♫ If you've got it...

It was a successful opening night. 

Aside from:

i)  attempting to stage a scene change rehearsal ahead of 8pm
(I did feel bad for the cast - I'd rather see them come in all excited & nervous. For it to be about 'break a leg' & flower deliveries & to have the adrenaline going over playing in front of a Real Audience), &

ii) some minor costume glitches
(the nun's veil which flew off in King of Broadway, the opening number - she danced on in just her wigcap; the vanishing Glitter Belt which upset Lovely Ensemble Boy G. & the totally broken zipper on the evening gown fixed by sewing stratagem & a well-placed borrowed fur stole)
           .... we did good!

Likewise the after-apartment party which followed the after-party with a beer chit at the bar. (I was proud of my multi-tasking as I got both loads of laundry through before the theatre was locked up. Telling Beth later how I was nipping back & forth upstairs ~ 'nipping' in American speak meaning taking swigs from the bottle. Well, that too!)
  I now know what PB+J flavoured vodka tastes like. I also know for certain that I don't want a permanent tattoo on my chest, as nice as the floral one which Paul & Rachel picked out for me may be. Not only because fellow crew & tech, Joel pointed out how hard it was to focus on my face in conversation. I certainly gave myself a shock when I woke the next morning before remembering the night before.

.... flaunt it. ♫

Official Function #2:

Feeling flush with success (& an afternoon tumbler of Cava)

 
because....

                    it's Opening Night!

[Production photos]

Today featured:

- a sleep-in  (also known as a lie-in, now referred to colloquially in the flat as a "Lion")

- some sisterly post on a Tea theme!;

- habitual running repairs list done in time for 3 so that we could part-ay!

We managed to add some symbolic Weiner & Beer into the mix but fell short on the Pretzel. Cheddar crackers & crispy apple Bourbon-infused dessert more than made up for it though.

Shining Star & Second Dress

We won an award. There was therefore cake to partake of in celebration. Shiny. 

" The awards recognize two arts organizations in each of five regions of the Commonwealth ... that best demonstrate the ability to enhance communities, lift our spirits & build a better quality of life. 

" The Shining Star Award is bestowed upon an arts organization in each region that has an extraordinary impact on the community, successfully develops community partnerships, as well as business, legislative, and local community support; contributes to K-12 education; and that has demonstrated sustained excellence through the years. "

 ___________________

Quotes from the evening: 

"I'm confused."
"I'm so confused."
"This is so confusing." ~ Heard frequently, variously & often. 

"It was meant to be pink." 
Said costume prop was still white. Communication breakdown. 

"How was your day off?" ~ Naive (albeit otherwise lovely) Ensemble boy N. 
(Knowledgable fellow cast member E. next to him started chuckling.) 

Me: "Where's that *!#*¿¿* cape?!" 
Lovely Ensemble Boy G.: "Oh, I put it in the garbage can during "King of Broadway". 

~ Of course he did. Logically. 

"That's the gay coatrack. Didn't you know?" 

I got involved with the pigeon set move for the Roof scene. I had to 'page' the curtain. (Although I heard "cage", which sort of makes sense too. Emily & I decided that was British English.) Overall its entrance didn't go too smoothly.

Wendy: "Why are we holding?" 
Luke: "Because it's dark & we can't see." 
Wendy: "That's a silly answer." 

(The pigeons, by the way, are awesome. Puppets! I shall take photos to show you.)

... Third Dress tonight.

The Thorwald Who Came To Tea

The skies wept on Tuesday morning because the Tall Gorgeous One was leaving for DC.

As they walked down the steps together (having kindly offered to drive him over to Main Street Station), I heard Sue say to Thor: 

"So I hear you control the sun and the rain?" 

 Brilliant. The last laugh before he was gone. (My ensemble boys were also extremely amused by the concept of the Thunder God going to give a talk to NASA.
   ~ Thor, I only wish you'd met them. They were certainly 'keeping it gay' at the Half yesterday whilst dancing to techno & preening themselves!)
 ________

The visit conversation began back in July over squeals and exclamation marks via Gmail as we looked ahead to my hopeful relocation to VA & Thor's anticipated conference in TN. We would be Stateside together! So it was that the Megabus for a dollar (or thirty) brought him to my new home.
   I was released from work early as I'd spoke of my intention to walk down to SB to meet him. Walking for twenty minutes. One has to account for walking time so I had my window of a hundred minutes in which to make it. A close call.
   We zigzagged our way back up the streets, arriving onto West Broad whilst discussing the Language Which Is The Same (But Really Not Quite.) Thor's use of British phraseology during his time in TN had provided an insight into my 'now how do I otherwise explain it?' life.

I pointed out hilarious pub en route, which Sarah had designated to be my Local:

Umm, Liverpool ... London?
Oh, never mind.

 

We dined at Tarrant's, an experience I'd been saving for this occasion. It's the local cafe opposite on West Broad which my theatre friends rave about & adore. 

 
But first things first, we partook of Tea. 

 Yes, a friend to share a cuppa with at last!
What simple homesprung joys!

As it was, we stuck firmly to the beer & were not taken in by any other such substances. Legend Winter White, rather nice. I sort of insisted: local, seasonal - it had to be.

Conversation set the pace of our meal. It took the waitress a while to cajole from us our orders as we were talking nineteen to the dozen & even after service, she came back to check on us as our plates were only part-touched. Hehe. I also got a giggle in at her 'oh, you're from the Netherlands? Oh, sweet" ID checking. Sweeeet - aye, that's what he is. 

I had to try the oven-baked aubergine because Sarah given her recommendation. And I also bravely took on a plate of shrimp/scallop/polenta - to no ill-effect! The curse of the Evil Prawn is hereby lifted. Bon.

We had half an hour before I started work the next morning so I gave him the theatre tour. Chance to introduce him to the pigeons, display the twirly swastika silver bra, the eagle cloak and point out our now-famous pillar in the auditorium featured in Spielberg's latest, Lincoln. *As filmed at the 'Rep & down by Richmond's Capitol.* (Sarah & Marcia dressed for it. Scotty was in it.)

It was a fun sojourn, I feel we make excellent Activity Friends
as well as being well-loved & honoured by the visit.  :)

Remembrance (Revised)

I'm grateful for having had the Garden of Remembrance so close to St. Paul's & that physical act of remembrance every year as we walked down & I stood there, hearing the familiar words of the service & the Last Post play out. Grateful for the minute's silence carried out in schools year after year, to stop and pause and give thanks and honour the dead. Reflecting this morning and thinking how two years will bring us to a hundred years since the start of WWI. As we move further away from World War history, losing men like Harry Patch who stood for the sacrifices of his generation, it seems more imperative than ever to speak of what happened so that we, the people of the present, do not forget.

   There's an absence of poppies here. American remembers and honours differently. I began to write a comparison between the two days, Remembrance Day & Veterans Day, thinking over the experiences of war and the similarities in remembering & honouring the dead.
  However after arriving at the theatre, I found on the noticeboard a page of wee stars & stripes stickers and an explanatory notice defining the day itself. I guess it's not just me who gets it confused then.
   Turns out poppies are worn for Memorial Day in May- to remember & honour those who died in service. Veterans Day, on the other hand, is there as recognition for all who have served, be it in wartime or peacetime & to acknowledge that to the living. Interesting... America would do it differently, I suppose. Dad & I have talked on this before - America's desire to salute & applaud the military: from hometown crowds to discounts in stores. Our conclusion led us back to the Seventies, redressing the wrongs done to American servicemen in & after Vietnam.
  It remains a fact quite close to home for the Rep though: our second lead guy, Scotty has only recently returned from Afghanistan. It was on his bucket list to join the Navy so he was there under an Individual Augmentee Deployment, now discharged from service. He's such a darling; I'm glad to have met him & now be working with him. He always greets me with a hug & a kiss & thanks (or a high-five with a James Bond/Cockney accent depending on the occasion & timing of the show.) His part in Bootleg Hamlet was the well-played entrance of Fortinbras, dressed in fatigues & a Captain Planet t-shirt to wolf-whistles & cheers from the local crowd. He certainly hyped that role up but other than that in real terms, we don't really ask. I'm certainly thankful then for his safe return.

What I wrote prior, on remembrance: 

.... For them, there's the War of Independence & also, thinking on Monument, a ready focus on sacrifices of the Civil War. From there, what seems like a fast forward to remembering recent history fought & enacted in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq...
   For us with a much older history (our 'civil war' being fought back in 1455), I think we recall the World Wars much more vividly. Partially due to being European so being involved & implicated from the start, as well as the immediate impact of the two Wars on the homeland. Conscription, rationing, the Blitz, the Battle of Britain, Hitler's steady occupation across the Continent. 
  It may have been the same war fought by England & her allies on the other side of the Atlantic but sometimes our respective theatres of war & experiences appear very distinct.

Saturday, Shopping & Snacks.

PayDay. Hurrah!

"What a difference a day makes"

(Yes I did buy a snack bar today entirely as a prop to demonstrate Friday's landmark victory for my checking account. Blog Geek that I am.

The Milk Duds I bought to try after the name came up in "Apples to Apples" with Megan last Friday & I had no idea what they were. Kind of like Riesens but a wee bit softer. For the record - Peanut Butter M&Ms? Also very tasty.)

So I tried to 'ride the bus' today (they just leap aboard here; no kind of catching-style - even with baseball gloves in abundance) but the Marathon meant my wait was utterly in vain.

 As a second resort I found myself in the thrift store nearby  N.Foushee Street, rummaging through a fabric mountain of well, fabric scraps along with curtains, bed linen and sham covers (a pillow case for want of any other definition. Allegedly fancy/ier. I'm not so sure.)



Did the trick. Emergency bedding acquired for Beautiful 2!
(Beautiful 1 might also be here next Sunday, fingers crossed. Hope so.)


Lauren & I still ended up at Willow Lawn later in the day once the traffic normalised.
(She humoured me insofar as to drive via DMV, where the local Recycling Center is! Happy enviromental faces all around!) So I now have a second comforter from the bargainous Ross (Queen-sized to replace the Twin & double up over me as the nights grow colder) & two cupboards full of food to tide me over the coming weeks. Très productive. 

   (I feel I may have given American bread/prices a bad press several blogposts ago. My original loaf cost just short of £3 - not a fiver, but still double what I'd pay at home. I'm still standing by my belief that these brands are also in no way as substantial as British bread. British bread being the best thing since sliced bread. Here it's like the curse of Nimble all around. 
   However! I have since encountered K.Roger's reduced bread section for two weeks running, which tends to favour (not-so-)fresh Continental-style loaves making me happy indeed. Quality bread for a $1! What more could an Intern want?
   Although I'm fast coming to the realisation that I might have to wait nigh on a year to eat smoked peppered mackerel again. Salmon is here; salmon is from Scotland! Why then no mackerel? I'm a bit sad. I shall keep on in my quest. Although K.Roger's reduced Scallops last night were well tasty. And I bought other fish which sounds like it wants to go dancing. Tilapia: GSOH. WLTM long slim with interest in hula-dancing.)

Back to the plotting board in readiness for tomorrow:

Act I. 

Do a change. 

Read a book.   

(I'm thinking
"Gone With The Wind"
 for this next stint.)

                                      Act II. 

                                     As long as your arm:

Thoughts from Tech Week:

In a similar vein to "turning the ship around" back for Singapore (I can hear "Captain" James' lovely Northern tones again as I write that), we've just solved the problem of The Producers & all those QuickQuick Changes in Act II.


Act I, Scene 2: 

The Office. 

Max:

Don't you see, Bloom, darling Bloom?
Glorious Bloom, it's so simple:
Step one, we find the worst play ever written.
Step two, we hire the worst director in town.
Step three, I raise two million dollars. (etc)

          ....   ♪ ♫♪  ♫♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ....

Leo:

Whatta ye say, Bloom? What do I say?
Finally a chance to be a Broadway producer.
What do I say?
Finally a chance to make my dreams come true, sir
What do I say, what do I say?
Here's what I say to you, sir:

I can't do it, I can't do it
I can't do it, that's not me
I'm a loser, I'm a coward
I'm a chicken, don't you see?
I can't do it.

               Alright then!   (We all go home early.) 

______

The good news about Saturday: 
i) Having worked Wednesday night, we no longer have to attend today's run-through. Yay. 
ii) It's delightfully sunny & bright outside. 

The not-so-good news: 
i) There's an actual shortage of Festivals!  :O  (Although I have located a Mini Greek one..)
ii) Shortage mainly due to the Richmond Marathon that takes place throughout the day, looping back & forth across the city. The city & its traffic will come to a chockablock standstill. It does give the NY runners somewhere to come though. Good for them. 

Happening Plans:
Acquire more bedding from Willow Lawn in preparation for my Favourite Weather Boy's arrival at 5.50pm on Monday - at which time I shall be down in Shockoe Bottom, meeting the Megabus.  :)