saturday I dropped it off at an audio repair shop. The repairman called earlier today and the financial damage is nowhere near where it could have been: he quoted about sixty bucks, which is good. I'm, well, tight for cash right now as is pretty much everyone else. In fact, I'm actually going to have to manipulate my finances a little to get this bill paid.
He called back in the afternoon to tell me he was done. The fall had cracked two circuit boards, one controlling the power, the other, the mixer. He fixed those and reinforced the power jack input. Still brought the fee in under $70. I pick it up tomorrow. Could have today, but I need a day to discover how I'm paying him.
The end result of the damaged recorder that is germane to Souvenir is that I did not get to record the musical performance in stereo as I wanted. I had rented a third mic, in order to use my two to get a stereo separated recording of the piano. I went ahead and did mic the piano with two mics and use the third for Reneé's vocal, but I had to run them through the little mic mixer and into Garage Band, but I can only run a mono mix out from the mic mixer so I had to record a live mono mix of the song. This means that the raw mix is it, at least in terms of volume balance between the voice and the piano. Since everything is on the same channel, whatever volume balance is on that is all there can be. No post production tweaking of that aspect is possible.
As you who know me will expect, I'm not at all satisfied with that raw mix, either. It's not horrible, but the piano is a little too up in the mix at times. Being able to finesse such dynamics in post-production would have been good.
I was able to process an end result that was a little more robust than the raw mono recording. In Final Cut there are still two stereo channels for mono, despite that they are the exact same audio information. I untethered the two channels then dropped in EQ filters and favored one toward high end sound and the other toward low end. Then I dropped a third channel in with the original EQ, stuck a filter with a slight amount of reverb that runs under at a lower volume. The two EQ'd channels each are either left or right in the stereo pan and the quieter reverberated one is centered. Thus we get a simulated stereo and a fuller sound. I still would have preferred true stereo, and Reneé's voice a little more up in the mix in a few spots.
Later, in production of the Friday night performance the Production Gremlins decided to be active and play a few pranks.. Who knows, they may have wrapped the cord around my ankle earlier in the day. First one was for a sound file to malfunction DURING PERFORMANCE. It had been fine when I did the pre-show dry tech of the sounds. And it didn't malfunction ever again. I have no clue what happened, save for the touch of the Gremlin's finger.
Preoccupied with that mishap, I neglected to move the cue setting forward on the other disk, so when the next sound cue came, I played a jiffy of the wrong sound file.
Okay, that second one wasn't the gremlin, but let's blame him/her/It, anyway.
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Shortly after the first class session I emailed Kay Bosse that there are two things I am most keen to work on. One is movement ‐‐ as you five who regularly read this blog know, I hate the way I move on stage. The other is improving my skills at cold reading.
On the Movement front, Kay has introduced us to a discipline known as Viewpoints. The technique is a series of exercise, games I suppose is a good word, that have the actor focus solely on the body and the moment in a physical sense, shutting out intellectualizing. The idea, it seems to me (we'll see what I'm writing later about this) is to focus solely on the physical task and any immediate responses required for some of the exercises. She showed us one last week, which I tried and failed at over the weekend, which has the actor sit at the edge of a chair with his/her knees at a perfect 90 angle. The task is to slowly stand up without pitching the torso back or forward to gain momentum. It is not easy and I could not do it. It's there for me to master.
This Monday we did one called Lanes. Several actors stand lined in a row. There is a vocabulary of three moves: one can step forward five steps, hop backward five hops, or make a 180 turn. These are all one can do and one can only do one of these at a time. Each movement is to be a response to another's movement. The only move than be of sole volition is the first one, to start it off. You also are to keep you eyes trained forward, so most of you cues from others to take an action will be seen in peripheral vision. The purpose is to help the actor become aware of the environment and most especially of the other actors in that environment and what those actors are doing. It's a stage ensemble building game.
Later in the session this week Kay had me do a cold read of part of a monologue. A stone-cold read. Like at this past summer's FutureFest auditions, I had never laid eyes on the pages before I did the reading for those who were in the room. That experience at the start of the summer and this one this week both leave me feeling much better about my cold-read aptitude. I'd already been on a path toward letting go of the desire to give a perfect interpretation of the character I'm reading in a cold read, and I believe I pretty much was doing that at the FF audition. It was shared with me that someone said I seemed the most relaxed and one of the stronger auditioners all across the board at the FF auditions.
Reading How To Stop Acting, by Harold Guskin, shortly after being cast in the FF play A Woman on the Cusp, this course was reaffirmed by Guskin's writing. In a nut shell ‐‐ and in my words, not his ‐‐ his message is that actors need to forget about showing the auditor how well they understand the character. Chances are they don't understand the character much at all at that point. The goal is not to make a fabulous presentation of the character, it's to make a fabulous presentation of the actor. Make a choice and go with that and look for the moments of change (the beat changes) in the text. Go where it feels like you should. Be present in the context you understand at that moment. That context will either be completely improvised by you or somehow improvised along with whatever quick and probably somewhat vague or incomplete context the auditors have given you. It's not necessary to create the reality of the universe of the script or the reality of the character as he or she lives in that script. Your goal in a cold read is to show those watching that you can create a reality. Give them something interesting and real to watch and hear but don't worry if it's a totally created on the spot with little or no clue as to what the script as a whole suggests.
So I got in front of the class Monday, read the first few lines as I walked up, made a choice based on what I'd read, started, then changed beats when it felt right. And here's a point for you: a few times I, as the actor standing up there, needed to pause for a moment to gather myself and move into the next beat. Thing is, that's real; those are real moments. A far as my audience was concerned, the character was gathering his thoughts. The message being, don't sweat the pauses you need, use them.
A class mate and I have been assigned a brief moment from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. We will put it up for the class in a couple weeks. We're doing about seven pages close to the start, for those who know the play, it's the argument about the name of the movie, the news Martha drops about guests coming over up to where she sings her twist on "The Big Bad Wolf" song that encompasses the title of the play.
Fortunately this is not one of the many many many many many many sections with
mammoth monologues, a lot of very short, standard dialogue lines. So there's not a
hard task to memorizing these few pages. Thankfully also, Kay will allow us to call
for line, which serves two good purposes for me. First, the pressure is off to be
100% off-book, though I will still give that a shot. But it makes the performances
for class what it really is: that first stumble through. It also gives me the
potential chance, if necessary, to practice calling for line and not breaking
character. I am one of the many many many many many many actors who are bad for
breaking character ‐‐ "I'm sorry, what's my line
there?"
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So now it's time to give far more attention to prepping for this show. I'd like to come into rehearsal with some strong idea of the songs I am involved with. Sunday night I listened to the whole show and followed along in the book. There's very little straight dialogue and in fact it's all part of the score so nothing was missing from the recording, save for a few lyric lines that apparently were either cut from the recording, the Broadway production, or were added later and reflected in the book. Regardless, I started the process of becoming more acquainted ‐‐ okay, to be honest, "simply acquainted," since I'd only previously listen the "The Chanukah Party" because that was the song Scott Stoney had me sing to audition. I had thought that was all I sang in the show, but I make a few more appearance, though not substantial appearances.
I have been doing daily vocal warm-up for the last week or so. I've missed a few times, but now warm-ups will most surely be a daily occurrence.
Got the rehearsal/production schedule yesterday. I may be taking a few more vacation hours each week than I'd anticipated. Looks I may be spending at least eight hours most of the weeks, and perhaps a little more for some of them. I haven't sat down and budgeted the time out yet, but my cursory look suggests the production will eat more vacation leave than I'd expected it to. Kind of a bummer, but, so-oh-well.
There was some discussion over the weekend, at the wrap dinner for Souvenir
that much of the score for Caroline is not easy music. It seems most of mine
is not excruciatingly difficult, but still, that prepping now and not showing up on
Day One wholly unprepared is still the way to go.
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I officially began production of the podcast for Lost in Yonkers last night. Shooting b-roll. I have not even bothered to get clearance from Neil Simon's people to use dialogue in the movie. I am so confident that the answer will be "no," that I am just making the podcast without said text, not fooling with the likely in-vain game of asking.
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I'm not any where close to the tech savvy image that some have of me, so I'm just sort of feeling my way around in the semi-dark here.
The native screen resolution of the footage shot on the Mino is 1280 x 720, so I'm going to experiment with the resolution of the final cut, running between 640 x 360 and the native res.
And since this machine writes digital files to a hard drive rather than digital information to tape, transferring the footage from the camera to the computer is not a real-time experience. I.E.: it doesn't take one hour (plus set up time) to transfer an hour of footage, it takes less than a minute or two. Then, however, it's not imported as a .mov file, it's an .mp4, which means constant re-rendering while editing in Final Cut, which isn't wildly convenient. But the end result may be worth it.
We'll see.
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This morning I created an iTunes play list of only the eight songs that Grandpa Gellman makes a vocal appearance in and have started the process of listening to it. Not but a few minutes ago, here in the late afternoon I got those eight songs transfered onto my myTouch 4G cell phone so I can get mobile with the study. The song list, well, the whole Broadway soundtrack is on both my MacBook Pro laptop and my work PC.
Have a Yiddish dialect recording on all three of these machines, too.
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Shot more b-roll last night with a few more cast members in the house. Actually, I think maybe everyone was there.
Along with the Flip MinoHD I also did a little bit of multi-camera work by employing the HD camcorder in my myTouch 4G cell phone. However, there some jitter in the phone shots due, at least in part, to the stabilization software, which interferes with smooth pan shots and such. It may also be that I need to reboot the phone to clear all memory caches, some of the visual blips and burps might be due to memory swap.
I still loaded the video files from the phone into the Final Cut Express project for the podcast. There will surely be useable portions.
Since I have to go into Dayton to pick up my repaired multi-track recorder (see
below), I'm going to grab more footage tonight, probably tomorrow night, as well.
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Man I feel so friggin' poor right now!
When I looked at what I have available in my checking, savings, and available credit on my Visa, it became apparent that I will barely make it to my next paycheck before the added expense of repair on the four-track recorder. I am seriously scraping at the moment.
It makes me feel SO successful.
If you have read or do read yesterday's entry you'll see that I elected to not drop by the repair shop yesterday to pay off the debt and pick up the machine because I needed to figure out just exactly how I am coming up with the sixty-four dollars the repairs cost.
The answer lies in several years worth of penny caching. I took the contents of a small wicker bowl I have ‐‐ some 3000-plus pennies, and a few stray dimes and nickels and was off to the local Kroger's to drop them into a Coinstar machine.
Originally I was going to roll them into penny coin rolls but after a little more than a half-hour, I'd only filled seven sleeves, and the mound in basket was hardly decreased. It was clear rolling the whole basket would take hours, so I sacrificed ten-precent (the Coinstar fee) of the pile in order to not be up all night.
I netted $35, a little more than half the repair fee. Well, at least there's that much supplemental financial help.
Picked the Fostex up after work and though I've not given it a spin, I did at least
plug it in and turn it on ‐‐ it was good to see all the lights and LEDs and bars
light up.
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Note to self:
Update your résumé ~
Love,
Add your new gig & your new training!
K.L.
September 29, 1982I grew up around some adults who drank too much. People I loved who were drunk often and I hated the way they were when they were drunk. I was embarrassed for them and by them. I decided well before I was fourteen that I would never be drunk. On the other hand, I grew up in the 1960's. Alcohol was, as far as I could see, a fabric of adult life. Most adults I knew drank to one extent or another. And everyone drank on TV. Gene Berry drank on The Name of the Game. Patrick McGoohan drank as Secret Agent Man. Bruce Wayne drank. Mr. Brady drank. Drinking alcohol was clearly one of the rites of passage into adulthood. And none of those guys got drunk. My friends wanted to get drunk. I wanted to fit it. I faked it. Until I accidentally got drunk. I absolutely can guarantee you that was the last time I ever got drunk by mistake. Because something magical happened for me. Call it low self-esteem, call it inferiority complex, call it extreme insecurity, self doubt, whatever you call it, I always felt I should be better looking, smarter, cooler, funnier. I knew that most people didn't like me, simply because I was me. I knew I was a loser. Many years later I heard an explanation for what happens to people like me when we drink. The man who gave me this revelation said that it's not what alcohol does to an alcoholic that is different, it's what it does for an alcoholic. It does the same thing to anyone who drinks. It starts putting the brain to sleep, affecting minor then major motor skills as well as impairing intellectual judgment and inhibitions. Eventually, no matter who you are, you pass out. That man used a phrase that opened up the path to a new understanding for me. He said that what alcohol does different for someone like me is that it is "instantly able to alter my perception of reality." That night, at fourteen, when I accidentally got drunk, I was suddenly smarter and cooler and better looking and stronger and tougher and certainly worth the love of all. It felt like a miracle. So I visited that state of respite as much as I could. I soon evolved into a problem drinker and that gradually got worse. And at some point, somewhere in my early twenties, I wasn't visiting that respite of a welcomed changed perception of reality as much as I was drinking to re-discover it, wherever it was it had gone. I could share a lot of horror stories, or as they are called in some circles of recovering people, "war stories," but rather I'll just say that I got to a point where it was a major mystery just which drunk I would become once I started drinking. Would I be a clown? Would I be a morosely sad weeper? Would I get cocky or belligerent? Any of those and more unpalatable characters were a possibility. I also blacked out well more than 50% of the time. On the 28th of September, 1982, there was a party at a bar. It was to celebrate the release of a local home-grown album: a collection of songs written and recorded by local bands. I knew one of the bands. I dropped by where they rehearsed and one of them asked me if I was going to the release party. Here was my dilemma: Was I going to the party or was I going to work the next day? I knew both were not happening. I went to the party. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning on September 29, 1982 I was arrested in the apartment complex where I lived. I was mostly in a blackout with some intermittent moments still in the heaviness of a pretty thick drunken fog. I had apparently left my apartment and was trying to get back in but couldn't find which was mine. The police were called. It was the last straw in a series of ridiculous, pathetic, and in some cases, dangerous episodes of my failed drinking career. I sought help and I found it in a community of people who were battling and winning against the very demon I was up against. To steal a phrase from the wise man I spoke of earlier, I did not have a Rocket To Stardom. My life didn't turn around completely overnight. I had to learn to face the world without the anesthetization of alcohol. I had to deal with that crappy self image and lack of self love that I had. I soldiered on, One Day at a Time, as some recovering people say. Today, I celebrate twenty-nine years since my last drunk, since the last time I smoked pot or took any pill outside of the subscribed dosage (and in most cases I take less than the subscribed dosage). It's not always been a bed of roses. Life still has dealt me some hard blows. Both my parents died; I've gone through those scary times of unemployment; I've experienced the varying degrees of conflicts with friends, loved ones and girlfriends; I've had my back against the wall in many ways at many times. Not since about the first half of my first year sober have I ever considered a drink or a drug as a solution or an escape from any of my problems. In recent times I've been feeling a particular loneliness, in a very pronounced way. Without detailing it, I have been grieving for the lack of the particular relationship that I want. I don't believe it is ever going to be the way I want it to be. It's just one of those things that time will take care of. I'll be damned if I'm going to drink over this heartache. The point here is that it's not the way it's supposed to be. I have not been reacting as I should be. When my father died suddenly in 1995, that was supposed to be a perfect excuse for a weeks-long bender. And my mother's sad and slow degeneration into death a couple years later? Same thing. Right now I should be in some state of drunkenness most of the time, wallowing in self-pity and desperately calling, texting and otherwise inappropriately bothering a very lovely woman because things are not as I desire. I did not and I am not, save for some admitted bouts with self pity currently ‐‐ but I'm allowing myself those with impunity because I'm sad and that's just the way it is; I'll get over it when I get over it and I'll apologies to no one for my melancholy. It may not seem like a big thing to you, but it is absolutely amazing to me that I am able to navigate this world that is foisted upon us all without depending on the escape of a good drunk every now and then (okay, all the friggin' time) in a vain attempt to keep it together. It's because, in an isolated moment of clarity, in the back of a police cruiser, in the early morning of September 29, 1982, I was finally able to recognize what and admit what had been quite obvious for several years: I was powerless over alcohol and my life was in a complete shambles. If anything was going to be done about it, it would have to come from a wisdom and a strength that I did not have. I needed to find that power, that channel to spiritual strength and wisdom that would save me. I did. And thanks to the God that I have come to see, I am alive and living a life worth living, despite that it can always be better. But at least I can get to a better life and have faith that it's there, waiting for me. As imperfect as my life is, I cannot fully express how grateful I am to be living it. |
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Yesterday I received the confirmation letter and my EMC card from Actors Equity Association.
I am officially an Equity Membership Candidate.
I'd planned to post a strategically blurred image of the card, but I forgot to bring it on campus with me and my scanner at home is old technology that creates files that are far too large in byte size.
Perhaps tomorrow.
And, oh yeah! I do believe my EMC status is something else that ABSOLUTLEY belongs on that résumé update!
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