Ah. A day off. Nice free time.

Bought "Mighty Wind" and the new Eddie Izzard DVD today. Alone time.

Wisdom. Clarity. Foreknowledge. Compassion. Sound judgement.

If anyone out there has any one of these things and can spare some, send it my way.

Long week... and a half. Tech.

There's a formula somewhere for how theatre time is longer than real time. Meaning, any situation where you spend essentially 24 hours a day every day with other people for a long period of time must be translated into "real time" by figuring that normal people see each other what, say eight hours, ten hours a day max? Do the math, it's been a long week.

On our third day of tech today... fourth really.



Going to Philly for the weekend, doing the touristy thing. Theatre weekend, of course, meaning mon-tues. Have been nearby long enough that I no longer have any excuse.

Have been advised to avoid any part of town that is not the touristy part of town.

Our rehearsal schedule so far has been more than light - almost nonexistent. We'll be paying for that ease come tomorrow.

Yesterday we had the day off, and the theatre got any of us who wanted to go tickets to the PA Renaissance Festival. I went with a few people, and a guy in our group ran into a friend from college working there. The friend worked part time at the jousts, part time selling weapons at one of the many sword shops.

He went to talk to the guy who ran the shop - and suddenly they delcared a "special ten-minute pirate red light special" on all Lord of the Rings replica swords. For ten minutes, they sold these $200-300 weapons (Nasril, Strider's sword, Gimli's Axe, Sword of the Witchking, etc.) for $40 each. Needless to say, we got some. I now own a big ol' broadsword exactly like Aragorn's. My friend Thom here bought himself a copy of Nasril, and ... there you go.

Happy freaks. Back to work.

So, I get to rehearsal this morning, expecting to have very very little to do. See, I'm the Phantom "cover", which usually means you're given the smallest ensemble track possible to minimize adjustments should you have to go on in the role.

Instead, I get there and I've got a role, LeDoux, which isn't huge but enough that I was surprised. I wasn't contracted for it, but at least I won't be bored. AND I won't have to do a lot of obnoxious costume changes on an ensemble track. Still some.

This very morning, I drove away from the Poconos and into my two-day mini-vacation before my next job begins. I'm trying to reward myself for escaping with my sanity, but I could use some help. God, I'm shameless.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed a performance of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL and / or TITANIC at Bucks County Playhouse and / or Pocono Playhouse this season!

Thanks to Matt J., Jason B., and Louis P. for being downright inspiring to work with.

Ad astra per aspera.