If I'd Had a Pet Like This as a Kid, the Bullies Woulda Been His Lunch

Have you seen this?


The tyrannosaurus rex wishes it were this guy. Teeth a foot long. A skull double the size of T.R.'s. A bite with 4 times the force. Coming in at about 50 feet long, 45 tons. It's a new species of pliosaur that the paleontologists have dubbed "Predator X" -- which sounds like a great name for a bad Sci-Fi movie. How long ya think it'll take 'em to make that one?

The Last Coupla Weeks

We've been plugging along on Heidi rehearsals the last couple of weeks.

Early on, I had to try on wooden clogs -- like these:
Turns out those clogs were meant for the character "Peter," not the actor Peter (I'm sometimes called "the real Peter" in rehearsal now). That's all fine with me -- I'm quite happy to have tried them on, and quite happy that I wasn't going to be wearing them during the show -- they weren't uncomfortable, but they're not very practical. Like wearing a pair of small boats. Or really short stilts. I suspect it was a fashion thing, like high heels, except without the pain (turns out they won't be in the show, anyway -- too impractical).

We're using goat puppets in the show, so I've been researching goat movement with some help from YouTube. It just so happens that there is a kind of goat that faints (sort of) when startled, due to a genetic disorder called myotonia congenita. Think that's odd? How about this: The International Fainting Goats Association, an organization dedicated to the breeding and showing these goats.

And I and most of the rest of the cast and various other folks from Imagination Stage went to the residence of the Swiss ambassador for a little soiree.  We performed a couple of songs from the show, and we listened to a few brief speeches from the ambassador and some of the Imagination Stage higher-ups. Then time for drinks, hors d' oeuvres, and shmoozing. The ambassador's residence is a spectacular pad designed by Steven Holl. Check the link for details and pics, it's a very green, award winning, modern building.

Non-Heidi related: last Sunday, I was part of a staged reading of Sam Shepard's Unseen Hand at Rep Stage. Not many people in the audience, maybe a dozen, but we expected low number because of the date change. One of Shepard's earlier pieces, it's an interesting, odd play -- a 120 year old cowboy-outlaw, a genetically-modified baboon from another planet, with some social commentary.

3 Months

So, what's happened in three months?

Performed in that scene from Eccentricities of the Nightingale.

Choreographed / coached the fights / violence for two more scenes for that Studio Theatre directing class -- one from Speed the Plow, which Yvonne Erickson directed, the other from The Dutchman directed by Phoebe Duncan. A lot of that turned out to be not so much violence itself, but creating the threat of violence, which in a way is more valuable -- the threat continues the tension.

Went to Mississippi with Jenny, to visit relations. We also visited Elvis Presley's birthplace (Tupelo).
Came up with some anagrams. Here you go:
DICK CHENEY = NEEDY CHICK
TOM CRUISE = MICE TOURS
PETER BOYER = TOY PER BEER (or, BEER PER TOY, take your pick)

Watched the inauguration of Barack Obama. On TV, we didn't go into the city. But it was still cool.

Did a quick industrial for the FAA. Me in coat and tie, and reading (somewhat, I knew the script fairly well) a teleprompter sitting over the other guy's shoulder. Acting while using a teleprompter is odd, because you're "reacting" to someone you're not actually looking at (from the camera angle, you can't tell that we're not actually looking at each other).

(A friend of mine turned into a polar bear.)

Gave a pretty decent audition at the AEA Liaison Committee auditions -- annual auditions for DC / Baltimore area Equity theatres (and a casting agent or two).

Got a call about a callback for a show at Folger, but that didn't pan out due to that show's overlap with Heidi.

Had a callback for Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center.

Auditioned for a small indie film. Got the role. Then shortly before the shoot date arrived in mid-February, the director *disappeared*. He won't return calls or e-mails. I'm still looking for him, so that if he doesn't have a really good reason, I can talk to him like an angry New Yorker.

PA'ed (PA = production assistant) for a photo shoot for a training thing for the TSA, done at Dulles Airport. Three days, and on the third day I was also a model.

Had a couple of callbacks for shows at Imagination Stage.

Almost did a staged reading for Rep Stage of Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand -- postponed because of the arrival of snow.

As you can clearly see, the last three months have been uneventful.

Rehearsals for Heidi start tomorrow. And that staged reading I just mentioned was rescheduled for Sunday, March 15th at 2pm, being presented at Howard Community College, in Columbia, MD -- and it's free, yo.