Keep on movin' movin'

In which our Diva has a scattering of Sunday morning thoughts

Busy week on tap -- a couple new auditions, and table read for Hell the King, the dark comedy short I'll be shooting in a couple weeks. I put a news item on my website, but hadn't gotten around to saying anything about it here. Every actress (especially if she's an old comics geek!) should get to play an Intrepid Reporter, and now I get mine. Her name is Tara Kyles, and she's on the scene with the latest as the minions of Satan go on strike. Can't wait to see how this one comes together!

Backstage at the Elgin Opera gala last weekend, one of the other choristers mentioned how impressed his wife was with my performance at a recent Festival of Singers night at Villa Verone. He quoted her as saying "There's something about the way she sings that just compels you to listen." Wow!! How often do we get a compliment like that? I wanted to throw my arms around her and hug her, if she'd been there in person. More importantly, though, how often do we remember the compliments? Something that gobsmacking, sure -- it instantly went into my arsenal of Amazing Things People Have Said To Me that I use as talismans when the negative mental soundtrack cranks up. But the most trivial stuff goes onto the negative soundtrack, while I have probably half a dozen talismans. They're powerful ones, crystal-clear memories of these amazing things people have said to me at various times, and their faces and the environment when they said them. But so many other wonderful little gifts are heard and accepted and don't go into the arsenal, except for a vague notion that "people said nice things." Maybe that's its own talisman, I don't know.

Still going great guns on That Other Stuff, still having fun. Even when software does not entirely cooperate. My reel is now edited, and I'm experimenting with the best ways to get it up online for all the world to see! And yeah, there's a little bit of quaking in the boots about that. In theatre, there's a finite number of people in a finite time frame who see your work and have an opinion about it. Put your acting not only on film/digital but on the Internet, and anyone could stumble by. There's not nearly as much quaking as excitement, though, because, hey, look! We live in a world where we can put our work in pixel form on the Internet for anyone who stumbles by, and how cool is that?

I had a small epiphany over in the comments on Sandra Joseph's blog this morning -- something that's been happening in my head for a while, but it crystallized in the process of putting it into words, which so often happens: I'm working on training myself out of saying "I should have done this years ago." I've been saying it a lot -- about moving to Chicago, about getting more seriously into film -- but the truth is I should be doing this now. That's the lesson of so many exciting things starting to bear fruit. (Incidentally, if you're not reading her, you have a hole in your positivity-generating blogosphere. She doesn't update terribly often, but it's always worth the wait. I was about to say I wish I'd gotten to know her better in college, but pursuant to the rest of this paragraph, the truth is we're meant to be reading and learning from one another now!)

In closing, I leave you with the single most awesome thing I have seen in weeks:

May we all share this much joy in what we do.

Under Construction

In which our Diva is in Career Development Mode

I always feel a little antsy when I don't have any Exciting News!! or Crunchy Process Goodness to post about.  Which is a bit silly, since it seems unlikely that anyone outside of my immediate social circle reads this blog anyway.   But hey, maybe you're reading this at some future point when I am That Chick From Those Movies and you followed some links out of curiosity.  Or maybe you're a fellow dreamer-and-doer who's stumbled across my meanderings and found a kindred spirit.  (If so, hey, shout out!  Support networks are made of win!)  Or maybe nobody's reading it at all, and that's okay too.

The lack of Crunchy Process Goodness makes me antsier than the lack of Exciting News!!, because I'm very much a believer in the notion that an actor should always be doing some kind of acting, be it performance-oriented or training or whatever.  I've done several film auditions lately, but that's pretty much it -- on the craft side.

What I've mostly been doing instead (around the mortgage-and-groceries-driven reality of Office of Doom)  is That Other Stuff most of us hate.

I knew long before I started reading casting director Bonnie Gillespie's fantastic weekly Column "The Actor's Voice" that the self-promotion portion of an actor's job never stops.  But man, it's  nice to have that weekly kick in the pants of "So do it already!!"  To that end, I made a commitment at the turn of 2009: No auditioning for theatre until I have my website and representation ducks in a row.  The goal was to get the site up and submissions out to two or three agents before the end of January, and then maybe think about committing to three or four months of rehearsals and performances.  Because, whatever my intentions at the outset, That Other Stuff just never ever gets done during a show process.  Ever.

The funny thing is, once I got going, I've actually had a great time, and might even make that goal.   It helps that I have a rather broad DIY streak anyway, but darned if it hasn't also just been fun.  I finally swallowed my "only hand-coded HTML will do!" geek-girl pride, accepted that I'm not going to get around to learning to build CSS from scratch in the foreseeable future, and went down the dark path of canned Joomla! templates.  And the results aren't half bad, if I do say so myself.  There's plenty more to do, of course, but for starters, it made me finally write a proper PR bio (have I mentioned I hate writing bios?), with the side effect of having said bio punching up my IMDb page too.

I still have lots of theatre photos to scan in, but for now there's a sampling of the fabulous ones Ken Beach took at the final dress for Dracula.  Probably most time-consuming was going through many hundreds of shots from three photo shoots for the "Publicity" folder.  Which is arguably the most frivolous area of the site.  But y'know, when you're not a big star or model material, and you have a documentedly problematic relationship with still photos of yourself?  It's a nice shot of confidence to not only have, but have put together yourself, a decently professional, polished presentation of some really cool ones!  Shoutouts to photographers Todd Jackson, David Grelck, and Mike Smith, with thanks for making that possible by actually asking me to pose for them!  (Also glad that, unlike my outdated HTML, my Photoshop skills have stayed in good form.  Never underestimate the importance of cropping and color correction in the digital age.) 

Still on the agenda: Editing reel material and authoring a suitably professional DVD, so it's ready to send out to agents and casting agents when they ask for it.  (Which requires me to get resumes and cover letters out to them first, which is happening THIS WEEK.  You saw it here first -- don't be afraid to hold me to it, even if we've never met!)  This is helped by the prompt receipt of my copy of a recent student film by Devan McGrath, who gets a thumbs-up shoutout for professional communication, a fun but efficient set, and did I mention actually sending copies to actors, all in refreshing defiance of every horror story you've ever heard about working in student films.  :: blows kisses to Mal Corazon compadres ::  Watch for clips from that and The Cancer Jean on my website, my Actors Access profile, and assorted other places I should have had video up ages ago.

Dreaming-and-doing actors?  We don't have the money.  We gotta MAKE the time.  Do it.  You will not be sorry.

Singing for my supper - January edition

Tonight and next Sunday (1/11 and 1/18), 6-8 pm at Villa Verone Ristorante Italiano. I'll post next month's dates as soon as I have them.

Great food, great music, all in an intimate cabaret setting. What more could you want?

Villa Verone is located at 13 Douglas Avenue in downtown Elgin. Reservations are recommended - call (847) 742-0263.

Hope to see you there!

Trial of a Time-Lord-to-be

I wasn't going to post about the Eleventh Doctor casting news, because I didn't really think I had anything to add. And I don't, not about the casting choice itself, except for a minor misgiving that he's not a bigger change in physical type from David Tennant. Which just means he'll need to make up for it with a big persona shift, because regeneration is more than just recasting -- the Doctor is not Darren Stephens. But that's not what made me decide to post after all.

At the risk of sounding condescending, I have no problem with fandom freaking on spec. That's just one of the things fandom does, and if people didn't have fun with it, I sincerely hope they wouldn't do it. Not my personal bag, but no skin off my nose either.

I am, however, observing it in a superficial sort of way, and keep being struck by some of the underlying assumptions -- at a couple different positions in the discussion -- about acting and age. And here's the thing that I think people are missing: Acting is all about being what we are not. (Generally speaking, we get there by building it out of pieces of what we are, but it's still all about getting there.)

I've personally known several, and am familiar with the work of several more, very young actors whom I would consider perfectly capable of bringing the whole package: the class clown, the Lonely God, the unknown quantity, the Oncoming Storm. We're talking about building a 900-year-old Time Lord here. In that realm, the difference between the life experiences of a 25-year-old and those of someone twice that age is a whole lot less than you might think.

On the other side of the coin, I've personally known several, and am familiar with the work of several more, middle-aged actors perfectly capable of keeping up with the physical demands of the Doctor's role in its current form. Richard Dean Anderson started playing Jack O'Neill at 47. Patrick Swayze, at 56 (not to mention, y'know, in treatment for pancreatic cancer!), has been dubbed "Superman" by his younger colleagues on The Beast.

These people are exceptions, yes. But any star is, by definition, an exception. Heck, statistically speaking, any time you book a gig you are an exception.

The Doctor, of all characters, is nothing if not the ultimate exception.

One more thought... We're all grownups. We all know that the story of the casting process as told in the Doctor Who Confidential special is already packaged, polished, and sprinkled with PR fairy dust. That's how these things work. But there's one thing I see no reason not to believe happened exactly as Stephen Moffat tells it: Matt Smith walked in on the first day and knocked their socks off, and they couldn't get him out of their heads.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is called being a star.

Dracula quote list

In which our Diva records the lighter backstage side of her last theatrical endeavor

Missing my Dracula peeps tonight. It really was one of those special casts. And how can you not miss people who say stuff like this...

Dracula Quote List
GreenMan Theatre Troupe, Fall 2008

You're like his pocket Vixens.
-- That's the only time I've ever been referred to as anyone's pocket anything.

The necks on her mark are gone!

Can I have both of them?

What'd you bring us from England, Daddy?

But you've mastered your fear. Jedi vampire.

You are for the ages.
-- He says that to all the girls.

I have experience stripping people that fast.
-- I heard that about you.

Be right with you, Sewie.
-- Soo-ee!

The complacent man!

I see. A gift from an ancient enemy.
-- *beat* Yes. It is.

Vampire domestic violence yay!

Don't worry. You're perfectly sane here.

So it is a cross in his pocket.
-- And he's not at all happy to see her.

Get used to that sofa, Jonathan.

I seen it with mine own toon eyes!

I am not... going to... keep talking.

You're probably gonna give him a creepy stare. And then you'll run away like a little bitch.

Stunt Lucy!

In the name of the Father.
-- *silence*
-- And of the Son.
-- *silence*
-- And of the Holy Ghost.
-- *beat* Oh, I'm sorry. *unholy shriek*

I just call it his bag of tricks. God knows what he's got in there. Van Helsing and his bong.

There's a clown loose in this room with a knife!
-- Disguised as a pen!

That is disturbing.
-- Jonathan "Hara-Kiri" Harker.

You ought to talk to Bluebeard about that locking-us-up thing. It never ends well.

Crash. Bang. Lighting effect.

Wow. You have read ALL of the Sparkle!Crack. I applaud you.

I don't do body fluids.
-- And yet you're in this show.

Every time I do this, I injure you.

I mean, he can just use his Jedi mind trick, and there goes the door.

NOOOOOOOO!! ... Sorry.

Maybe it's sort of crablike.
-- We're going to be everything in the animal kingdom by the time this show is done.

Have not his outbursts coincided with Miss Lucy's... whatever?

There we shall cut off her head and stuff her mouth with garlic.
-- How about driving a stake through her heart first?
-- THEN we will cut off her head and stuff her mouth with garlic.
-- There's no garlic.
-- Do you want some garlic bread?

The tools, Mr. Harker!
-- Power drill.

Now you can procure a ship, Seward.
-- I'll procure a ship and... be a sailor. Line.

I wear the pants in this relationship.
-- Which makes us the garter belt.

And you must be... Mmmmmmina. *squeak* I suck!

I have baby in my hair.

Let's take it from the Seward toss.

Go, Christina!
-- Now we know what this show is about.
-- Where's the riding crop?

So, Mina, we'll hook you up to nobody here. It's a magic transfusion.

He's just a wanton toddler with a violin.

I knew there would be a place for me in your kingdom, a holy *kak*.

It's like I'm catching you and throwing you, all with one hand.
-- Catch and release.

That can't be right. I haven't been to Budapest.

You've got a soup bowl there.
-- I do?
-- The big gold thing.
-- I thought it was a chamberpot.

With what power do you lure the living shit?

Is that what happens? You die, go to heaven, and become a Vixen?

Let's hope you're down in there, so I can go without going.
-- Go without going. Let's not pursue that thought too far.

I wanna bite you.
-- Please?

Can I have some crypt movers?

I'm having fang envy. Yours are bigger than mine.

No more projectile fang incidents!

You mean you don't have three hands?
-- I could do it with my foot. Then we'll see how coordinated I am.
-- It's like rubbing your tummy and patting your head.
-- And chewing gum.

Does she look naked to you?
-- Not naked enough.

There's going to be stuff in that rat. Try not to get it in your eyes.

It's as close to real blood as you can get and still be edible.
-- Real blood is edible.

What flavor are they?
-- Christ-flavored.
-- I can't believe it's not Christ.

And the Vixens give "baby wipes" a whole new meaning.

Can you try to stand steady while the cross is burning?

I feel like we're giving blood. Except I don't get a cookie, dammit!

I'm singing lullabies to the tortillas. That's really all I can do.

Welcome! I am pantsless! *evil laugh*

I give you full permission to do whatever you want. And I don't say that to many men.

I can store everything in here. It's the breast place for it.

There's a whole new meaning to "sucking chest wound."
-- It's more licking.
-- Slurping.

You let someone see your ass?
-- I let him touch it. I didn't let him see it.

You are weak now, but here is roofies.

She can slip me anything she wants.

Who am I kidding? I'm the most anti-deadpan guy I know.
-- Are you undeadpan?

Elgin Opera Festival of Singers is back!

In which our Diva is once again singing for her supper

Every Sunday in December, 6-8 pm, Villa Verone Ristorante Italiano 13 Douglas Avenue in downtown Elgin.

Come out and enjoy a great Italian meal and classics of opera, Broadway and the holiday season with artists of Elgin OPERA. No cover, but reservations are recommended - call (847) 742-0263.

I'll be missing next Sunday, the 14th, but will be performing at the rest, as well as emceeing on the 21st.

Great food, great music... What more could you want?

Random tidbits of Hollywood Midwest

In which our Diva's illustrious movie career moves a step up the ladder with Cyrus

In no particular order:

• Patricia Belcher is down-to-earth, professional, and an all-around class act. I am now officially a fan, and am privileged to have spent a day on set eating stone cold hamburgers with her.
  
• I know "interior" does not necessarily preclude "freezing frickin' cold." I KNOW this. Next time I neglect to pack longjohns? Shoot me.
  
• SAG "ultra low budget" (which has a specific definition that determines requirements for pay levels, how many non-union actors you can employ, etc.) is still "way more resources than almost anything else I've ever been in." Which is just...so much less stressful a way to work, I can't even begin to tell you. For a zillion little completely practical reasons. I could totally get used to working in that sort of environment, lemme tell ya. I don't need some big wasteful blockbuster loaded with superstars with a zillion frivolous riders on their contracts. Just a nice professional set with a good day's work to do.
  
• Favorite moment: Brian Krause (who was directing second unit while I was there; he plays the title character in the present day) bounding into the talent trailer announcing "I just made a hamburger on camera!" Which was immensely cool because "usually they hand you the stuff already done, but I don't think I ever actually put food together on camera before. This is so going on my reel!" (I, of course, was thinking "Well, maybe if Piper hadn't been quite so possessive of her kitchen..." Because I pride myself on my professionalism, but I will never not be a geek on the inside.)
  
• Runner-up favorite moment: While getting my makeup done, listening to a conversation between an assistant director and the SFX makeup guy that started with "We need to kill someone with a pitchfork," and wended its way through "All the extras want to get killed." -- "Wouldn't you?" to "One guy wants to be decapitated" and everyone in the trailer cracking up. Yes, there are limits to the magic, folks, at least on location on the spur of the moment. Sad but true.
  
• I missed Lance Henriksen by about three hours, which makes me sad. My current wishlist involves some sort of premiere party where I will get to shake his hand and think "Dude, I am IN A MOVIE WITH LANCE HENRIKSEN." Because that's just not going to stop being cool anytime soon.
  
• Though of course the people I actually worked with are no less cool, cast and crew alike, and I would work with any of them again in a heartbeat under pretty much any circumstances. I wish it had been for more than one shooting day!
  
• Joel Castleberg is, like, the complete opposite of the Hollywood producer stereotype. He was right out there with us in the cold, always upbeat and personable and just plain nice.
  
• When I took my leave of the wrap party (which, judging by the pictures, I'm really sorry to have missed most of on account of having to drive back early the next day), the director, Mark Vadik, thanked me for "making my job easy." Considering the company I was in, I can't think of anything better for him to have said. If there's anything I want to get a reputation for, that's it: I do my job, do it well, and don't create bumps in the road to getting the day in the can. That's the thing that will get me hired again, and just incidentally the way I actually enjoy working all day. And his saying that helps me believe this wasn't just a fluke, and motivates me to keep putting myself out there for more and better.

There's probably stuff I'm forgetting, but mostly I'm just happy to have felt so at home and felt like I did decent work. It just felt like the right place to be working. I learned so so much, but wasn't so green I didn't belong. It was perfect.

Dear Universe: More, please?

Requiem for a dreamer

In which our Diva remembers a friend gone too soon, and refuses to gnash her teeth

Penguins and Johnny Cash. La Femme Nikita and Britney Spears. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Facts of Life theme. Abby's eccentric body of fannish music videos certainly doesn't say everything about her by any means, but somehow it seems like the right place to start.

I'm not the first to say I don't remember for sure when I first met her in person, though I'm fairly sure it was before MediaWest*Con in '98, with her attitude-dripping Cordy impersonation in our Buffy skit for the masquerade, and the chorus of beep beep beeps warning bystanders every time she backed up her chair. If that was the first time, it didn't feel like it, as so often happened with Sunnydale Slayers or FORKNI-L folks. As Merlin Missy so eloquently reminds us in her newest column, the bonds in the fandom community are about far, far more than our shared love of a show or book series or movie.

I don't remember the name of the author or the book that introduced the notion of modern Western women forming "tribes," or which of the Horsechicks of the Apocalypse pointed it out as applying to us. My "tribe" is around the intersection of college friends, fandom, and acting, with the Horsechicks a solid chunk of it. When apocalyptic designations were being claimed (I'm still not sure how I got away with Madness all to myself!), Abby dubbed herself the Stable Girl. And for all that she was rightfully known for her wicked and wacky humor, occasionally leading to the nickname being altered to (Un)Stable Girl, she was about as stable as it got. That sense of perspective -- not that the "little things" never bothered her, or that she didn't gripe about them once in a while, but she knew how to keep them in their place. As an old Reader's Digest anecdote I dimly remember put it, she knew the difference between a problem and an inconvenience. (Check out the articles she and her mom wrote following the Apocalypse that descended upon Las Vegas to celebrate the 30th birthday everyone once assumed she'd never see.) And a problem had to be a real problem to qualify, and the inconveniences just weren't worth energy that was better spent elsewhere. We should all be so wise.

That double meaning of "Stable Girl" led to a ridiculous mental cartoon image I've had for years, of the whole giggling gaggle of us piled in an inverted human pyramid on her chair, careening through an unsuspecting crowd, possibly in the dealer's room at a con. (It's only the number of passengers that's ridiculous in that scenario. Just ask Perri.)

Like others, I see her now, standing tall, striding strong, dancing as she always dreamed. But I have to think she also has the fastest, most maneuverable, most badass hot-rod of a power chair EVER to play with sometimes. Just for fun. And an excuse to beep.

"And then Teal'c took off his shirt."

Character whiplash

In which our Diva is back from the wild hinterlands of Hollywood Midwest and really freakin tired

Timing worked out. Hair is purple. Two very different characters in three days are in the can, w00t!!

And I am off to collapse on the couch now.

Staying a step ahead of circumstance

In which our Diva is grateful to be of an adaptable nature

Weird, weird week, driven mostly by two different shifts in the Cyrus shooting schedule. The second of which (due to a late-breaking emergency for an actor being flown out from LA) occurred too late for me not to drive to Michigan on Monday afternoon. Ah, well. At least I got to meet pretty much everybody, including the guy playing the younger version of Brian Krause in my scene, so I'll feel that much more at home when I go back to actually shoot on Saturday. That's more valuable than it might be in circumstances where the crew haven't already been there for almost a month, and most of the other actors still there have been for a week or two.

So, no stories yet, except that the motel is oldish and cheapish and really freakin cold -- it took my room several hours to warm up the other night with the heat on full blast! The people running it are nice, though, and seem to be having fun with the outpost of Hollywood Midwest that has essentially taken over their second floor. The town is also smallish, but as it has actual businesses and stoplights, I'm trying not to snicker aloud at a few dyed-in-the-wool city folks who are fairly convinced they have been consigned to Hell. (They're mistaken; it's actually a fair bit east and a little north of our location.)

Meanwhile, one of my zillion recent auditions got instant gratification -- I was the last person reading last Saturday for a student film at Columbia College, and the guy offered me the role on the spot! It's a punk girl grieving for her boyfriend, and I was actually kinda looking forward to having purple hair for a couple weeks. With the schedule shift, though, it's looking like we might need to downshift to clip-in extensions, because various people's schedules may result in my shooting one short scene Friday morning before I head back to Michigan. And Tanny is not the purple hair type, to say the least. I'm jazzed about filming as such radically different characters so close together, but wasn't banking on it being quite such a game of Schedule Tetris! %-}

A brief observation...

...from the wild hinterlands of Hollywood Midwest:

I love an environment where "I have to go make blood" is a perfectly sensible statement.

REEEEEEEEEPO-Man!

In which our Diva waxes long and spoilery, and demonstrates that she should probably not be permitted to meta on insufficient sleep

Thumbnail checklist...

Characters: Appealing and/or interesting

Performances: Excellent (yes, including Paris Hilton)

Music: Solid

Lyrics: Straightforward but mostly uninspired

Thematic resonances: Many and potentially rich for mining

Narrative structure: Problematic

Visuals: Yum

Overall: Flawed but worthy achievement. Worth seeing.

The long and spoilery version...

Running on 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Totally worth it. With the caveat that it's a bit more thanks the the "event" atmosphere at the Music Box last night than to Repo! The Genetic Opera itself. Needless to say, the "Repo Army" were out in force, with a number of well-done costumes, including one Repo Man, and it was just a fun atmosphere from the start.

The movie is far from perfect, but by no means a waste of time. In the cold light of morning, it struck me that I'm reacting to it like a workshop performance of a show with a lot of exciting potential, but which still needs some serious work to get there. Which is a deeply weird way to respond to a movie, and certainly not applicable if they do achieve a wider release, but I think it might be the optimal way to approach it. Like, "this is an experiment, let's see how they do." I'm actually more curious to see how these guys and/or others might build on the results than excited about Repo itself.

That said, there is a lot to like. The comic-book intros were beautifully done and well integrated, though I think the first one might be a bit overlong. It set the tone for the broadly archetypal characters and plot elements. Which are also definitely the most genuinely operatic aspect of the whole thing, even more so than the fact that it's through-sung.

Which I need to take a moment to appreciate. Yes, Virginia, recitative will play in a movie, and someone finally proved it. That was one of my cardinal annoyances with both PotO and Rent -- that the former forced the actors to speak big chunks of lyrics awkwardly over the orchestration, and the latter converted them to straight dialogue.

That said, I really wish the lyrics for the full-out numbers had been stronger. There are a few flashes of poetry, but for the most part, they're literal and straightforward, often to the point of going *thud* when the music and the passion of the performance isn't quite enough to carry them. Which, to be fair, is also not an uncommon trait of opera -- heaven knows some of the texts I've sung were not the most scintillating poetry, in or out of the original language. And of course it's equally attributable to the punk portion of the score's colorful pedigree, but even punk has poetry, at least at its best. There are also a couple numbers, most notably "Chase the Morning," that never quite get developed into fully fledged songs and deserve to.

Be prepared for stylistic whiplash. The veer into full-throttle camp with the first appearance of Largo's obnoxious children, and the continued over-the-topness of those characters, is jarring as hell, as is the suddenness of Shilo's fantasy sequence (complete with Joan Jett backing her up!) on "Seventeen." I did eventually get used to the gear switches, but never enough that it didn't feel a bit patchworky at all times. Which is the price of their very deliberate eclecticism (as Darren Bousman put it at the Q&A afterward, "Sarah Brightman and Ogre in the same room! Who expects that?"). I think the transitions could have been smoother, but there appears to have been a conscious choice for them not to be. I respect that, but don't entirely agree.

The singing is pretty uniformly strong, with Anthony Stewart Head (unsurprisingly) rather handily walking off with the thing. He rips through his numbers with more power than I think I've ever heard from him before, and the flips from overprotective dad to vicious eviscerating monster are nothing short of stunning. Terrance Zdunich (also one of the writers) runs a very close second as the Grave Robber, a Greek-chorus sort of character with buckets of charisma and a passing resemblance to RiffRaff in RHPS.

Speaking of evisceration... Somewhat to my surprise, this is not a horror movie. Even a hybridized one, really. It is, however, a brutally violent dystopia, and has its share of gore, though actually not as much as I expected. And the effects, while undeniably gross at times, are just this side of truly realistic. It's like a top-notch haunted house -- the props are very detailed and gooey, but all the while you're thinking "the body doesn't work that way" and are close up enough to tell they're not the real thing. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out most or all of the assorted body parts were purchased ready-made in a Halloween store. (Given that the whole thing was made for $7M, and Bousman specifically stated in the Q&A that all the costumes were either bought ready-made or provided by the actors, it actually seems pretty likely.)

It fits in well with the unapologetic theatricality of the whole enterprise, really -- it's like Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain," but (artfully) torn and bloodied.

Best cast prezzie EVER

Our Lucy's hubby drew this masterpiece, and everyone got a copy on closing night:



It would take me DAYS to explain all the in-jokes. Suffice it to say we were all helpless with laughter for quite a few minutes when they were given out.

(If you didn't already guess, I'm represented in the bottom left corner.)

When you're hot...

In which our Diva ponders her sudden apparent popularity, but certainly isn't complaining

Overall, I'd estimate I get asked to audition for about 10% of the projects I submit for.

In the last three days, I've submitted on a dozen or so, and have now been asked to audition for four of them.

I suspect this is because we're getting about a dozen replacement windows installed next week, and need to find time to move a bunch of furniture around, including large bookcases. And people think the Universe doesn't have a sense of humor!

Meanwhile, don't forget the final weekend of Dracula at GreenMan Theatre! Special Halloween curtain time tonight at 9 pm...

Multitasking, Diva-style

In which our Diva does double duty as vampire and opera singer, and hopes the traffic gods will smile upon her

Heads-up to anyone planning to come to Dracula today: I'll be ducking out before curtain call to change like the wind and book it back to Elgin in time to sing at Elgin OPERA's annual benefit dinner.

Count this as my "Thanks for coming!" and a raincheck for hanging out another day...

Vamping it up in Elmhurst - don't miss it!

In which our Diva is opening TOMORROW!

GreenMan Theatre Troupe is set to open “Dracula” at First United Methodist Church in Elmhurst. The production opens Oct 17 and runs for three weekends. Tickets are still available, but seating is limited for this popular show, so make your reservations now. “Dracula” is the first show of GreenMan’s 2008-2009 season. Performances start at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, 3 pm on Sunday. There is a special ‘late night’ start time of 9 pm on Fri, Oct 31. The First United Methodist Church is located at 232 S. York Rd. Parking is free. Tickets for “Dracula” are available by calling GreenMan at 630-464-2646 or visiting the theatre’s website at http://www.greenmantheatre.com/. There will be post-show discussion with the actors after the Sunday Oct 26th performance.

“Dracula” is the classic Bram Stoker tale, pitting the lead vampire against Van Helsing, Harker and Dr. Seward, as they attempt to prevent Lucy and Mina from falling prey to the Count. Steven Dietz’s script also includes the lunatic Renfield, a patient of Dr. Seward’s, who finds a way to help the vampire. Fans of the book will be sure to recognize many key scenes from the novel. GreenMan’s production team has transformed the intimate space at the Methodist Church into a flexible stage to take the audience on an exciting journey to London and Transylvania. Due to the nature of the story, the production is not recommended for anyone under 12. For more information about “Dracula” call the theatre box office at 630-464-2646.

Drac's Angels

It started with "What did you bring us from England, Daddy?" and got sillier from there...



Three days to opening -- don't miss it!

"...adequately serpentine but not altogether gorgeous"

In which our Diva is giggling like a giggly thing

Over on LiveJournal, the ever-resourceful angevin2 has posted some notes given by Sir John Gielgud to the cast of his 1964 production of Hamlet.

They make way more sense than many notes I have been given in my time, and are altogether hilarious.

Festival of Singers - LAST CHANCE!

Chicagoland peeps! Come on out to Villa Verone (13 Douglas Avenue in downtown Elgin) from 6-8 TONIGHT, September 28, for the final installment of Elgin Opera's Festival of Singers! Beautiful singing, scrumptious Italian food, a casual atmosphere and no cover -- what more could you want?

LOLfangs!

In which our Diva is having entirely too much fun in her current show

Y'know how I mentioned the other day that this cast has an unusually high geek quotient? Well, we can add Jonathan Harker LOLcapping some of the promo photos to the list of evidence...

(click to embiggen)