Drama behind the scenes

For those of you in theatre, film or t.v., you’ll know that a lot of the drama happens backstage or off-camera.

The set designer and production team for Alumnae’s two one-act Stoppard shows – not to mention some of us on the painting crew – got a good dose of drama this morning when set designer Marysia Bucholc returned to the set to discover that something had gone horribly wrong with the glaze on the floor.

Basically, it dried very unevenly – and in some cases, left a milky white film all over the place. So she’s in the process of re-doing the floor. Unfortunately, those of us who helped last night (including my friend Lies – and we were there till a bit after 11 p.m.) are unable to help out today – but when I called Marysia (after receiving an emergency phone call from producer Lynne Patterson), she had already re-done the base coat, had folks on the way and would be okay.

So now we may have to go back to do some odds and ends on Wednesday night, as we’ve lost time today on re-painting and re-lining the floor.

Off to help my friend, director Kerri MacDonald, with her New Ideas audition this afternoon – then meeting two friends for I Furiosi’s concert tonight. They’re an amazing, edgy baroque ensemble – check out their website: www.ifuriosi.com

Great weekend all!

Busy times

Hey all. From time to time, I’ll be copying posts from my other blog writing gig: Alumnae Theatre Company’s blog. Check it out sometime: www.alumnaetheatre.wordpress.com

Here’s today’s post:

Bloggergal is going to need her Wheaties over the next few days, chickens.

I’ll be meeting up with Magritte/Hound set designer Marysia Bucholc and painting crew to paint the set tomorrow. And, due to scheduling issues – with the build, rehearsals and a film shoot rental – we’ll be doing most of the set painting tomorrow night (just one week before opening!). Never a dull moment, let me tell ya.

Saturday, I’ll be acting as audition reader, along with Dinah Watts, for a New Ideas play: Summer’s End (by Francine Dick, directed by NIF co-founder Kerri MacDonald).

Also, I’ve been in touch with NIF Producers Pat McCarthy and Brenda Darling, as well as Marketing Director Tina McCulloch, about a new idea for NIF rehearsal blog coverage. My plan has yet to be confirmed with a couple of other folks involved, so more on that later.

And, during all of this, I’ve been in contact with Ed Rosing – who is designing set #3 for the season (our final show Guineapigging) – about the possibility of helping him with painting that set.

Who was it who said I need a clone?

Anyway. To be continued. Back with my recent Alumnae adventures on Monday…

Goals for 2011

Continuing to ponder and create a list of goals for this new year (I’m big on lists). Setting up this blog was one of them. Yay me!

A lot of the stuff on my list I like to think of as “life housekeeping” and includes both literal and creative tasks. Reupholstering that 1950s love seat. Buying a pair of roller skates. Learning the Chorus speeches in Henry V (I bought the Oxford edition of the play, since it’s much easier to cart around than my Riverside Complete Works of Shakespeare or the Folio Complete Works). Like that.

Also designing tattoo #12. Have been doing so for some time, actually. It’s a variation on the Faerie Cats (Celtic) design – but it’s not quite right yet. You gotta be pretty circumspect about something that’s going to be etched on your body forever. In any event, it’ll be an even dozen then. No idea if it will be the last, though. Maybe. Maybe yes.

 

In case you were wondering…

A question came up from a reader the other day, so I thought I’d post my response – in case anyone else was wondering the same thing.

Q: When I mention products, etc., am I doing product placement or promotion?

A: No. Whenever I mention a product, service, organization, person, etc. in this blog it’s because I’ve had some experience with it/them, like it/them and want to share it/them. And that’s all. I am not promoting anything or anyone per se in this blog – although I will personally recommend or shout out stuff and folks I like. It’s all just personal preference. Good question, though – since this is the age of the web and all.

Snow day

Wow – so how about that snowfall we had last night/this morning?

But, as much as it would have been nice to hunker down with the cat this morning, I was on a mission. And that mission was brunch. And, as those of you who know me know – neither sleet nor snow nor … how does the rest of that go? Anyway, you get the idea.

I left extra early, since I had to get the Queen car – and surface vehicle travel can get pretty dodgy in weather like this. Literally a few meters from Queen, I missed one. Then, as I waited at the stop light, I missed a second one. Crap!

Now, normally, I’d be standing in the bus shelter on a day like this fuming over my bad luck  – not to mention the nearly half-hour wait for the next streetcar. But today there were some pretty cool fellow travellers to pass the time with: a young woman on her way to work the retail store at the Mill Street Brew pub, a young dude from Texas (but with no drawl) who was thrilled to see snow and another young woman who works at a new restaurant on King.

Conversation turned from the weather and snow – and how much more snow we used to get back in the day (and I know the folks in Ottawa, Winnipeg and even Barrie would laugh at us for even mentioning today’s snowfall) – to beer. As a method Canadians use to keep cool in the summer – especially icky sticky summers in T.O. Of course, alcohol dehydrates, so you need to drink more beer. We also talked about the fab selection of beers at Mill Street brewery. I especially like the pumpkin beer, which (alas) is a seasonal concoction and very popular, so it sells out fast.

And when the streetcar finally arrived, we went our separate ways once onboard – but we had a thoroughly enjoyable time while we waited. And so a potentially crap moment became a fun time.

And the brunch too was lovely. Catching up with a good friend over eggs and coffee.

Can’t have a much better snow day than that.

p.s. – I’ll be updating the About page today, as I realized that in my haste and excitement to get this blog up and running yesterday, I left out some stuff.