God's sense of humour

Is not necessarily funny.

Consider: this summer I thought I'd take the summer off from theatre. But this meant I had nothing to do...at...aaaaaaaaaaall....*pppppthphthttttttph* So I signed up to help out with VBS. Only to be given Bible stories - cool, no theatre - but I was assigned actors - OK, theatre. But not really theatre, wink wink nudge nudge say no more. But one of my actresses was daunted by the prospect of a monologue, and then no other actress would sign on and - so I'm sitting here, procrastinating learning lines. Yup, there was a definite close-door policy going on re: directing Arts Alliance or acting with the Savoyards...but somehow I'm directing and acting for IC's VBS. *glances grimacing Heavenward* Very.funny.God.

No, I'm not really upset. More facepalming. Right - so onto the real reason I'm blogging (besides pocrastinating and trying not to weep over the utter mess I made of the Marley/Past scene which means I'll just scrap the whole thing and start over) - is because I want to start a meme. Sorta. If anyone else wants to catch on. But since memes aren't catchable without flashy titles, I will:

THEMESONG MEME!!!
I'd make it flash, but that'd be annoying.

1. What are the lyrics you are listening to right now?

"Such Great Heights" by Iron and Wine from Garden State

They will see us waving from such great heights
Come down now, they'll say
But everything looks perfect from far away
Come down now, but we'll stay

2. List the (partial) lyrics from three songs that you'd consider your theme songs.

a. "Santa Fe" from Newsies

Where does it say you've got to live and die here?
Where does it say a guy can't catch a break?
Why should you only take what you're given?
Why should you spend your whole life livin'
Trapped where there ain't no future
Even at seventeen
Breaking your back for someone else's sake?
If the life don't seem to suit ya
How 'bout a change of scene?
Far from the lousy headlines
And the deadlines inbetween!

b. "Spring Street" by Dar Williams from The Green World

I'm sorry that I left you
With your questions all alone
But I was too happy driving
And too angry to drive home.

c. "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To strive when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star!

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be ready to march into Hell
For a Heavenly cause!

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable stars!

3. What, if anything, do these songs have in common?

Hope. "Stupid courage." A desire for more.

4. What are the lyrics you're listening to right now?

"Beauty in the Breakdown" by Froufrou

It gains the more it gives
Then it rises with the fall
So hand me that remote
Can't you see that all that stuff's essential...

So let go, so let go
And jump in
Oh well whatcha waiting for
It's all right
Cause there's beauty in the breakdown....

5. Does the music you're listening to now match your theme music or not? Why or why not?

Surprisingly, yes. (As in the music just turned to "Holding out for a Hero," even!) Probably because I'm in a this meme-y mood. That and I've been alternating between the Hamlet and Flannel Collage CD's.

~*~

So, there you go! Meme me!

Mood: I've got to...accentuate the positive...memorize the monologue....
Music: Hallooooo?! OK, it's my Flannel Collage CD.
Dreams are: Bizarre. Right, it's not even my tech week, but I have this dream that it's the last performance of [fill in the blank] show and I have to play two roles even though I'm the director and I've got the wrong costume or no costume at all and regardless it's inside-out. More to the point, I come off the stage from one of my song-and-dance numbers (which, thankfully the guy I was working with could lead) only to find the actress I'm filling in for is just hanging out in the wings. But the next scene starts, and all of a sudden I'm not hearing lines but vitriol from one of my actresses who's apparently lost it on stage - and one of my other actors is giving right back to her. So I rush across the stage, make some sort of joke - fully aware that it's already pathetic that the director is playing two parts in her own show and now has to pretend that her actress swearing up a storm is actually all part of the show folks! - and I drag her, another actress and two actors off into the SL wings. Then one at a time I smack them across the face, stop their return volley, give them a talking to, and get them back on stage. Meanwhile, the conductor has apparently decided to cover for the fact that the play's been ruined by leading cast and audience in Christmas carols. I get to the last guy - who I'm not really sure why I pulled off, and I'm trying to decide whether to continue with the slap-speech method of rectification when I hear the conductor start everyone up on the song "Oklahoma!" and I realize the conductor has just decided to end the show before ending Act I! So I turn to my waiting actor and tell him to get out there (since he's the lead) - but then I realize he's only in black pants and a poofy shirt and for some reason there are slits on the shirt at the shoulders and elbows (so he can move?) and he looks like an idiot. So I'm about to tell him, "Don't worry about it - go find something to wear" when he grins and runs off to the stage, calling back, "Don't worry! I'll just take it off!" Fortunately at that point I woke up. Man, whoever I'm having tech-week anxiety dreams for had better thank me for picking up their slack. Oy.

Amazing Grace

The more I live - which, admittedly, to this point is not much - the more I understand the mysteriousness, the awesomeness and awfulness of grace. Thank God, thank God, He's seen fit to flood my soul very early this morning, and through my dreams, and even now with Himself and His all-consuming love. What a difference! Nothing has changed but for the presence of Himself manifest in my heart. And the grace to cherish this moment of grace, for however long it lasts. There was that time in college of manifold spiritual gifts - but I don't think I appreciated Him as much as now in this simplicity - I love Him better for the knowledge of the lack of Him. And, Lord, You know I can't sustain my love without the strength of Your grace. If it is in Your will, continue to strengthen me in devotion and constancy! Amen!

So to the simple household tasks before chicken and pork (ah, another blessing! Yay for the visions of Peter and the first council of Jerusalem!) this afternoon. And by grace the fiasco that was yesterday - 3 hours up, 2 back to Portsmouth, NH, in order to see middle schoolers perform jazz as a prelude to a musical that was rained out - is laughable. Ah well.

Mood: The peace that surpasses all understanding
Music: "Bittersweet Symphony" by the Verve off of Hamlet
Thought: Yeah - I like theatre. It's good to know that hasn't changed after all. Epiphany fish! Epiphany fish!

This December

Be careful what you wish for...
Because it most certainly
Will come true.

Check out the Nutcracker trailer for this December's HCH Drama!

Mood: Mal de tete
Music: About to be an episode of Angel - too much mal de tete to edit
Emily is not: A morning person.

An-Editing We Shall Go!

Tra la
Tra la
Tra la la la!

Randominity:

I filmed shots for the Nutcracker promo today and am about to download and edit together what I can. Bwahahahahhah!

While filming, I realized I had no shots of mice. So we all trooped over to the pet store in the mall and were allowed to shoot - gerbils? Hamsters? - anywho, they're *awfully* cute and will do for rats on film.

I also picked up...A SABER! I have a new sword! I have a new sword! Cutlass-y that *schwinnnnnngggggs* when it comes out of its scabbard (that has skull and crossbones embossed on the top and tip) and which has this wonderful hilt guard with a pirate ship on it! Oh, yes, Nutcracker! Bwahahahhah!

Jills and I also spent many many lots hours together on Sat. - saw Matchmaker, gabbed a lot, midnight dinners - twas good.

Went with Pete and Al. on Wed. to the Esplanade to see/hear a concert of Beethoven's 4th, and selections from La Boheme, Phantom and Les Mis. Along the way, we saw the tech rehearsals for Hamlet on the Common - which I'll be seeing the real one of first week of August.

Play season is back! It's time to watch other plays! Tra la tra la!

Eeep - have to memorize St. Catherine's lines. 'Tis ridiklewackle.

Prep for I.C.'s VBS is rushing on. We'll see how it goes come Monday - when we're rehearsing with the full cast for first time - just a half-hour before showtime! Eek!

Have finished editing the first two scenes of Christmas Carol - it's going really fast. Hope to finish the Marley scene by tonight - after doing the trailer for Nutcracker that is.

Watching entirely too much Angel.

So...this is what summer looks like. Huh. (I'm not saying I want to build a summer home here - but the trees are actually quite lovely.)

Reading the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History - and am finding myself completely thwacked in the face with the thought that my perception of the US is, possibly, ass-backwards - esp. in regard to the Civil War and the right to breaking from the union. And in view of the news from Renee via Jules about the territories in Vermont and Maine. Could it be I'm actually considering starting my own country somewhere down the line after all? Anywho....

Mood: Pas mal, merci
Music: Flannel Collage!!! I found my other copy! Hurrah!
Thought: Why does we find it so difficult, precious, to come to endings of things?

One for the road

I don't know why this blog gets weird with tables - my apologies for the formatting in the previous post. Now, quickly, gacked from Making Light:

“You know as well as I do we all go around in disguise. The halo stuffed in the pocket, the cloven hoof awkward in the shoe, the X-ray eye blinking behind thick lenses, the two midgets dressed as one tall man, the giant stooping in a pinstripe, the pirate in a housewife’s smock, the wings shoved into sleeveholes, the wild, racing, wandering, raping, burning, loving pulses of humanity decorously disguised as a roomful of human beings. I know goddamn well what’s out there, under all those masks. Beauty and Power and Terror and Love.” ~ James Tiptree, Jr.

*sigh* Too true, too true.

Mood: Poetry
Music: Same as it ever was
Thought: I am sometimes too much in my own head. Glad that upcoming week looks to be filled with out-of-headness. Hrm. That didn't come out right.

What is this song all about?

Can't figure any lyrics out.
How do the words to this go?
I wish you'd tell me I don't know -
Dunno dunno dunno dunno
Oh no
Dunno dunno dunno dunno....

And I forgot the last verse
Oh well, I guess it pays to rehearse
The lyric sheet's so hard to find
What are the words -
Oh nevermind.

~ Weird Al's version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which I *always* think of, even when the original is on. Which it just was. On.

So, what happens when the elements rage? The wild Emily leaps out the front door, onto the mildly-awninged porch and sings her guts out "Before the Storm" to the storm while getting happily wet. (Because, no, she doesn't know when to come in out of the rain!)

Then, after the storm takes out her computer and keeps out her computer, she betakes herself "on a quick errand" to OfficeMax to make up quick copies of the script for VBS for her actors for tomorrow - and ends up taking herself for a two hour drive instead. With muchly singing. And need for a tape recorder. Because she came up with some *durn good* beginning stuff for the full-blown operas (bwahahhahah) of The Snow Queen and The Little Matchgirl. YES! Beginning stuff, granted, but...opera nonetheless! Bwahahahahhahhaha! Belt it, Em!

Who needs a working tape player or radio in a car? Not me! :D

Anywho, so now I'm going to take a look at "11 KOF Show.avi" file and all but two scenes for Act I of KOF will have been finalized. Oh, but how I don't want to work on the second scene that I didn't break up and "Have You Heard About the King" which I think I'm going to have to completely reconstruct. *sigh* But if that's my greatest complaint, I'm doing well.

When sisters are on reenactment weekends, Mothers are at Bible Study conferences, and the lone Emily is left with only a father and a brother what does dinner look like: pizza, mais naturallement. I suppose it's for that reason that I've had two cups of tea today. Even out the balance.

Rehearsal tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. Glad in many ways to have even so small a thing. Feeling oddish in more overwhelming ways to be doing anything. Have never, as expressed to Jules last night whilst *very* sleepy and driving in flash flood conditions (see the stupid Emily upon the road while Julie holds onto the passanger side door handle and hopes) - right, back to the sentence; will reiterate - have never experienced in recent memory or to this degree what might be called phase-nil of theatre. The other phases are as follows:

Phase	Activity	Emotion
Pre Phase	When I'm getting together all the stuff needed for a show through to auditions	"I can't wait for this show! I can't wait for this show! Ugh - I have no time!!!
Phase One	Post-auditions to the first week or two or rehearsal when I'm seeing whether my casting was good, how dynamics are, getting back into the swing of directing	"I hate this show. Ugh - what a stupid show. There's no acting, there's no chemistry. I hate theatre. I just want to drop everything now. Why am I not doing [the last show I did]? That one was waaay better than this will ever be!"
Phase Three	Once I'm in the swing of blocking again and the actors are beginning to learn their characters and play with the piece	"Oh man - this is the BEST!!! ROCK ON!"
Phase Four	Somewhere in the middle, once I have to put on my producer hat, in the transition phase from playing in rehearsals to actually being aware of a looming deadline	"...holycrap..."
Phase Five	Right before we get to two weeks before tech week, right aas we're starting mini-runs of whole sections and finishing up last-minute blocking and the producer side of it is growing past the part of comprehension	A mix: Power Emily strides forward, makes to-do lists, has her cell phone ringing constantly, smiles and walks over nay-sayers to get everything done; Hidden Emily holds her knees, curls up in a corner, wraps a strand of hair around her fingers and returns to pre-natal sucking of thumbage
Phase Six	A week or two before tech week, during runs	Can we say calm before the storm?
Phase Seven	Tech week	Emily transmorgraphies into Theatre Woman - lost in a blaze of ecstacy and agony - decision-maker extreme warring with secret interior sinking. Theatre completely engulfs her every breath and sleep is full of lighting design decisions while visions of missing props dance in her head. She is hardly herself - she simply is the show. And as much as the interior she doesn't believe that any of it can come together, She believes so much in the show that her belief alone will carry it through to completion.
The Lost Phase	Technically the show happens	Emotionally, everything's a blank.
Phase Eight	Post-Show Letdown	C.r.a.s.h.
Phase Nine	Obsessive-Compulsive Grasping: aka watching the show over and over, looking at photos, editing video, reminiscing with cast and crew, relishing every moment of the Lost Phase - this phase frequently overlaps the Pre-Phase, however, making for an odd but helpful tangle since Phase Nine often bleeds into Phase One, making Phase One bearable	"Awwwwwwww! I miss the show!"
Newly discovered! Phase Nil	No urgent preparation for any other show; no show one is in or crewing or attending; Phase Nine fading	Existentialism: (Please insert a French cafe accent here, complete with black spandex, beret and dripping cigarette ash) "Do aye caire about ze zeatre? Do aye love eet? Do aye 'ate eet? Do aye caire?" (a moment to flick ash and sigh disconsolately at the mimes across the road who are grinning maniacally at Camus-like-me) "Eet is all ridicule, 'ow you say, absurd." (another long drag on the cigerette) "Aie - aye mees eet." (standing, she throws the cigarette beneath one four-inch heel and grinds it into the wet cobblestones) "Or maybe aye don't love eet. 'Oo can say?" (the tan raincoat, knee length and belted, slips over her shoulders with a shrug) "Aye need a new life." (she disappears into the November fog of Paris, artistically passing through the smokey pools of yellow lamplight until the curtain falls)

Yeah. So - theatre life! Wanna join?

Mood: Phase Nil, silly!
Music: Hamlet CD - don't ask. I'm determined that theatre people are simply counterintuitive.
Thought: I just like saying the word "counterintuitive"

Become a statistic!

MIT is taking a survey of bloggers. It's worth the time that you were going to spend surfing the web anyway.



Mood: Bouf.
Music: "I Am a Minstrel True" from King of Fools my personal CD!
Completion is: The Brigadoon photo album! 300 pictures - phew. And that's with 50-100 photos left over.... Wow.

Everything was beautiful

At the ballet,
Every prince has got to have his swan.
Yes, everything was beautiful at the ballet - hey,
I was lovely
I was happy
I would love to
At the ballet.

Up a steep and very narrow stairway
To the voice like a metronome
Up a steep and very narrow stairway -
It wasn't paradise
It wasn't paradise
It wasn't paradise -
But.it.was
Home.

Sooo true. And in further news, I hates me scripts. Meh.

Mood: Well, the computer screen has withstood my head banging against it, which argues for the mushiness of the brain.
Music: Phantom, the movie version, because I don't work when I'm listening to my CD for KOF.
Thought: I don't appear to know the meaning of "simple."

Go.See.This.Now!

Tom Cruise Kills Oprah (.mov file - opens automatically - scroll down to see it - no commercials beforehand!)

Now that is quality entertainment!

Mood: I'm-a editin'
Music: Prob. the Hamlet CD or Mary Poppins
Kidneys!: So I'm making the final .avi files last night after John *sniffsniff* didn't win Dancing with the Stars and I realize that I've got these photoalbums I bought and I just found all these theatre photos! So I'm puttin' 'em together whilst waiting for the files to be done! Ha ha! And today I bought more albums! Ha HA! Oh, the cleverness of me!

LOOK LOOK LOOK!

LOOK LOOK LOOK! Charming the Moon

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaw. Happiness, Miss Piggy! La la la.

My day is made. Now go buy it! Harumph!

Mood: Much improved-ed

Music: Trapeze Swinger by Iron & Wine off my Hamlet CD

Thought: My nails are pretty.

Oh, and for those: Who didn't get it, I'm happy because I wrote the book. Me. I wrote it. Tra la!

And to take up space: I also have pretty photo albums now. And a prettyful shirt. Good golly, I've become girly.

Tomorrow's happiness includes: The finale of Dancing with the Stars - go John, go!

Happiness now is: Isn't Julie's cover artwork (see the picture) bee-YOU-tiful? Happy day! Dance of joy! Dance of glee! Fa la!

Meh.

Meh meh meh.

Ich weiss nicht warum "meh" - aber - meh.

Je veux que je connais (sp?) une autre langue mieux donc je peux ecrire avec pas des problems - mais, voila, ma vocabulaire, c'est tres petite, tres ancient, (tres meh?). Et encore, je ne sais pas de tout pourquoi je ne suis pas heureux. Je ne suis pas triste - mais, il y'a quelquefois qu'est...wrong. Off. Seigneur precieux - s'il te plait, donne-moi les graces! Amen!

Mood: Regard the title
Music: None - about to have music lessons
Silliness is: Buffy Season 7 marathon - but Spike's trying to be good! *sniffle* I've mentioned it before and will again, but one of the most interesting things about series TV is that it tends to "read like a book" - it feels like a novel that I'd stay up reading late at night. Speaking of which, I'm spoiling for a good new book! Hrumph! Ah ca.