Off book for Enter Laughing

Last night was the first night off book for the Enter Laughing cast. I think it went well consdiering we were missing our leading man due to illness. Ordinarily I am well off book before the deadlkine, but this time I struggled a little more than usual. It has been many months since I have strayed away form the Bard. I always find Shakespeare the easiest to memorize because of the melody and rhythm of the verse, It comes more natural to me, like learning a song on the radio. With Enter Laughing, I had to adjust my process since I have not had enough repetition to learn my lines solely through rehearsal. I have taken my script to bed with me the last two days, trying to engrave the lines into my subconscious. I once read that encoding immediately before sleep improves recall. I studied my lines for an hour today adn then took an hour nap to cement them in. It seemed to work. Soon they will be second nature and then I can really start to play. Now that the book is out of my hands I have the freedom to create and explore everything that is Wanda.

Don't tell me you're a stepping stone

Alan Cumming performed “I Bought a Blue Car Today” at OCPAC on Sat. night. I bought tickets for my mother and myself, and attended the 9:30 performance. I was in total awe of him from the moment he walked on stage singing “Shine” to the last bow. I have never experienced such complete immersion and emotional connection as Alan brought to the stage. I drank up the sparkle in his eye when he took his moment before each song to connect. It was so brief one could easily miss it, but I saw it clearly and it was beautiful. I bought the album after the show and I can't stop listening to Lance Horne's "Don't Tell Me". I keep marinating myself in its potent truth. Why do I always connect so strongly to the tragedy in life? Alan is quirky and fabulous and I love him. He is truly an inspirational artist. I strive to be like him, to find the truth in everything I touch and share that magic with the audience.

"Don't Tell Me"
By Lance Horne

Don't tell me you're a stepping stone
'Cus I'll step all over you, and won't mean it

Don't tell me I'm not capable
'Cus I'll prove that I am if it kills me

Don't try to hold me in your hand

'Cus living things move, and I surely will

You've got your friends and I've got mine

And wouldn't you know, they were right

I won't tell you that your beautiful

'Cus you'll think I want sex, and don't mean it

I won't tell you that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.... again

I won't quote the four agreements though you'd get f*cking centered if you'd read it

I won't think of you the way I do

Don't tell me....

Take me away from the other you

The one I thought I never knew

I'm not the man you'd thought I'd be

I'm ready for another me

I've gone away from other days

I've weighed my change and changed my ways

Been crazed and turned for turns of phrase

And now I'm left with you

Why can't I love just that

Instead of all the loves that leave my bed?

And all the lives I've never led

Looks like there's still another blank page to fill

Until I've had my fill of you

So thanks for the tips on carpet

And thanks for your taste in shoes

If we could learn to love those little lessons

There'd be a little less to lose

But if you find another love whose going to hold you like me

And have these little talks until a quarter to three

And wait until you're ready for intimacy

Don't tell me

Don't tell me

Reading Wanda...

It is 10;00 PM, and I just got back form my first read-though of Enter Laughing. I always think of the first read-through as a spectacle all in itself. Everyone is getting to know one another, making introductions, trying to remember names, nervously looking around. I love the moments when discoveries are made, or when bold laughter fills the empty rehearsal space. I am very excited to work with this talented cast of players in the historical Long Beach Playhouse.

I am still trying to figure out my character. Who is this young woman named Wanda? Why does she love David? What fuels her fire? What does she dream about when she snuggles down under the sheets at night? Where does her sense of forgiveness come from? Where does she hold her pain? Her happiness? Her love? I find her quaint, but wonderful in every way. I know I will find the place where Wanda lives in myself.

Quoting Shakespeare

On Quoting Shakespeare
By Bernard Levin

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought;
if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare;

if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy,
if you have played fast and loose,
if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle,
if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare;

if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage,
if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it,
if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood,
if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, i
f you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare;

even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing,
if you wish I was dead as a door-nail,
if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot,
then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut!
For goodness' sake!
What the dickens!
But me no buts! – it is all one to me,
for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Penache!

A couple of days ago I stumbled across a second-hand copy of Cyrano de Bergerac, from the Broadway production with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner. I immediately bought it. I watched it last night and found myself deeply touched by their performances and the characters. I thought about a production I had seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I remember sitting with my father in their outdoor Elizabethan theatre and forgetting myself in the play. It just so happened that the Cyrano that night was an understudy, who had learned the lines in 24 hours, studied the blocking by watching a taped rehearsal and had only one performance the previous night under his belt. A prompter sat in the front row, but forgetting their presence I was jolted back into reality when he called for a line in the third scene. After that he was picture perfect. I cried for 20 minutes after the show, thinking about the beauty of Cyrano under the guise of a circumstantially large nose, and the tragedy of unspoken love. I never thought I would feel that conneciton again, but Kevin Kline brought that back to me last night. I cried as he recited his love letter to Roxanne in the last scene, stained with his blood and tears, and I continued to cry as I removed the disk from the DVD player. I think Cyrano de Bergerac is one of those plays that iwll always touch me. Moments like these remind me of the magic theatre brings to its audiences.

"I think the moon is a world like this one, and the Earth is its moon."

Enter Laughing Casting!

Good news! I have been cast as Wanda in Enter Laughing at the Long Beach Playhouse, directed by Glendele Way-Agle. After 5 nerve racking hours of callbacks, I survived all 4 cuts and landed the role. The cast was announced in the theater lobby and my friend Brandon squeezed me tight when we saw his headshot on the bottom of the pile smiling at us. In a room full of talented actors I was thankful to have him there. We haven't attended the same audition in over a year, but we seem to bring each other luck. I breathed a sigh of relief when my name was called. I hardly get nervous anymore, but I have to admit my stomach was in knots fo rhte last half hour. It is a gratifying feeling the first time I hold the script in my hand, knowing that the risks I took were validated. Our first read-through is Monday! I am excited to begin Wanda's journey