‘Tis the season! It’s about time to haul out the holly, deck the halls, and decorate the tree with some shotgun shell wreaths. And after all that’s done, finish the day with a big helping of turkey ice cream.
Thanks to Greater Tuna actors Brad DePlanche and Morgan Lund for getting up extra early today and adding their own special brand of fun to Fox in the Morning. I was there to witness the hilarity in person, and trust me, turkey ice cream is not something you want an up-close view of. Ick.
You can experience even more Bertha and Didi by getting your tickets to Greater Tuna today! And yes, I realize that between my last update and this post, I’m serving up a lot of Tuna. What can I say, I never was very adept at baking pumpkin pie.
The Christmas season is fast approaching, and after Thursday rolls past there won’t be any time for illusions to the contrary. As an apprentice here at Actors, however, I’ve been immersed in the holiday spirit for the past month, rehearsing for and performing in A Christmas Story nightly (Come see it before it closes this Sunday! Tickets are just about gone, but you may be able to get in on an empty seat pass.), while during the day I’m already knee-deep in preparing for A Christmas Carol, which opens December the 8th.
Going into rehearsals for Carol a week and a half ago, I thought for sure that I’d be entirely sick of Christmas and have to endure the hours with gritted teeth, but surprisingly, beginning a new show has been a breath of fresh air to me. I think this comes in no small part from the fact that although these two shows are both about Christmas, they differ completely in their themes and foci. Story is all about the modern Christmas of childhood, with the excitement of getting what you want, spending time with your family, and the value of dreams and memories. Carol, on the other hand, is timeless in its presentation of the Christmas spirit, with religious carols and underscoring to highlight the poignant messages of goodwill and kindness. After spending a month telling a story about the commercialized event Christmas has become, it has been refreshing for me to become a part of a story focused on what Christmas can mean for people’s happiness.
The only downside to this production of Carol is that for us performers, we have to work right up through December 28th, with only Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. I plan to fly home on the 24th, spend Christmas day with my family, then we’ll all travel back to Louisville so that they can come and see me perform in Carol. Before it’s even been performed, the show is already doing its work, bringing families together to celebrate each other and the season itself. It truly is a family production: there are even a couple of families in the cast of Carol, bringing an extra measure of fondness and familiarity to the relationships being developed between the characters. The Cratchits, played by Louisville locals Drew and Sherman Fracher, already have a glowing warmth and chemistry that couldn’t be recreated in two whole months of rehearsal.
As for Thanksgiving this week, I won’t be able to go home to North Carolina to spend time with my family. Instead, I’ll celebrate the day with my Actors family here at the theater, feasting on a much anticipated (and well-renowned) dinner provided by the associates. Should be an evening fit even for old Fezziwig.
In a tiny Texas town called Tuna, the day begins, as it does every morning, with the “Wheelis Struvie Report” coming in over the airwaves. Deejays Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report the latest breaking news–including the winners of a local essay contest–before cutting to a commercial for Didi’s Used Weapons (“If Didi’s can’t kill it, it’s immortal!”). Listeners also hear an updated weather report from weatherman Harold Dean Lattimer (today’s forecast includes a high temperature of 101, dust storms, and a swarm of locusts) and all the details about the Pet of the Week–a rat terrier/chihuahua mix named Yippy–from the lone member of the Greater Tuna Humane Society, Petey Fisk. Arles and Thurston end their show by declaring, “If you can find someplace you like better than Tuna…MOOOOVE!”
And so theatre audiences are introduced to Greater Tuna, the play that brings us such colorful characters as Didi Snavely (who accessorizes her outfits with grenade earrings) and Aunt Pearl (who may or may not be responsible for the mysterious disappearance of several neighborhood dogs), among many others. The lively townfolk of Tuna, Texas are not to be missed, and the fact that that all 19 characters are played by 2–count ‘em 2–actors only adds to the evening’s entertainment. That adds up to a whopping 46 costume changes throughout the show. Plus men in dresses. Who doesn’t love that?
Aside from crazy costumes and lots of laughs, what makes Greater Tuna a must-see is the play’s honesty. We all know a snooty, gossipy Vera Carp. During our morning commutes, we’ve listened to radio shows that, like the “Wheelis Struvie Report,” are more noise and silliness than real news. And maybe not everyone out there hopelessly dreamed of being a star cheerleader, but we can still relate to Charlene Bumiller’s painfully awkward adolescence.
It’s a show with a heart the size of the Lone Star State, and it opens tonight at Actors. Come out and share some laughs with us. Cowboy boots optional.
Nov 20, 21 at 10:30p.m. Intermezzo Cafe at Actors Theatre 316 W. Main Street
music director Rebecca Davis
featuring: Brandon T. Chinn, Alexix Bronkovic, York Walker, Brittany Parker, Patricia Cancio, Brett Ashley Robinson, Kara Davidson, David Darrow, Dan Applegate
with music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Rodgers and Hart, Bernstein and Sondheim, Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, John Kandr, Fred Ebb, Jay Lerner and Frederic Loewe, Frank Loesser, Cole Porter, Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, and Kander and Ebb
So, it’s Monday and not even lunchtime yet, and already I’ve got press kits to organize, an opening night to prepare for, and my boss tells me I might be dressing up in Victorian garb for an upcoming tea party (oh trust me, there will be more on that in the near future)…
Enough about press kits and tea parties, though. I’m going to take a breather from today’s demands and start thinking about January. Know why? Because January not only brings in the new year–it also means another Lobster Feast will be upon us!
I’m talking all-you-can-eat lobster buffet, live and silent auctions with fabulous prizes, a chance to dress up as your favorite movie star/character, and dancing the night away (if you can still move after all that lobster). Along with all the fun comes the warm and fuzzy feeling you’ll get knowing the price of your ticket goes toward supporting Actors Theatre and all that we do here.
Come on, you know you’re excited. You know you don’t want to miss out on the fun. You know you’re wondering when I’ll get around to telling you how to get tickets (here you go)
So, mark your calendars. Start planning your killer costumes. And get your dancing shoes ready. We’ll see you on January 30.
Having closed a very successful Dracula I’ve enjoyed a very much needed quiet week here at Actors. Now, however I am gearing up for a busy month of November filled with not main stage shows, but: Independent projects!
I’m really very excited about working on different brain children born from Interns and Apprentices alike. I went to the first Improv workshop earlier this week which was a ton of fun. The idea with that is to eventually take what we can put together in these workshops and hit the streets, clubs and bars with our comedy sketches. I’m an absolute nut for Improv, so I’m sure happy this is an option.
I’m also participating in Fastfood! The Musical! Which we’ll be performing later in the month. Another conceptual brainchild of apprentices. I haven’t done a “musical” since high school, but I look forward to flexing those rusty muscles and getting in to it.
There have been several other ideas out there. An Apprentice was thinking of putting up a version of Orestes 2.0, The Apprentice Cabaret will be doing another night of music from the golden age of Broadway, and there have been talks of getting together as a group and working out to bulk up or slim down for the spring.
I am so thrilled to be a part of such a dynamic, bold, intelligent group of entrepreneurs who just want to have fun and create good theatre. And what a better place to do it than at Actors?
So what’s an intern to do when her boss heads off to the beaches of Mexico for a week? ( Oh wait, he reads this blog…ahem, what I meant was, “when her wonderful boss takes a much deserved vacation”) If you think the answer is “leave the office early, no one will ever know,” then let me clue you into the life of an Actors Theatre intern.
When you’re an Actors Theatre intern and you’re left to your own devices for a week, it’s not time to take things easy. It’s time to hit the ground running. And when you’re the Public Relations intern (like yours truly), it’s time to hit the ground running fast. Here’s a brief glimpse at my to-do list: help organize social events for the Actors Ambassadors group (more on this awesome organization later), keep things running smoothly on the opening night of A Christmas Story (which, by the way, is this Thursday night!), make sure the press has all the photos and information they need on productions and events, prepare the press release for the Humana Festival (is it really time to start thinking about the Humana Festival? Already?), and many more tasks that will somehow get done this week. Are you exhausted by reading all this? I’m exhausted. Are you ready to buy me a drink out of sympathy? I’m ready for you to buy me a drink.
Only I can’t really feel sorry for myself, because at the end of the day, I truly love my job (to my boss: I would write that even if you didn’t read this). It’s non-stop, it’s keeping organized when everything happens at once, it’s meeting and greeting, it’s keeping a cool head, it’s promoting Actors Theatre’s events and productions, it’s updating a blog, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter (speaking of which, are you following us yet?)…
…It’s awesome. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. So keep reading, because I’ll have plenty more to say as the year goes on–as will our other awesome bloggers. But for now, back to that to-do list.
So Christmas Story is fast on its way to opening. Have you ever wondered to yourself how do they get those sets up? Enter the set crew and (with lots of fan fare) the Apprentices!!!!!! We were able to put the entire set up in a record 4 days. All the apprentices work four hour shifts some starting at 8 am (That is in the morning, and really early if you are in your 20’s) . Now I know you are asking yourself, B. what did you do to put up a set? You have no carpentry skills at all. I mean we think you are great but do you even know what a drill bit is? Well to be perfectly honest no, I didn’t know what a drill bit was and if you had asked me a week ago I would have told you it had something to do with a horse, but I am a changed woman. I will have everyone know that I built stairs!!! Yes Stairs!!!! Which people will use to walk up and down on during the show. And they work. You can walk on them and even jump on them. There are also handrails which I installed. AMAZE-BALLS!!!!!! So now as a new load in master I will impart my newly found wisdom on to you:
Things I learned during load in:
You get to cuss- This is probably the best past of load in. I have always enjoyed cursing, but have never found a place where I can explore various expletive combinations without judgment. Enter load in. You can curse about anything there. Really you don’t even need a reason. And not only is it praised it is celebrated and encouraged. I came up with some very creative combinations. E-mail me if you would like a sample.
You get dirty- There is something extremely satisfying about doing hard labor and getting filthy because of it. The shop is covered in sawdust and you are lifting set pieces that are like 7,000 lbs (a rough estimate). But you are sweaty and gross and feel like all the effort that you are expending is totally worth it.
You get to hang out with cool people- There are 22 apprentices here at the theatre, and we are all so busy that we hardly get a chance to see each other. So this is one of the few times that we get to hang out with people we wouldn’t usually get to see. Its great. Bonding over hard labor creates memories to last a lifetime.
Power Tools- I never used a power tool before I got here, and now I am in love. How did I exist before a power drill? They are amazing. There are so many things I want to drill now. And interesting fact: they go both in forward and in reverse. So you can take screw in and out of wood or steel. I did not know that. That is why it took me four hours to put railings on stairs. You can only imagine what amazing strings of expletives came out of my mouth as I sat trying to screw in nails in reverse.
Shop Guys are the best- Really. They are great. Anyone who doesn’t loose their temper with me, constantly quotes the Big Lebowski, and trust me to use a router (yep that is right- I used a router) are good with me.
Come see me as an Elf, and my amazing, wonderful, fantastical stairs in A Christmas Story.
