Tonight's your last night to se ME (and Week 3 recap)

Tonight’s your last chance to see me perform in Theater: The Musical!

I missed last Thursday’s show because I had laryngitis, but my voice had recovered enough for me to play in Saturday night’s Tennessee Williams show. We kept it lighter this time, since the audience clearly wanted it lighter. I played a character who smoked the whole time which was a good exercise in space object work, and a character who was subtly in love with Larry’s character. It worked well, considering the main storyline was about Tara being secretly in love with Laurie. (The audience wanted lesbian Williams.)

Tuesday night at rehearsal we worked a lot on absurdist playwrights (Albee, Ionesco, Beckett) and split screen scenes. Something we’d been having problems with. I’m excited to play tonight, but sad it’s my last night.

Come tonight! If you can’t, come see the show before it closes May 31.

Here’s what happened last weekend:

Thursday: Writer’s Block – in the style of Woody Allen (yes, he wrote plays)
Marsha (Mandy) has writer's block until she starts dating her accident-prone therapist, Dr. Allen Goldstein (Christian), who is even more neurotic than she is. But when her cutthroat editor Kathleen (Laurie) convinces her to put everything into her new novel, Allen starts to wonder if Marsha's been grabbing the extinguisher because his arm's on fire – or because her career is.

Friday: Shooting Richard – in the style of David Mamet
Famous actor Richard Sylvestri (Christian) wants to make art films, but his agent (Mandy) and producer (Sal) keep forcing him into mindless Hollywood schlock. When the mob calls Sal’s loan, he needs Richard dead to save his skin, but he can’t dupe the young Hollywood starlet Cassandra (Debra) into pulling the trigger. So he pulls it himself.

Saturday: The Broken Figurine – in the style of Tennessee Williams
Virginia (Laurie) is becoming a woman and Peter Calhoun (Larry) has come courting. Melinda (Tara) tries to talk her best friend Virginia out of returning his advances. He’s a mean brute of a man, but that’s not the Melinda’s only reason. Melinda doesn’t like men. She wants Virginia for herself.

Week 2: Williams, Martin, and Simon

I managed to survive performing in all three shows in the second weekend of Theater: The Musical, but I’m not sure my voice did. I got off to a rocky start when my character had to scream at Larry on Thursday and it all went down hill from there. Hopefully I can recover by Thursday.

Other than the voice damage, this weekend was a study in playing supporting (yet important) characters who didn’t need to be on stage much.

Thursday night I went out in the second scene as Larry’s character’s old father. As soon as I left the stage after that scene I knew two things: I would have to yell at Larry at some point, and my character would die. Turned out that was my only scene in the first half. I had two in the second. My character didn’t need to be in it anymore than that and I was quite content. My yelling followed by my immediate death ended the show. Very satisfying.

Friday my character wasn’t as pivotal, but I got into a great banter with Larry onstage about the fact that my character refused to read specials boards at restaurants. I could have kept that argument up for hours.

Saturday I probably should have been onstage more. I played the love interest and should have had more songs with the lead character. Even so, I did have more songs in that show than any other. Unfortunately I had a heck of a time finding my notes. Finally in the last song I managed to sound good. At least I got there.

Over all, I think we learned this weekend that we need to sing more. Not only will it deliver more of what the show is promising (being a musical and all) but it will slow us down and force us to do less. More singing = less plot.

Here are last week’s show summaries:
Thursday: Southern Gothic – in the style of Tennessee Williams
Charlotte (Tara) struggles to change her abusive husband Beauregard (Larry) on a southern plantation. When the ghost of Beauregard’s mother seeks to intervene, the whole family must confront the truth about their past.

Friday: Pirates & Producers – in the style of Steve Martin (yes he’s also a playwright)
Rachel (Mandy) tries to get her producer sister Carol (Laurie) to make her 400 page pirate romance script with little success. Then she starts dating Richard (Larry) whom she thinks owns a bowling alley, but when she discovers he too is a producer can she make the 7-10 split?

Saturday: The Wedding Plan – in the style of Neil Simon
All Sandy (Debra) and Brian (Alan) want is a simple wedding, but when Sandy’s family takes over the planning, the wedding start spinning out of control. They call off the wedding, prompting Sandy’s mother (Mandy) to dig herself a grave in the living room. What will she do when she finds out they eloped?