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.
So Midsummer Night’s Dream closed Saturday night. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to become best friends with everyone in the cast I was proud of the fact that I got to know them all well. After Dracula got out for the evening I went to Intermezzo to have a drink and celebrate the closing.
I got a bit melancholy saying goodbye to the visiting actors. Most of them will be going back to NYC. It won’t be the same here when they’re all gone. Most of them gave me great little gems of wisdom, like: “Look me up on Facebook!”, “Humana will kick your butt, have fun!” and ”You’re part of an Apprenti/Intern Fraternity, your stuck with us whether you like it or not.” These pearls all cheered me up, oddly enough. Through Facebook I can keep contact with all of these extremely talented people, and when I move back to NYC I can hopefully meet up with them again and do more work.
Humana will kick my butt, but I think the core of that piece of wisdom, is how lucky we all will be when we’re working on one of the Nation’s largest new plays festival. I’ll meet dozens and dozens of talented, wonderful people I can add to my Facebook contact list.
And then, there is always the wonderful fact that I and all the other apprentices and interns from this year will, and forever, be inducted into the wonderful fraturnity that exists because of the work we all did at Actors Theatre.
Midsummer closed, but the opportunities I’ve had in meeting these people have only opened a wide range of possibilities in the future. I can’t wait.
It’s days like today that remind me that I’m actually here, at Actors Theatre of Louisville, working at one of the premiere regional theatres in the nation.
This is DAppleMan, signing in for my first post. I’m one of the new voices promised to all you readers out there, one of many from which you’ll soon hear. I and 21 other young theatre artists are here as apprentices, working in various departments around the theatre, such as in the scene shop, marketing, or the costume shop. In our spare time (haha), we rehearse, perform, and work backstage on shows. It’s a busy life, but I’m loving every minute of it.
Anyway, today we were fortunate enough to host a special question-and-answer session with none other than Sam Shepard, the Pullitzer Prize-winning American playwright. Anyone who has taken Theatre 101 has read at least one of his plays, and you could make a compelling argument that he is one of the top five playwrights in American history. And he called us, the apprentice/intern company, out of the blue, to see if he could come and talk to us about playwriting. Needless to say, we were happy to oblige.
He walked into the Victor Jory Theatre with Marc Masterson, Artistic Director, sat down at center stage, and without introduction began taking our questions. We asked him all about his process in writing plays, what particularly attracted him to theatre, his film and stage acting, which writers he admires. Shepard was very direct and to the point — he was plain with his words, and elucidated his answers precisely. He writes all his text on typewriters, and doesn’t deal with computers at all; I find it ironic that he’ll never know I made this blog post. He might not even know what a blog is. After the session ended as abruptly as it began, I went down, shook his hand, left, and that was that.
When you can shake the hand of one of the movers and shakers of American theatre, as part of your everyday job…I’m constantly amazed at how lucky I am to be here.
Well, for one hour on one night, we can at least pretend life is a cabaret.
Tomorrow night, after the Dracula and A Midsummer Night’s Dream performances, four Actors Theatre apprentices will perform selected songs at Intermezzo Cafe (the restaurant in Actors Theatre). If you join us, you’ll hear the lovely voices of apprentices Alexis Bronkovic, Brandon Chinn, Brittany Parker, and York Walker as they cover a variety of works from contemporary musicals.
Some people sing for their supper…well at Actors Theatre, we sing purely for your entertainment! (Though we won’t say no if you care to buy us a drink…) So make plans now to be here at 10:30pm tomorrow night for an evening of FREE songs and entertainment.
Free music, good company, and good drinks. See? Life really is a cabaret.
Eleven years ago today, Matthew Shepard, victim of a brutal hate crime, lost his life.
This past weekend, tens of thousands rallied and marched in Washington, D.C. to show their support for GLBT rights.
And tonight, Actors Theatre will become a part of history as well, joining over 150 theatres worldwide to take part in a stage reading of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.
8:00pm. Tonight. Free of charge (though all donations are appreciated and will go to the Fairness Campaign and the Matthew Shepard Foundation). We’ll be there. We hope you will, too.
You know what–a gray, rainy, cold Friday is still a Friday, so I’m not going to complain. Too much.
Besides, not only is it Friday, but it’s a LATE SEATING Friday! What’s Late Seating, you ask? “Um, where have you been?” would be my (somewhat snarky) answer, but because I’m also a nice person (somehwat), I’d follow that reply up with this: The Late Seating at Actors is a fantastic night of entertainment that features new work by local artists in performance, music, art, and video. Plus, there’s a cash bar. And entry to this awesome evening will only cost you $10.
Tonight’s Late Seating will bring you work from artists like Adventure, Carlos Gamez de Francisco, George Parker, William Morrow, and Actors Theatre’s own Sean Daniels, to name just a few.
So, stick a $10 bill in your pocket and join us at Actors Theatre tonight at 10:00. You won’t be disappointed. And when others ask you about Late Seating, you’ll be able to say, “Um, where have you been?”
