Great Caesar's Ghost

I had my first rehearsal for Julius Caeser last night, and the rehearsal space is if anything even spookier than an old haunted Opera house. It's located above the State Police headquarters on Soldiers Field Road. It's an entire second floor of abandoned offices and wharehouse space...it's decripit. Old furniture and books piled up everywhere, long ago screens fallen off windows and left to rot in place, the dust of many years lying undisturbed, the ceiling falling down, just general crap piled up here and there. I wandered along the dark hallways listening vainly for the sound of human activity, beginning to think I must be in the wrong place. Finally I heard a tittering chatter, and came to a large space with the cast and crew gathered around a long table sitting in odd, musty upholstered chairs.
Other than that, it all felt very professional, if not quite as immediately chummy as my community theatre production. It's a talented cast, Brutus in particular came off very impressively in our first reading. The director, who had seemed a bit dismissive and intimidating during callbacks, was all smiles and charm. Everyone seemed to know someone else so I was odd man out starting off, but that will change after a few rehearsals. I was a little overwhelmed by it all but managed to do ok. We were shown the set and costume design (key word: colorful). The costume designer is a friend of someone I used to work with who is a budding playwright, so I am beginning to make connections.
All in all, a good start.

Three Eerie Things

1.) Our theatre is haunted. It's an old Opera house that has been gutted twice by fire, and on one of those occasions a performer died. She has been spotted from time to time ever since. They call her Esmerelda. A purple chair is reserved for her for all the performances, and it must have fresh flowers placed upon it or bad things happen. The last time they forgot the flowers a giant hanging fish came crashing down on a crowded stage, though no one was injured.

2.) The other day I decided to stop off and get a sub for lunch. For some reason I had a yen for something I hardly ever order, a small Italian with the works. So, I go into the sub shop and the woman has just finished making a really good looking sub and is about to wrap it up. She asks what I want, I tell her...and she hands me the sub she just made. Eerie.

3.) The Patriots lost, thus discouraging my vision of an undefeated season and undermining the veracity of my intuition. Truly the eeriest thing of all.

Garlic

I had a great night out last night, heard some great music with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world. Today I was supposed to go over to a friend's house for dinner, but they had to cancel at the last minute as the host was not feeling well. So, since it's kind of a gloomy day I decided to make some chili to warm up the innards. Went shopping for some last minute supplies, not at my normal store. And, can you believe this...they were out of garlic. How the hell can a store run out of garlic? It's not like it spoils rapidly...christ it keeps for weeks. And it's not the sort of thing that stores have runs on..."Please give me 120 cloves of garlic...and all your lupines." Stupid store. I had to buy some minced garlic in a jar...hardly sufficient.
Oh well, the pot is simmering on the stove...and it smells good enough. One makes due. City grocery stores suck though.

Progress

A cold morning, it was nice to sleep in. I've finally progressed to the point where I am staying up to 1:00 and getting up around 9:00 . I've been enjoying these first weeks of idleness, but managing to keep busy enough with rehearsals, classes, bike rides, walks about town, and various chores (I spent one entire afternoon buying a pipe to be used as a prop). Next week I start rehearsing two more plays and so will begin to be very busy indeed. Plus, performances start to loom and lines will need to be memorized...so that means real work and various anxiety's will start to intrude on my pleasant existance.
I must say I don't miss work one single bit. It's like a big cramp has dissapeared from my brain and all is relaxed and whole again. Though I do miss the people I worked with, some more than others.
This new play I've picked up is a children's play (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates) geared towards the K-4 crowd. It's being directed by the same person I'm doing Anne of Green Gables with. It's to be toured whenever anybody buys a date at schools and libraries over the next year. I'm told we can expect 1 or 2 shows per month. We get paid per performance...yay!
I took a class a few Saturday's ago with one of the top casting agents in town (there are only 3 or 4 of them so I guess they're all tops in their field) about how to make it as an actor in Boston. It was mostly geared to commercials, industrials, and film. Her only comment on theatre work was "It's good for developing your craft, but you can't make money at it." I've been really lucky so far.
Okay, now I have to get back to doing the Crossword and Sudoku.

2-0

The Patriots remain undefeated, thus continuing to validate my sneaking suspicion that they would go UNDEFEATED this year. Of course, I had a sneaking suspicion the Red Sox would win the world series every year since 1968.

Sleeping In

In mind and spirit I have adjusted quite nicely to quiet days of retirement. My body, however, has been trained too long in working day routines...I continue to wake each morning at 6:00 ready for strife and turmoil. I can see it's going to take some serious training in the other direction to break that habit. It doesn't help that I'm still going to bed relatively early...though I can feel the vestiges of my youthful night life existance stirring.
By 7:30 the noisy boy upstairs is off to school, and by 8:00 or so the entire family has dismbarked for the morning. I have no choice, under the circumstances, but to enjoy my quiet respite reclining under my comfy sheets. I'm getting so much damn sleep I'm working on some kind of premanent headache. All part of the adjustment process I guess.

9/11

I can't tell five years from ten years from 6 months anymore. It's well and good that this anniversary be marked and commented upon...but after much deliberation I've come to the conclusion that really have nothing worthwhile to add.
I did spend hours radically re-designing my blog. Okay, I spent seconds choosing someone else's template...but those are seconds I'll never get back.
Finally...have the Patriots come up with the appropriate song to celebrate losing productive players who want to be payed as such? I'm still predicting an un-defeated season.

Pats

Much bad food and many beers later, we won. A typically semi-satisfying win...can't say we were overpowering but winning on a safety is cool enough.
I think the major problem was that Belichick was dressed way too neatly on the sidelines...he looked like a regular human being. Maybe he's saving the grungy gym rat clothes for when it's important. I think it's going to be a fun season.
A big anniversary coming up, I'm watching a special on CBS about a film crew who were following a station house before, during, and after 9/11. It brings back a lot of memories. I guess it's time to dredge it all back up again.

That was the week that was

The only lick of work I did last week was two rehearsals, just blocking for the most part. Go here, stand for a while, then go there. I have a great part for me...a lot of presence, not a lot of lines. So I spend a lot of time looking on. Very boring, technical rehearsals.
It's strange going through a week with so little turmoil and angst. The weather was as perfect as I anticipated it. Long bike rides, lying in the Autumn sun listening to the birds and insects, plenty of time to do my favorite thing: nothing.
And today, finally, FOOTBALL! I've larded up with junk food and beer. I'm predicting another Super Bowl season for my beloved Patriots. These are the golden years for a Pats fan.
Next week things will start picking up as I start classes, acting on Wednesday and improv on Sunday (Sunday at 4...god it's going to cut into my football viewing addiction).

Don't Quit the Day Job

I quit the day job. My last day was Friday, today begins the first day of my official retirement. Now I am a full time actor. I've been cast in two shows this fall and tonight is my first rehearsal. I'm feeling good. One would think the moumental proportions of what I've just done would be paramount in my mind, but one day just follows the next. So it goes. Yep, just another day...slept in to nine, read the paper to ten. Shopped, took a nap...what day of the week is it again?