Things are winding down...

Tonight is closing night of Kiss Me Kate. Two more performances of Sound of Music on Saturday and Sunday. I sent home three boxes with my friends who were in town this week, and have begun filling all my free time with "lasts" with cast mates. Last night was the last Project Runway/Shear Genius post-show with the Captain, today is the Last Sewing Day with my Liesl, tomorrow morning we strike the Kiss Me Kate stage, then my Last Hair date with Sugar (my understudy for Sound of Music, and the lead of the third show). Last two shows, Last company picnic (technically only the second of those, but last goes with the theme), then leaving town either after the picnic, or the next morning. Many of my favorite castmates have to miss the picnic to head back to schools and performance programs that have already started, so it'll be a bit of a letdown. Two other people I spend time with (The Captain and Franz) will be in rehearsals all day starting Monday, and I won't be able to see them anyway before I leave. I may have already had my Last Waitressing, but may also get to work Labor Day. We'll see.

I'm excited to head back to Seattle. I have my next few day gigs lined up, and a callback scheduled already. I have two more shows I'm trying to get auditions for for the fall, and the feeling I'm getting here is that people don't expect to see me back next year, because I'll be on to "better things" whatever those may be. Frankly, I'd be glad to come back to get a few more showy roles under my belt, and to play Maria to my Captain from this year, with this years director, if both come back. But March is a long way away...

Lots of nostalgia about leaving people I've grown to care about, and a role I love.

Plus the weather is overcast, which always makes me a bit weepy when I haven't had enough sleep. (4 hours last night, thanks to two hours of insomnia and birds singing early).

I'm looking forward to the next few months, feeling a lot more confident about being "marketable" in future auditions, and having a newly updated resume and photos on the Puget Sound Actor's site, which makes me look a lot cooler to people I'm sending my resumes to for auditions.

Professional Goals for the next few months: Color headshots, dance lessons, and monologue work. Monetary goals: paying off my credit card again, and paying off people who loaned me money to get started this year. Personal goals: not having to work quite so hard, and getting to enjoy the process more now that I'm a bit "established."

See you next in Seattle.

Singin' in the Rain

Another rainy night. Not a downpour like the understudy run, or a quick shower like a few weeks back, but a steady drizzle for most of the second act. The paths were quite slippery, but no one fell onstage.

A few unexpected sound effects. Someone did a "Lollypop" sound effect over our first kiss, which caused lots of laughter and rather ruined our moment. Then, a plane flew over during Edleweiss. As I walked down the isle I heard a woman tell someone how short I am - which I'm surprised is the first I've heard of it during this show. Normally I get variations on, "how does such a big voice come out of such a little girl."

The Captain and I discovered that we switch audience feedback by trading places in the receiving line. He gets more "you've got a beautiful voice" and I get more "and you were good, too." We tend to run a cycle of five or six comments apiece.

We had six buses tonight. We sang a quick reprise of Something Good, which made the bus happy. Another man asked the Captain if I enjoyed his kisses.

My hair changed colors yesterday. This town doesn't carry my color of Clairol, so I had to make 10 phone calls to my two directors to ok a one shade difference, decide which one shade difference it should be (lighte or darker), dye it, run by my main director's house to check the color, then check again tonight once my hairpiece was on to make sure it hadn't changed too much. Ahh, the theater.

The Hills are Alive

The Hills are...actually...Alive
One of the joys of live, outdoor theater (or theatre, if you want to be really snooty) is incorporating elements you can't control. Sometimes it's really neat - like firework noises opening night when the Nazis invaded. Sometimes it's not - like a train whistle in the middle of the love scene. Yesterday, though, as I wandered down the hillside singing, a bird flew across the horizon just about when I sing about birds, and then right behind me, in a tree, a black squirrel hopped around and chattered from a branch. Sunset also happened during the song, and behind me from the audience's point of view, fluffy pink clouds floated by overhead. Pretty nice effect.

I am one critter away from a Disney Princess, though.

The Captain and I at a soiree for the major donors.

Moving Backwards: Some cute pictures from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Lilli (Katherine) and Lois (Bianca) backstage at the Understudy Run of Kiss Me Kate.

Seven left of the Sound of Music, Six left of Kiss Me Kate. When you enjoy working with people, twenty shows isn't nearly enough time to spend with them. I'm really not wanting Sound of Music to end.

One cast of kids, realizing they were on their second to last run, brought out a camera and ran around for hours backstage flashing the thing in our faces. Very annoying. I keep bringing mine, but never have time to snap pictures anyway.

I've checked out four new books from the library; another Madeleine L'Engle, the new Lois Lowry, At the Back of the North Wind by George McDonald, and The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit. I thought, when I checked the last one out, that the name seemed familiar. She must be the precurser to every author I love to read. Her writing (mid 19th to early 20th century) must have influenced P.L. Travers, C.S. Lewis, and J.K. Rowlings. (I wikipedia'd this morning, and found that Lewis does quote Nesbit as a big influence on Narnia - especially The Magician's Nephew.) I've been reading quite a bit of adult fiction, but several books I didn't finish. I began a book by Simone de Beauvoir, thinking I'd like her, but I grew tired of the hopelessness of the heroine, and started feeling her emotions rub off on me, so I put it aside. I used to count it a mark of honor to always finish a book I'd started, but, too many books to read, too little time to finish one I'm not liking.

More backstage conversations - this time, "Which Hogwarts house would you be in?" Apparantly there's a quiz out there somewhere. I'd hope for Griffindor, or Ravenclaw. Most others hoped for Griffindor, too. The Captain landed in Slytherin. I've taken the "Which Harry Potter character are you most like?" quiz. Surprise, surprise, I always end up Hermione. Even when I lie, and change my answers.

Three days off from shows for me, but I work Monday and Tuesday. I'm spending today doing as little as possible before another week of shows, and another double header on Saturday. My quilt is assembled, and I'll be quilting to Book 7 on CD today.

We've hit the halfway point. I have so many stories, and so many backstage happenings, but one of the downsides of being in professional theater is a limit on what I can publish - including several hundred wonderful pictures which would constitute a copyright violation.

It's been a great run, sold out every nigh but opening, and standing ovations almost every performance, except the last one, where it was so cold by curtain call that people were too swaddled to stand. We didn't take it personally. It's amazing to think that this show will be the means of making about 10,000 people happy this summer. How neat is that?

The best part of a long-ish (date wise, not show-wise) run is the developments that occur as the show goes along. I was out for cookies with one of my Liesls, and she was talking about the new things she finds each show: new motivation, new inflections. She said it's great, especially since it's her second summer in the role. I've been trying to find new ways to say things, especially in the emotional scenes, and I tried to pep up "Confidence" one a good friend warned me that it looked a bit forced.

My second show has just opened, and I'm still finding myself backstage panicking because a cue has come and gone, realizing just in time that it's the cue not for my own character, but the one I'm understudying. I asked the other female understudy if she was having the same problem. She is. It's too bad it's so dark backstage. With all the free time I have as my glorified walk-on, I could be quilting.

I splurged with my first acting paycheck and bought batting, so my quilt I brought along as my summer project is laid out, safety pinned, and I'm listening to the 7th Harry Potter on CD while I work on it. We had our hot tub up and running for a couple of days, but today it's been drained again. I spent both nights out in it, especially after the frozen SOM night.

Four week and I'll be back in Seattle.

07/25/08 On the Record

ON Magazine

* Yakima native Rachel Kunze is the latest to play Maria, the singing, skirt-twirling nun in the Leavenworth Summer Theater's production of "The Sound of Music."

This is the Leavenworth Summer Theatre's 14th consecutive season of performing "The Sound of Music," and the company expects to welcome its 100,000th guest to the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic sometime this summer.

Many will remember Kunze from her stunning portrayal of Catherine in the Warehouse Theatre Company's 2005 production of David Auburn's Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play "Proof." Kunze's performance earned her a Warehouse Winnie Award for Best Actress of the 2005-06 season.

"Sound of Music" performances continue through Aug. 31.

LST Recently Overheard

Me: "And what will I do if you come to my show and don't stay and say hi?"

Kurt: "Something about you'll hunt me down and kill me."

Me: "That's right."



Kurt: "They're BACK!...I mean...I found him!"


Man to the Captain: "Does she enjoy your kisses?"

Captain: "Well, I think so..." (People really fixate on the kissing scenes)


Rolf: *gasp*...I have a fruit roll-up in my pants!"


Woman to the Captain: "You make a much better Captain than a dancer." (Especially funny since he danced professionally for ten years in Seattle)


As I walked down the isle: "My, she's VERY short isn't she?"


A German tourist: "Ach! The mother is shorter than the daughter!


Girl after show: "Are you two married in REAL life?"

Captain and Me: "No, just in the play."

Girl (to her mother): "Well, they kissed A LOT!"



Liesl: "We couldn't find all the kids and Joseph got caught in his Liederhosen."



Nazi: "I almost got hit by a cuckoo kid."



Briar: "You guys are only people because you've stopped being butts."


Friedrich: "And then we all say, 'Father!'"

Liesl: "But not in unison. 'Cause that sounds dumb."



John: "And then you'll go tearing up the hill with the children so you can do the final pose before the lights come one."

Captain: "Come on Gretl! Move faster!"

Me: "LEAVE THE SMALL ONES BEHIND!"