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Tag Archives: Much Ado About Nothing

More a Scattered Post than a Scattered Sunday

I had a little trouble with WordPress over the weekend with the result that I last posted Friday morning (Thursday’s post, by the way) and it was not actually posted. It seems I neglected to click on something to confirm something, blah blah woof woof.  I am so in the wrong century.  The main thing I have gained from the computer era, and this occurred in the last century,  is the perfect summation of my life:  Operator Error.  One good thing is that I find myself perfectly set up for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday Post.

I’m the tough one brandishing the pitch fork.

However, rather than continuing to lament my ills, I wanted to share this blast from my past that showed up in my Facebook Memories.  It is Much Ado At the Zoo, when LiFT, Little Falls Theatre Company presented Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Utica Zoo in 2016 (do I really need to tell anybody it is Shakespeare’s? Oh, I suppose I do).

Right now I should be studying my lines for Love’s Labour’s Lost, which we are doing this year (perhaps you read one of my blog posts about it).  I will read through them before I go to bed.

In other news, I went running this morning for the first time in two months.  It went pretty well. I enjoyed it.  I wanted to make a Running Commentary Post, only I did not solve my WordPress problems till later in the day, and the moment had passed.

I see I am over 250 words.  I think I will bill this as a Scattered Sunday.  I hope I have done all the right things and can continue to post on a daiy basis.  Then again, a little uncertainty adds interest to my life.  Happy Sunday, everyone!

 

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A Slice of My Life

Well, what’s wrong with another late post?  These things happen.  And it’s not as if I have a lot of things to say.  But maybe I can come up with a few.

A slice of my life.

Ah, coffee, the magic elixir which makes all things possible. Since I have developed a prejudice against making posts with no pictures, I offer this.  I purposefully selected a local mug for the purpose.  Herkimer Home, of General Herkimer who heroically died from wounds sustained in the Battle of Oriskany, is in Little Falls, NY.  It is a wonderful historic site I hope to visit again.

The lantern was purchased by my husband, ostensibly for use in Dirty Work at the Crossroads, the play he directed at Ilion Little Theatre, but actually because he thought it looked cool.  I later used it in Much Ado About Nothing with LiFT, Little Falls Theatre Company.

I’m the mean-looking one on the left.

Here I am in Much Ado.  You can just barely see the lantern by the wall on the right.  My partner and I took these evildoers into custody.  I famously ran back to grab the lantern while my evildoer stared at me in disbelief.  I threatened him with the pitchfork as I ran back to him.  It was one of my all-time favorite pieces of stage business.

Under the lantern (going back to the first picture) are scripts I have been reading in hopes of future theatrical endeavors, along with a book I think my Dad might like.

These are my thoughts as I sip coffee and wait for my Sunday to start.  I hope all of you had grand Saturday.

 

Just a Few Theatre Pictures

One of the all-time best casts I have ever worked with.

I was looking through my Media Library (I will never get over my delight in using that term) for the logo of 20/20 on OWN, because that is what I am looking at (in rather a desultory fashion) (another term I delight in using) while I attempt some semblance of a blog post.  Then I thought, maybe a Throw Back Thursday would be nice.  I have a lot of fun pictures I can revisit.  Above is the cast of Leading Ladies, which I directed at Ilion Little Theatre (ILT) in 2016.  I would like to direct again sometime.

We were a huge hit.

I would also like to act again, and get my husband, Steven acting again.  This is us on stage together in Splitting Issues, at ILT in 2016.

But this was our really big scene together!

Steven and I also shared the stage in Harvey at ILT in 2012.  He played Dr. Chumley, I was Veda.  That was another wonderful theatre experience.

Another cast I loved!

Regular readers know ILT is not the only community theatre group I work with.  This is LiFT Theatre Company of Little Falls, presenting Much Ado About Nothing in 2016.  Wow, I was busy in 2016.  I don’t know what excuse I have for being so tired now!  I think it is time for me to be in another play, so I can put more pictures in my Media Library.

In the meantime, here is my blog post for today.  Happy Thursday, everyone!

 

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.

 

Alliteration before Auditions

I’m afraid it’s Middle-aged Musings Monday, or Mental Meanderings Monday (choose your alliteration).  I’m sitting in Basloe Library in Herkimer, NY, with my usual Monday back-ache (and you were hoping I could get through a post without griping about my physical ills) (quite frankly, so was I), sipping coffee and typing on my laptop.

I will just mention that there is something vaguely comforting about my Monday back-ache.  I won’t pretend to be so twisted that I enjoy having a back-ache, but at least it feels familiar.  Does that make any sense?  Does anything make any sense?  How about that headline?  Let’s talk about that.

After famously saying, “No more plays!” after Much Ado About Nothing (a truly grand theatrical experience, thank you, LiFT!), I am planning to go to Ilion Little Theatre tonight to audition for Steel Magnolias.  Oh come on, did anybody seriously believe I wasn’t going to?  Of course, there is no guarantee I will get a part.  It actually might be kind of better if I don’t get one.  I mean, I’m writing three or four murder mysteries.  They are scheduled for February, March, April and TBD.  More details to follow.

I’ll tell you what, this is not the best place to sit with a laptop.  The florescent lights are reflected in my screen in a most annoying fashion.  I just re-tilted in an attempt to minimize the effect.

Where was I?  Ah yes, too busy to be in another play.  Additionally, the deadline looms for Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  My computer problems have delayed my getting my articles written and submitted.  To be more exact, my dithery, ineffective attempts at dealing with my computer problems have had that effect.  A more organized writer would have handily completed said articles.  Here we come to the ugly truth about me.

On the other hand, I see it is 4:24 according to my computer.  That is almost two hours before my ride will pick me up to go to auditions (it’s so much more comfortable to go to these things with a friend!).  I can progress on my articles now!  As Gene Wilder famously said in Young Frankenstein:  “IT!  COULD!  WORK!”

 

It’s As If I Had a Lame Lobotomy!

This is dreadful.  What little brain I had seems to have up and deserted me.  At first I thought perhaps it was still partially here, since I am typing quite competently.  Then I remembered:  muscle memory.  It means nothing.

There is little point in even saying, “But I MUST make a post!”  We all know I will not willingly let a day go by without hitting publish on SOMETHING, however lame and foolish.  Waaaait a minute!  Today IS Lame Post Friday!  Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t re-name it to Foolish Friday and go for that alliteration I so love.

Sometimes when I feel quite brain dead at 4:47 p.m. (according to my computer), I can put off posting till later in the evening.  Occasionally that works out for me and I come up with something not contemptible (don’t ask me for an example; I am certainly not up to searching previous posts much less making a link).  However, today I must head to Much Ado at Herkimer Elks.  We had a dress rehearsal last night.  I had taken a decongestant and was extremely lightheaded, but I managed to say most of my lines correctly.

You know, I’m seeing kind of a head pattern with me lately.  Either I am lightheaded, I have a headache, or I am brain dead.  What the hell, head?  Maybe I have too much hair.  I am getting a haircut tomorrow; maybe that will help.  I am getting a pedicure as well, but I somehow doubt pretty colored toenails will improve anything other than my disposition (still, that is definitely worth improving).  On the brighter side, I will be able to make a blog post about Hot Spot Salon and Spa in Herkimer, where I get my beauty work done (I was going to say I use the term “beauty” loosely as applied to myself, but would that not be insulting to my stylist?  She is pretty awesome).

At least I am over 300 words.  Sometimes we settle for quantity over quality.  If only I could think of a headline, my life would be perfect.

 

Much Ado on Bad Attituesday

In lieu of the Bad Attituesday post  I was gearing up to write, I will share more information about Much Ado at the Herkimer Elks Lodge this Friday, Sept. 2.  A spaghetti dinner at 5:30 is followed by the show at 6:45 p.m. (do I really have to specify pm?  Can you imagine Shakespeare at 6:45 a.m.?  It sounds like a weapon in an old timey duel, “Shakespeare at dawn!”) (now I’m thinking that that’s a title of a play I ought to write…).

Where was I?  Ah yes, on Tuesday, looking forward to Friday.  And to rehearsal on Thursday.  I have been practicing my lines in my head.  I think I still know them.

My summer Shakespeare experience has been a great ride.  From hesitating about doing it to taking two parts to performing on four — soon to be five — different stages, I have learned a lot and laughed a lot.  I have made some wonderful theatre friends that I hope to work with again.  I have been inspired with several new writing ideas as well as a couple of directing thoughts.  And while vowing to never do another play in the summer, I am nevertheless intrigued by the possibility of stage combat in 2017.

That will be in the more distant future.  For the immediate future, I will be delighted to begin my three day weekend Friday with one last performance of Much Ado About Nothing.   Local readers are encouraged to attend. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.  The Herkimer Elks Lodge is located at 124 Mary St., phone number 315-866-1439. The Facebook event for the show is at https://www.facebook.com/events/1710411485888274/.

 

Can I Manage some Mental Meandering?

I may have made some misguided remarks about getting back to “real” posts today, now that Much Ado About Nothing is over, but I just don’t imagine anybody believed them.  For heavens’ sake, I had a brutally busy weekend including two performances and a cast party, I worked ten hours today, I did some other stuff after work, I’m TIRED.  And it isn’t Tired Tuesday yet.  I think I might manage a Monday Mental Meanderings.  Let’s see what comes of the keyboard.

A side note:  Much Ado isn’t completely over yet.  We may have one more performance.  I’ll write a blog post about it if we do.

I promised myself that I would write more when I wasn’t running around to rehearsals and performances so much.  I was really looking forward to it.  Who knew I was going to feel so brain dead today.  Oh, who am I kidding? Everybody knew it.  Still, I brought a notebook to work and did not bring any cryptogram puzzles or other reading material.  I would write SOMETHING. Sometime turned out to be a letter to my sister.  I didn’t finish it.

The notebook I had brought was not one I had written in recently.  While flipping through to a blank page, I discovered a novel I started last year which I had been thinking about lately but did not know where it was.  Now I know!  I re-read what I had written.  Sometimes when I am reading something I wrote I think, I am a very good writer. No doubt I flatter myself.  I really must start finishing my novels.  Then they might be published and other people could judge what kind of a writer I am (although I will probably say to them, “Don’t judge”).

In the meantime, I declare this foolish blog post done and I will see if I can come up with something better for tomorrow.  Happy Monday, everyone.

 

Toto, I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Hamlet Anymore

To post or not to post, that is the question.

See what I did there?  See, I’m in a Shakespeare play, and I took a well-known Shakespeare quote and modified it to fit the situation at hand.  And if you say, “But you’re not in Hamlet,” I shall say, “Don’t be so didactic.”

I guess the question is not so much “to post or not to post?” as “to post now or later?”  Obviously I am GOING to post.  I post every day.  It’s in my nature, it’s what I do (that’s a family quote; long story and possibly not as cute as we think it is).  I am sitting here in the increasing warmth and humidity, waiting for time to pass till my ride picks me up for the closing performance of Much Ado About Nothing.  I have a few things I must do before that happens, but not many and I’m stalling.

So do something useful, I can see you gearing up to suggest.  Who, me?  Be useful?  Excuse me, have we met?  In fact I did one marginally useful thing:  I ironed Hawaiian shirts for Steven and me to wear to the cast party later today.  I do love a nicely pressed Hawaiian shirt, and I  only recently obtained an ironing board to replace the one that perished in the flood of 2013. I’ve been making do with a towel on the table.  As you may imagine, under those circumstances I only iron what I absolutely must.

As I ironed the shirts, I pondered the appropriateness of it.  After all, Hawaiian shirts are synonymous with leisure, relaxing and parties.  Is it appropriate to labor over them with a  hot steam iron?  But the question was not “To iron or not to iron” (see what I did there?).  The shirts needed ironing.  They will now look awesome at the cast party.

I see that I have babbled on for over 300 words.  I call that quite respectable for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  Then again, is a Wrist to Forehead Sunday ever quite respectable?  I must leave these questions to ponder another time.  Right now I’m going to look over my lines and check if my costume needs ironing as well.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

Oh and once again, Much Ado About Nothing, Sterzinar Park, Canal Place, Little Falls, 3 p.m.  Be there, aloha!

 

 

Much Ado Before the Deluge

This afternoon was the penultimate performance of LiFT’s production of Much Ado About Nothing (as you see, I take every opportunity to use the word “penultimate” in a sentence).  The weather was even hotter than on Thursday, and thunderstorms threatened.  However, as they say, the show must go on!

I had heard some thunder as I took Spunky out for a business meeting before leaving for Little Falls, but the skies were blue with fluffy white clouds.  What was that all about?  The heat and humidity were formidable, but my friend Kim, who was picking me up, has a good A/C in her vehicle.  We arrived in Little Falls early so were able to walk around Chicks on the Canal, a vendor fair that is part of the Canal Days festivities.

A delightful band was playing on the stage that we were to occupy in about an hour (I stupidly did not find out who they were).  They get the best musical acts for Little Falls events.  I couldn’t help dancing.  I figured, I was already sweating, how much worse could it get?  Additionally, dancing would pep me up, loosen me up and cheer me up.  It did all three, but the sweat did get rather bothersome.  I found a spot in the shade to sit and study my lines while I waited for my entrance.

At last the play began!  And I still had to wait for two acts and two scenes of a third before my entrance.  We had a pretty good audience, about 60 somebody said.  We could hear appreciative applause and laughter.  Yes!  Let’s hear it for live theatre!  I was happy to finally get on stage and even happier when the scenes I was in got laughs, too.

It was not until Act IV that the sky began to darken.  Our energy level was still high and we did not flag through Act V.  After curtain call it was downright dark and the wind started to whip.

“Where’s my Bible?” I asked (I’m the Friar, remember?).  “Where’s my green bag?”  A couple of cast members had gathered things up and put them inside as the rain threatened.

Then it hit.  It was a deluge!  I helped carry the last of the stuff into the building, pausing to do a Shawshank Redemption pose in the rain, because it felt damn good on my sweaty body.  I was laughing heartily, as I usually do at inclement weather.  I also helped carry stuff out to our director’s car.  We took a slower drive home than usual, trying to avoid hydroplaning.  We were so happy we had gotten through the whole performance before the storm.

We have one more performance, tomorrow at Sterzinar Park, Canal Place, Little Falls at 3 p.m.  I hope we get another good audience and the weather once gain cooperates!