One of my missing coworkers is now back, thank goodness. She looks really good (though looks like her injury isn’t totally done yet) and refreshed, so let’s hope that lasts. She said she wasn’t used to having to take her lunch at a certain time any more.

Since I didn’t have any Craft Center work going for two weeks and I already had to go to theatertown for our first rehearsal tonight (squee), I decided to go stop in and go to the Thursday night knitting group over there. I’m amused that I already knew half the group already, AND they were having some kind of potluck Greek dinner that they offered me.

I heard some more fun stories from the bus driver lady, which is always a joy for me, like when she used to play country music every day on the bus and some kids complained, so the next day she played Pavarotti. Guess what, now they liked country music. She also mentioned a revenge story of which I don’t remember the start of, but she waved at some guy in front of his girlfriend and “I don’t know how long he lived after that.

Then she told one about some guy at a car place: “He made a fatal mistake. “Well, ma’am, most ladies don’t understand the mechanisms of a manual transmission.” She called a higher-up (“there is an irate California customer on the line”) and by the end of that, she got the response of “I talked to the young man and he no longer works for us.”

There was also some other lady there I didn’t really get to talk to because she was on the far side from me, but she mentioned (a) wanting to knit while on a stationary bike, (b) forcing her 12-year-old to knit as punishment and making her crochet a blanket as punishment, and then the kid liked it. “Well, you could always try her on tatting,” someone else suggested. There was also (c) working on an embroidery project with “pretty flowers and dirty words,” while in a hospital waiting room for three hours with curious old ladies. One loved it and one hated it. She also mentioned making an ugly holiday sweater at one point. I feel like I should try to hang out with this one again somehow. Not sure how likely that is to happen, I guess we’ll see.

I was wondering if rehearsal was going on or not since I hadn’t heard anything from Laure the director. It was, whew. She seems to have Technological Fail going on because she claimed she sent the schedule to everyone and like half the room was all, “I didn’t get it,” and then she had us sign a paper saying if we didn’t get it, and by the end of the night she said she’d just sent it out and uh...no, still didn’t get it. Finally just got the schedule from Scott already. She has the days blocked off by what scene/acts you are in so I have less rehearsals this go-round. I’m not sure what I am going to do about Craft Center under the circumstances...

There are at least 20 or so people in this one (what the heck if it’s all volunteer anyway, I suppose), even doing casting of one off tiny parts. I’m super curious to see where we are all going to be stashed for “offstage” in the mini-outdoor amphitheater area. From what I recall of watching last year’s show they had some little wall up on the stage, but lord knows we’re gonna need a bigger....I’m not gonna use that word again, but something, to stash everyone when not onstage because this cast has to be bigger than the other one.

Laurel is playing the gender-swapped Le Beau and Valentin is also in as William. Some random guy is in as Orlando, Phil got Jaques (he must love that) and there is still no Duke Frederick somehow. A few others were out and Jean and Phoebe/Sarah are in Europe. Jeff the photographer/tech guy came to rehearsal and got told to read Duke Frederick, which he was not enjoying doing and at one point said, “He’s a jerk!” Yes, that’s absolutely correct. He also asked me, “Did you take your giggle pills?” because I kept laughing at everything and I was all, “that’s just me in life.” I fear that between sitting next to me laughing my head off all night (okay, so did Scott, I am guessing other people weren’t getting the jokes?) and having to read a jerk in theater, Jeff was driven from the building early.

I think I’m going to need to get all my snarky quotes out before the performance because unlike TnT, I can’t just say them in the show. So I was saying stuff about Touchstone wanting to make fun of people, “To be fair, that’s his job” and saying that Touchstone and Jaques should be the ones getting together (standing by it). I’m sure more will creep out over the next bunch of weeks.

Germaine gave a rundown of the play, and then Laure was all, “That took as long as the show.” True enough!

We did a table read for hours, which Laure the director said we could act or not as we choose. I wasn’t sure what the heck I was going to do with Audrey and was trying out various voices of dumb (dumb vaguely Cockney? dumb Marilyn Monroe?) with the dialogue, which was sort of tricky. The biggest hit of the night was when I did Valley Girl, so maybe I’ll go with that one. Might depend on director’s preference though, I suppose.

I should probably mention that Germaine edited the script and cut some bits (which I’d expect) and gender swapped some others, etc. However, I was quite surprised to find out that I have more lines than in the original Shakespeare! When I “came on” in the script, Germaine said something that I was very sweet and beautiful but stupid--and Scott cracked up. I was all, “yeah, I expected that” and “I’ll take the glasses off during the actual show.” But Germaine also ah, threw in a few more lines to be more bimbo-y, such as “Ipse? I know no shepherd named Ipse. Does he dwell in the forest?” and “I attend too: What means this attend?” and “ I do not favor oysters, but pearls are pretty.” Oh yeah, AND AUDREY DECIDES THAT SHE’S GONNA SING. “Hey Nonny Nonny,” of course. Can someone please explain to me what the fuck was with Shakespeare’s obsession with “Hey nonny nonny” in everything? Was that the great pop hit of 1599? Note to self: ask Cameron about this later.

Possible props for this show: stuffed goats (I’m a goatherd, I guess? Where does one get stuffed goats?), possibly my light-up fidget spinner? I fear I will need to stare into space, twirl my hair, perhaps drool or pet a goat while Touchstone goes on about all his speeches and snarking and scaring William. Btw, Jim/Jimmy/whatever he’s going by (both?), my fake fiance, seems very nice still. I am unconcerned on the same issues I had going on with That70’sScott, which was kinda like trying to catch a butterfly.

At some point...I forget exactly what was going down, I think Germaine was just filling in reading lines and then Jesse (who had to take over for the fleeing Jeff) was all, “Are you trying to take the shovel out of my hand?” I feel like I totally missed the context but it was funny at the time.

Since I didn’t have anything to do until act 3 (I’m not even on until after intermission, y’all), I started comparing Germaine’s script to the No Fear Shakespeare one and crossing stuff out and making notes, in an attempt to catch up with where people were reading aloud. I made it approximately twice and then the third time I fell behind during a speech I was all “fuck it, it’s almost over anyway.”

I also discovered that at the end, Jaques’s lines toward me and my husband were translated into approximately, “I bet the honeymoon lasts like two weeks.” Har, yup.

As for hanging out with the other TnT’s (mostly just snarking with Scott since he was across from me at the table and most of everyone else was farther down), didn’t really get to hang out with Valentin, Brian said he’d just been to Vegas, and I did chat with Cameron and Scott later during break about our various jobs and stresses going on with that (large amounts of machinery being hauled about, the hell of international mail, and something stressful was going on at Cameron’s but I never quite figured out what). Cameron said something like it had been weird not having rehearsal and she was ready to get to it and I was all, “ME TOO.”

Afterwards we briefly met up with Laurel again and she invited us to her mother’s memorial service in a few weeks. Having been there and done that with the whole dying parent/losing their mind thing myself, I shall go.

And after that I am seriously still bouncing off the walls to the point of insomnia tonight, apparently, as I am writing this around 4:30 a.m. I seem to be alternating between an actual 8 hours or not sleeping/wall-bouncing when there’s performing going on these days. Dawn has commented on my being on a performing high, but I am pretty much super high lately. Go figure.

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