of Zombies and Fanny Packs

It was another amusing week of bus rides, rehearsals and work place happenings. I hope I'm not giving off the impression that there's always something interesting happening in my every day life, because there aren't...BUT, there is always something worth writing about every week.

Rehearsals are going well, we're fast approaching opening night and I'm anxious to expose the Chulla Chaqui to unsuspecting audience members! And no, that's not an innuendo for something else. The other characters are coming along well too; I really enjoy watching everyone develop their characters.

Today as I was sitting at work with my fellow box office staff, a HORDE of ZOMBIES appeared (almost without any noticeable early warning) from out of the blue! They lumbered, trudged, and dragged their bloody, mutilated, moaning and groaning selves across the Paseo. Wow...where did they come from? Where are they going? Better yet, where do I sign up to do that next time?! Of course, to break from the 'reality' of their moment, a few of them looked fine! Fine as in, they didn't have a limp. Sure they were bloodied, but they showed no indication of pain, anguish, or even decay! It was surreal because from inside the box office, looking out, you could either imagine you were watching this on television OR that they were coming to claw our eyes out and feast on your BRAINSSSSS!

A WEEK IN PUBLIC TRANSPORATION

1. I broke the string that attaches to the "STOP REQUESTED" device. Whoops, I guess I don't know my own strength?
2. Heh, this one was amusing--imagine this: tall, grizzly looking, hat wearing-fanny packing-steel toeing shoeing Caucasian male steps onto the bus and makes his way to the seat directly in front of me. He starts chatting it up to this Asian fella opposite of him. Wow, he starts going on about how plastic comes from oil, and oil is from Iraq! He then proceeds to tell the Asian fella that there are little black boxes inside the bus that record everyone's stops and that it helps the government enlist younger people into the Army.

HOLY COW!

(#2 cont.) By this time, Mr. Asian guy is sweating bullets and looking for any way to escape this one-sided conversation. (I'm watching this as it unfolds) A few stops later, another "interesting" character hops on the bus and IMMEDIATELY starts to conversate with Mr. Fanny Packing Fella. Imagine, come on try, two cars heading in the same direction on a collision course...except, instead of hitting each other, they both hit brick walls only yards apart. That's how it felt. Both of them "chitchatyammered" it up, yet their conversations had nothing to do with each other! I glance over at Mr. Asian Fella and there's this look of relief on his face for the brief reprieve. Soon, Mr. Fanny Pack and Other fella were out of the bus, leaving Mr. Asian Fella to digest the ear-raping he just received.

Now THAT was worth the bus ride. Who needs a car when you can ride the bus and come home with pages worth of interesting, vibrant characters?

Beep, beep!

The case for space...

...rehearsal space that is. A few of my rehearsals for Pandemonium were moved to the actual space we will be using for the show. It was a bag of mixed emotions. At first it was excitement. Then I spent an entire rehearsal a bit lost. Then it at the next rehearsal I was more comfortable. At the last rehearsal, it felt as if I had full reign of space and boy, everything seemed more organic. I enjoyed watching (the parts I did manage to see) my cast mates reaction as they follow my character deep into the forest.

Nathan, who is playing the lead character, Epimetheus, seemed to enjoy all the physical behaviors associated with the scene. And hey, whatever I can do to make it easier for my cast mates to perform at max potential, I'll explore it. I'm slightly miffed that the rehearsal scheduled on friday will NOT be at the theatre but rather, at the old dance studio which doubled as the space we used for the original auditions.

Hopefully the energy will remain the same, despite the space being a load of blah. I suppose I could always rebuild the stage in my mind and work it out that way. On a separate note, I've resumed work on the first screenplay I've decided to write. I lost interest in it a while ago, and it was probably because the characters didn't grab me in the gonads, but I'm planning on re-writing one of the main characters and actually starting an outline of the story.

If you're interested in reading what I've written so far, leave me your e-mail address and I'll be sure to shoot it over.

Frisky Business

What an amusing week! In addition to my usual banter on blogger, I'm going to add "A week in Public Transportation" and it will include waiting for the bus/train, the actual rides and things that have stood out, and of course all the interesting characters that seem to make every morning, afternoon and evening trip more colorful.

1. I was FRISKED for weapons while I was waiting for the bus a few days ago. Apparently someone held up a furniture store two blocks from where I lived and I somehow fit the description. HOW AMUSING! I'm dressed in mostly black, with a hoodie on and my hands were dug deep into my pockets. A solid black patrol car, sans sirens, pulls up and asks me directly, "Do you have any weapons on you? Anything, a screwdriver? Can you please put your hands behind your back?" Oh man, oh man, IT WAS GREAT! I was so compliant, not because of fear, but because, heck this is amusing me. It was two detectives, and halfway through the driver-detective chuckled and admitted that I'm probably not the one. Well, gee, what if I was? There WAS a trash can nearby, I could've tossed said weapon, but yeah...I didn't say that out loud though. They drove off soon after, and not five minutes later my bus arrived. I ESCAPED WITH THE MONIES! I'm kidding...or am I?
2. There was a fella the other day who kept pacing back and forth in the bus playing his harmonica. A woman nearby chatted loudly in language I was not familiar with, and every time he passed her by, he'd play his harmonica louder! Hehe, I chuckled every time.
3. This evening, on the way home from an audition--four lesbian couples boarded the bus from Santana Row. How...interesting. Not every day does this type of thing occur. I mean, noisy riders, stinky people, hacking & coughing groups--sure, they're almost common place. But...a herd? pack? What do you call a group of people traveling together, anyway? I was the only other person in the bus, save for the driver. I caught some of their eyes and we respectfully smiled at each other. Cool. I live to fight another day.

As I mentioned in item #3, I had an audition. It was fantastic! The audition was for the Heritage Community Theatre in Campbell. They are currently looking to build a company of actors to pool from. How exciting! It went well, I felt. In fact, I was ecstatic the entire time. The casting directors were quick to put me at ease, and establish a very warm line of communication. I'm eager to see where this will lead. I performed two contrasting monologues and felt that I did my very best, and they were quite receptive.

What a wonderful Friday! I have two other auditions I'm looking forward to. One is with Northside Theatre Company and the other one is the much anticipated Kaiser Permanente Performer's program. Tally ho!

Le Sigh

The photo project I was contacted to be a part of for over a month now wrote to me today. They regret to inform me that they have decided to go another direction. I'm completely bummed. I was looking forward to this project for over a month. I think that's what I'm having difficulty coping with: The fact that they contacted me over a month ago and said, it was a green light project. Then to push the shoot dates back, only now to mention that, they've gone a different direction...ugh.

Well...I guess that's a lesson learned the hard way. No hard feelings, in fact, I hope at some point I can work with the Agency who contacted me. Good luck to them. Onwards now, onwards.

[The project was for a facility maintenance company's marketing campaign which entailed flyers, posters, a website and other marketing paraphernalia]

Of rehearsals and gigs

Rehearsals for Pandemonium are rolling along well. I'm off-book about two weeks ahead of schedule so I'm feeling OK with everything. Everyone seems to be doing really well also, I'm excited to see this show when it's ready to go. In my scene in particular, I tossed and turned for a few nights trying to make sense of the blocking. My scene takes place in the Peruvian Rainforest and my character is very physical. The character's name is Chullachaqui What bothered me the most initially was the blocking. It's not that I couldn't get it right, it's that I felt awkward doing it the way I was.

The position didn't seem right, the angle, everything. Today, instead of having rehearsals at the dance studio, we were able to use the actual stage the play will be presented! Wow, if ever there was a moment of clarity, this would be it. I took one look at it and knew a few modifications to the blocking and I would feel much more comfortable on stage. And lo' and behold, when time came for my scene--it was spot on. It's a shame I won't be seeing that space for another few weeks, unless of course, we get lucky again. *crosses fingers*

I had a paid gig the other day. It was for a student production at San Jose State University. The entire production was based on television shows and the director (her name is Kelly) who cast me initially planned on a movie review show but changed it at the last minute to a Outdoor Hiking show. Prior to actually shooting it, we went out and discussed the dialogue and I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to, without hesitation, answer these outdoor survival related questions. THANK YOU DISCOVERY CHANNEL! The character I played was Ken Matsumura, Forest Ranger/Survival Expert who is on the show to promote his book. It was a fun gig!

I've sent out for a few auditions, hopefully I can keep these gigs rolling in. NAP TIME!

I was choked and had my butt kicked!

Well this will be a short one since I'm recovering from choking during an audition and getting my acting butt kicked! Lol--what, you didn't think I was actually choked and beat up, did you? Awww--you did! Well I appreciate the sentiment. Really I do! In reality, I auditioned at SJREP (Yeah, my place of work!) and unfortunately I fell short.

When I got back to my desk to resume the daily work, I mentally reassessed what happened. I wasn't prepared! Yes, I know...I can see some of you trying to hand me your copy of Stanislavski's "An Actor Prepares". I'll generously wave that down, as I have a copy of it myself. I planned on going tomorrow but instead I was convince by the lovely equity audition moderator to go ahead and swing in today. In retrospect, I should have waited.

I was 3/4 through my monologue when suddenly...BLANK--my throat felt constricted, my palms started to sweat up (believe it or not, I was pretty calm walking in there) and the hairs on my back stood on ends. How could this be?! I've recited/experienced this monologue many times over the past few weeks. Then I realized the key ingredient. This was the FIRST time I've ever performed it to anyone. Oi vey.

If I feel I absolutely must dwell on a poor performance at an audition, I'm in the habit of only allowing myself five to ten minutes, tops. In this case, it rested on my head, chest, abdomen, thighs--gah, everywhere, for a solid two hours. The fact that I work here and that I see and hold conversations with Bruce, our casting director must have confused the butterflies in my stomach to, instead of perform aerial ballet, kamakazi into my stomach lining. It felt weird! To say the least.

The two hours are up, it's time to move on and knock another down for experience, even if it was a smidgen bit embarrassing.

Oh man, it's March already!

I missed Cinequest entirely last year and that was probably because I wasn't feeling like I was in the right place, physically and mentally. This year, however, I've treated myself to indulging in all sorts of short and feature films and an incredibly touching and tear jerking documentary called, "Dear Zachery". But I'm getting ahead of myself. I plan on blogging my Cinequest experience at a later time when the entire event wraps up.

In the meantime, rehearsals for Pandemonium is creeping up and I'm excited in every way! It gets lonely and boring coming home from work and even though I'm quite passionate about the work I do at the Rep (Box Office Customer Service), I'm aching to be part of something closer the stage (or around a camera). The San Jose Repertory Theatre general auditions are coming up so preparing for that specifically will take up some of my time quite nicely.

There's not much to report outside of theatre life except that I am the proud owner of a small tub of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia icecream. I'm sure somewhere out there is another person with an identical tub of the same flavor BUT I can guarantee you that I'll have cherry and chocolate chips in different locations from theirs. Thus, mine is unique. And in the same sense, so is theirs. Oh no! I'm...I'm.....AHHHHH!!! Must....have....cherr....gar.....cream!