Obviously, now that rehearsing is done, I now have nothing to do with my days. I took a nap today. After waking up at 12 pm.
Anyway, let's not talk about how much Julie sucks. Let us instead respond to the queries posited by Miz Wiz in her comment on my posting before the one yesterday.
1) You are that social! I mean, you'll need some serious downtime after your turkey feast, but you will play a lovely hostess, I'm sure of it. Plus, remember, people always want to help. I really believe that. They want to be as useful and kind and supportive to someone who's been so nice as to invite them, so you won't be working with a harsh crowd, at the least, haha. And major kudos for, like, renting a table and stuff! You are so grown up.
2) No more auditions. Rehearsals have kept me busy and, oh yeah, I don't really know how to do that. When Linda, with whom I'm staying, came to see the play opening night and afterwards I was introducing her around, Barbara Krajkowski, the artistic director of the theatre - and mother to TV actress and comedienne Jane Krakowski - was saying really nice things to Linda about me. Ugh, that's a horrible sentence. Like, she didn't think I should be leaving the New York area, and that I should try and audition for David Mamet's theatre because I can do his style, and that she was going to try to get me in touch with Jane's agent... And of course that last one got my attention. She hasn't said anything else about that, but if she doesn't, I'm going to go ahead and bring it up this next weekend, to see if there's really anything there. You have to be pushy in this business, really you do. But also, I asked Glossman what I should do, and he said that people really don't say nice things unless they mean them; otherwise it's just asking for someone to come bug you. So that made me a bit optimistic. But really, I think I do need to go home after this. Living out of a suitcase is hard, and even though it'll still kind of be the same in Minneapolis, ugh, I don't know. I just need to regroup from there, and do the applications for the grad schools and maybe audition out there. But still not lose any contacts here. Somehow.
3) Dad's doing much better. No more complications after that one big one. The staples came out on Tuesday, but he's still wearing the body wrap/girdle thing till about the 17th, maybe? He's lost maybe about 10 pounds from the whole ordeal, and is keeping it off. When I talked to them on the phone this evening he said that when he first got home from the hospital he actually weighed more than when he went in from water retention, but also, he hadn't eaten for like a week, so when the water went away, more pounds fell off too. He has had a tickle in his throat and kind of persistent cough, which is no good when the stomach is trying to heal, but he's going to go see the doctor about it tomorrow. He wonders if it's maybe from taking the iron pills - they're really hard on your stomach, so maybe there's some sort of acid reflux happening - to help build up his hemoglobins again; he's going to ask when he can stop taking them. But yep, they're fine now! Neighbors across the street invited them over for Thanksgiving dinner, so that'll be fun; mom said there's going be ten adults there - quite a partay.
OK, this post is just FULL of poor grammar and ugly sentences and YUCKINESS, so I'm going to stop it now. Maybe that nap today made me dumber. Hm, no, not possible really. But I think the information necessary has been conveyed, if just not prettily. I'll try harder next time.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Some bad news for Emily
My dear, I don't know if you've heard (you do live in the future, of course), but Pushing Daisies has been cancelled. Very sad. It wasn't my personal absolute favorite, but it is much better than most other shows out there, AND it has been giving theatre people work, so it's all very sad. :(
In other television news, the new season of Top Chef has started! And there's a girl on it named Jill from Red Maple in Baltimore! Unfortunately, she got kicked off last week, only the second of the season. She made an ostrich egg quiche thing and, like one of the people who ate it said, it really did look like dog food. So bummer on that; she was quite pretty though, so that's a plus. There's another person on it with a weird name - Ariane? maybe? - who has a restaurant in Montclair, so I feel a slight connection to her as well. But she's been in the bottom two the two episodes of the season, so, you know, I pick 'em well, haha.
Going to try to force myself to work on grad school stuff today. Like, try to get all my ducks in a row at least. I have to figure out what everyone wants, because they all want pretty much the same thing, but there are tiny infuriating differences and, yeah. These are my picks: Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium, Harvard/American Rep Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre School, NYU, and, of course, Yale. I know I'm setting myself up for failure, I really do, but Mitch is only applying to Julliard and Yale, so we'll go in with super-high expectations together.
Oh god. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO FOR MONOLOGUES?!?! I need like, at least four. Shiiit.
And then, when I don't get in, what to do then? Go out and audition while working a job at Starbucks? Ugh, real world, you suck. I miss college so much, haha. Except all the work associated with it. But the knowing what you're doing and what's expected of you and how you go about doing what you have to do, yeah, I miss that.
Hm, this post turned into badness for Julie as well. It's OK though! Not overwhelmed really, just mildly.
PS. Cute hair, Emily! I saw your facebook picture. How did you get it to be curly? And the cut is very nice.
In other television news, the new season of Top Chef has started! And there's a girl on it named Jill from Red Maple in Baltimore! Unfortunately, she got kicked off last week, only the second of the season. She made an ostrich egg quiche thing and, like one of the people who ate it said, it really did look like dog food. So bummer on that; she was quite pretty though, so that's a plus. There's another person on it with a weird name - Ariane? maybe? - who has a restaurant in Montclair, so I feel a slight connection to her as well. But she's been in the bottom two the two episodes of the season, so, you know, I pick 'em well, haha.
Going to try to force myself to work on grad school stuff today. Like, try to get all my ducks in a row at least. I have to figure out what everyone wants, because they all want pretty much the same thing, but there are tiny infuriating differences and, yeah. These are my picks: Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium, Harvard/American Rep Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre School, NYU, and, of course, Yale. I know I'm setting myself up for failure, I really do, but Mitch is only applying to Julliard and Yale, so we'll go in with super-high expectations together.
Oh god. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO FOR MONOLOGUES?!?! I need like, at least four. Shiiit.
And then, when I don't get in, what to do then? Go out and audition while working a job at Starbucks? Ugh, real world, you suck. I miss college so much, haha. Except all the work associated with it. But the knowing what you're doing and what's expected of you and how you go about doing what you have to do, yeah, I miss that.
Hm, this post turned into badness for Julie as well. It's OK though! Not overwhelmed really, just mildly.
PS. Cute hair, Emily! I saw your facebook picture. How did you get it to be curly? And the cut is very nice.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Oh this past week has been busy.
Learning lines in two weeks is not a fun task. Especially when you put them off to the last week. We're in tech now - well, starting tonight at 7, to be precise - and I'm at the point where I can get through it AND I'm getting most of my last lines right to correctly cue other people, but I'm not word perfect and it's definitely not all muscle memory yet. Hopefully it will continue improving by the invited dress on Thursday.
So, yes, I am in this play called Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck. It premiered on Broadway in 2007 to pretty good acclaim - one of the actors was nominated for a Tony. Rebeck is a TV writer among other things, for shows like Law & Order and NYPD Blue, so she kind of writes like that, and kind of like David Mamet too. I feel this play is similiar to American Buffalo just about rare stamps; and not written by a mysogynist prick. No offense, David! Discover me and put me in your plays and mold me into a whatever-you-want-me-to-be so your lines are said only as you want them. Also, I saw a TV commercial Saturday night advertising a revival of American Buffalo - one cool thing about living so close to the city - and it features John Leguizamo, Haley Joel whatever from The Sixth Sense and Cedric the Entertainer. So there's that.
The play is OK. No, the play is great. I love it more everytime I reread it to study the lines. I like the part I'm playing, Jackie. She's damaged and rough and tumble and vulnerable and smart. And she gets her way. Julie, however, not so much. I've never been in a position when I'm in such huge disagreement about how the play, specifically one part, is supposed to be played. Dennis, who's the conman who Jackie meets and though he's helping her sell her stamps, he's also trying to buy them for way less than they're really worth, but in the very end, he really does turn out to be a trustworthy guy. But the guy playing him.. firstly, I have some personal issues with him. He's a creepy old man. There, I said it. He can really skeeve me out at times. But then, on stage, he's playing it just so.. there's nothing for her to trust! I know this guy is a conman - but that's exactly what he's playing. He's not, you know, a good guy doing bad things. He's a cartoon of someone taking advantage of those around him. A stereotype and a facade AND ok. The director wants there to be romance between him and Jackie. Which the subtext is there for, I defintitely agree with that. They are certainly interested in each other, even if it's not strictly romantic. But I'm finding it impossible to do that, to fall for this guy who I can see is playing me. And I'm the only person thinking this way, and when I try to tell the director - I have tried to tell her - you know, it's not relevant really. It's her show, her vision, and I guess I just have to do what she says. But it's very hard for me to react TRULY to the acting he's doing. And that's what I want to be able to do, to behave truly.
Also, there's a speech near the end of the play that's very vague; the whole writing style is quite this way, but this speech in particular, I was just not sure what it meant. So I asked, during rehearsal. And it was almost like, "what? You need to know exactly what the words mean?" Then later, when I mentioned I was an English major, the director said, "oh, well then that makes sense why the words are so important to you." Um, hello, of course the words are important? What else is there? Terribly sorry to want to base a performance off what the writer of the play put down on paper for those performing her play. WHAT?!?!?!
So this is only three weekends. Then it'll be done and I can move on. Though it makes me think of something Mitch said recently. He volunteer stage-managed for this showcase in Cleveland this past week/weekend and was telling me about some things that didn't go wonderfully, and then brought up the fact that, you know, for something I want to be a career, I hope just once, maybe once, I could really enjoy working on something. That makes so much sense to me - especially in this case. Really, why do I love it so much when the rehearsal process is pretty much always - and especially this time - such a fucking drag? I don't know. Maybe we're both too sensitive. Maybe we both just whine too much. OR MAYBE OTHER PEOPLE ARE MAINLY IDIOTS.
So, yes, I am in this play called Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck. It premiered on Broadway in 2007 to pretty good acclaim - one of the actors was nominated for a Tony. Rebeck is a TV writer among other things, for shows like Law & Order and NYPD Blue, so she kind of writes like that, and kind of like David Mamet too. I feel this play is similiar to American Buffalo just about rare stamps; and not written by a mysogynist prick. No offense, David! Discover me and put me in your plays and mold me into a whatever-you-want-me-to-be so your lines are said only as you want them. Also, I saw a TV commercial Saturday night advertising a revival of American Buffalo - one cool thing about living so close to the city - and it features John Leguizamo, Haley Joel whatever from The Sixth Sense and Cedric the Entertainer. So there's that.
The play is OK. No, the play is great. I love it more everytime I reread it to study the lines. I like the part I'm playing, Jackie. She's damaged and rough and tumble and vulnerable and smart. And she gets her way. Julie, however, not so much. I've never been in a position when I'm in such huge disagreement about how the play, specifically one part, is supposed to be played. Dennis, who's the conman who Jackie meets and though he's helping her sell her stamps, he's also trying to buy them for way less than they're really worth, but in the very end, he really does turn out to be a trustworthy guy. But the guy playing him.. firstly, I have some personal issues with him. He's a creepy old man. There, I said it. He can really skeeve me out at times. But then, on stage, he's playing it just so.. there's nothing for her to trust! I know this guy is a conman - but that's exactly what he's playing. He's not, you know, a good guy doing bad things. He's a cartoon of someone taking advantage of those around him. A stereotype and a facade AND ok. The director wants there to be romance between him and Jackie. Which the subtext is there for, I defintitely agree with that. They are certainly interested in each other, even if it's not strictly romantic. But I'm finding it impossible to do that, to fall for this guy who I can see is playing me. And I'm the only person thinking this way, and when I try to tell the director - I have tried to tell her - you know, it's not relevant really. It's her show, her vision, and I guess I just have to do what she says. But it's very hard for me to react TRULY to the acting he's doing. And that's what I want to be able to do, to behave truly.
Also, there's a speech near the end of the play that's very vague; the whole writing style is quite this way, but this speech in particular, I was just not sure what it meant. So I asked, during rehearsal. And it was almost like, "what? You need to know exactly what the words mean?" Then later, when I mentioned I was an English major, the director said, "oh, well then that makes sense why the words are so important to you." Um, hello, of course the words are important? What else is there? Terribly sorry to want to base a performance off what the writer of the play put down on paper for those performing her play. WHAT?!?!?!
So this is only three weekends. Then it'll be done and I can move on. Though it makes me think of something Mitch said recently. He volunteer stage-managed for this showcase in Cleveland this past week/weekend and was telling me about some things that didn't go wonderfully, and then brought up the fact that, you know, for something I want to be a career, I hope just once, maybe once, I could really enjoy working on something. That makes so much sense to me - especially in this case. Really, why do I love it so much when the rehearsal process is pretty much always - and especially this time - such a fucking drag? I don't know. Maybe we're both too sensitive. Maybe we both just whine too much. OR MAYBE OTHER PEOPLE ARE MAINLY IDIOTS.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The best thing about online diaries is playing with the layouts.
Whenever I've had a blog - I believe I've had both a live AND dead journal, as well as a xanga - I've almost always spent more time messing with how it looks than writing in it. At least at the beginning. Imagine if I knew how to, like, format it even beyond the offered templates; I'd never write anything. And I'd have a high-paying job as a web designer.
Besides that, I've got The Daily Show on and Paul Rudd's the guest and they just showed a really funny clip from his new movie Role Models. His character orders a "large black coffee" and the Starbucks girl asks "you mean a venti, don't you?" and he says "no, venti is 20. Large is large. Grande is large in Spanish. Venti is 20 in Italian; it's the only one that doesn't work. So, congratulations, you're stupid in three languages." Or something like that, but FUNNIER. I might need to see this movie. And the interview is good.
OK, the real point of this post: a life update of Julie's life! This update is both a bad and good thing. It started out as an "eh" thing. My dad had surgery to remove two hernias on Monday, the 3rd. One was from the surgery he had over two years ago when he had diverticulitis, and the other just a normal hernia that people get sometimes. So, of course going under the knife is never great, but he also had surgery to remove his gallbladder (gall stones) earlier this fall which went fine, so I guess I've gotten used to it? Though not too used to it. For that one it was completely outpatient - surgery early in the morning, bit of recovery time after, and out in the evening of the same day. This was supposed to be the same, but didn't go as smoothly; instead of one hernia where the previous incision was, there were two quite large ones - so large they couldn't take them out using laproscopy, they had to open him up and do it the old fashioned way. The third one was always large, but could come out with just the small holes of laproscopy. It took about five hours instead of two-ish. And they decided to keep him overnight.
Then, early the next morning, he woke up very sweaty and when he got up to go to the bathroom, he couldn't breathe. So mom said like, 15 doctors were suddenly all around and ordering tests and the tests were getting done super fast and I'm sure it was just like House. They did a cat scan and found that apparently during the surgery some blood vessels had been nicked and so he had "a wine bottle full of blood" in his abdomen, pressing up against his lungs and other organs and raising his heart rate. So back into surgery! It went fine - well, so far so good at least. Let me tell you, oh the American came out in me when I heard about it; can't we sue someone? Like, that doctor? But mom said the doctor was very apologetic and well, it's fixed now.
So when I'd first heard that the first one didn't go super-well, I really wanted to go home. To see dad, to take a bit of the caretaking stress off mom; just really to be there. And then Wednesday, when they both called after the "emergency" surgery, I really did. So, I am! I went online to look for tickets; prices were kind of OK, but the times weren't working out. I've got rehearsal on Saturday till 3:30, and I need to be back for rehearsal in the early afternoon on Tuesday. We ended up using some of dad's frequent flier miles. And I knew dad was feeling better because he totally fixed it, you know? I called and said I wasn't sure it was going to work out, and he got on the phone to NorthWest to find out about the miles and then called me back and walked me through booking it on my computer using his info and yeah, it's just very much him.
I just talked to mom tonight - she sounded tired - and said he was doing OK today. Not 100%, but OK. He had a bit of fever today, but they gave him two more blood transfusions, so I'm sure that helped - though not with the fever, but, you know, more generally. But he hasn't been sleeping well so they're giving him something for that tonight. But I get to see them on Saturday night! Dad's supposed to get out of the hospital Saturday, and we'll see. I definitely hope he does, then we can all just be at home together, but if he still needs to be in the hospital, obviously that's what will happen.
OK. I have to pee. Signing off. More later (perhaps more about me, not only the family extended)!
Besides that, I've got The Daily Show on and Paul Rudd's the guest and they just showed a really funny clip from his new movie Role Models. His character orders a "large black coffee" and the Starbucks girl asks "you mean a venti, don't you?" and he says "no, venti is 20. Large is large. Grande is large in Spanish. Venti is 20 in Italian; it's the only one that doesn't work. So, congratulations, you're stupid in three languages." Or something like that, but FUNNIER. I might need to see this movie. And the interview is good.
OK, the real point of this post: a life update of Julie's life! This update is both a bad and good thing. It started out as an "eh" thing. My dad had surgery to remove two hernias on Monday, the 3rd. One was from the surgery he had over two years ago when he had diverticulitis, and the other just a normal hernia that people get sometimes. So, of course going under the knife is never great, but he also had surgery to remove his gallbladder (gall stones) earlier this fall which went fine, so I guess I've gotten used to it? Though not too used to it. For that one it was completely outpatient - surgery early in the morning, bit of recovery time after, and out in the evening of the same day. This was supposed to be the same, but didn't go as smoothly; instead of one hernia where the previous incision was, there were two quite large ones - so large they couldn't take them out using laproscopy, they had to open him up and do it the old fashioned way. The third one was always large, but could come out with just the small holes of laproscopy. It took about five hours instead of two-ish. And they decided to keep him overnight.
Then, early the next morning, he woke up very sweaty and when he got up to go to the bathroom, he couldn't breathe. So mom said like, 15 doctors were suddenly all around and ordering tests and the tests were getting done super fast and I'm sure it was just like House. They did a cat scan and found that apparently during the surgery some blood vessels had been nicked and so he had "a wine bottle full of blood" in his abdomen, pressing up against his lungs and other organs and raising his heart rate. So back into surgery! It went fine - well, so far so good at least. Let me tell you, oh the American came out in me when I heard about it; can't we sue someone? Like, that doctor? But mom said the doctor was very apologetic and well, it's fixed now.
So when I'd first heard that the first one didn't go super-well, I really wanted to go home. To see dad, to take a bit of the caretaking stress off mom; just really to be there. And then Wednesday, when they both called after the "emergency" surgery, I really did. So, I am! I went online to look for tickets; prices were kind of OK, but the times weren't working out. I've got rehearsal on Saturday till 3:30, and I need to be back for rehearsal in the early afternoon on Tuesday. We ended up using some of dad's frequent flier miles. And I knew dad was feeling better because he totally fixed it, you know? I called and said I wasn't sure it was going to work out, and he got on the phone to NorthWest to find out about the miles and then called me back and walked me through booking it on my computer using his info and yeah, it's just very much him.
I just talked to mom tonight - she sounded tired - and said he was doing OK today. Not 100%, but OK. He had a bit of fever today, but they gave him two more blood transfusions, so I'm sure that helped - though not with the fever, but, you know, more generally. But he hasn't been sleeping well so they're giving him something for that tonight. But I get to see them on Saturday night! Dad's supposed to get out of the hospital Saturday, and we'll see. I definitely hope he does, then we can all just be at home together, but if he still needs to be in the hospital, obviously that's what will happen.
OK. I have to pee. Signing off. More later (perhaps more about me, not only the family extended)!
Hello, Miz Wiz
Alright, why would anyone write a blog post in Webdings? There are people out there I just will never understand. This is my blog. It's for my best friend who currently lives on another continent. This is the most for an update I can do right now because I really do actually need to do some work. Gotta earn that $100 a week! But I'll be back sooner rather than later with actual life updates, and to play around with my new virtual toy.
Ciao ciao!
Ciao ciao!
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