HOCKEYHOCKEYHOCKEY

GO RED WINGS!

That's all.

Employment is Awesome

Guess who got a new job? Here's a hint: she answers to the name Caroline and talks too much and has something of an obsession with blue mascara.

That's right. I got a new job. A job that is not Ukrop's. HUZZAH! I will be a waitress at a new restaurant called After Six, located in Shockoe Bottom. It's not open yet, so they're going to call me in a few days to talk about training, tax stuff, etc.

I'm really looking forward to this. I feel like waitressing is a handy skill to have. And what's cool is that After Six is right across the street from Sumo San, where the lovely Kerry McGee can often be found working, so I imagine there will be even more hang outage between she and I.

It will be nice to work in the city. It will be nice to have a new job that feels a little more grown-up than the grocery store. It will be nice to work somewhere that will give me more than five hours a week when I have requested at least twenty-five.

So stoked.

Aloha

Congrats to the AWESOME cast of "Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls" with Night Light Collective. The cast includes Kerry McGee as Vivien (who played Puck, Hermia, and Starveling if you saw Richmond Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Adam Mincks as Will/Derek (also currently playing the role of Caroline's Boyfriend in "Caroline's Life"), Alison Haracznak as Wendy, Carolyn Boucher as Joy/Lee, Rebecca Muhleman as Myrna/Richard, Brad Tuggle as Jed/Efran, and Gabrielle Cauchon as Jason. I'm really excited to see it! It's going to be fantastic!

There's No Business Like Show Business

I saw Fort Lee's production of "Annie Get Your Gun" today. I forgot two very important things about that show:

1. How the music is pretty great.
2. How the story is kind of awful.

The story as a whole is cute if you don't read much into it (that is, if you don't watch it like I do), but the moral of it is basically "let your man think he's better than you or else he won't love you". Which is bad for both genders. It makes men look like wussy children who can't handle being second to a woman. And it makes women look like they have to dumb themselves down and hide their talents in order to be loved. I know the show isn't exactly current - it was written in the 1940's - but even so...I take some issue with it.

That said, I thought the cast did a great job with the show and I had an especially fun time watching my darling friend Hannah up there, looking as beautiful as always and just basically being an adorable little smile magnet. So proud of her!

Phew.

A busy day today. Got up a little late due to my allergy to alarm clock, which can be remedied by multiple doses of snooze alarm. Headed out to Ukrop's to check my schedule (brief rant about that in a minute), then went to Carytown to talk to businesses about advertising with Richmond Shakespeare. A quick detour to Main St. to apply for and be interviewed for a job. Filled gas tank. Made a spreadsheet about the RS advertising. About to go and return my library DVDs before heading to Kerry's for a reading of "Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls" in preparation for the auditions on Saturday. Phew!

Okay. Quick Ukrop's rant. I asked for a minimum of 25-30 hours a week. I have five. FIVE. This week and next. Five. That is all I have. Five hours. One day. One. I have no idea why this is happening, and it's not just to me. It's also to a bunch of other cashiers. I've been working there for two years. I've been a good employee. So have my friends who are also suffering from lack of hours. It's because they've hired new people, but I don't know why they've hired new people when they have plenty already! It makes no sense. So, anyway, I'm going to have maybe $30 this week and maybe $30 next week. HOW exactly am I supposed to pay my bills? Answer: probably not going to.

OUCH! That was the sound of my credit score being cut.

Tour Dates

Today, we have a tour date for "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Jake is excited that he was able to clear his schedule to join us. I am excited because that means I don't have to attempt to make love-in-idleness sounds, because I'm really bad at it. Andrew seems the most excited about dinner, because apparently where we're going has some kind of kick-awesome dessert that he's obsessed with. I, on the other hand, try not to look forward to things that I cannot afford. Oh, college. Oh, life in general. Stop stealing my money.

Kerry said something the other day that got me thinking: "What an anticlimactic last show." And she's right. Our "last show" was on Sunday, and it was a fantastic show at that - chock-ful of a great audience, great performances, and great moments of unexpected hilarity, in particular when Pyramus's sword broke. I think I gave myself internal injuries from laughing so hard at how Adam and Brandon handled that. But anyway, our "last show" was pretty much just our last show until today. Five days later. And then we'll do it all again in July for a couple of weeks.

It's weird, how theatre works. You put your heart, brain, soul, and (at least in my case) a hefty portion of your bank account into a show. You bond with your cast and crew. You make a little family for a few months...and then you disperse. Sometimes, no matter how much you enjoyed the process, it's a relief not to have to deal with it anymore. Other times, it leaves a kind of void in your life that depresses you until the next project starts. And still other times, it's so fantastic not to have to do that play anymore that you wish there were some way to Eternal Sunshine yourself so you don't have to remember it. No matter what your experience is, the ending of a show is usually pretty profound for some reason or another.

For me, when this show officially ends, it will mean the end of my first job with Richmond Shakespeare, my first time working with Andrew Hamm, Stacie Rearden Hall, Adam Mincks, and Brandon Crowder, my first time doing professional Shakespeare, my first internship, and it will be something I truly miss. I have had such a blast working on this show - the people involved are all incredible and the laughs have been non-stop - and I'm really going to miss it when it ends.

Fortunately, that's not yet.

I Can't Stop Listening To...

Blur, Pulp, Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, Roxie Music, The Kinks, Super Furry Animals, City and Colour, Mazzy Starr, XTC, Nickel Creek, Amanda Palmer, Kings of Leon, Emilie Autumn, Eisley, Velvet Underground, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Kevin Devine, Iron & Wine, Newton Faulkner, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Thom Yorke, The Decemberists, and Tom Waits.

More later, I'm sure.

One-Minute Monologues

For once, I have an audition that requires a prepared monologue that I am totally stoked for. Usually, I dread this, because I so prefer cold readings to monologues. However, I just read Watch Wow by Laura Lawson, which is the pseudonym of a friend of mine from school, and if there was ever a better one-minute monologue for someone who really wants to play Joy in Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls, I haven't found it.

So thanks, Laura, for being magically psychic and providing me with an awesome piece for my audition. You rock.

A Few More Things I've Learned...

...after working on "A Midsummer Night's Dream", I have also learned:

-Churchgoing does not automatically make someone a nice person.
-It is ALWAYS funny when the sword breaks.
-It is NEVER funny when the fairy canopy does.
-They should have done "Time After Time".
-Nail polish is totally unisex.
-Emily and I can carry almost every single prop and costume piece back into the green room in just one trip. We are THAT good. They ain't not payin' us for nothin'!
-Trash can lids are completely acceptable armor.
-Saluting is hilarious.
-It is a necessity to have access to the scores of the Red Wings games at intermission.

Oh.

So THIS is what a blog looks like when you abandon it for almost a month. Interesting.

Well, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" closed its downtown run. It's going to be very strange, not hanging out in a church that is either frigid or steaming, running around barefoot, eating a lot of candy, and reciting lines along with the actors while hiding backstage with my fellow minion, Emily, and giggling nonstop about it all.

On the bright side, there is a tour date on Friday and we re-stage the show for the Agecroft run in July, so that will be nice.

I don't think I've ever loved a show more. This has been a joy every moment. I have met people who I know I will be friends with for a long time and who I have nothing but the greatest respect for both as actors and as human beings. I have met a certain fellow in particular who I happen to think is especially wonderful, and that would be my boyfriend, Adam, so that's another reason I'm especially fond of this show. Every day that I have worked on "Midsummer", I have laughed heartily, learned so much about myself as an actor, and grown to be so proud of everyone and all the amazing work they have put into this production.

Now I just have to figure out the rest of my life. Being unpaid for the duration of this show was something I thought I was prepared for going in, but when hours were cut at my day job and school began getting in the way (exams) and life in general got expensive, things got a little hairy. Well, a lot hairy. I have $0.03 in my bank account at the moment. That would be hilarious if I were joking or exaggerating, but I'm not. Thanks, Wachovia, for taking forever and a day to process my check. Appreciate it.

The good news is, I'm getting paid for some other work I did for Richmond Shakespeare that I didn't actually know I was getting paid for. Talk about pleasant surprises! I have no idea how much I'm getting, but anything would be very, very welcome at this point. And I have two weekends in a row lined up at the nursing home where I work part-time, so if I can get Ukrop's to put me on the schedule hardcore for at least the next couple of weeks, I just might be okay. Or at least almost.

Here's hoping.

Until then, I have a glass of wine, a good movie, and cute boy on the phone, so the good things in life are definitely outweighing the obnoxious ones.