a bearable lightness of being

This is Sadie.  Short for Sadist, because of how she used to bite down too hard when she had her puppy teeth.
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It's been way heavy lately. A series of frustrating and unsuccessful auditions (as well was a few auditions I didn't get called about that I don't understand). And then something outside of me really shook me:

On the day before my 39th birthday, someone very close to me passed away.
I won't go into details on this, except to say: The world is a better place for having her in it.

And recently I performed an Iago monologue for an audition. Just awful. Horrible. I said all the words right, but there wasn't anything behind it. I couldn't bring it. I just didn't want to "be there."

So I stared in the mirror and I gazed at my navel, and then remembered that the me I like is more accurately represented by this than by Iago:

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.

Ferrets of the English Restoration

I'm in rehearsals for a scene from The Eccentricities of a Nightingale by Tennessee Williams, playing the role of John -- Natasha Staley is playing Alma, Yvonne Erickson is directing the scene. This for the directing class at the Studio Theatre.

By the way, I did a few drawings during the run of The Way of the World. Here's one:

Sketch Haloo

During performances, I'd occasionally snag a blue Post-It from our awesome Assistant Stage Manager for 1776, Brandy Wyont, and do a quick cartoon. They might not make much sense if you don't know the show. Or if you do know the show. 10 points to you if you catch the misspelled word.

Run Nekkid

Last Night's Hasty Sketch

That Frog

Here's that frog sketch. I never said it would be a good one.

monologues and headshots and frogs, oh my

1: Thanks, Proofreader. This biz seems to go in waves, and mine is currently in-between. At least I can see another one coming, but it's still waaaaaaay out there, and I am impatient and a bit irritable.

A couple of days ago went to a general audition -- a bunch of actors, a bunch of companies, we go in perform monologue and possibly a bit of song (3 min. limit), they watch. I felt good with my bit -- a Shylock monologue + 40 bars of Man of La Mancha. Good chewing-on-the-scenery sort of stuff. I did get a couple of unsolicited compliments on my audition. For certain, I proved that I can remember my lines and be very loud. I also volunteered to help out in the afternoon, which in this case meant arranging a few thousand headshots. My eyes were googly afterwards. These auditions always turn into mini-reunions, and I had the chance to catch up a little a lot of folks.

2: I've been looking at pics of frogs lately, for a drawing. Soon: bears.

i'm back, with beef

This is a drawing of the Horny Oamisoe.

I was avoiding the blog, because I didn't think I had anything interesting to talk about.

Then I avoided it because I had too much to talk about.

So I'll just skip it and move on.

Two days ago I had an audition for Iago (from Othello). (I also auditioned for Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, but didn't find that out 'til I got there.) The Othello director rather suddenly had me attempt a difficult monologue with "Yooper" (upper-peninsula Michigan) and Australian dialects (they're both on my resume, because I've used them before in performance. But they're difficult to do without some prep time, particularly with a Shakespearean dramatic character). With an assist from exhaustion and a cold, my brain imploded. Yooper kept sliding into a sort of dopey Brooklyn. And Joe Pesci invaded my cortex when I tried to do Australian, and he wouldn't leave. It was a big, farcical tragedy.

By the way, Yooper sounds a bit like the dialect in Fargo, and goes with Iago like cranberry juice goes with Bailey's Irish Cream. It doesn't.

But you know what? This had had nothing to do with my ability to play the role. If she was testing a concept idea, she should have said so, and I should have been given more time to wrap my head around it. If she wanted to see if I was willing to jump in with both feet, it should have had something to do with the project. I'm willing to test ideas, even if they may seem absurd, but I've come to the conclusion that she didn't want to audition me as an actor at that point, she wanted to audition me as a circus monkey.

Some previous audition entertainment: Abruptly having to do a monologue "with a Scottish dialect, like you're riding a horse." The director who showed up in a dirty t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, and read through the resumes without ever looking up at the actors performing the monologues. The director who showed up half an hour late without any explanation and then wanted a song (the play featured no singing whatsoever). The callback for a musical that (after a two-hour drive to get to the theatre) turned into an audition not for a musical but for the play Art. The director who asked for a dialect in advance, then changed his mind onsite for the sake of the one performer who was incapable of doing a decent dialect (absolutely required by the play) but who had just the right "look". (This performer practically assaulted the reader at the audition, which didn't seem to bother the director, either.)

Sometimes I hate this business.

On the Plus Side, Bathroom Scales Now Friendly

Something You Won't Find On Bourbon Street

Santa's Gone Bonkers. I Came Close.

The fat lady sang on Sunday -- Twelfth Night at Cumberland Theatre has closed. What an interesting, odd ride.

'06 has been a decent year for me, theatrically: 28 weeks in rehearsal or onstage, somewhere over 100 performances, thousands of people came to the shows, adults and children both, and lucky me, I've made 'em laugh and cry and a few other things inbetween.

And personally it's been stellar -- Jenny and are now m-m-married. I got the best lady in the land! Still don't know how I pulled that off.

And I finally went to a foreign country (Belize), woohoo!

But hey, here's hoping '07 tops '06! Life! Hooha!

It's almost Christmas time. Jenny and I are off to Mississippi in just over a dozen hours.

Here's another drawing for you. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Fantastic Festivus, Stupendous Solstice, etc.! Happy Holidays!

Happy Tofurkey Day

A rough sketch from last year, but it still works.

Penguins Can So Fly

I managed to work myself into a good blue funk for a while today. When I got over that, I drew this for you:

Puedes Oir Los Elephantes?

I think my neighbors are teachers, of a sort. Many months ago, it seemed that they were trying to teach me a bit about the Spanish language. Now I suspect they want me to learn more about the physics of elephant communication.

They used to play their music quite loudly -- the latest Latin pop hits, clearly audible in every room of my apartment. My Spanish is good enough to recognize the language, but not good enough to translate much of it -- which of course means they were just trying to inspire me to learn more. But the timing of their lessons was a problem -- irregular days, frequently early in the morning. I would occasionally knock on their door and talk to them about this, saying things like, "EXCUSE ME BUT COULD YOU PLEASE TURN THE MUSIC DOWN WE CAN HEAR IT IN EVERY ROOM OF OUR APARTMENT."

They eventually moved on to new lessons, and new times. The lessons are more regular now: every Saturday and Sunday, mid-mornings and afternoons (but sometimes late afternoons on weekdays, lately). The lessons are one to four hours in length. The overall volume is less, but they have some sort of bass boost thing going on, so now (in every room of the apartment) you can hear some variation of boom-BOOM, boom-boom-boom, boom-BOOM, boom-boom-boom . . . .

Here's the deal: the soundwaves of low tones have longer wavelengths than those of high tones. Low tones can travel farther than high tones because longer wavelengths are less likely to be deflected or absorbed (it's the same idea with red sunsets in polluted Los Angeles -- red light has a longer wavelength than the other colors we can see, so red isn't as easily absorbed / deflected by the particulates in the air).

Elephants use low tones as a means of communication -- they can reach distances of up to 10 km (just over 6 miles) using infrasound: sound lower than we can hear. They can hear it, and they can probably even feel it in the sensitive pads of their feet. Know what else? They can generate a volume of up to 112 dB (similar to a construction site) and have a vocal range of up to 10 octaves, with up to 6 octaves of variation in a single call! A good (human) singer might have 3 octaves, and supposedly Julie Andrews at one time had 4. Learn more here, and once you get to the site, click on "Acoustic communication."

To express my appreciation for my neighbors' efforts, I have sent a letter to the rental office saying essentially, "Could you please get the neighbors to turn down their bass." We'll see what lessons come next.

Fishing and Soymilk

I'm currently drinking coffee with some soymilk instead of regular milk. It seems to give it a slightly nuttier taste (go ahead, make a joke, you know you wanna).

[And thanks to "proofreader" -- your moniker looks familiar for some reason -- for the comment from May 22, re Shenandoah backstage. I'd forgotten how interesting backstage theatricals can be, so I'll try to talk more about that with future shows, whenever those may be . . . .]
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In the news: Ken Lay and Andrew Skilling have been found not just guilty, but WAY guilty. Good. Lay's defense of "just because I was in charge doesn't mean I had any clue what was going on" didn't fly. Hopefully this translates into more prison time than for someone caught smoking pot (cuz they caused a lot more harm). No link, cuz this news is easy to find.

From NewScientist: getting a good night's sleep isn't just good for you, it can help you lose weight (or: not gain it):
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/

And here's a silly drawing I did during the run of Shenandoah :