Thirty-eight warm bodies

Folks are gathered here. That's an accurate an assessment as is currently possible. Expressions vary from intent to blithe to hazy. Fatigue fueled by coffee. I am not a coffee drinker.

Slowly actors trundle in: not as cattle but to be treated as cattle. The room lacks the smell of an abattoir just yet, though there are murmurs of deodorant. Time is marked only by a clock on the wall no one attends, and the not yet nervous stage crew. After one day, everyone is a veteran.

Me. I'm a free radical. Today I may actually post words. One can never add too much irrelevant text to the blogosphere.

9:15 - The Morning After

Directors are reading scripts, Bret Fetzer's laughing, coffee is flowing and day 2 begins. 45 minutes till actor draw. Stay tuned. What will Cheaters Never Prosper bring???

Show #4 DONE diddly.

2:11 AM. Show 4-Complete! It's called Going Postal. It was fun to write. Hope it's fun to play with tomorrow. If anyone is reading this before coming to 14/48-- the play calls for some of the recognizable Netflix envelopes, brand new phonebooks (for those of you who have a stash of them in your apartment building lobby) and Mailboxes, like real mailboxes. But maybe that's a designer build. I had a blast on night 1. Looking forward to Saturday. Yay bed.

'Splaination

I got a lotta lip for being a writer watching the 10:30 Friday night show. So I'd like to take this opportunity to explain...

I had to miss the 8pm because I am a celebrity impersonator and I was hired to go be Cher and Amy Winehouse for a company party in West Seattle. This is 100% true.

I bolted out of there, half in costume, to see the 10:30 show and I had planned on just seeing my play then leaving and I realized how sad that would make me...not to see the rest of them. So I stayed...and it was awesome and inspiring.

Yes, I am really fucking tired, but this is 14/48. If my play sucks tomorrow, at least I got to fully enjoy the brilliance of this Friday night experience.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a play to write.

What do you think I do, blog all night???

Saturday Night Breakdown - Playwrights, Breakdown and Show Order

Show #1
Kelleen Conway-Blanchard
1 Male 3 Females

Show #2
Wayne Rawley
2 Males 1 Female

Show #3
Matt Smith (not the improv guy - the Balagan Guy)
2 Females

Show #4
Jonah Von Spreecken
3 Males 2 Females

Show #5
Elizabeth Heffron
1 Male 3 Females

Show #6
Brandon J. Simmons (he had show #6 friday, too.  Hmmmmmmm.)
2 Male 1 Female

Show #7
Celene Ramadan (who is watching the 10:30pm show right now!  Ah, youth....)
3 Male 2 Females

Writers, feel free to get stuff off your chest while you go.  It helps.  Just ask Wayne Rawley!

Writers get your assignments

Sorry...but I couldn't hear it and liasons are busy. I'll have someone post some time tonight.

AND SATURDAY'S THEME IS...

Cheater's Never Prosper.

various



2nd weekend liasons with that sure you bet/no get away tag team effort



See. Omar is posting.

What I can't wait to do

An interview with Annie Lareau

Hello All - welcome to the first 14/48 Winter 2011 Interview. I'm sitting here with Director Annie Lareau and killing Omar.

Me: So. Are you tired...no, let's try that again.

Annie: "I'm a born again virgin this time. Acted numerous times, but not directed. The big difference between acting and directing is the letting-go process (laughter). Just sitting and waiting and (laughter) hope to God everything goes OK! As a born-again virgin director, I am very blessed with a Wayne Rawley script and excellent actors, so the 14/48 Gawds are very good to me, have been..."

Me: Cuz tomorrow is another day.

Annie: (laughter)
"My biggest challenge was staging a piece that requires them to be in a small office cubicle on a pretty big stage. And my set is the most complicated!"

Me: What are you going to do for the next 20 minutes.

"Drink."
"And pray."
"And try--desperately--to leave my actors alone."

Cheers...this blogger will join you. Drinking. I'm totally OK with leaving your actors alone.

Friday Company Meeting

#4 slips in just L.....

F-it. A bunch of stuff I just wrote, deleted. Oh, well.

We are filming this performance. Archival purposes at the 10:30 perf.

TWO OPPORTUNITIES TO DO THIS! KICK ASS AND HAVE SOME FUN

...and I heard Fetzer trying to stiffle that remarkable--perfectly wonderful--laugh. The laughodometer is busting the barometer.

Who you calling a sell-out?

Sold out at 8 pm tonight. Everyone is excited. And the curtains are nice.

5: 55-ish....The Empty Flock TECH

"Mr. Faker yields 2 minutes to the sixth show."

OK - so band & lights need to run car accident for Kites a few times to get the zero counts down.
Oh, so that's how they'll strike the kite string. Of course.
"Yeah, the band gets to just blow them off....and that better not go in the blog."
Too late ;^)

Run that ending again and this time to Talking Heads "Heaven"

Umbrella skeletons, top hats, black caps and scarves silhouetted against the scrim, cross fading into thunder & rain. An Edward Gorey tableau is on the stage.

Lights are building, so band and cast run entrance again.

Brian goes to the balcony to give his actors a tangible reminder of the audience that will be up there who paid $25, too. Sight line issues are brought up for the HR & L audience and Brian has a double standard regarding those fuckers: "I don't care about those fuckers!"

Look! Shawn & Jodi-Paul & MAVEN Viertel...on stage together.

"Why was he horse riding with bees?" "It reminds me of my late husband."

You thought breaking up is hard to do? Try mourning.

"Complete black? Absolutely. No better time. That way they know 14/48 for today is done."
" Or for 30 min until we reset."
" What? We have to do it again!?"

Yes, we do and will!

OK folks - tech comes to a close at 6:15-ish. Not bad!
SEE YOU TONIGHT! I'm gonna go bug Omar about all those pictures he's been preparing for blog upload.

What Laurie is about to post about

The 14/48 deities are giggling for sure during tech rehearsals. Still, the actors and the musicians are carrying through with aplomb.

5:29 or so....Kites TECH

So, kite string coming in from the balcony, flown by Amy. As she works that out with the "kite," George runs S F/X cues with band.
Cast marks play on stage.
Car honking, wind blowing, overamped guitar slide.
George run light cues, band plays S F/X over and over, cast runs show. Craziest 10 min in Tech so far. Organized craziness, of course.
"I want blinding white light," says George. While they build that, the band takes a little giggle break and keyboard plays through a peaceful few bars that reminds me of a music box.
7 min? Let run it!
Letters and kites and pretty clouds in heaven.

Ceci n'est pas un répétition

5:05 or there abouts...Recall TECH

We are now about a show behind schedule.

Director Ziman is ready and calling shots loud and clear and a bit anxious re: band & crew's  process.

Nice...Bluesy country ballad. Sorry, don't know the name of the tune.

Pretty clouds on scrim, but not working for Ziman. He needs a different voice from the band.

So that's that. Moving on...

Act without words I

and the band played on into intermission

4:38 on the dot...Bridezilla TECH

Transitioning the biggest set of Friday line up to the longest titled show of the line up. This one is one that'll take a couple go's. Daisey chain of cues will create (it is hoped) a domino effect of action. Discussion for band complete understanding.
Opening with Blinding Me With Science (band has not learned their lines...I'm pretty sure blah, blah, blah deep as any ocean, are not the lyrics, even if that is the way most of us sing it).
"OK, I changed my mind, which is to say I was wrong," says SM.
Go back to end of BMWS for lights

And...GAME ON... they got it....nope. Not quite yet. But actors are on stage. Discussion.

Hey...bring up the lights. I need to see what's on the front of Ben's shorts. Is that a crotch star?

So. Kate & Ben dancing on the platform. DD as Japanese puppeteer. Teri with a wedding veil twice as long as she is tall and Dawson's bow tie is simply smashing ;^).

Dancers need music: Timewarp (again. No, really, again. And once again.). No worries, says band. We'll probably nail it.

And out with the Justice Dance of Love.

Laconic and late

No wry commentary. No impressionistic observations. No first person pronouns.

And then...