Exhausted

So we're in the throws of tech week. Today was our costume parade, and then first run through with them. My costumes were all wrong, so I made three trips to the loft to get various pieces, try them on, and then decide they weren't right either. This is the time where wearing multiple hats becomes difficult. We are supposed to strike the set tomorrow (we tear down at the end of every rehearsal week to practice for being on the road -- and because we rehearse in a church, and they want their fellowship room back), but Liz needs more time with the technical equipment, so we're doing a makeup test in the morning, at which point I'll go get the rest of the costume pieces that were negated today, and then a full run with costumes in the afternoon. Saturday morning we're striking, then doing a drive test to the coast. Sunday, after church we're free, but Monday begins a week of mock shows -- and our set up begins all week at 7am.

Needless to say we're all very tired. And today was our last day to call for lines, so after spending the last two hours doing last minute alterations, I've got to nail down some monologues...

Old Shadows

Angie: "I have a contact allergy to peanuts. Eating them, not too bad. Having peanut butter smeared all over my face by the youth leader? I broke out in hives."

Tasha: "Excuse me, lets have this conversation when somebody knows what you're talking about."

Julie: "Den Mother?"
Vicky: "That sounds funny. I think I'm thinking of Bears."
Julie: "Raarrrrr."

Jerry: "If I catch any of you lipsynching to my stories you're out of here."

Jerry: "The hitch fell off and the dinner trailer was rolling away."
Chris: "Now that's travelling dinner theater right there."

Angie: "Eating it gives me rashes on my knees anyway."

WDT Ice Breaker: "Hug me. Now sign this."

Jessica: "I don't know what Chris' first name is."

Jessica: "Don't worry Aaron, I'm not sitting next to you."

Mission Accomplished

So blocking is done. We finished Thursday. Since I am in every scene of the show, for three days straight, seven hours a day, I didn't get off the stage. My legs fell asleep a lot from kneeling. It's a big relief to have that done. We are supposed to be off book on Monday.

Friday morning I found out that I was supposed to perform for a drama workshop at the Northwest Missions Conference. It was supposed to be on a volunteer basis, but they decided that a scene from the show would be more effective than a sketch. So Vanessa and I spent Friday after teardown rehearsing for that.

It went well this morning. Tasha gave the same information we were presenting in that scene in lecture format. Then we did the scene, and the group talked about what information came across better, how much can be inferred from drama without actually giving the facts, etc. Then they broke into groups and improvised their own scenes.

After that was over, we opted to stay at the conference to hear Joanne Shetler speak in a formal setting (Friday morning she'd talked with us about our characters for three hours, and the night before we'd trapped her at the table with pronunciation questions). We had to sit through an hour worth of church before she got up to speak, which I found a bit odd. They took an offering and sang some songs and a woman in the corner danced (a little distracting) and finally Jo spoke. Her talk was great, as usual - we're already familiar with the story, but it's great to hear her actually saying the words that became my lines in the show. (We use some of the same gestures. That was heartening)

After that we went around to a few booths that looked interesting, and then went home. I worked on my lines this evening, and I've got everything fairly well memorized except for John 3:16 in Balangao, which became my lines on Thursday. Tomorrow I'm taking the afternoon off and catching up on my postcards, letters and emails. Every night this week has been spent in the script.

Achi metap-ar

Achi metap-ar - will not be thrown away.

My favorite story in the show isn't even in the script, though it's referred to.

One of the most difficult passages to translate was from John 3:16 "shall not perish." Doming and Jo threw many ideas around, such as "shall not pass away" (like floating down a river?), "shall not be swept down the river" (what if they need to go down the river, and the Bible told them not to), and "shall not expire" (Like lettuce? Like wilt?). Nothing ever seemed to fit.

Later, Jo was at home with her friend Tekla and her children. In a culture of headhunters, it wasn't strange for an exasperated parent to tell their children, "I'm going to kill you!" Jo didn't feel comfortable with that, so she told a child she was going to "throw you away!" In a culture where face to face confrontations weren't acceptable, Tekla turned on her and told her never to say that to a child.

Jo was mystified. Tekla explained that killing someone took purpose and intent. To throw something away meant that it was essentially meaningless and without value. Jo had finally found the right word.

"Creator-God so loved the people of the world he gave his only child, that whosoever believes/obeys him will not be thrown away, but live forever with him."

Lookie

Favorite Quote, "Look and see what I can still do."

Just Whelmed

Just Whelmed, Again

Today was all blocking, all day. My character almost never leaves stage, so this afternoon alone I was up there for five hours. I love what I do. I'm so tired!

Tomorrow we block the rest of Act II. We got all of Act one done today. Act two is shorter, but also has the crash scene with all the (eventual) blood and screaming and writhing.

And lines are supposed to be memorized by Monday.

HeBrews

WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee." The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee." Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee." Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me." So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says.......... "HEBREWS"
(In honor of our team, because it's a race to get coffee going in the mornings....)

And now we're all here

And today we finally started blocking the show! YAY!

I love the theatrical process. We still did improv - not my best skill. Although speaking of skills, my grandmother will be glad to learn I am now singing in the show. One verse from a hymn, but she was all up in arms about to call Wycliffe and demand I sing between acts. This should make her happy. Or perhaps give her more ideas (well, you're singing now -- they should have you do more!).

And I talked to my friend Mary tonight, who said I couldn't work on lines tonight until I did something fun first. So I'm blogging. I tried to go to Dairy Queen, but I've misplaced my ATM card (hopefully I didn't leave it at the kiosk last night) so no blizzards for me tonight.

Back to the grindstone!

New Quotes

I have about a zillion new quotes to put into the sidebar, but I left my notebook in my binder, and it's too stinking cold to run back and get it -- and too dangerous. Between here and Mocks there are random splotches of icelessness that come upon you unawares. So you're going along running like a drunk turkey trying to maintain speed, and all of a sudden you hit a dry patch.

It's not the ice that fouls up the system. It's the lack of it.

And P.S. Car covers are even harder to put on than take off coated in ice. Funny how heavy it gets.

Learning Lines

Today Portland was iced in. So most of us spent the morning at home watching musicals. I went out to get them from Blockbuster, but otherwise I didn't leave. Besides, I learned to drive in Washington, and experiences lovely mid-west ice storms at college. Getting my ice-encrusted car cover off took a long time. It was cold. The rest of Portland doesn't know what to do with it. I suspect it's rather like Seattle: An inch of snow sends them scurrying for chains. They hadn't sanded any of the backroads. There was gravel on the main one.

I worked on my lines tonight with Vicky. Knowing the show already has helped, although the new script revisions make it hard to remember when a line has changed tense, or been given to another character. It's coming along. Our last cast member comes in tomorrow, so we should start blocking, or at least do another read-through Monday.

Another thing I learned again today -- four cups of coffee on an empty stomach isn't a good idea.

The Dinner Theater is supposed to be presenting at a missions conference in a few weeks. We only found out about it a few days ago, and none of us know yet what exactly that will entail. Surprise!

My sister got a new job, which is very exciting considering how upset she's been about the old one.

And last night I got a chance to sing because everyone was out of the house. I need some voice lessons badly, but even worse I need real music. I was trying to remember songs I used to be able to accompany myself to, and they all ended up in the same key (The same one as Memory from Cats). I just resorted to drowning out my wrong chords, and since no one was listening, it didn't really matter.