Hell Week

It's called that because it's the week that includes tech week and dress rehearsals and they're all in the week right before the opening of the show. So it's quite a few days without a break in the action.

"Fools" opens at OCTA on Friday and the cast is all very excited about it. It's Tech Week though, so that means that it's very busy. Tonight we're doing pictures for the show, so we all have to be there early, 6:30 PM. When it takes 30 minutes to get to the theatre and you get off work at 5 PM and you have to cook dinner in that time, it doesn't leave a lot of time for introspection, or you know, bathroom breaks. It's a hectic week, but you hope that it all pays off at opening night when you put up the best show you can. I'm playing the heavy, the villian. It's a role I don't get to play very much, so I'm pretty happy about it. I think the show is funny and I hope our audiences agree. The theatre out there is supported by the community fairly well, so I imagine we'll have some large houses. Of course, when I was in "Glengarry Glen Ross" out there we had only moderate houses. I think that audiences look on dramas as "vegetable theatre", where they only go out of a sense of obligation. It sure seems that a company can put a crappy musical up and it'll have huge houses, but when you put up a very good play you're rewarded with small, but appreciative houses.

My sister-in-law is in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" out in the Washington, DC area. I'm envious of her because while I'm in a Neil Simon comedy, she's out there doing Albee! I'd love to have that kind of opportunity. Doing Mamet was great, and it's something that won't come around again, so I treasure the experience, but I want more! More dramas, more characters that you can sink your teeth into, more anguish and despair and vindictiveness and mendacity! I'm looking to be in a show like that.

So, if you've got a theatre and you need someone to portay the myraid panes of the human spirit, let me know. Oh, I'll do commercial work as well. *wink*