DeMizio's Journal

If we all stand together, we won't fall down

Another show closed. My La Salle theatre career grows by one - Assassins, Triumph of Love, Nunsense, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Footloose, And Then There Were None, and now The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Pretty full (and fun) run for the last two years.

I had lots of doubts going in, which were unfounded. I keep gravitiating towards a more "professional" approach to theater (whatever that means for me) and thought the show was a step backwards at first - you know, piddly little musical theatre at its worst, flat characters and cliched musical numbers. My fears were unfounded - we did the show justice, and really made it shine. It shone on so many levels - costumes, acting, set, script, lighting, props, everywhere...so many compliments, so many "this is the best we've seen" comments from alumni and friends. We did this show justice, and it was awesome. We "found" the show in between the notes, in between the script, in between the musical numbers that seemed cliched at first...we found the drama, the action, the meat if you will, and dragged it kicking and screaming onto the stage of Dan Rodden. And people liked it....by my initial counts, we sold somewhere between 700 and 1000 tickets for the show.

The cast party proved to be fantastic...for the first time in four years I felt like I let my hair completely down and just had a good time. I wasn't worried about being busted by the police, or about anything - it was just a great party. I paid for it when the room kept spinning in six different directions when I got back to my room, and when I was hunched in the bathroom for what seemed like hours...

But it was all worth it. I even proved to be kind of eloquent at the party, saying the line that heads this journal - "If we all stand together, we won't fall down" - to most of the people I was standing and leaning on during the night. And I'm feeling better today.

I have no eloquent words for the closing of this show, or song lyrics lamenting the ephemerality of the experience. For a while, it was. And now it's over, and it was fantastic.

I leave you with a photo of my housemates from the show, and a photo of the best electrics crew ever. Click both for larger versions.

huh huh, explain this one to me, beavis...

go here

Look at the search results.

Why do La Salle students need to be able to borrow the Beavis and Butthead Greatest hits collection?

So I can watch frog baseball, however, I'm not able to borrow Bergman films from the library (or at least we don't have any...)

Interesting...

The best time of the show is now...

For me, this is the best time of the show.

For me, the stress is gone. All 130 light cues are programmed safely into the light board. For me, theres no more late nights this week getting a light plot together. This week offers rest from Monday until Thursday, when the magic happens all over again.

Opening weekend was very well attended, with a total of around 400 people seeing the show. I've heard a lot of praise from people - both actors and audiences, loving the energy, and the story that we're putting out there. It makes me excited. My fears were unfounded - we did it again, and we're kicking ass doing it.

Believe it or not, my work is pretty well caught up right now too. My todo list is all crossouts right now - nothing left for a few days. There's a community development inservice tomorrow night, which could be interesting. The topic is supposedly stress busters. My question though is whether or not they'd realize that the necessity of the stress buster theme could be alleviated by not having the inservice so we could get more work done on our own. This is yet another way in which Community Development confuses me.

The RA conference on Saturday was a pretty good time. I didn't realize that going entailed volunteering at the conference though, and was annoyed and glad that I left half day. Volunteering mainly entailed standing outside on a cold, cold morning on the corner of 34th and Ludlow St. to direct traffic into a parking garage. We also had to introduce some speakers, which took away from peoples' choice on what sessions they wanted to attend. I left half day, and I got to attend what I wanted to basically.

I finally registered for the GRE's today, to take them in mid December. I have a renewed hope for Grad School, having found that there are some decent programs that don't have deadlines until later on. I'm looking into Villanova especially, for a MFA in Theater.

I don't completely know, though, but at least it's a plan.

So if you see this in time, and have the opportunity, come on down to see Best Little Whorehouse this weekend - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm.

Best Little Whorehouse Photos

I've put my pics from the rehearsal last night online. The address is http://www.demizio.com/images/blwit/

We open tonight and we're ready.

Come on out and see the show!

Hell, party of one / Tech Week

My contribution, after 13 hours of moving my gaze from a computer monitor to stage lights...

The Ten Commandments of Tech Week

1. I am the director, your master. You shall have no other masters besides me, and the stage manager. Believe us when we say that we know what the hell we're doing, and we're doing it for your own good. Even when we seem to be doing nothing. We're doing something. Or if we repeat the same action over and over and over again. It's for the sake of art. Really.

2. You shall not take the name of your masters in vain. This goes for taking techies names in vain too. And other actors too. Or at least do it in a whisper.

3. Remember to keep holy this week. Remember also to keep holy the closing night cast party and drink heavily.

4. Honor your father and mother, the director and his minions. Please don't belittle his vision...audibly.

5. You shall not kill. You will be tempted to kill, but do you really want to repaint over the blood? I thought not.

6. You shall not commit adultery. Until the cast party. Until then, keep it in your pants.

7. You shall not steal scenes, costumes, props, time, or anything from anyone. Someone was up until 4am the night before hot gluing "it" together. Please leave "it" where you found "it". And while we're talking about "it," can you please try not to light "it" on fire? Thanks.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. If you screwed up your line or your cue, admit it and move on. Unless it's the director's vision, in which case, lie like a used car salesman and blame it on him.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor's costume. You all look silly equally. You're actors for Chrissakes.

10 . You shall not covet any prop that belongs to your neighbor. He's probably going to break it, or trip over it anyway.

Yeah, so these are meant in good fun, and with no blasphemey at all.

Tech week goes well. We wrote about 70 light cues today. Probably another fifty need to be done by Thursday.

We're getting there.

My new low...

My new low tonight came rewriting my Contemporary Drama (motto: "There are no new stories, only retellings of old ones. Especially Oedipus") paper and watching Martha Stewart on KYW.

I just felt like Martha Stewart became a new low for me.

The paper is done, however, and for that I'm ecstatic. One less thing to revise or do this weekend.

She was still better than Carson Daly though.

Tech week (for me) starts tomorrow.

not much to say

In the middle of getting lighting together for "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

I've procastinated a little bit too long this time.

But we're actually very well off right now - on schedule. Just need to focus the first electric.

And add in the rentals on Friday.

Also add in a backlit red wash for Louis.

And run all the cables and stuff.

Its going to be a really, really, really long weekend.

And it all starts now, pretty much.