Tag Archives: Ilion Little Theatre

Snow, Costumes and Oolong Tea

Well, I am going to try to make my Scattered Saturday post before Steven comes home and we go out to meet good friends for dinner.  For one reason, I thought I would refrain from drinking and typing, as I sometimes do on a Saturday.  At least for my blog post.  About Facebook I make no promises (note to self:  make a Facebook page for Mohawk Valley Girl, in case my readers would like to Like me there).

Mmm… I paused to sip my Oolong tea.  I LOVE Oolong tea.  Why have I not been drinking it every day?  Points to ponder.  Then I paused again, because my laptop told me the battery was low.  Silly me, not plugging it in between Facebook breaks.  I moved to a different chair, plugged the damn thing in, moved my tea, which necessitated moving a piled up lace dress (that I’ll tell you about in a few), sat down, remembered my mouse, went back across the room to get the mouse… I tell you, it’s not easy being me.

We slept in this morning, because Steven did not work till 10:30.  Oh, the laziness of staying in bed till almost seven o’clock!  It was great.  It was after eight when Spunky indicated it was time for his first business meeting.  I put on a bra (do NOT tell me TMI!), my flood boots and my warmest coat.  It was still pretty frigid out, and snowing.  Spunky barked at a neighbor as she came out of her house.  We exchanged good mornings, and I told Spunky he was a silly dog (he already knew).

Steven had sensibly put off clearing the cars since more snow would fall before time to leave, but I saw that we also had to shovel.  After I got Spunky back inside, wiped his paws and gave him a treat, I went back out and started.  Steven soon joined me.  At least the snow was lightweight.  Pushing it worked fine.  Our neighbor shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house and started helping on the driveway!  How awesome of her!  I thanked her profusely, and Steven and I introduced ourselves.  After she left and Steven and I had finished up, I paid it forward by doing the walk in front of the house on the other side.

After showering and getting dressed, I wrote my weekly postcards.  My first stop on leaving the house after Steven was the post office.  Then I gassed up, got some money from the ATM and a drink at the Nice N Easy.  The drink took some debate, since I am avoiding sugar (on a doctor’s suggestion) yet wanted more than mere water.  I finally got Poland Springs Sparkling, black cherry flavor.  That stuff is awesome!  It tastes like soda only not sweet (I often don’t enjoy sweet soda after the first few sips), but there are NO calories!  Score!

I drove to Ilion Little Theatre, where a few people were hard at work on the set for Steel Magnolias.  I hope to show you a photo of the beautifully painted backdrop when it is finished.  I went upstairs to look for 1920s type costumes for the upcoming murder mystery, Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, to be presented by LiFT Theatre Company in Little Falls.  I did not have a whole lot of hope, because I went through every dress in that place when we were doing Leading Ladies and I did not remember anything I thought would work.  However, I was mistaken.  I found a few things I liked, including the lace dress I mentioned some paragraphs ago (was that mention even worth foreshadowing?).

After those exertions, however, I started feeling not too well again.  How stupid of me!  Why can’t I just be healthy?  And why do I have to be such a baby about it?  And here I am, troubling my readers with my complaints.  So sorry.  This is what happens, though, when I’m typing away with one eye on the clock.  I have to plug in the curling iron and do my hair (an unaccustomed chore, to be sure).   Well, I hope you have been moderately entertained by my Scattered Saturday gyrations.  As for me, that Oolong tea has given me my first hot flash of the day and all I can say is, Thank God for menopause!  I have been freezing!  Happy Saturday, everyone.

 

On the Set

I know some of you have been waiting for an update on the set of Steel Magnolias, the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre.  At least, I know any fellow cast-members who read my blog (DO my fellow cast members read my blog?) would like an update.  Before yesterday’s rehearsal, I remembered to pull out my tablet and I took a few shots.  I got more of the cast than the set, but, after all, isn’t it all about the people?  I think it is.

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We love each other at Ilion Little Theatre.

Kim Darling and Kara Buttermore, who play Truvy and Annelle, were working on the set when I started to click.  They immediately posed for me.  I knew that would make a good photo, but I wanted an action shot.  They offered me this scene from the beginning of the play:

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Annelle does Truvy’s hair as part of her job interview.

Meanwhile, in the audience, Kaylynn Iglesias, who recently joined the cast as Shelby, consulted with Cindy Shepherd.  Cindy, in addition to playing Ouiser, is assisting Rick Vroman in his directing duties.  I had a little problem with my tablet getting this shot.  I hope it looks OK.

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We do a lot of consulting with each other. Theatre is such a collaborative art.

Then I realized I had not gotten a shot of Kelly Stone, who plays M’Lynn.  She and Kaylynn decided to do a mother/daughter shot.

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Their characters really do love each other, although they bicker a lot in the play.

Sadly, I did not get a picture of our awesome sound and light guy, Rick DeJohn, nor of our delightful director Rick Vroman.   Perhaps in a future post.

I’ll close with a couple of shots of the set itself.  More work will be done on the set tomorrow (I’m supposed to go help.  Yikes!  What a lot I have to do tomorrow!).  I hope to include more photos in future posts.  I’d better charge up the tablet.  Happy Friday, everyone.

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The driers don’t actually work, which is actually too bad, because the sink on the other side of the set will.

 

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A center view. Alas, I did not get stage right, where the sink that will actually squirt water is located.

 

Steven and Me and Bobby McGee

I’ve been sitting here staring at the blank screen and half watching a re-run of Reba, and I feel completely unable to write a blog post.  Now Reba is over and Steven has found an episode of Snapped on Reelz.  I have to leave for rehearsal for Steel Magnolias (at Ilion Little Theatre, remember?)  in about an hour.  Oh, crap, and I have to curl my hair.  They’re taking head shots again.  I hate having my picture taken!

So I’m having a kind of a mental meltdown.  How embarrassing.  I am such a huge baby! In my defense… OK, I have no defense.  I had a migraine today, but it wasn’t all that bad of a migraine.  I made it through work.  It kind of went away when I drove to New Hartford for a doctor’s appointment.  Now it’s back.  So what?  Many people have headaches.  They take an aspirin and drive on.

Speaking of driving on, the Mohawk Valley weather has been living up to its “wait five minutes” reputation today.  When I drove to and from my appointment, the snow came down like it meant business.  The roads weren’t too bad, but they were wet and no doubt would get worse.  Yikes!  I got back to work and the sun came out.  A beautiful afternoon!  Swell!  The snow dumped down again as I drove home. OK, whatever.  The sun has come and gone twice since I’ve been home.  Go home, February, you’re drunk!

AAAAAAaaaand I just remembered: it is Non-Sequitur Thursday.  All I have to do is think of a catchy headline that doesn’t have anything to do with this foolish post and I’m done.  And, yes, I did feel I needed all those a’s in the first word of this paragraph.

 

I Ax You: Is This a Good Picture of Me?

 

Oh I am having a dreadful case of Writer’s Block.  Seriously, my brain is blocking me from writing this post (I know, I know, that’s not writing, that’s typing, as Truman Capote said).  It is Tired Tuesday, but I truly did not want to spend 200 or so words whining about how tired I am and how I can’t think of anything to write.  So I went to my new standby: looking through photos we’ve downloaded to this laptop and picking a few to write about.  I had found some good ones of me and my husband, Steven.

I don’t want to post any pictures of me!  I don’t even like looking at pictures of me!  Many people feel this way.  Most of us look better in pictures to others than we look to ourselves.  I can’t tell you how many times people have said, “Oh, what a great picture of you,” and I have thought, “Wow, I’m not nearly as cute as I think I am.”  I don’t even like to have my own picture as my Facebook profile.  This is what I currently have:

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I was having a Lizzie Borden kind of a day.

The caption doesn’t show on my Facebook.  I prefer threatening people with an ax on general principles, not to get candy.  I can buy candy.

Oh, OK, I have never actually threatened anybody with an ax in real life.  On stage once, I held an ax over the guy who was playing my husband, after I had shot him and he had fallen on the floor. However, I was not threatening; I actually brought the thing down on that bastard.  He had it coming.  This was in Roxy, a play about Roxalana Druse, a famous local murderess. Herkimer County Historical Society presented it at Ilion Little Theatre in September of 2015.  Perhaps you read some of my blog posts about it at the time.

So now I am over 300 words.  Whined a little, showed a picture, shared a memory.  I call that all right for a Tired Tuesday.  Now I’m off to my rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Maybe I can find my Tablet and take pictures of the progress made on the set.  I think it’s looking pretty good, and will make a marvelous Wordless Wednesday post.  Hope to see you then.

 

Literally Running Lines

Do you like that title?  I thought of it while I was at work today.  I wanted to run, since I had taken two days off, and I need to work on my lines for Steel Magnolias (remember, that play I’m in at Ilion Little Theatre?).  Steven would be home and was willing to run them with me.  I decided to do both chores at once by running in place on the mini-tramp.

As I drove home, I regretted my plan, because it was unseasonably warm and the sidewalks looked not too bad.  However, I have lines to work on and a husband to spend time with.  I put on indoor running clothes and cleared off the tramp (it is such a handy place to put things!).  I set a bottle of water on the coffee table and got going.

As often happens when running on the mini-tramp, I felt I was moving faster than I do outside.  I really don’t enjoy the up/down motion of running in place as much as the low shuffle of running down the street.  I also like the changing scenery better than the television.  However, I was not supposed to be looking at the television; I was supposed to be thinking about my lines.

And I didn’t do too badly.   Some of the lines I had forgotten but remembered when Steven gave me the cue.  Some of the longer lines I did not know word for word.  But I feel pretty confident to go to rehearsal and not have my book in my hand.  For Act I Scene 1, at least.  Imagine my chagrin when I chatted with a fellow cast member via Facebook and found out we are doing Act II Scene 2.  Oh well, I have all day at work tomorrow to study that one some more.

As for my run, I ran in place for 28 minutes, six minutes more than I ran on Sunday.  Woohoo!  I only walked a three minute cool-down, because walking around the house just not as good as walking around the block.  I felt pretty pleased with myself for getting some exercise, and for giving myself something to write a blog post about, complete with headline.  Was it a great blog post?  Perhaps not, but I can’t worry about that now.  At least it wasn’t Wuss-out Wednesday.  Hope to see you all on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

Picture Me Without a Blog Post

If I do the picture thing today, can I still have a Wordless Wednesday?  You know what, I can’t worry about Wednesday.  I can’t even see Wednesday from here. I’m going into my downloads and pick a few pictures to share.

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Oh, I hate it when pedestrians can’t stay out of the road!

Ah yes, that’s what I was going to write my blog post about:  the weather.   As I drove to work this morning through heavy snow over icy, snow-covered roads (it rained then snowed last night), I thought to myself, “This is what we might call winter.”  I’m sure other people have more colorful ways to describe it.

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Full disclosure: I have no idea where this photo came from or who took it.

As I drove to work, I admired the snow-covered trees.  Um, I did not spend so much time admiring them that I was a danger on the roads.  I would like to take a walk sometime when everything is snowy and take a few pictures myself.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll steal other people’s pictures.

 

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I don’t remember actually taking this picture, but, really, who else would have?

This last picture (I like to have three, it’s kind of a thing, isn’t it?) is my backyard.  Alas, no snow.  I meant to take some pictures of the dead plants in the snow but have not gotten around to it when we actually have snow (it’s been coming and going this winter).  I have kind of a fascination with dead plants. These used to be black-eyed susans.  I think they look cool.

So this is my Tired Tuesday post for the week.  In my defense, at least I kept from whining about the dreadful cold which is currently making me miserable (oops)  so soon after I whined about a migraine.  What a mess I am!  But never mind that.  Now I must get ready for tonight’s rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Perhaps I can take pictures of the progress on the set, for tomorrow’s blog post.  Hope to see you then (figuratively speaking).

 

And Don’t Call Me Buttercup!

I’m taking a Blogger’s Sick Day.  Anybody who doesn’t care to here anybody else complain, STOP READING NOW!!!  Don’t tell me to suck it up, buttercup.  I sucked it up all day at work.  I am THROUGH sucking it up and I am going to whine if I feel like it!

Well, that made me feel a little better.  Now I’ll try to write some semblance of a blog post.

I have had a migraine for two days now.  It was worse today, especially the nausea.  But I tried to keep working. I succeeded somewhat.  I was kind of hoping it would magically vanish when my workday was done.  Sometimes headaches do. That is a phenomenon many people have noticed.  This one did not.  However, I managed to drive home without mishap, and now I am writing a boring blog post before taking a very hot shower and lying down.

One thing I am happy about is that I do not have  rehearsal tonight for Steel Magnolias (remember? the play I’m in at Ilion Little Theatre).  It is instead the night for the theatre group’s monthly dinner meeting.  I am sorry to miss the meeting, but I must confess, not too sorry. For one reason, everybody brings really good food and I always eat too much.  That is not good for my weight loss goals.

Oh dear, I feel I should make a concluding paragraph and I am quite blank.  And I really want to get to that hot shower.  Damn!  But anybody who wants to whine about it, please feel free.  I won’t tell you to suck it up.

 

Picture This: A Set in Progress

I’m really liking the idea of Wordless Wednesday, where I show pictures.  And I have a few pictures that I kind of promised to show soon, of the set for Steel Magnolias.  I showed a couple of walls the first day they were working on it.  I missed a few steps of the work in progress, but I remembered to bring my Tablet to last night’s rehearsal and snapped a couple of shots before we started.

Lots of props and set pieces have been added.  This first shot shows one of the people responsible for making the set look so good, Kim Darling.  She went to a lot of antique and second-hand stores last weekend.  If she had called me to go with her, that would have made a great blog post!  Oh well, I had other stuff I was supposed to be doing.

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She’s placing the Christmas tree. By my standards, that makes this a Christmas play, and I’m sorry we did not do it in December. Oh well, I always say, you can’t have everything.

 

The next picture shows cast member Kelly Stone, who plays M’Lynn.  Imagine my surprise when I found out M’Lynn is short for Mary Lynn.  I used to live next door to a Mary Lynn, roughly a hundred years ago, when I was a wee tot and lived in Oneonta, NY.  But I digress.  I snapped this shot just before we started rehearsal.

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Picture her hair in rollers, to get the complete picture.

 

After taking that shot, I quickly panned to the right (stage left) for one more shot.

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It may seem that the walls are oddly painted, and in fact they are.  I always find that amusing. As any theatre person knows, we like to reduce, reuse, recycle.  Actually, I think it is more along the lines of  “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

I look forward to taking more pictures of the set, and telling you more about the cast and the production, especially a month or so down the road, when this blog becomes All Steel Magnolias All The Time.  In the meantime, Happy Wednesday, everyone, and I’m going to go study my lines.

 

Off the Cuff and On to Rehearsal!

I spent my breaks at work studying my lines for Steel Magnolias, the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre.  Production dates are the first two weekends in March.  That makes it just a little early for this blog to become All Steel Magnolias All The Time.  However, I don’t have much else to write about today and I REALLY don’t want to blather on about how I’m having trouble writing, as I have done too many times in the past.

We had rehearsal last night.  You should see how much the set has progressed!  Alas, you cannot, because I did not think to bring my Tablet and snap a couple of pictures.  We have rehearsal again tonight, so perhaps I could remedy the omission in a future post.

And I just this minute remembered something!  I am supposed to have my bio for the program ready by tonight!  Oh no!  Longtime readers may remember that I have a problem with bios.  I think I wrote a blog post about it once.  Oh well, I’ll come up with something off the cuff (what, ME? come up with something off the cuff?  SAY IT AIN’T SO!).

As I was saying, the set is filling in with set pieces and props.  Now we have to learn our lines, so we can drop our scripts and pick up the props.  It is just a bit awkward, script and pencil in one hand (to make notes about blocking), prop in the other.  Then you drop the prop or lose your place in the script… um, not that everybody does that.  Some of my fellow cast-members are most adept.  OK, I’m the big klutz in the bunch, as usual.

Well, this post is not amounting to much, is it?  I guess there is not a whole lot to report about the play.  But I suppose this will have to do on Tired Tuesday, because I have to get ready for rehearsal.  I hope I remember to bring my Tablet.

 

Mentally Meandering down Memory Lane

Now I see what I have to do.  I have to write Monday’s post in advance, because I am clearly not capable of writing on a Monday.  That is, if those two sentences don’t count.

However, I do not feel I should have another whiny post about I Can’t Write Today, so I will do the photo trick again.  That was kind of fun last time, wasn’t it?  Let me see what I have downloaded…

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This is one of my favorites.  It is the LiFT Theatre Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, performed last August at the Utica Zoo. That’s me in the green shirt holding a pitchfork, trying to intimidate the big guy.  Me and the guy in the white shirt were the Watch, and we had just uncovered a villainous piece of lechery.  We were pretty pleased with ourselves over that.

 

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Here is the whole cast of that production, at Canal Place in Little Falls, where we presented the play as part of the Canal Days Celebration. It was great fun, and the audiences seemed to like us quite a bit.

 

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OK, this is one of my heroes, Weird Al Yankovich, as a monk on Galivant, an absolutely marvelous show that, alas, is no more.  The reason I include it today is that I had two parts in Much Ado About Nothing (as anybody who read my multiple blog posts about the show may recall).  Unfortunately, I don’t have an pictures of me as Friar Francis.  So I thought I’d stick in a substitute.

So this is my blog post for today.  My Mental Meanderings took me down memory lane to last summer’s theatre adventures.  That is appropriate, as I am posting this before hurrying off to rehearsal for my next theatrical adventure, Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  More about that adventure later.  And more about further adventures with LiFT Theatre Company!  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.