Tag Archives: Ilion Little Theatre

Wrist to Ruby’s and Beyond

It is a later than usual Wrist to Forehead Sunday post, and I really do face a dilemma as I contemplate the upcoming week.  That is, should this blog become All Steel Magnolias All The Time for the next two weeks, or should I first indulge in a week of All Rubbed Out at Ruby’s All The Time or do a weird hybrid such as All Steel Ruby All The Time?

We just got home from another rehearsal for Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, the interactive murder mystery to be presented by LiFT Theatre Company at the Overlook Mansion in Little Falls, NY.  I can report that it is looking good, especially considering the costumes people wore or brought.   I think it will be a great deal of fun.  I only hope I can remember everything.  It’s not my lines I’m worried about.  I don’t have that many lines; it’s mostly improvised.  But I don’t want to forget a prop or costume piece.  I’m so scatterbrained these days!

I have not thought much about Steel Magnolias today; that is, the next production at Ilion Little Theatre, to be presented the first two weekends in March.  This means I must do some serious looking at lines tomorrow.  I hope I don’t forget to bring my script to work with me (see earlier line about being scatterbrained these days).

And what about the other murder mysteries I’m working on?  Well, I’ll bring my notebook to work with me, too.  Write, study lines, I can do it all, why not?  And if the stress gets to me, I guess I’ll just have a Wrist to Forehead Monday, too.  I hope everybody is having a nice end of their weekend.

 

A Slice of My Life

Sometimes I am too ill to write a blog post. Does it count if I am too depressed? I feel so self-indulgent even considering such a thing. Ooh, maybe this is a good lead.

That is what I just now posted on Facebook.  Almost before I had copied and pasted it here, a friend had commented that depression IS an illness.  I suppose I feel it counts for everybody but me.  You know, that thing many of us do that we treat our loved ones way better than we treat ourselves.  I know, a lot of people do the opposite, especially with physical indulgences.  However, I know a great many people who will put themselves down using terms they would NEVER employ when talking to a friend.  Just saying.

Where was I?  Ah yes, trying to make a Non-Sequitur Thursday post before I hurriedly get ready for rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  This is what I posted on Facebook earlier:

Here’s the problem: I have so much to do, I not only keep thinking I’m forgetting something, I keep forgetting what it was I was just about to do. Making a list does not help. I not only forget to put stuff on the list, I forget where I put the list!

To make this a true Non-Sequitur Thursday post, I should make a catchy headline that has little or nothing to do with the post.  What is this post about, anyways?  Not much, as is par for the course when I am involved in a show.  Right now I am involved in two shows and need to finish writing two more to begin working on them within the next two weeks.  Yikes!  Why do I do these things to myself?  Ah yes, refer to an earlier paragraph about treating others better than I treat myself.  And I’m not all that freaking nice to others, either!  Happy Thursday, everyone.

 

Too Much Theatre?

It’s that moment when you are pondering what, oh what, to make a blog post about and you’ve got just about enough time to do it, and you find out your rehearsal is at 6 not 6:30.  Oh NO!  I can’t handle it! (Said in a dramatic tone of voice, posing with my wrist to my forehead).  Incidentally, it is rehearsal for Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre, which will be presented the first two weekends in March.

I’m thinking it’s Wuss-out Wednesday, but given that last parenthetical comment, perhaps it is Wrist to Forehead Wednesday.  The sad thing is my husband had just started to tell me a story about his past.  I may have heard it before, but I do not mind a re-run.  That is one of the secrets to a happy marriage (not a very well-kept secret). (A lesser known secret is to have a husband that tells good stories). I guess he’ll have to tell me later.

AND we are watching WKTV News at five, where I believe there is to be a NewsTalk about Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, the murder mystery to be presented by LiFT Theatre Company at the Overlook Mansion in Little Falls. DVR to the rescue!

You may have noticed that I am a little stressed lately.  I have mysteries to write, costumes to find, lines to learn and blog posts to make.  And who’s fault is it that I have too much on my plate?  That’s right, the overriding problem in my life is ALWAYS Operator Error.  Maybe I can get caught up on the weekend.  But don’t count on it.  Happy Wednesday, everyone.

 

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.