Happy Bloody St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was miserable. At work they had me scheduled for upstairs, which the bartenders quickly contested, because they don't usually have a waitress upstairs as there's no computer terminal for them to place orders. Then, after following my bosses around to try to find out what I was supposed to do, I was given a basket and told to circulate with sandwiches. After I got over the frustration of not knowing what I was supposed to do with myself, coupled with not having worked all weekend - so being out of the loop (my own fault - out of town audition), I became the "Little Sandwich Girl."

Well, I busted my butt, and sold so many that the kitchen had to start an assembly line to make more once we ran out, and all was going well...until someone stole my waiters notebook with all my big bills in it - $180 worth of cash - out of my apron pocket as I walked by. I spent the rest of the night selling like mad just trying to break even for the night. I came up $50 short even still. Everyone 'felt bad' for me, but I management's stance was 'well, that's why you have to be careful with your money.' So far now, in four weeks I've had to eat over $300 at this place, plus all the nights I came in and paid for bus or parking, only to get sent home an hour or two later, plus the nights I bussed those first two weeks and was never tipped out by anyone. I think, all in all, I may have broken even this month, but only barely.

Cinderella

I just was offered, and accepted, a position with Storybook Theater as an understudy for one of the Stepsisters in an original musical production of Cinderella. Pretty cool, huh? This show opens about a week and a half before Alice closes, and runs through the end of the school year. I'm guaranteed at least one day of multiple performances, but they said in the last show they actually used their understudies quite a bit. That gets me up to June something-eth with continuous theatrical employment since November.

Also this weekend is the Leavenworth Summer Theater audition.

Alice's Wonderland

Here's a cast photo of Holly and me in Alice's Wonderland this morning! We began rehearsals as the C-cast, but have rotated around so much now every body's worked with everybody else. I begin rehearsals this week to start playing "Everybody Else" as well - The White Rabbit, The Caterpillar, The Cheshire Cat, The Mad Hatter, and The Red Queen.

November Shoot

Just a few pictures of the crew from my shoot. We spent four days filming, which was absolutely great! I had so much fun, and worked so hard - often sewing on set, then going home to work until midnight or later finishing up the costumes for the next day's shoot.

The cast was amazing, our lead actress had such an emotional depth to draw from I was duly impressed. Our crew and directors were very professional, and worked very hard to make a really wonderful film, short, and under a deadline though it may be.

On the set, day one, with Roach, Natasha, Constance and Ben

With Ben and Eric final checking the extras.

Myself as Natasha's stand-in.

MLK- In His Own Words

Martin Luther King - In His Own Words Cast.

This is Me, Charles, and Andy, the touring team of three that went round to schools in the Puget sound during January, doing a 30 minute play about Martin Luther King's Life. It was a lot of fun, and as driver, I got to pick the music on the long car trips. Mostly, since it was very early, they slept. We always were surprised by the kids' questions at the end. Almost every time we got a kid ask "where was he shot?" followed by "no, where on his body?" when we answered with the locale. Then "what kind of bullet..." etc. We did get some good questions too, like, "will segregation ever come back again?" To which a teacher replied by asking the school, "I don't know -- will you ever let it come back again?"

The only part of the show I didn't like was my eyes giving out again, and having to wear my glasses. But then I found out that having an actress in front of the kids wearing glasses, made some kids feel better about having to wear them themselves. I grew reconciled after that. Well, almost.

Update

So, sorry for the long delays between posts. Many many things have been happening recently, most of which I either couldn't talk about, or didn't have time to.

One of them was work, which has been going badly for a long time, but of course blog-law says not to talk about it. Tomorrow is my last day, and I've just been gutting it out. These past couple have been sooooo hard -- I've started my new show, which is paid, last week I was nannying, also paid, started a new job - to cover this one, since I could see the handwriting on the wall for the current one, and starting production meetings for the movie I'm costuming this week. It has been insanely busy (following almost a solid month of inactivity, Teri, because of the pass closure, and all my money being tied up in moving), but getting less each week. Three weeks from now should be lovely.

I realized again today how much music can affect me. As I've spent the last few days forcing myself to not walk out - as I desperately want to, I've been listening to the "cool favorites" station at work. It's not a bad channel. In the evenings I can't stand it because the DELILAH show (gag!) is on, but during the day they play a lot of pleasant music. Somehow, when I think I can't last one more minute, the Cranberries song from You've Got Mail plays, or that Hawaiian "Over the Rainbow" (also in You've Got Mail), or something else fun, and for that three minutes life is ok again, and I'm not fuming over how much I loathe this job, and how much I have to do today that I'd rather be doing. But tomorrow is it.

I've had one week of Alice in Wonderland, and the shows have got well. The kids, as always in this genre, always give me a run for my money, and I never know what they'll say or do or laugh at. It's different every day. Thursday I had to do the show blind, as my eyes have completely wigged out again from using my contacts the first two shows. It's fun to prance around in a frilly blue dress and pinafore for a few hours a day, acting young and emphatic, and watching my fellow actress play the other six characters.

Life at the new job is so far slow, but doable. My manager and I need to have a talk though. She keeps putting me on the schedule when I'm not really needed just to "give me hours." I finally had to let her know yesterday that I have plenty of "just hours" elsewhere, what I need here is just a couple of nights or days good serving. The other three or four jobs (soon two or three) can take care of "hours" and I'd rather have the time right now. I'm going in tonight to waitress.

I'm costuming a film for the 168 project this week, which is very exciting, and I'm having a great time working out how to reproduce my designs, but since its for a competition, I can't discuss anything at all until the film is finished.

And now I'm off to nap. Last night there was great upheaval and crashing about in the middle of the night, which, as it turned out, was my roommate getting hauled off to the hospital by four EMTs. Very exciting stuff.

So much to do, so little time

So much going on, don't even have time to breathe, much less write. My life seems to go through phases of nothing, followed by phases of anything-that-can-be-packed-in. Right now, it's packed in. I've been slated to nanny this week, on top of barista-ing for a while now. Then I got into a show that has rehearsals this week before I open as Alice next monday. Then, realizing I was never going to make it financially on my hourly pay, filled out an application to waitress, got hired after the shortest interview ever, and started right away, which also happened this week. So. I go from one thing to the other, often changing clothes in my car at stoplights.

The TPS general audition was this week (read - cattlecall!). I did my two minutes in between Nanny-Field-Trip Day and 2nd-Day-of-New-Work. I think it went well. I did a monologue from Proof, and my song from The Music Man -- that one usually goes well for me.

I also had another interesting audition this week, for a childrens theater company. I almost didn't go - since I'm so busy now I don't know where I'd fit something in. But I'm finding with acting, you never really know what'll happen next, so best to be overbooked in the short term, with continuous employment in the long term, than have to do the auditioning round in a panic after your show ends. Other than finding myself very interested in their next season of shows, they also caught a typo in my resume that would have gotten me blacklisted in Seattle had I not changed it (The typo listed my current show as the "Children's Theater" not "Children's Museum" - two separate entities. That could have been BAAAAAD!

That's all I've got time for. Tomorrow is a three job day. Then, I hope, I'll have Saturday night off -- at least, I do so far.

The House of Coffee

It's an interesting cultural quirk of Seattle - it's love of coffee. In no other city could there be this many independent places, right next door to national chains, and holding their own. Because coffee is a pastime here. It is not uncommon to start the day with a latte, and have several more throughout the day. Some friends of mine buy mocha on their morning walk, then make a pot of coffee to carry to work with them.

My roommates and I, in a household where we have a designated toaster corner - where, when I brought in my toaster oven another had to make it's way to storage because the corner was crowded - have a coffee maker apiece. We have one krupps duo coffee/espresso maker, one coffee maker with two refillable cups attached, and one barista style espresso maker.

I would be snarky, but the duo is mine, which, when I left all of my other belongings behind in a storage unit, remembered to pack my coffeemaker.

Alice's Wonderland

Guess who just got cast as Alice in Alice's Wonderland at the Children's Museum?

Just one of her genetic gifts

It's just one of her genetic gifts

Juno is amazing. I bought the soundtrack today I like it so much. Of course I've always been a sucker for odd quality folk music. It's similar to the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, but more contemporary. The majority of the songs are by various members of the Mouldy Peaches.

I had an audition Monday and an audition this morning. The one this morning felt good, but they've still got to see a few people. I hear they'll let me know this weekend sometime. The other one, well, it's hard to say. I never know how to judge film auditions since I'm not sure what to do in one. I think I'm slowly figuring out the balance of showing emotion without getting theatrical, but I'm not there yet. My new book, Acting for the Camera, should help.

I spent today after my audition shlepping around downtown Seattle, refilling everyone's TPS Guide coffers. I had half a box left from the first round, so I went around to all the hotels and handed them out to Concierge. They were all pleased. It makes their lives easier. Then I went to Sephora and bought some Babecake, walked to Pike's Place and dropped off the last of them in the free stuff kiosks, and went to Ivars on the waterfront for fish, which I ate, and chips which I fed to the million seagulls that clustered around my head.

I was tired, by then, of walking round in 3" heels, so caught the free bus to the monorail and rode it back to the Space Needle. Then I went home in the driving rain. (Sidenote: Everyone I talk to in California starts every conversation with 'how's the weather?' I live in Seattle. It's February. Doesn't it go without saying?)

I spent the afternoon working on answering emails, ordering headshots, and working on more of my script I'm doing for practice -- or really -- to see if I can do one. It's not original. I'm just adapting, but it's fun so far.

I headed over to Miles and Becky's to steal their guitar and learn to play two songs from the Juno Soundtrack. One of the songs has two chords and one has three, so not too hard, but the strumming pattern is too difficult for me to sing along, and I don't know all of the words yet anyway.

Much to do for my last day off of the week tomorrow. But I got laundry done, so I won't have to spend the day in my bathrobe. Probably will anyway. It's comfy.