Thursday, February 2, 2012

Theater has swallowed me whole and spit me out.

Ok, catch-up time. Again.

I'm in my first of three (3!!) tech weeks in a row; theater folk commonly refer to tech week as "Hell Week"; for actors and stage managers, this happens 5 or 6 times a year. But for designers, we can do 20 or more shows in a year, just going from tech week to tech week, sometimes with a week in between to actually get some sleep.

That's where I am right now. Working mornings at St. Catherine University, as first hand for "The Pirates of Penzance"; afternoons are for costume shopping and alterations for "Slasher"; or emails, paperwork, and design work for "The Mousetrap"; and the occasional check-in for "The Cmplt Wrks of Wllm Shkspr, Abridged"; the last several evenings have involved tech rehearsals for "Slasher".

So my creations of late have been costume-related, with a couple of food items that just sounded good.

Friday: I created Chicken Tikka Masala, in the slow cooker. It was sooooo good.

tikka masala ingredients


marinating in tikka sauce
Served it with turmeric basmati rice. And, I forgot to take a picture of the final product! The family liked it, too!


it was his idea to use a kitchen knife


Saturday: I created a homicidial maniac mask. My son modeled it for me! This isn't the final product, I had to make a few adjustments after the actors tried it on. Once I have production photos, I'll post some more pictures. It's creepy!



Sunday: I created - a mess. Sunday was full of angry emails, accusations, false assumptions, and general energy-sapping bullshit. It's all theater-related, and involves the managing director of Shadowplay Theatre. He and I don't see eye-to-eye on full disclosure, keeping the other board members involved and informed, and collaborating on all parts of the theater. (Guess which side I'm on. He keeps asking me to trust him to do the publicity and marketing, something he fucked up on our first production last fall. He can't understand why we don't trust him this time around. Whatever). I was so deflated and drained after all of this went down, I couldn't create anything tangible. All I could do was climb into bed, and hope it would all just..... go away.


Monday: I got home around 11 p.m., from a long tech rehearsal, needed something to eat, and decided to make Welsh rarebit.
cheese, beer, and flavor!
the seasonings










Actually, the first thing I made was a fried egg, then I decided to slice a tomato, and it just sort of evolved from there. I was  on facebook, and posted as my status: "Welsh rarebit, yea or nay?". This started quite the conversation with several friends, who were all in favor of the cheesy, beery dish. I've never made Welsh rarebit before, but had all the ingredients on hand; and 15 minutes later, I was enjoying this exquisite sauce served over the egg, the tomato and a slice of multigrain bread. I also imbibed half a bottle of beer with it (the other half being in the sauce!), which made for a lovely late-night supper. And then a not-so-lovely, 2 a.m. nightmare.

ready andwaiting
beer and cheese, combined










Tuesday: I created a break-away tank top, rigged break-away straps on a camisole, and some other costumey stuff for "Slasher". Pictures to follow.

Wednesday: I created the curtain speech for "The Mousetrap". Managing Director guy offered to record it, but since I have final say over this part of the operation, I put my foot down, wrote the speech, and recorded it. It's mostly to remind people to TURN OFF THEIR CELL PHONES! You can go 2 hours without virtually connecting with somebody, especially when you're in an audience actually connecting with the characters onstage.

On a side note, a musician/conductor friend of mine posted a picture on facebook, of a musical score with some "additional" notes written in red. The title of the photo is "This isn't in the score". You have to be able to read music to get it (it's the default ringtone for one of the cellphone carriers. De-de-de-dee  de-de-de-dee de-de-dee-de-dee. There, I gave it away.)

In other words, turn off and tune in. Goodnight, Gracie.

UPDATE: My husband interrupted me (again! Arrrgggghhhj!), so I didn't put in any links before posting this last night. Fixed it!

2 comments:

  1. So like this then ;)
    http://wins.failblog.org/2012/01/23/epic-win-photos-musical-interruption-win/

    ReplyDelete