LST Pictures

With Miles and Becky at Kiss Me Kate


Doing Erin's hair for Sugar

Wow...my dashboard says this is my 1502nd post. That's a lot of typing of nonsense. Thanks, all, for letting me stay in touch with you like this.

Last night was my Forbidden Broadway style gig. It was actually a lot of fun. And I remembered all of the parody lyrics on my solo number ("I'm in Love with a Man Named Dan Guy"). And, even better, we had about 2 1/2 hours off between the mike check and the performance, AND WE HAD A GREEN ROOM! So I got to sit and listen to stories from people who have been in the business a LOOONG time. I even got to share a few stories of my own. It was fun to hear the ups and downs, and encouraging to know that persistance can pay off. There was a funny outdoor theatre 'possum story, too.

Today I've paid some bills, and come out just about even. The nice thing about this time around in Seattle is, I'm able to make it (almost - I'm still behind on my sponsor kids) on just nannying and my shows, with a few corporate gigs and events thrown in. This is a far cry better than last year with eight part-time jobs and a few days a week of acting. I feel I'm making some, albeit slow, progress here. This is encouraging.

I'm trying to take two dance classes and a corset making class this fall, as well as doing some monologue coaching. I've been working for a while on finding some good audition monologues, and also reading as many plays as I can - so next year I won't elicit gasps from the serious theatre junkies in Leavenworth when I say I've never read, say, The Glass Menagerie. Which I have now. I read it last week. And yesterday I read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on the bus. So there. And Relative Values the day before. I think I need to read some farces, because modern theatre is very depressing. (At least the stuff I've been reading)

I have a few days off, and rehearsals start tuesday. I've got a script to memorize in the next few days, but that's about it for me this weekend!

So I was standing in line to buy tickets to see Shrek: The Musical, and the guy behind me goes, "excuse me, haven't I seen you in a show here?" "Oh no," I said, "I've never worked for the 5th." "Yes, but I've seen you in something." "Well, I've just got back from being out of town for a few months."

We went back to purchasing our tickets when suddenly he has an "aha" moment and says, "That's it. Leavenworth!" I whirled around and said, "What did you see there?"

"I saw you in The Sound of Music. You were fantastic. Here. Take my tickets. My wife fell asleep in the restaurant and we were just going to turn them in."

So that's how Phil and I got to see Shrek. Row G. For free one night.

Doing a Forbidden Broadway style parody gig this week, which is turning out to be a lot of fun! Good lyrics, fun cast and director, and good pay.

Nannying all week, and starting to costume (or rather, recostume) a film I did last fall which is being refilmed. I've got to fit my old costumes to the new actresses and add some new accessories.

Still sick. There should be a limit on how long you're allowed to sniffle.

Today was my early nannying day, so I crawled out of bed at 4am, came home at 9, and went back to sleep until one, stuffed full of a new cold meducine.

Suddenly I'm innundated with work possibilities, and faced with the uncertainty of picking one, as one tends to negate another, but none are certain. A new costuming gig puts me out of the running for a week long show that pays three times as much, but they're calling one person more before they call me in for it. A christmas show that I recently was offered a role in (Children's Theater) overlaps the first week of rehearsals with the tech week of a show I'd really like to do, but I'm burning bridges by putting off a definate answer until after the audition - but then, if I get the well paying week long gig, I'll be in rehearsal during that audition anyway and it won't matter. Ahhh!

It's nice to be potentially busy - but also hectic trying to make the best choices about what to do and when.

My roommates are all back now, and we're setting up house again. Our utensils somehow walked off during the summer, and several organizer-y things. Don't know where they went, but with everyone moving in and out we're hoping it was the confusion, not theft.

I am sick as a dog.

Yesterday I wouldn't have gotten out of my bathrobe at all, except ACT had an open call (which I wasn't up for, but wanted to speak to a human about when their next open call general audition would be, and get signed up right away), so I dragged myself up off my deathbed, threw on brown slacks, open toed suede heels and my D&G turtleneck (hurrah! It's fall!), and after nannying jumped on a bus downtown and went in to their office. The next audition is two months from now, on a day I have a show, so I may have to reschedule for the one two months after that. *Sigh* If I'd been on the ball faster I could have done their one last thursday.

We finished Lord of the Rings yesterday, and will be starting on The Two Towers on Monday. I can't believe she's following it all - Tolkien is nothing if not verbose - but we're both really enjoying it, and I love doing all the voices. I appreciate Tolkien's skill as a writer more at this speed. He has excellent sense of varying description passages with dialogue passages, so one doesn't get bored reading aloud.

I'm doing research looking for monologues. I think true theatrical people must do this all the time, but coming from a music background I'm trying to get up to speed by reading as many plays as I can. I read two yesterday and the day before, and am checking out three more. Some Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams today. And a bunch of DVDs since I plan on spending the rest of today on the couch drinking lots of liquids. I have a callback on Sunday and can't afford to be sick for it.

Finally, $7.95 haircut day at the local Academy of Hair. I've been feeling terribly frumpy with my grown out bob from the summer, which became two inches too long to do anything with except pouf and frizz. Oh, I'd style it in the morning, but an hour later: *pouf* *frizz*

So as soon as it opened, I ran over with a two headshots for reference (of what it has to look something like or have to fork over another several hundred dollars for new headshots) and found a couple of styles in those big oversized salon books that I liked as well. My stylist was very chatty, but hadn't seen Shear Genius - which put a damper on any contribution from me to our conversation - but she did a lovely job mixing the front view of my headshot with a back view from the reference book. The cut is great, but styling wasn't included beyond blow drying, so I sauntered home, tossing my new hair this way and that, and curled it the way I wanted it.

It looked so good I had to change clothes and walk in heels to the library just so I could swoosh my way down the street more effectively.

Funny how a simple thing like hair can change how you feel about getting dressed for the day. Now I'm going to go walk Jake in heels so I can swoosh and flip some more.

Home again, home again, jiggety jog.

I'm back in Seattle now. The weather was completely sunny for the first three days. Excellent! The only downside to the summer was having made it through a Seattle winter, I moved just as the weather was getting nice. I'm glad I've caught a bit of it at least. Today is a little cloudier and colder, and I'm layering for the first time this season. I love fall clothes. Turtlenecks and jackets and sweaters and wool skirts.

Having discovered money I didn't remember I had, I went on a major shopping spree yesterday - buying frivolous things like groceries and toiletries...and a pair of jeans and two pairs of fishnets at Goodwill and Value Village, respectively. ("Getting ready for Halloween early?" asked the cashier at Value Village. "No, I wear them in real life just for fun," I answered, "And I don't need a bag." "Not shy, are you?" he replied as I carried them out the door.)

As I was at the grocery store I got two calls for auditions. One for a previous audition that had to be rescheduled, and one for a company doing Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella this fall, who I was hoping to be seen by. I've got three auditions in the next two weeks, then Pinocchio rehearsals start. The lovely thing about these three auditions is; 1) for the first time I may have to turn down a gig - if I get it - because I'm too busy, and 2) if I land any or all of them, I'll be booked solid through at least Christmas, and have something for days through March. Pretty stinking good feeling, that.

I'm nannying again, and I've ridden my bike both days this week. I thought I'd gotten in shape this summer, with walking and biking everywhere most of the time, but this is the first proof I've had. I made it up 87th (though, going back up 90th defeated me and I had to walk my bike), and over the 30 blocks to where the family lives without it killing me! Hurrah! I think I'll continue to bike as long as the weather holds.

Being home is lovely. I've busied myself getting my house put back together, and trying to make our living room more usable, instead of the repository of stuff from various tenants, current and prior. I'm scrapbooking at Becky's, my quilt is there too, and cleaning at my house when I'm home. The cats stretch out across the back of the couch and nap every time I sit down, and it's very cuddly and purry as we sit in the sunny window and laze our way through the afternoon. How nice to be home, except for missing show people terribly...

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.