So, here I am, home after several days of Hamlet on the road. got a call today, Rachel and I are both going to do some movie extra work, and are up for possible roles as well. Good to hear - Rachel kinda got all that rolling without my even knowing about it, then the call came today as a total surprise to me. Extra work is really nothing, basically being human props at best, cattle at worst. Also, its very dull. However, they're paying well and giving craft services, so that makes for a good day. If the roles pan out, that'll be great. I know so litle about this I don't even know what the movie is. I think it's for HBO, called "Iron Jawed Angels" and about suffragettes. Or something. From my days as an extra-wrangling PA I know that extras don't have to know, or care, they just have to do what they're told.

One day I'll go into depth here about the strangeness of the work situation right now. Suffice to say, it's less than perfect.

Sorry the comments keep going whacko... please post again when I don't reply. I'm not ignoring anyone!

Yet.

As promised, TOUR ITINERARIES. I stole the Christmas Carol schedule from the Caravan website, the HAMLET Schedule is from a hastily thrown together schedule I grabbed a few days ago.
HAMLET (There are some shows of HAMLET not open to the public, I didn't list them here)
9/21 Catawba College, Salisbury NC 7:30pm
9/26 Steward School PAC, Richmond VA 10am
9/27 Douthat State Park, Covington VA 7pm
9/28 Douthat State Park, Covington VA 7pm
10/4 First Landing State Park, (Norfolk VA?), 7pm
10/5 First Landing State Park, ???, 7pm
10/6 Cleveland NC, 4pm
10/9 Rappahanock Community College, ???, 11:30am
10/11 Coolwell Park Ampitheatre, Amherst VA, 7pm
10/12 Mariner's Landing, Smith Mountain Lake VA (???), 7pm

10/21-25 Workshops and performances, Dover DE
Further performances through the tour's end are sold to schools or otherwise not open to the public.


11/19/02 East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Corson Auditorium Interlochen , MI
11/22/02 East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center Cedar Falls , IA
11/23/02 East Coast Tour 2:00 PM Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center Cedar Falls , IA
11/25/02 East Coast Tour 9:30 AM Peoria Civic Center Peoria , IL
East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Peoria Civic Center Peoria , IL
11/26/02 East Coast Tour 9:30 AM Peoria Civic Center Peoria , IL
11/27/02 East Coast Tour 8:00 PM Smoot Theatre Parkersburg , WV
11/29/02 East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Shubert Theatre New Haven , CT
11/30/02 East Coast Tour 2:00 PM Shubert Theatre New Haven , CT
East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Shubert Theatre New Haven , CT
12/1/02 East Coast Tour 2:00 PM Shubert Theatre New Haven , CT
12/2/02 East Coast Tour 10:00AM Proctor's Theatre Schenectady , NY
East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Proctor's Theatre Schenectady , NY
12/4/02 East Coast Tour 3:30 PM Dana Humanities Center-Koonz Theatre Manchester , NH
East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Dana Humanities Center-Koonz Theatre Manchester , NH
12/5/02 East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Chubb Theatre at Capitol Center for the Arts Concord , NH
12/7/02 East Coast Tour 2:00 PM Edward Nash Theatre Somerville , NJ
East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Edward Nash Theatre Somerville , NJ
12/8/02 East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Flynn Center Burlington , VT
12/10/02 East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Garde Arts Center New London , CT
12/11/02 East Coast Tour 8:00 PM Stockton Performing Arts Center Pomona , NJ
12/12/02 East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center Johnstown , PA
12/14/02 East Coast Tour 2:00 PM Zeiterion Theatre New Bedford , MA
East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Zeiterion Theatre New Bedford , MA
12/15/02 East Coast Tour 3:00 PM Bardavon Opera House Poughkeepsie , NY
12/18/02 East Coast Tour 7:00 PM Jesse Hall Auditorium Columbia , MO
12/19/02 East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Gary Dickinson Performing Arts Center Chillicothe , MO
12/21/02 East Coast Tour 7:30 PM Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Rapid City , SD
12/22/02 East Coast Tour 2:00 PM Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Rapid City , SD
END TOUR

And that's the rest of my year.

We're back. Good show this weekend. Starting to take off now.
Tomorrow starting rehearsal for a show I'm still rewriting.

Anybody out there?

I get to go to North Carolina, home of... Well, I'm not going to Asheville, which is the only place of many I've gone in NC that was worth getting to. We have a show there tomorrow.
Here's a topic to discuss in my absence:

Which American oil companies will profit most when we clobber Iraq and take control of the world's single largest lake of oil? Just so you know, it's already been promised and divied up.

Bananas in Pajamas are coming down the stairs
Bananas in Pajamas . . . I hope they clean it up.

When you're lucky enough to do something you very much enjoy for a living, it is easy to overlook the bad that comes along with so much good.

Theatre people often run into that. There are dozens of ... shall we say "questionable" employers around these fifty states that still manage bang-up productions and pleasant experiences for most involved.

Right now I and my fellow fortunates are touring HAMLET. Saturday, however, the level of ill will, lack of repsect for and level of poor performance by management, plus an impending financial breach of contract, led to something rather unthinkable to me. We had to walk out. We were willing to compromise our contract in favor of a new very fair one we presented to management, they didn't sign, we walked away from a voluntary free performance. We said we would not perform until the new document was signed, and it had to be signed before midnight the next day when breach would occur. It was signed. It's a really tenuous situation.

Needless to say, I don't have a lot of faith in it lasting the length of the amended contract - we have an agreement within the cast that if one small part of the new document is broken, we all leave with no chance of return. And with the level of tension right now, I have a feeling SOMEONE will leave.

Yes - what happened was we essentially had to unionize in an already unionized profession against management.

How very Newsies of us.

Next week's a big DVD week... anyone feel like sending some downtrodden opressed artists a gift? For the proletariat, man!

Hey everyone - yes, it's true, you can now get my scripts on this site. Check the menu at left. I've been fighting with how to do it since I've (seriously) been asked about fifty times for either MARTIN AND OLIVE or SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS. If you're interested in them, well, if I were rich they'd be free. Since I'm not, throw me some silver and they're yours to read.

Not perform, read.

Seriously though, don't you dare even read them aloud to your pets, Steve. If you do I'll find out and send the copyright police to your door faster than you can say "colostomy bag."

Let peace prevail on the earth.

Thanks to wilwheaton.net.

I have recently found myself put somewhat into the role of cheerleader.

The "buck up" guy.

The "Keep On Truckin'" fella.

I have actually said, more than once, to people, without irony or sarcasm, things like "Stop being so negative - There is no point in continuing without the anticipation of success."

This strange notion of accept acknowledge and move on is kinda stretching around my frame. It'll go away quick if, say, I don't get paid (working for a non-profit theatre company with a history of lack of management has its pitfalls) ...

But I'm feeling the cozy in my new home groove.

Hamlet plays a few free (er... pay what you can, and man I hope people do drop some $$$) performances this week and next. Check www.bardtix.org for more info.

This week I've switched gears, grinding the teeth as I force my transmission into office mode. Working on booking Hamlet, working on Hamlet promos, working on this new cream that buffs my freshly shaven chest to a... anyway I'm working on adminisrtive issues for a bit.

Thing is, I'm just exhausted - all the time. I need more sleep I think, but I get plenty each night. I think the extra high stress level that's been constant for the last MONTH has taken a toll on my youthful physique. Youthful - hah - > two years to carousel.

Right now, if you have $1200 (plus travel exp.) and our dates line up, you can have fresh, piping hot Hamlet delivered to your door!

Sometimes you MUST laugh.

HAMLET is open - we travelled to Geneva, NY, driving all day last Thursday, doing workshops and rehearsals on Friday and part of Saturday, then performed Saturday night.The performance was less than stellar for reasons we could neither have anticipated nor controlled.
See, we were booked as the end of the day's activity for the "move in" day for a sorta-pricey college in upstate NY. Performers from the college were to perform as the players in the "play within the play", and the choir would underscore the end of the show and sing a prologue. All that worked well - good kids, fine stuff, could've used more rehearsal but can't we all...

See, we performed before this huge gothic style building facing an immense quad. We were lavalier mic'd within an inch of our lives, so there'd be no problem hearing anything, BUT... the show was scheduled to start at 6:30. They'd scheduled a campus-wide free barbeque at 5:45. Thus, there were about 1,000 people on the quad when the show started who had no interest in the show whatsoever, and had no interest in letting it go on peacefully. Trucks were coming in to load the barbeque equipment. Actually, it wasn't as bad as that all sounds, but it was bad. The first 1/4 to 1/2 of HAMLET, our first performance, became pretty much about us kinda speeding through and totally eliminating any real audience involvement until the roar quieted.

Once the plebes left, however, it was pretty great. I mean, come on, it is a good play that ends with a series of not one, not two, but THREE swordfights after or during which everyone dies? The improv group we worked with was a talented if a touch ADD addled group of kids, while the choir was simply spot on. We weren't entirely in total sync at the end for what we'd all had in mind, but it didn't affect anything even one little bit.

So, while it still feels like a victory, it is a hard won victory at best, with casualties.

Lessons learned.

Actors... check out either
www.cafepress.com/saytheline
or
www.cafepress.com/hamlet2002