ITEM! With my return to the city that means a return to sketching, (Finally!!) so look for some new sketches in the next day or two!
ITEM! Earlier this summer I received an email from a gallery in Houston inquiring to see if I would be interested in doing a showing of the sketches. A few days ago it was confirmed that in December the Xnihilo Gallery will be hosting an exhibit of my subway sketches. So if you are in Houston come and see me! I'll be there in person for the opening. The show itself will be up until early January (more specific dates when I know them).
Here I am. In my own bed. In my own apartment. Under my own sheets. I'm incredibly happy to be home, but I'll admit that it's weird. Waiting on the platform for the subway today seemed... odd. As if I was a tourist or something. Part of was that I wasn't wearing my "city drag." My ipod was at home uncharged. My messenger bag was in my apartment full of books I carried home from the forest today. My cell phone was also at home, forgotten because I am out of the habit of needing it after 3 months with no service. On the subway I had no book to read, no book to sketch in, no ipod to listen to... it was an alien experience. I was my summer stock self in my real life world and the fit wasn't right. Tomorrow I go back to the regular world checking for keys, wallet, ipod, cell phone, metro card before I step foot outside the house. Messenger bag full of pens and books over my shoulder. I have a life full of errands to run, and work to catch up on.
Okay... I know it's too small. I know it would be impractical. I know that I'd have to move somewhere where I had the land to put it up... but how cool would it be to live here?
Today marks one week until I leave the forest for the last (?) time and return to my life in the city. I'm SERIOUSLY looking forward to it in case none of you could tell. Life here has been good, and I've done some good work while I was here this year but I lost some serious momentum when the TD who had been here for most of the season left. The last two shows frustrated me just a touch because the set should be massive but with my extremely limited stage space I wasn't able to achieve that. Maybe in the end that was okay since both shows are about family relations and the stresses of family relations so having them (literally) on top of each other might be an appropriate statement, who knows.
The end of the season means that the resident company, the group of younger actors who formed the chorus for the musicals, are gone. The theatre is empty. There's no one at lunch or dinner. Things are much like they were in the first week when no one was here but technicians. That also means that there is no one here to wait tables or work at the cabaret, (the post show song and dance presentation in the bar at the theatre). So, tonight I have my first shift waiting tables in the cabaret. I've worked in the kitchen of the cabaret before, but never waiting tables. I'm sort of looking forward to it. I haven't waited tables in quite a while. Plus I hope to make enough money to pay for my rental car trip home!
After two days of calendar juggling and phone calls between three different theatres and producers I am several steps closer to confirming work for the next few months. This is an exciting process for me. Not too long ago I was convinced that the next year was going to be a rough one and that I'd end up temping or worse in the coming months in order to make things happen financially. One of the two jobs that I spoke about yesterday has been confirmed now, and the second is very close. If that job goes through then I will have enough work confirmed to keep me busy through the new year, 5 new shows and 2 new theatres on my resume. The downside, as I said yesterday is that this also means that I'll be in the city for barely a month before I leave again for a 6 week residency in PA. That's almost half the time that I've been away already. While I love the idea of being outside the city, and working in places other than Manhattan this long residency distresses me a little. Being away from home that long keeps me from restablishing my life there. A month in and then a month or more away means that I can't really date or start new patterns of anything. It's rough, but I want and need the work, so it's what I'll do.
I'm sick of actors and musicals and mosquitos and sandwiches and no cell reception and no high speed internet and singing right outside my door and not being able to do... anything.
I want to play cards with my friends and eat what I want and ride the subway and sketch and sleep in my own room and wear some different clothes and work with some different people and go to movies when I want and watch TV and... ugh.
I have three weeks left here. The last week will be pretty boring as the last two shows share a set and the only change in between is furniture. I really have nothing to do here, and what i do have left to do... I have very little will to actually do. I'm tired and I just want to be at home. UGH!
I have two very distinct jobs possibilities open to me after this, both of which are well paying, and both of which are outside NYC, a goal that I've had for a while now. One of them though would require a month long residence in the middle of bumfuck Pennsylvania and I'm not sure how much I really want to do that. I just want to be at home for a while.
Earlier in the season when my wish to see a bear was fulfilled I realized that I had to upgrade my ultimate "seen it all" moment. After much thought I came to the conclusion that a pirate-monkey riding a cybernetic bear would be the ultimate, and so that's what I started wishing for. Today while perusing the internet I discovered that that dream may not be as far off as you might be thinking.
My mom is visiting and has brought a veritable BOUNTY of southern delicacies that were a huge hit around the theatre tonight. We started with peaches the size of softballs that were so soft and juicy that they melted in your mouth. You definitely required a good hand-washing after eating one. Then came muscadines. Almost no one else here had ever had one but they became an instant hit and went very quickly. Tomorrow I plan to boil up the 10 lbs of raw peanuts she brought for me and I expect that they will go just as quickly. Also in the treasure trove were Duke's mayonnaise, some pralines and several jars of chow-chow but I plan to keep all of those for myself. I really miss southern food, (as anyone who has read me for any amount of time must know) and this was like manna from the gods. Thanks Mom and Bette for the treats!
I often tell people that reality breaks down around me, that coincidence is too strong a factor in my life and that connections get made in my life that don't get made for other people. Today I have another in a string of examples.
I know three people who live in Las Vegas. One is a stage manager who I met almost 6 years ago working in NC. The other two are a married couple, a director, and a musical director. When my friend Alison moved there a few weeks ago I told her that I'd try to introduce her to my friend the stage manager. (She already knew the other two because we all worked together last summer.) Last night I emailed my friend and gave her a little information about Alison and tried to nudge them a bit closer towards meeting. Today I get the following text message from Alison: "You know my light board op's wife. Small fucking world."
All I can say is... yes, smaller for me than for some it seems.
Here's a little glimpse into what I am doing here and how my job works. This sketch was completed back in April for a meeting with a director. This was the last of several sketches working through the concepts for this show. About three months later here is the show as it appears onstage, the sketch brought to reality. There were some small changes as you can see, mostly to do with arrangement of platforming. The changes were made because I am using "stock" scenery, stuff that already exists and therefore doesn't impact my budget at all. When I was sketching I had no real idea what sizes and shapes of platforms existed, I just worked of my best guess based on what MOST theatres would have. I also didn't account visually for the band being onstage in my original sketch. I came pretty close though.
