Terpsichore
The usually clean and orderly house is a disaster area. Something big, fast, and tornado-ish definitely came through here. Clothes strewn all over the place, pillows in the wrong rooms, shoes and socks scattered along a path leading from the bedroom to the front door. What the hell was it? A twister? Evidence of mad, passionate sex? Was I robbed? Not exactly. Let me back up and explain. It’s Thursday, mid-morning. My muse is a five year old, and it’s screaming at me. No, it’s not a child. It is, however, a five year old black “classic” Motorola pager. You know the kind. They don’t have all the bells and whistles of modern pagers, no sir. No CNN headline news, alphanumeric, two-way messaging, friendly or melodic audio alerts on...
Read MoreDaughter of the Regiment
Time. It’s the fourth dimension, right? The other three I’ve got down pat–I can make an airplane loop, roll, spin, or drop any which way I want. But when it comes to time, I’m totally out of my element. Not in the sense of “being on time”, mind you–but rather in how strangely I judge it. For example, I did some math recently. After subtracting 1994 from 1999 the magic number of five mysteriously came to me. As in, five years since I graduated from college. Wow. Where has the time gone? Obviously someone is messing with the fast-forward button of my life, and the rate at which it’s passing is only picking up speed. I really am afraid that I’m going to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and...
Read More30 Grant Ave
Two days, seven auditions, fifteen monologues, one crowded floor of nervous actors. I’m in San Francisco to audition for MFA programs in theatre. The odds of my being accepted are quite low, as I’ve only applied to the top schools: Juilliard, Yale, American Conservatory Theatre, American Repertory, etc. I figure that if I’m going to foot the bill and put in the time needed to obtain an MFA in this discipline, I only want to consider the finest schools. Most of these schools audition over a thousand people each year, yet have only five or six slots available. And sometimes half of those need to be female in order to maintain an acting company from which they can cast the shows. To say these programs are exclusive is an understatement. They...
Read MoreSan Francisco
I left Orange County at about 1:00 p.m. today. After driving for eight hours, I’m still in California. It’s almost disappointing. When you’ve put 400 miles on the odometer, you feel like you should be in some far off, exotic place. Anyway, the trip up to San Francisco was uneventful (read: boring). There is so little of interest to look at. It’s pretty much the same way wherever you go from the Los Angeles area. Have you made the drive to Palm Springs or Las Vegas? I used to make the Irvine-to-Vegas run all the time when I was tired, and lemme tell you it ain’t no picnic. Especially on a holiday weekend. I once got stuck in traffic on I-15 during a three day weekend and it took me 21 hours to make the 300 mile trip. No shit. ...
Read MoreLeaving Las Vanguard
All good things must come to an end. Or so they say. I don’t know that my association with Vanguard was always a good one, but I would like to think it had its moments. Whatever the case, it has certainly come to an end: I resigned from the theatre last week. On my birthday, now that I think about it. For those of you who are not involved in the non-profit arts scene, let me start off by saying that it’s a difficult one. Budgets are small, salaries non-existent, while expectations and competition are at an all time high. Things are stacked against you at every turn. Vanguard Theatre Ensemble has some other unique challenges on its plate, chief among them being the fact that the theatre is running year-round. For eight years it’s been...
Read MoreFlying Dutchman
I’ve been spending all my time lately at the opera. The only days we’re not rehearsing or performing are the days AGMA (the American Guild of Musical Artists) requires us to have off–essentially every seventh day or so. Not that I’m complaining. I’m more than happy to have all the work, and I’m learning new shows, having fun with friends, and earning a dollar or two. When I say a dollar or two, I mean literally. But that’s another story. I can hear Henri cracking the exact same joke about his own salary and laughing melodramatically. Henri Venanzi is one of the best things about working at Opera Pacific. Sometimes I wonder why he sticks around. I’d like to think it’s because we’re such a personable,...
Read MoreBreaking and Entering
You know how when life gets busy, you sometimes wait until the last minute to do some time-specific thing which is really, really important? You know you shouldn’t procrastinate, but you do, so there is very little margin for error, right? And then something screws up your well-laid plans. My Juilliard application was ready to go, and it had to be postmarked by December 1st. No problem. I got all the stuff together and placed a call to Mail Boxes, Etc. (that should have been my first clue) to inquire about their hours. I was told they close at 7:30 p.m. Great. So I sauntered down around 6:45 p.m. and the lights were on, but the doors didn’t want to open. A cursory investigation (elementary, Mr. Watson) revealed that they were locked. Shit. ...
Read MoreMet Debut
Have you ever had one of those perfect evenings? You know, the ones where you spend a couple of hours sharing great food with a small circle of good friends, just kicking back, talking about anything and nothing, and really relaxing? I had an evening like that the other day. You can always tell when you’re having one, because you’re sorry to see it end. Not that I don’t enjoy the company of many other great people every single day, but days like this cannot be planned. You can’t “make” them happen; there is some indefinable thing about then which cannot be prepared or planned for. I was at Paul’s house with Kristina and Audey. We were celebrating Audey’s birthday before he left for Atlanta. It was just the...
Read MoreThe Last Days of Disco
Every month or two, my ex-roommate Richard and I will spend an evening hanging out. It usually goes like this: a dinner much too high in calories and fat, then a mainstream type movie, then back to my place to make fun of Saturday Night Live or play a computer game like You Don’t Know Jack. Pretty routine. This last time, though, was a bit different. First of all, I found out at dinner that he did indeed audition for Jeopardy, as he said he would. But he didn’t pass the test! I couldn’t believe it–you’d have to know Rich to understand just how full of useless trivia he is. I also beat him at You Don’t Know Jack that night, winning two out of three games. The world is turned upside down! With the Jeopardy audition, you...
Read MorePacific Playwrights Festival
I was watching the NBC sitcom “Working” tonight, and saw Harry Groener guest-starring on the show as the Vice-President of Upton-Webber, the fictional company the show is centered around. I thought that was cool because I was just sitting next to Harry a couple of hours ago. He’s one of the cast members for The Hollow Lands, which is getting ready for a staged reading in two days. I’m a big fan of Harry’s. He starred in the hit Broadway musical Crazy For You for its entire run. I was fortunate enough to see his performance, and the boy can sing and dance like it ain’t nobody’s business. Of course, he was also one of stars of the original Broadway production of Cats (can’t say I ever saw that one), among other...
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