Tag Archives: theatre

Legs Were Broken!

It has totally been a Slacker Saturday today!  In my defense, I have been recruiting my energies for tonight’s performance of Morning’s at Seven at Ilion Little Theatre, which opened last night.  At least one of my loyal readers is interested in knowing how things went (Hello, Granny K!), so here it is:

WE ARE STARS!!!!!

Just felt like being dramatic (SO appropriate for a drama queen like me!).  But I will say that after the usual opening night jitters, the first performance went very well.  The audience seemed to enjoy it immensely, and we got some very kind compliments afterward.

Don’t we look about to kick some community theatre butt?

First we had to take the traditional pre-performance cast selfie.  At least, that is Kaylynn’s tradition.  She is the beautiful lady in the immediate foreground.  I have worked with her on other plays and murder mysteries, and she is always such a joy.  While I’m at it, I must give a shout-out to the entire cast and crew.  Oh, you don’t really want me to put everyone’s name, do you?  This isn’t an Oscar speech, after all.  Come see the show, and you can read all about us in the programme (the computer is underlining “programme,” but I wanted to give it the pretentious spelling) (and not for nothing, but why is is “pretentious” and not “pretencious” when it is “pretence”?  I mean, I can see why it is not “predendous” from “pretend,” because that would be silly) (But I digress).

I suppose some readers might want to hear a little more about last night’s performance.  Well, I will confess right off the bat that I messed up.  Almost big time.  First I forgot the end of a line, which my cast-mate needed to give her line.  Then I started to skip almost a whole page of necessary information.  In both instances, I caught myself and disaster was averted. I was, however, quite mortified.  For one reason, I am good at learning lines and am often the one to save others who find themselves in difficulties.  For another reason, THAT WAS THE SCENE I KNEW BEST!!!  I suppose I needed to look over my lines a few more times. 5,483 times is obviously superior to 5,479 times.  Let that be a lesson to me.

However, as I said, the audience seemed to enjoy the performance a lot. They were a wonderful audience: ready to laugh and be pleased.  I tell you, there is nothing better than being on stage and hearing sincere laughter.  I guess not so much if you are doing, for example, a Shakespearean tragedy, but this is a charming comedy.  And I believe the entire cast was charming.  I encourage local readers to come and see for yourselves.  Tell them Mohawk Valley Girl sent you.  And if I steered you wrong, feel free to break my leg.

 

 

Break a Lame Leg, Me

I just posted on Facebook that I am brain dead.  This is no way to be on opening night for Morning’s at Seven at Ilion Little Theatre.

Oh for heavens’ sake, can’t I even manage a Friday Lame Post?

It is a dramatic moment.

When in doubt, throw in a picture.  Usually I use a picture of a monster, but here is a shot from last night’s dress rehearsal, used without permission.  I don’t think the lady that took it will mind, but I will ask her when I see her tonight.  This is the whole cast.  We are only all on stage a few times in the play, which is just as well, because Ilion Little Theatre’s stage is small.  The whole theatre is small, although I prefer to call it cozy and intimate.

The fatty upper arm in the foreground on the left is mine.

Here is a backstage shot from last night, showing us getting ready and frantically studying our scripts.  I have not frantically studied my script today, but I have time.  Perhaps I have allowed myself a little too much time.  I took a half a vacation day at work so I would have time for a nap.  I had a nice long one which I enjoyed very much.  Then I had a cup of coffee, which I also enjoyed very much.  I have been dithering ever since.

However, at least I made my blog post, such as it is.  Local readers may like to come see the show.  It is April 26, 27, and 28, and May 3, 4 and 5, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, doors open a half hour before curtain.  Tickets are available at the door (till sold out, dare I hope?) or through the website, www.ilionlittletheatre.org.

“Shapewear” Is So A Word, Computer!

Breathing is not overrated.  That is what I tell myself at times like this.  You see, when I get stressed, I forget to breathe.  Then I take a deep breath and it’s like, “Oh yeah, oxygen.”

When I was in the army learning how to run, and I ran into difficulties (see what I did there?), I would tell myself, “Breathing is overrated.”  Eventually I learned how to run and breathe, but first I learned how far I can actually run while gasping and choking in a most unbecoming fashion.  However, this is not a post about running.  I would probably feel a good deal less stressed if I had taken the time for a short run or walk.  However, that ship sailed, to resort to cliche (it is less of a cliche if you point out that you are using a cliche; another technique is to add the word “proverbial,”as in “that proverbial ship has sailed.  Then you sound all self-aware and post-ironic) (but I digress).

Another deep breath, which I need after that last paragraph.  I am working through my last-minute fluster attack before leaving for dress rehearsal for Morning’s at Seven, the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre.  I believe I have mentioned it once or twice.

After work, and a convoluted drive back to Herkimer, due to congestion and construction, I stopped at the store to get the pantyhose and underwear I mentioned earlier.  I am a little worried, because the only pantyhose (they are, in fact, tights, but let us not quibble over semantics) in the color I wanted (off-white) were control top. YES, I have a top to control.  However, when I attempt to do so, I experience extreme torture for very little result.  What a cruel hoax shapewear is!

And look at me, 300 words and I’m not late.  Yet.  Happy Thursday, everyone.

I wonder if wine is overrated.

 

 

Short Post Before Rehearsal

Hello, and Welcome to All Morning’s at Seven All The Time.  I am posting (in haste) before rehearsal, and I am quite flustered.  Our rehearsal last night lasted late (for me), and when I got home I couldn’t sleep.  Eventually I did.  Till then I just laid quietly and rested.  Not tossing and turning can go a long way, I find.

OK, so one paragraph into All Morning’s at Seven All The Time and I have talked more about my bad night’s sleep than the play.  Is anybody surprised?  Is this not the sort of nonsense we are by this time accustomed? Or are there new readers present who have no idea what to expect and are subsequently confused?  Where am I going with this?

So we have two more rehearsals of the play before opening night on Friday.  Dress rehearsal on Thursday is, in fact, more of a performance, because we will have people in the audience.  Of course I am nervous!  Who wouldn’t be?  Yes, I have been in many, many plays.  I am always nervous until I actually get on stage and start talking.  Then it’s fun!

Morning’s at Seven will be presented at Ilion Little Theatre April 26, 27, 28 and May 3, 4 and 5.  Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.  For more information you can visit the Ilion Little Theatre website at www.ilionlittletheatre.org.

 

I Need My Monsters Today

I thought I could make a quick Monstrous Monday post before segueing into All Mornings At Seven All The Time on Tuesday.  Opening night is Friday.  I am worried rehearsals this week will last late, late, but you’ll have that.

Full disclosure:  I am experiencing a sort of paralysis.  Of the mind and the body.  One of the symptoms, apparently, is to write in incomplete sentences, a style in which I do not usually indulge.  Or do I?  Perhaps I just don’t notice.  Maybe that is another symptom.  The fact is, I keep typing stuff in and backspacing over it, or not even typing it in as I think of it.  I sit here with clenched-teeth determination NOT erasing this paragraph.

“You were looking for me?”

Once again, I look to Nosferatu for help.  Who could be uncheered by a vampire?

“A nice cup of brew and you’ll soon be feeling more the thing.”

Here’s a truly cheerful ghoul, and the cheerful thought that Halloween is coming.  Eventually.  Well, obviously, I celebrate Halloween all year.  I believe I am not the only mortal to do so.

He seems to be hard at work.

I have no idea what movie, if any, this is from.  It was in my Media Library, so I must have downloaded it from somewhere sometime.  Similarly, I have no idea how I got to be over 200 words.  I’ll talk about the play I’m in tomorrow.  And eventually, I will try to start making better blog posts.  In the meantime, may your Mondays NOT be monstrous.

 

Post Rehearsal Post

Here is a rare post-rehearsal post, because I do not have to go to work tomorrow, so I do not feel I should hurry to bed (I don’t think that’s a run-on sentence, but I am too lazy to diagram it and see).  I spent the day at work assuring myself I felt Less Crappy.  Yes, I used capitals.  I do that sometimes when I am telling myself things.  Don’t you?  If not, I recommend you try it.  It sometimes has an impact.

It is probably clear by now that I have not much to say but am merely posting because I can, and to keep from being two posts behind.  If I make two posts tomorrow, a feat well within the realm of possibility, I shall be caught up.  Blogwise, anyways.  As far as my life goes, no promises.

Regular readers may remember that I am in rehearsals for Morning’s at Seven at Ilion Little Theatre.  It is a charming play first presented in 1938.  The plot concerns four sisters, three of whom live right next door to each other.  I grew up with three sisters (um, four girls, counting me), so I feel I can understand the characters.  Of course, it is not an exact parallel, because I also have a brother, which the sisters in the play do not.  Also, in the play, the youngest sister is the maiden aunt, who lives with one of the sisters and her husband.  Also, one of the sisters has a 40-year-old son, who has been engaged for five years and just can’t seem to commit.

I don’t think I am describing  the play very well.  It is actually very funny, touching and sweet. I totally recommend local readers come and see it.

Performances are April 26, 27, and May 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m., and April 28 and May 5 at 2 p.m., at Ilion Little Theatre, 13 Remington Ave, Ilion.  For more information or for reservations, you can all 315-894-3203, or go to ilionlittletheatre.org.

 

Wuss Out Sick Day

How Wuss-out Wednesday can I get without getting another blog post behind?  Taking a Blogger’s Sick Day would be pretty wussy, I think.  I feel AWFUL!!! I don’t know if it is a cold or allergies, but there is not much I can do right now except feel awful.  Well, I can also spare a little me to feel stupid for being such a big fat baby about what is really a trifling illness.  And to feel guilty about not making a better blog post.  But that’s about it.

“What’s in this drink?”

I thought I would throw in a picture, so this could be also a kind of a Wordless Wednesday.  Doesn’t she look a little like she’s taking some nasty medicine?  I don’t think she is.  It is the lady from The Atomic Brain, one of my favorite cheesy movies.

It’s kind of a cheesy grin, no?

A theatre friend made this frame over a picture of me when I was playing Roxalana Druse at Ilion Little Theatre.  She killed her abusive husband and was hung for it, in case you did not remember the famous case.  Art Wilks, who played my husband in Roxy, is in Morning’s at Seven with me now, but not as my husband.  I find the picture appropriate for today, because when I am feeling particularly ill (you know how these illnesses get better or worse in waves), I keep saying I want to die. Of course I do not. I might miss something.

Here’s a cheery grin for you!

Looking to end on a lighter note, I include this picture of a nice little vampire, in the Halloween pot my friend Marsha sent me.

Now I am going to drink some hot tea with lemon and honey.  Perhaps you will join me tomorrow for Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

Pre-Rehearsal Flustered Post with a Dumb Title

Oh, I am flustered. It is Flustered Monday. That has kind of an internal rhyme.  I don’t know why I am flustered.  I have emailed my articles and pictures to Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  They will print them or not; at least I wrote them and sent them in by deadline (OK, actually ON deadline; we’ve talked about me and the last minute, have we not?).  I have plenty of time to make a blog post before getting to rehearsal for Morning’s at Seven, the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre (by the way, stand by for this blog becoming All Morning’s at Seven All The Time).  What reason do I have to be flustered?

Well, one reason is that it seems I do not know my lines as well as I thought I did.  Going over them Friday and Sunday, I thought I was doing pretty good.  I was working on getting word perfect and learning everybody else’s lines (you know, the whole line, not just the last few words before my line).  Today when I looked at the script, covering it with a piece of paper and sliding it down to read others’ lines while covering my own, and I said, “Huh?  What?”

This is what my brain feels like today.

It seemed like a good moment to throw in a monster.  Doesn’t he look comfortable?  I think I see my problem.  I spent my weekend running around having fun, when I should have been vegetating, napping, and studying lines, not necessarily in that order.

Maybe this brain wouldn’t die, but mine sure did.

Get a load of that side-eye!  I’m afraid that is what my cast-mates will be giving me if I am as clueless on stage as I feel right now.

There’s the brain I need!

Anyways, I see I am just over 300 words. I call that respectable for a Monstrous Monday (you didn’t think I was serious about Flustered Monday, did you?).  Now I have time to look over my script again.  I believe I am still a day behind on my daily blog, but at least I have not added a day.  Happy Monday, folks!

 

A Labor of Lame

I have about 12 minutes to make a blog post before the next episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen.  I want to sit on my couch and knit!  But I do not want to make this post tomorrow morning. I want to make it now.  So here I am.  I originally wanted to have a blog to get myself to write every day.  Alas, as Truman Capote once said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”  I have applied that quote to this blog before.

I just got back from the last rehearsal for Murder by the Book, the murder mystery we are doing tomorrow at Morning Star Methodist Church in Ilion, NY (see Wednesday’s post for more information).  Last night I had rehearsal for Morning’s at Seven, the full-length play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre.  I have had rehearsal for one or the other all week, feeling grateful that I did not have any days of two rehearsals (but only because Monday’s second rehearsal got cancelled).  I am rehearsaled out! I know, I know, that should be “rehearsed out.”  Sometimes the grammatically correct expression just doesn’t feel right (feel write?).

Have I mentioned yet that today is Lame Post Friday?  Or did you perhaps catch on by the title?  And I see I am over 200 words, just in the introductory paragraphs.  Do I dare hit Publish on this meager nonsense?  YES! Happy Friday, folks!  Let’s all hope for a better post on Saturday.

 

It’s a Mystery!

This will be a kind of a Wordless Wednesday.  I had a rehearsal for Murder by the Book, the murder mystery we are putting on at Morning Star Methodist Church this Saturday, April 6.  I brought my Tablet and took a few pictures.  I think we are a suspicious-looking bunch.

All eyes turn toward Jeanetta Robespierre, the authoress of many murder mysteries, but of a real life murder? Hmmmm….

The setting of the murder mystery is the gala release party of Jeanetta Robespierre’s new murder mystery thriller, An Ill Wind in Ilion.  However, the festivities are interrupted by the untimely demise of… well, I don’t want to give away any major plot points.  For one reason, I did not include a spoiler alert.

Tensions are high! Accusations fly!

But is romance also in the air?

 

And here is a full cast shot.

The rehearsal went pretty well.  My actors are doing a marvelous job.  I think the audience will be highly entertained.

Tickets are $20 for Roast Pork Dinner and Show.  Doors open at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at Morning Star Methodist Church, 36 Second St., Ilion, NY.  For reservations and tickets call the church office at 315-894-4093.  Tickets will also be available at the door.