Chaos Attraction

Handcuffs and $400 Worth Of Condoms

2022-09-11, 9:26 p.m.

Sunday show: also went very well. Fuller audience, mostly quieter people but standing O again. One little girl in a gold Belle dress, and Rachelle's daughter dressed as Elsa with light-up shoes (see below). I think Eve got hit by the fork again (SIGH), not much I can do about that, though. I note it sticks way farther back than the knife (right up by Annie's neck) and spoon (pretty close to Leo's as well) do, that might be the issue. But at this point nobody has any clue as to how to make that better, sooooooooooo....

Sarah's dad went to the show last night (dressed along the lines of Gilligan's Island from what I saw, I'm told he plans his outfits, I do wonder what dressing like an island dude was intended to be in this show's context?) and apparently talked about "the time we all went to [the Scottish play, except he didn't say "Scottish play"]. Steve yelled at him, slapped his hand, and made him apologize--I note that's not the "spit and run around the building" thing he made people do during Urinetown, maybe that's what you do with non-actors. For those of you wondering "is the curse real" (I admit I haven't experienced any drama from this personally, but nor am I going to poke it with a stick and say it either), Steve cited the following: (a) Someone here said it on March 12, 2020. (b) Someone else said it and then Mary broke her pelvis. (c) Someone else said it and then someone else got a concussion.

Steve said they spent $525 on the Beast's mask (note: covers forehead/nose and chin, the rest is open-faced. Has eyebrows that are like an inch and a half long....without the wig he looks like Maleficent..."I could justify it because I spent nothing on set." Helps being able to recycle everything and all you ever buy is more paint, brakes, tools, etc.

Jan said not too many people went to Nick the Greek, I said some of us went out to karaoke, she said she didn't do karaoke because she didn't like singing. Me: "You're in musicals." Her: "Well, I'm more of a character singer." Later in the dressing room she talked about how her parents weren't into musicals growing up so she hardly ever saw any.

Apparently the rose petals are NOT working/falling, but people can't tell from the location it's currently at, i.e. on a shelf near the back of the West Wing, higher up. During the kids' show it was on the edge of the West Wing and you could see strings pulling down the petals, which I guess got complaints. Kimmie said people can't tell that this one isn't losing petals and tells them it's magic when they ask.

Steve wandered backstage before the curtain opened and offered to sell chocolates. Alisa: "If you get caught onstage, I'm going to laugh at you."

Lucas totally missed catching the bird tonight, it was great.

Quotes:
Steve on video editing: "It looked pretty good, by which I mean it looked pretty much like shit." Ryan: "Pretty much like shit is doing pretty good."

Steve: "Hey, beastie!" "You shouldn't talk to him like that, he's the beast." Alisa: "I'm sooooooo scared."

Katrina during sound check: "When I remember my words, I'll sing you a song."

Andee: "You didn't catch this week when I said someone ENDS unexpectedly." Steve: "The darker version."

Sierra locked her keys in her car, which had her makeup in there. Kimmie: "I have spray paint in the back, we can just fake it."

Steve during his opening speech: "The show has fog in it because I directed it."

There were some fantastic quotes going on backstage, which I sadly could not write down at the time but hopefully I've gotten them close enough:

Julia was talking about going to college at Chico State, where the professors want to drink with the students...right before exams. Julia: "Noooooooo."

Ryan talked about going to school in Boston on a "dry" campus and how you had to get alcohol under certain restrictions (I note he bartended). Andee walked by and said randomly, "Ryan was the cutest 19-year-old drunk you ever saw." Ryan also said he got slapped by a professor he'd gone out drinking with, because she complained he didn't produce a translation of the song he sung. Ryan pointed out that it wasn't a requirement, and she slapped him. "Okay, okay, I'll do it," he said, and did it. I asked, " Did she change the syllabus after that?" Yes.

Kat on putting on Les Miserables at high school and having similar mic issues To Ryan's. "I bought handcuffs and $400 worth of condoms." Boris had gone to the bathroom, walked out, and said, "Well, I came out at the right time." She said the Booster Club asked if she bought all of that on her own account. "Noooo."

I said, "the karaoke DJ sang Empty Chairs at Empty Tables last night." Ryan was all "oh yeah, I know Rance, we went to high school together," and I said, "he said to mention the pink tutu." I note that Rance seemed to think that mentioning this would fuck Ryan up* and of course not, he was all "oh yeah, Rance wrote a song and I danced around in a pink tutu." Ryan is super chill and easygoing so I did not expect him to be, mind you. * Note: Sierra said, "I mentioned it to him the first time I saw him today," and he wasn't fazed by that either.

Kat on being The Wardrobe: "I'm very free with my drawers. I'm very open."

I forget exactly who mentioned this one, but someone mentioned that another Jennifer who performs here lost a left boob to cancer and (a) Steve calls her "Lefty," and (b) one time she said, "I forgot my left tit."

Alisa: "I think we've finally got it down." Rachele: "Don't jinx it!"

On everyone being hungry backstage today, Felicia: "In Be Our Guest, we were prompted."

After the show, Rachelle repeated various things her daughter said, finally ending in, "Belle is beautiful. You have crazy hair." Rachelle: "How I have fallen."


I had auditions for A Christmas Carol that night--let's get it over with, and all that. Basically this is gonna be "Evita, Christmas Edition." (Jan seems to be into that.) She wants large cast, who will constantly be busy changing clothes and roles, I strongly suspect they won't have enough "large cast" for that (I think about 25 said interested on FB, 15 came tonight). Supposedly there's a ton of minor parts and otherwise you're being ensemble (other than Scrooge, one presumes), most of them can/will be gender neutral, which is probably all for the best given how few men you may get, etc. You have at least five costumes. Whoever's Christmas Future has to choreograph her own dance number--not sure who that's going to be since I didn't see any people they consider to be "dancers" around for that (Felicia and I dance but don't count here).. They want some parts to be 3-part harmony (too bad you're skipping that one, Scott :P). Gravediggers have to dance. Oh, and there's "Rockettes Santa outfits" that are sexy. DA FUCK, THAT'S GOING TO BE IN DICKENS?!? I do not remember this from the online video. Well, clearly not gonna be SEXY in that one either so what do I care. And sigh...the evil Victorian boots will have to be bought.

People there tonight: Omar, Felicia and I from B&tB. Danny from Producers (yay, good to see him). Maya's entire family including mom (also named Jennifer, she and I were already making Jennifer jokes), dad, and little brother--little brother was clearly auditioned but um, did he even sing? I don't think so? I'm not sure if he's just too little to really do shows or what is going on with that one. Sage's parents also auditioned (but not the big sister). Dannette was in, and a few other people I have not met before.

As for the singing: I think Boris liked mine? I couldn't hear him very well but I think he said something complimentary about it. My voice sounded all right by the time I did that, anyway, despite all the screaming I've been doing of late. I also chugged a lot of orange drink and ice cream.

Notable song moments: a few of the guys just straight up doing Christmas carols--might as well. Soji (Sage's mom) doing "My Favorite Things" and her dad doing, ah..."Dentist" from Little Shop of Horrors. Which is hilarious and at the same time I'm thinking, "for THIS show?!"
Other Jennifer said, "I'm doing my favorite song from Music Man, Wells Fargo Wagon," and then forgot the lyrics. Why yes, she WAS in Music Man, whyever do you ask? Well, she regrouped and remembered them soon after that, at least. I note that Maya did "Shipoopi."
Felicia did "Once Upon A December." Sage did "Lifeboat" from Heathers, which was flabbergasting. (Again, not sure if that matches the tone of this show, but I presume the whole family gets in so what the heck anyway.) Ben's wife Noel (that is her name) auditioned.

There were a few older dudes there but nobody who seemed like they'd stand out for, I dunno, Scrooge or whoever. Steve was reading the Scrooge lines but not auditioning* and he did a terrific job, but I dunno if he wants anything with that many lines to do in a show these days or to be on for the entire bunch of hours. (Me to Danny: "Until they're short on men and he's in the show again.") I've never seen Steve audition for shows like Jan does, but I suspect that's how he ends up in them.

After that was scene reading. The whole thing is supposed to be sung, but we were supposed to just read the lines aloud. Danny is clearly up for Cratchit because he read that one the entire time, Omar is clearly up for Christmas Future for same. Maya read Tiny Tim, Sage read Martha, Tiny Tim's big sister, and very quickly started making cracks (and making bug-eyed faces to me) about how it was obvious who was the favorite child. Damn right, I agree.

In the first scene, I read the .... poulterer...apparently I was selling birds to eat. I tried to make it funny, which it kinda was. I offer up a big ol' turkey for a sovereign, they're all "can we get less than that," I'm all "two chicken wings?" The second one, I read one of the undertakers. There was a new chick named Margery that I think I kinda hit it off because she read the other undertaker and was clearly in a "let's do this in gleeful cackle" mode like I was. So that was fun.

Callbacks (HAHAHAHAH LIKE I'M EVER DOING THAT HERE/AGAIN) are Tuesday, having to learn music for them, all night long. Notice goes up by 10:30 Monday night. Given how suck I am here, I would probably bet money I won't get one--but then again, I dunno how much competition there will be for main parts or if she just does callbacks for Scrooge/Cratchits/Fred and Sally/main 3 ghosts and leaves it at that. Looking at the list, the best 'named parts" I might qualify for might be someone's wife, but probably not even that since there are more motherly types here. Should be interesting if they want men/dancers and don't get too much of it. I bet they do a lot of recruiting circa Wednesday.



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