Soooo tired August 14, 2006 ~ 11:33 am
Posted by Julie in : Da Cats, Drama Queen , comments closedI always come back from retreat weekends feeling exhausted. I have no idea why - it’s not like we’re running around or doing anything physically exhausting. We sit around, read plays, and provide feedback to the playwrights. Now granted, we did 10 plays in three days (8 full-lengths, 2 one-acts), and 7 of those were done on Saturday, but there was still time for swimming and watching the meteor shower. And I wasn’t awake at any ungodly hours, so I just don’t get it.
It was gorgeous in the Berkshires this weekend - perfect weather in the daytime, chilly at night. It felt like fall is just around the corner, which was a welcome change from the heatwave here. I was wearing a heavy hoodie most of the weekend and was perfectly comfortable in it. Just lovely.
And I came back to a house where cats had not peed on things and were very glad to see me. That was also lovely. I wish it would happen more often. In short, I am very relaxed, people. This despite the fact that I am back at work this morning and so is my boss. And that tomorrow I take Joe to the vet because he is small and getting older, and it’s been a while since he had a check up, so we might as well suck it up and go. Tonight I will be able to go home and concentrate on nothing but vegging out with cats and knitting. And perhaps some writing. It is a good day.
I am never going into a cave again. August 10, 2006 ~ 11:12 am
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen, Reviews , comments closedLast night my friend Eugene (known to some as “Shady Gene,” but that’s another story) talked Lori and I into seeing The Descent with him. It got a good review in The Times, and Gene likes a good horror movie apparently.
So armed with a shitload of food and candy from the outside world and a very larce Icee, we sat down to watch a movie about a caving expedition gone horribly, horribly wrong. I have to say that I liked the fact that this was an all chick movie. There was one guy in it, briefly, but the main characters were all women. Ass-kicking, flexible women who go completely nuts on the albino creepy things living in the cave they go into.
It was a decent movie. Not great, but not horrible. I didn’t feel like I’d wasted the $9.50 I spent on the ticket (side note, Loews on 34th has the cheapest movie tickets in the city - on the Upper West Side, tickets cost $10.50), and I did jump and scream more than a few times. More importantly, I was able to sit there and make fun of the horror genre with Gene and Lori. But next time, Lori and I get to pick the movie. Something nice and safe like…Prairie Home Companion. Actually, any movie except World Trade Center. None of us have any desire to see that - we’re still too close to the actual event.
Tomorrow I head off to the Berkshires for a weekend playwright’s retreat. We’re staying at the summer house of the co-artistic director of the theater I work at. The place has a pool and some woods and a crazy dog. And is only half an hour from where Rick is. So in addition to stretching out my dramaturgical muscles by commenting on new plays, I get some R&R and a chance to see my boy. It will be good.
Mack the Knife June 8, 2006 ~ 10:14 am
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen, In Da Hood , comments closed
Tulips ~ Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Happy Brooklyn Day! Alright, so now those people in Queens have glommed onto the idea and insist that it be called “Brooklyn/Queens Day,” but it started in Brooklyn over 150 years ago. And in case you’re curious, it’s basically a holiday to celebrate children - all public schools in the Borough have the day off. Unfortunately, that does not include public colleges, so I am at work. But we get to take the afternoon off for fun, games, and a cookout to celebrate that “Holy shit, we made it through Commencement and another year!” I support that.
After the festivities this afternoon, I will be taking off early. My friend Amanda and her mother ended up with an extra ticket to see Threepenny Opera tonight, and they’re giving it to me. For free. I love them. I love getting to see Broadway shows for free. I especially love that Alan Cumming is in this production and that it’s being held at Studio 54, where audiences can drink in their seats. Getting drunk while watching Alan Cumming is my idea of a good time.
But no, Bunsen, I will not yell anything about velvet ropes or pens to Alan Cumming during the curtain call, no matter how drunk I get.
Mish-Mosh (with pictures) November 4, 2005 ~ 9:34 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Drama Queen , comments closedI finally got home before midnight last night - largely due to leaving as soon as the run-through of the play was done. I have to call the director today to give him my notes, but do you know how fan-fucking-tastic it was to be in my house by 10:30, and able to upload photos before I crashed and burned? Well, you’re about to find out, because here there be photos. Crafty ones, at that.
First, my Big Brother’s Christmas present, a simple striped, ribbed number (no comments about “ribbed for his pleasure” because if you knew my brother, that would make you throw up a little in your mouth). It’s blue because my brother is red-green color blind: blue is one of the few colors he sees “correctly.” Here it is, modeled by an obliging Eeyore jack-o-lantern:
My brother is damned lucky I love him, because I heart this scarf. So does Rick.
Now, for what I did last weekend while watching Breaking Bonaduce and My Fair Brady on VH1. (Note: I SO can’t help my fixation with those shows. They are like trainwrecks that must be watched.) I couldn’t get into my knitting - my attention span has been shot to hell, along with my sleep patterns lately. So I did something else.
A while ago Regan, Aimee, and I were chatting, and we decided that stitch markers wouldn’t be all that hard to make. Well, Regan has made numerous stitch markers by now, but this weekend was my first foray into them. I think they turned out pretty well:
I ended up with a bunch of wire cuts on my fingers, because the memory wire I was using was a bit too thick. In a land without Michael’s, Wal-Mart, or a Target with a craft section, I had to make due with what I could find. But I think they’re pretty anyway. And my hands have mostly healed by now.
Finally, for Sloth, who is (I am sure) totally bored with all this talk of craftiness, I give you the new shoes I ordered on Zappos. They are so beautiful that people have come up to me all week to compliment me, and even Rick would like a pair. As he said “I’ve never had shoe envy before, but I think I need a pair of those.” Luckily, they’re Chuck Taylors, which are unisex:
“I Caused the 5th Grade Moliere Scare” April 30, 2004 ~ 9:28 am
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen , comments closedSubtitled: “How I made Moliere More Controversial Than He’s Been Since He Died”
Part of the deal when I work at a dramaturg at some theaters is that I have to write a study guide. Many schools around the city take advantage of lower-priced tickets to plays to supplement their arts programs. They bring students to see shows and most likely a talkback with the cast and crew of a show. To prepare them, I write a little historical background on the play, the playwright, some of the themes of the play, etc. I gear it towards high school students, because they are usually the ones who come. This week, we got fifth graders.
The study guide wasn’t geared towards fifth graders. I talked about the Cold War, and not being able to be buried in sacred ground because Moliere was an actor, and coughing up blood on stage (which Moliere did, only hours before he died, as he performed the lead in The Imaginary Invalid). I also made mention that Moliere’s later life and plays were controversial. Tartuffe ignited all kinds of fury because some priests/pastors/what-have-you couldn’t see that it was making fun of hypocrites who practice religion for their own selfish gain, not making fun of religion itself. And I wrote a sentence about Moliere’s wife being rumored by his detractors to have married his own daughter. I was trying to show the lengths to which people were going to try to wreck his career. The daughter thing is probably entirely apocryphal. It has nothing to do with The Bourgeois Gentleman. I was just commenting on the mans life, and critics were very much a part of that. That being said…high schoolers would have gotten a bang out of it. It would have been a discussion point, possibly. It was not on a fifth grade level! But people should have known that the second they saw the analogy between France’s relationship with the Ottoman Empire in the 17th Century and US/USSR relations during the Cold War. Fifth graders wouldn’t get that, either.
So on Wednesday when the cast went to the school to meet with the kids, they were expecting high schoolers, too. Big shock to see the little kids, presentation had to be entirely re-worked on the spot. And afterwards the principal calls my director into his office to discuss the study guide, and how parents are worried because it said Moliere married his daughter (newsflash, I said “it was rumored that the young woman was his daughter”) and some of them didn’t want their kids to see the performance.
Well, fuck. I get my director sent to the principal’s office and make Moliere the most controversial playwright these fifth graders have ever heard of. Go me. But seriously, am I alone in thinking that someone should have read these study guides before distributing them? Whether it was the Education Coordinator at the theater or the teachers, you always read something you’re handing out. It’s just irresponsible not to. I take some of the blame, but not all of it. But I do want a button that says “I Caused The 5th Grade Moliere Scare”. 
Gotta Love Live Theatre… April 28, 2004 ~ 11:21 am
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen , comments closedBecause it makes you remember the true meaning of “company”. Last night I decided to go to see “The Bourgeois Gent” again. When I got there, the house manager was running a little short on hands, so I took over concessions. Then I noticed our director making several trips to the dressing rooms. This is not normal…normally he leaves the actors alone pre-show to let them get ready. After I closed the concession stand and we went up to our seats for the start of the show, he tells me what’s wrong…
Apparently one of our chorus members, who is onstage for the first 30 minutes of the show and starts off the show with her singing, has been puking up her guts for the past half hour. She isn’t going on. Our stage manager is going on in her place. Who’s in the booth, running the cues? The house manager. Well, who’s going to make the curtain speech? The Artistic Director, who has just been called back - he was on his way home. I got promoted to ASM (we normally don’t have one, but the Stage Manager couldn’t strike props at intermission in costume). And of course, we had a reviewer in the house. So the whole situation was explained to said reviewer, who stuck it out with us. And the curtain speech explained the situation to the audience. And we started.
Let me just tell you, I have never been so proud of and impressed by a group of actors. They had to rearrange musical numbers with almost no notice, re-choreographing several of them on the spot. Our stage manager, who does not like to be in any kind of spotlight, went out on stage and sang and acted her heart out. We had a bit of a rocky start, but they were troopers and won the audience entirely over. And because they were trying so hard to cover, they were selling it in a way they never had before. It was one of our best performances so far.
Of course, something had to jinx it. After coming off stage, the stage manager ran into a wall (not as hard to do as it seems), and when I last saw her had a lump the size of a golf ball coming in over her left eye. She does not respond well to being called “Lumpy,” even though the Artistic Director and I found it hysterical (of course, the AD is also the one who, when he found out my mom is a nurse, asked if I had ever said “Mom, I need milk. Stat!”).
Hopefully our chorus member just had food poisoning and it’s through her system now. Hopefully if she didn’t, our choreographer can fill in the role tonight. Hopefully if that doesn’t happen, our stage manager’s lump has gone down and she can see out of her left eye and can go on stage. Because if none of the above happen, guess who will be making her off-Broadway debut tonight? That’s right. Me. Keep your fingers crossed this doesn’t happen.
And give a mental round of applause, if you would, for my cast and crew, who are wonderful and deserving of glowing reviews and everlasting fame.
Back April 14, 2004 ~ 3:44 pm
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen, Urban Family , comments closedWell, after a two and a half day absence from work, I’m back. Joy.
And my weekend is already stacking up. Rick is coming to see a dress rehearsal of “Bourgeois Gent” tonight and we’re getting dinner before, I’m meeting my friend Jordana tomorrow night before she sees our final dress rehearsal, Friday night we open, Saturday I’ll be going to the Brooklyn Museum to see the new exhibit about contemporary Brooklyn artists (Jordana’s husband’s work is part of the exhibit), and Sunday it looks like Rick and I are taking the kids out to see the Mets play the Pirates. Whew. Busy, but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve had enough of being home sick in my apartment the past two and a half days. I need to get out. Especially with all this rain lately…I have cabin fever.
Monday April 12, 2004 ~ 12:20 pm
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen, Rants , comments closedHappy Monday, people. Pleh. Mondays suck. Why don’t we just have three day weekends every weekend? I can’t bitch too much, though. It’s noon and I’m at home in my jammies, typing up a study guide that is going to be given to the high school kids that see “The Bourgeois Gentleman”. Rough going at times, but it’s cool to see the finished product up on the company’s website.
Had a kickass rehearsal last night. The tech crew was building our set last night (this company is a repertory company, so we’ve been rehearsing on the sets of the shows that have been running), so we had a speed through in the lobby. 1 hour, 45 minutes, baby. And that’s with music and dancing. We rock! Oh, if you’re in the NYC area and are interested in seeing the show, email me (contact info is now on the side), and I’ll let you know which theatre it’s with. Not going to put that up in lights for everyone to see!
And now, a gripe. Another theatre company that I am associated with (*not* the one I am doing “BG” with) is taking advantage of me. I have been their resident dramaturg for two years now, and at first I had a weekly stipend. Not a huge one, but life was nicer with it. Then they told me they could no longer afford the stipend. I said, fine, and in the interest of the company stayed on, attending weekly readings and providing feedback, working with playwrights, etc. for free. I still did all their production dramaturgy and got paid for the shows I worked on.
Then I started working with other companies, and my “resident” company got a little snippy. I can’t prove it, but I have a feeling that this is why I was not asked to work on two of their productions this year. They did not feel that they needed a dramaturg for them. Fine, whatever. A couple of weeks ago, I saw my name on the draft of a grant they were writing. They had listed me as “key personnel,” along with the Artistic Directors. They’re using my name to get money that I never see!
And then this week…through this company, I went to Nebraska last summer and taught at a college playwrighting workshop with a few other company members. We had a blast, and are making plans to come back this year. The man in charge at the college and I are friends, and we started discussing ideas for this year’s program as soon as I left last year. Among them was that Rick come out with us this year so that there could be an acting component. We were totally in agreement about this. I talked to him (my Nebraskan friend) this weekend while he was in town, and he is still 100% behind this. But I have heard that our pay this year will come not from the college we will be teaching at (like it did last year), but funneled through this theatre company. And our pay rates are going down as a result, and Rick is supposedly not getting paid anything???
Excuse me, but FUCK that. I am no longer officially on payroll to this company. Rick has never been on payroll to this company. Another person coming out with us has never been on payroll to this company. There is, in fact, only one person coming out with us who is on payroll to this company. Funding for the rest of us should not come through this company, especially if they are skimming off the top (as it appears that they are), and not paying Rick at all. I am so fucking pissed right now, I want to take the managing director and rip his balls off. You do *not* fuck with me or my boy like this. This is not how to reward my loyalty to a company I have stuck with through thick and thin.
I sent said Managing Director an email requesting a meeting. I would tell him my points in an email, but he has a nasty habit of ignoring my emails. So, if he wants to play hardball, we’ll play hardball. And in then end, I’ll get what I want or I’ll walk. I still teach this summer, but as freelance with the college, not through this company. I’m tired of being fucked without so much as a kiss.
And now, rant over, I will go back to working on the study guide.
Things that have made me happy in the past 24 hours… April 9, 2004 ~ 11:19 am
Posted by Julie in : Academic Office Monkey, Drama Queen, Random Insanity, Reviews, Rick , comments closed1. Queen is on the radio right now - love Freddie Mercury!
2. Being promoted to Diva status yesterday 
3. It’s 60 degrees out, and sunny!
4. Rick called and left a rambling 5 minute message telling me that he wasn’t sure if he was going to play a full game of golf or just hit balls at the driving range, and if he was going to play golf he was going to be home later, but he would try to call me and let me know what he was doing, and if I got out of work before I heard from him, I should just go to his place and hang out and wait for him. Basically, the gist of this is that he misses me and wants to see me today. It made me laugh and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
5. Dyeing Easter eggs last night.
6. My apartment is now cleaned.
7. Nobody is really at work today, which means the work day ends at 3. Woohoo!
8. Tech week for “Bourgeois Gentleman” starts this weekend. For the actors, this means a lot of work. For me…well, it means some work because I have to write the study guide for the show, but mainly it means a lot of fun watching the show come together on our set (finally!).
9. Reading the first chapter of Anne Rice’s “Blood Canticle” on the bus this morning. The Vampire Lestat on a tirade, baby, what could be better than this? I was laughing out loud - I couldn’t help it!
There were other things, but I can’t think of them…oh well, still happy!
“Oh, to have to prose with morons!” April 5, 2004 ~ 1:27 am
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen, Rick, Technobabble , comments closedI’m adding that quote to my list of “lines actors have ad libbed at rehearsals”. Anyone who has ever been in a rehearsal knows that this happens all the time, often with hysterical results. In this case, the original line was “Oh, to have to prose with ignorant females!”. So the actor wasn’t far off, but it was still funnier the way he said it than it is in actuality.
So here I am at 1:30 AM, which is actually 2:30 AM, thanks to Daylight Savings Time, still awake. Why is that? Because I finally got out of rehearsal at 11:30, made it home by 12:30 (thank you NYC MTA!), and decided to see if I could figure out what’s wrong with my laptop. See, we loaded Sims “Making Magic” on it today for Rick’s kids, and have had several freeze ups since then. I think the real problem is that it’s a pretty big program, and on top of the five million songs (8.5 GB, thankyouverymuch) that Rick has added to the laptop since I loaned it to him, the poor computer is having a tiny nervous breakdown. I’ll ask my computer genius friend tomorrow to make sure.
And I know that I’m rambling, so I’m just going to sign off with this thought: does anyone have an iPod mini? Are they worth the three week wait I’ll have to go through to get one? They’re sold out all over NYC, and I may just order one through the Apple site, but want to make sure it’s worth it. Feedback is welcome!
