Hey, Y'all!

Transition

I quit my job.

Most of you know this from Facebook or have heard it from me.  It was shocking to most of my friends and acquaintances.  Heck, it was shocking to me.  The main reason I decided now was the time to move on was Dean.  I just don't get enough time with him when I'm working from 9am-8pm each day with a one-hour commute each way.  Most mornings I was gone before he woke up and most evenings I didn't make it home for bedtime.  Things came up at work suddenly over the past few months that caused me to miss a field trip, a trip to see Santa, and trick-or-treating.  These may not sound like big deals, but when you're also missing dinner, school pick-up, and story time at night, they are HUGE deals.  Marcus is directing a show in the spring and he's also on a committee that will keep him very busy in February, right around the time my first spring show would be going into tech.  We don't have a go-to babysitter like we used to, and we weren't really sure what we were going to do about childcare.  Add to that the fact that Marcus is up for tenure this spring and the fact that neither of us feels like we've really put down roots where we live, and I'd say that's a good reason for a change.

I was blessed to find a new job quickly, really before I'd started looking. On Wednesday, I'll join the staff at Birmingham Children's Theatre as Director of Touring.  I'll be mainly responsible for booking our four touring shows, writing technical riders, getting the specs of the spaces where we'll perform, arranging accommodations, etc.  I'll still get to use my bag of tricks and my theatre management skills, but I'll work M-F, 8:30-4:30.  I'll be home every night for dinner and bed time. I'll be home every weekend. If Dean gets sick? I can go pick him up.  It seems very normal. I don't exactly know how to function in a "normal" schedule, but I'm looking forward to figuring it out.

My last day at ASF, Dec. 23, was a bittersweet one.  It was hard to clean off my bulletin board and take my name off my mailbox, and even harder to call the last cue of my show.  There were countless hugs and thank-you's and good wishes exchanged. My precious intern company made me a Christmas ornament which they all signed.  I received some cards with such beautiful, touching words that I can't even look at the envelopes without tearing up.  I walked out on my own terms, though, with my head high, very proud of the years I put into that place. 

On to the next adventure.

Still here!

OH, HEY!  Sorry for the lack of posting, y'all.  I've been stage managing a hum-dinger of a show.

 

That's a lie...it opened Sunday.

DRACULA!!!!!!!!  It's fun. And big. And there are explosions.  No one flies, but there's a ton of magic. I'm having a blast. It's also kind of nerve-wracking because there are multiple times when I could screw up and kill someone. Let's all hope that doesn't happen.  The audience for opening went insane every time something blew up.  It was so much fun.

Even Shakespeare got dressed up for the occasion:

 

He says he didn't write this play, but it's still pretty good.

Here's a sneak-peek at one of my favorite special effects:

 
That, friends, is what a vampire looks like after you stake it.  See the little round things by his head, hip and between his legs?  Those are pyro pots and contain enough flash powder to blow the sides off a coffin. (Told you the special effects were cool!).  This picture was taken looking down into one of our traps in the stage floor.  I kind of felt like this guy looked during tech week, but we made it through and have one of the best shows I've seen in a long time, so all the hard work was worth it!

To read more, check out our company's website:  www.asf.net, or like Alabama Shakespeare Festival on Facebook!

(Shameless plug over. But I have to admit...my job's pretty cool.)

This week at work

My job is very cool, y'all.  This week, I'm stage managing a workshop/staged reading of a brand new musical called DOUBLETIME with lyrics and music by this guy.  You know his songs, even if you don't know him.  And he's awesome. AND he's a blogger.  I am star-struck.  I hope he hasn't noticed.

If you're interested, you can read more about our Southern Writers' Project festival of new plays here.  This is one of my favorite things we do at the theatre, as it's a whole week dedicated to the process of making a play. All the frills--the costumes, lights, sound, props--are stripped away so we can focus on developing the story.  For  a theatre geek like me, it's great fun.  Add Nile Rodgers into the mix?  It's  downright heavenly.

 

Greetings from the tech table

Oh, friends. I've missed my blog.  I'm spending my days sitting in the dark running technical rehearsals for my show, which opens Sunday. After that? I go back into studio rehearsals for the other show in the afternoons (this current show will be playing morning matinees next week), then it's back into tech next weekend.  Things are actually going swimmingly well, but very busy.  My laptop is still broken, as I haven't had time to take it to the laptop doctor. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow.  Dean's doing much, much better and is spending the week at my mom and dad's house. I miss him SO much. I'll be collecting him on Monday for two straight days of baby lovin' before I go back to work.

Here's a photo that pretty much sums up the past couple of days:

Whatever gets you through, right?

Hope all's well in your corner of the world.

Oh, HEY, y'all!

Yeah, so I haven't blog ged much lately. I'm back at work and I'm stage managing two new plays at once, which means I spend 9 hours a day dealing with words, words and more words. I'm spending so much time reading other people's words that I haven't had much free time to deal with my own. That makes me a bit sad because blogging is often my escape, my therapy of sorts, a chance for me to get everything in my  head out into the open. However, I'm lucky--I'm around other artists, even other stage managers, so there are lots  of people like me to talk to.  Each project presents its own special challenges, this pair is no different, but I do love my work and I am having fun.

Marcus and Dean are doing well. They surprised me and came down to spend the night on Thursday. We had a great visit and it was wonderful to fall asleep with  my two favorite guys, even though we weren't in our own house.  I'm looking forward to getting  home tomorrow. Dean and I have a big day of cooking and baking planned for Monday.

I'm reading all your blogs every day, but my commenting hasn't been  great. It'll calm down soon and I'll be back, wreaking havoc on the internet. Have a good week, friends.

Equal footing

I spent the weekend in Atlanta helping run some cattle-call-type auditions for the Southeastern Theatre Conference. It was great fun and the rest of the staff was fantastic.  The fall auditions are much less crazy than their springtime counterparts, so we were able to work at a fairly relaxed pace. We even got lunch breaks both days, which is often just not possible with 900 auditionees.

One of the highlights of this weekend for me was being able to spend some time with my mentor from college, the woman who informed the 20-year-old me that I was meant to be a stage manager, and who then spent the next two years teaching me how to become one.  Our relationship is so different now. I met Cherrie when I was a 17 year old high school junior.  I already had my eye on Louisiana Tech as THE PLACE for my college career and she was the director of theatre there. (still is)  To say she intimidated me at first is quite the understatement. The first time I met her, she was wearing her Phantom of the Opera show jacket, which donned the monogram "Cherrie:  Production Coordinator."  She was EXACTLY who I wanted to become:  a strong woman who had southern roots, who had worked her way to the top of her game, spent some time in the bright lights of Broadway, then returned to academia.  I told her in my scholarship interview that I wanted her job.

Cherrie and I had our ups and downs throughout my college years, mostly because we are both stubborn and because at 22, I was terrified of life, which I'm sure made me uber-annoying to be around a lot of the time.  Now, however, I've been where she's been.  I did the New York thing. I worked at the top of my game.  I have a career as a stage manager. (Turns out she was right--it's EXACTLY what I was meant to be.)  Cherrie and I? Are friends on a whole different level now.

We went to dinner on Saturday night, which was an adventure in and of itself.  At BlogHer this year, people kept telling me what a great sense of direction I have. No, dears.  I lived in NYC for several years and it's a numeric grid--that's the only reason I could find my way.  My sense of direction leaves MUCH to be desired.  Let's just say, that's something Cherrie and I have in common.  She declared that we were going to The Vortex, a well-known Atlanta eatery with fantastic burgers.  It was 13 miles from our hotel. I asked, "And are you going to be navigating?" She said yes, and off we went.  Before we'd even hit the interstate, Cherrie had stopped navigating, dropping the directions on the FLOOR, and launching into a story.  I managed to scoop up the directions and get us to our destination (more or less). 

Over dinner, we talked about mutual friends, family, and life in general.  We shared stage management stories and talked about or time in NYC and how it was both very different and very much the same.  We toasted a friend who has recently passed away.  We discussed things that only people who have been in our shoes understand.  I don't have anybody else who truly, 100% understands me in the ways she did.  It was so nice to have someone to talk to about things like the energy and discipline it takes to do our job in a big city and the heartbreak that comes when you know it's time to leave.  We talked about the joy our students bring and how we want to squeal and cry and hug people when they have a "light bulb" moment. (The moment in class when a light bulb practically appears over a student's head because FINALLY they get it!) I needed someone to talk to about these things and I could tell Cherrie did, too.  She treated me as an equal.  For the first time in our relationship, I wasn't going to her just for advice or guidance. We were two women, cut from the same cloth, relating to each other on a wonderfully deep level. I felt very grown-up and completely comfortable, which surprised and delighted me.  She told me I articulated some things she hadn't been able to figure out how to say for years and I knew that when she nodded her head at something I said, it was because she really and truly knew what I meant.  We filled a very specific need in each others' lives at that moment, and I hope this newfound facet of our relationship is one we'll be able to nuture for years to come.

It's something I wouldn't trade for the world. 

What I do

I arrive at the theatre approximately an hour before my cast.  I print out the day's sign-in sheet and post it on the callboard.  I check and respond to email.  I eat chocolate.  I chat with my friend Tanya about her show and she listens to me talk about mine.  I make sure my assistant and my crew are set up and ready to roll by half hour to showtime.  Once we're set, I go onto the stage, adjust a pillowcase on the bed, which is a part of my set, (this pillowcase drives me nutty--it's always a wrinkled mess) and check to be sure the most crucial prop in the show is pre-set in the drawer of our nighstand.  Once everything's set, I tell the house manager to open house, or let the audience come into the theatre.

Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening! This is your half hour call, half hour til the top of the show.  Please sign in on the callboard if you haven't already done so.  Half hour.

I make my way from the office, where I've just done the half hour call from our phone/intercom paging system, to the callboard. I make sure all of my actors have initialed next to their names to let me know they are present.  If I have general notes for the cast, I write them on the sign-in sheet so they can read them when they arrive.  If I have individual notes, I go to the dressing rooms to deliver them personally.  Sometimes I drop by the dressing rooms just to check-in and say hi.  One of my actresses is a total foodie like me, so she often has tasty treats to sample. Another gets so excited whenever I bring her herbs from my garden.  The guys always have questions about the last show--were they loud enough? Did the audience like the play?  Is there anything that needs improvement?  My ten-year-old cast member likes to show me what she's working on for school and sometimes has questions about theatre life in general.  The personal "mother hen" touch goes a long way in my job. 

I swing by the wardrobe room to say hi to the ladies and check out the quote of the day on their white board.  Sometimes I add one if they haven't already done so.  I also check their makeshift growth chart on a weekly basis to see whether or not I've grown since grad school when I marked my own height. (while wearing shoes)

I wander up to the green room where I check in with my assistant and make sure all the props are pre-set.  I tell my crew supervisor whether or not we're doing a post-show discussion between actors and audience and how many chairs we'll need for that.  I make sure our sound operator has checked the ten-year-old's microphone.  I sit for a bit and visit with the other stage managers or reminisce with the crew about zany things we did ten years ago.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your fifteen minute call.  Fifteen minutes til the top of the show.

This is when I SHOULD cut myself off from all liquids, but in reality, it's when I usually make myself another cup of coffee.  At ten minutes til showtime, I go to the bathroom. I usually go again at five minutes, just to be sure.

The actors slowly trickle into the greenroom in their costumes.  One is in a nightgown, another in a searsucker suit.  One is dressed like Edgar Allan Poe, his bushy mustache darkened with mascara.  I help the ten-year-old adjust her collar, which is always flipped up.  Hamlet is playing in the other theatre, so lots of folks in Elizabethan garb are intermingled with our present-day characters.  Sometimes someone's fake facial hair falls off and we all have a good laugh.  There are people in crowns, people in capes and people in ball gowns.  The crew wears all black.  I wear whatever I want.  It's good to be in charge sometimes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your five minute call.  Five minutes til the top of the show.

Someone inevitably screams out "I can't pooooossibly be ready!"  I glare at them, wish everyone a good show and head up to the control booth.  The smell of the stairwell still transports me back ten years every day as I begin my climb.  I arrive in the booth, stand for a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dark, lest I bump into a wall, then make my way to the calling desk.  I greet the sound and light board operators, two lovely female interns who do an excellent job and are perfect boothmates.  I peek out my big window to see how many people have come to see our play.  I put on my headset, a lightweight beauty I bought for myself as an opening night gift for my first show of this run.  I check in with everyone to be sure they can hear me and wait for the house manager to call and say everyone is seated.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your call for places. Places please for the top of the show. Thanks and have a good one!

Once the actors are in place, I warn the light and sound board operators for their top of show cues and get my stopwatch ready.  Once the announcement to turn off your cell phones and buy season tickets has concluded, we begin.

Lights 1 and Sound 10...GO.

I call every light and sound cue in the show and cue most of the actors' entrances with cue lights. (On means standby, off means go!)  At intermission, I get a quick bathroom break and refill my water bottle (who am I kidding? I get more coffee!), then head back up to call the second act.

I love what I do.  I'm good at it--better than I ever thought I'd be at anything.  I am so, so thankful to be able to do what I love.  These past 8 weeks have been a whirlwind, but I have enjoyed them so much. 

I call my last show today at 2pm.  Then it's back to the only thing I love more than this:

 

I'd say this is a win-win situation.

I don't have strep throat and other news

The pollen, it is KILLING me.  I know it affects me this way. I know to check weather.com for daily pollen reports. I know better than to even think about setting foot outside when the pollen warning is high, let alone VERY high.  Seeing how I know these things about myself, why in the WORLD did I pick yesterday, when the levels were VERY VERY HIGH, to re-do my garden???  Am so silly sometimes.

Dean has been addicted to playing in our yard lately, which is pretty awesome, especially when he brings me a "flowie."  It's less awesome when he finds random dog poop and flings it at me, but whatcha gonna do?  Yesterday, he started asking to go outside as soon as we got up.  After breakfast and a quick trip to town for new tires for Marcus's truck, we came home and got to work on the garden.  We pulled up weeds, pinched plants that needed pinching, pruned others and pulled up the out of control brussels sprout plants that grew to be 5 feet tall but never produced a single solitary sprout.  It was at this point we discovered our poor strawberry plant, which never did a thing last year, had 8 flowers on it.  We may have berries soon! 

After this little excursion, we had lunch, then Dean took a nap. I drank oodles of coffee (yes, more than usual) to combat the worst sore throat I've ever had.  I told Marcus of my woes and he told me strep was going around and that I probably had it. THANKS.  I should have just gone to bed then.

But I didn't. Mostly because there were promises of O'Charley's, Lowe's and the bookstore and I'm a sucker for yeast rolls, paint chips and best-sellers.  At Lowe's I bought new banana pepper plants to replace the ones from last year, plus some yellow squash (Dean's favorite), cucumbers (Marcus's favorite), green bell peppers and basil.  My rosemary, parsley and chives survived the winter and are already in full bloom, so my garden, she is full.

When I woke up this morning, I felt like someone had hit me in the face with a waffle iron and stuck a hot piece of charcoal down my throat.  I went to the doctor.  They did a strep test. I had to sit on my hands while they swabbed my throat because I have this bad habit of involuntarily grabbing people's hands when they put them in my face. As you can imagine, I'm a ball of of fun at the dentist office. (They usually just strap me in.) My strep test was negative, thank God, and I don't have a sinus infection.  So home I came, armed with instructions to take Sudafed PE and suffer through it to go back in a week if I'm not better.

In other news, Dean counted backwards from 10 today which FREAKED US OUT. We have this cool bedtime book called "Ten, Nine, Eight" and it counts things backwards from 10 to 1. He pointed to each number and counted backwards. Clearly, he is genius child.  He also said "W" the other day in his cute little boy elfin voice.  I make him "read" to me every day and I love watching the different things he discovers in his books.  My personal favorite is the one featuring "a bones," "a bread," "a milk," "a cheese," and "lettooce." (Lettuce) 

My show closes on Sunday. Sure, I'll miss going to the theatre every day, but MAN I'm excited to get my house back in order, cook and eat dinner with my family every evening and sleep in my own bed every night.  I actually moved back home full-time last week and it's been nice.  The commute's not bad and it gives me a chance to mentally prepare or wind-down, depending on which direction I'm going. 

And now, pictures.

 
Yeah, I'm wearing big boy Mickey underoos.  What of it?  At least I match better than my dad does! Stripes and plaid?  GAH.  Check out the cool t-shirt my Grammy got for me:

SO Dean.

My filthy child and me planting vegetables in our garden. He was really just there for the dirt, though he did end up helping put some of the squash in the ground.

  And that, friends, is what we've been up to.  Yay, spring!

Remember Me?

One of the bad things about my work schedule is that it doesn't leave much time for writing.  I sort of have tunnel vision these days.  I think about my family and my shows and that's about all my brain can handle right now.  I've taken a break from even writing for Foodie Mama until May when things will slow down. 

The first show is going well and rehearsals for the second one are underway.  I've discovered a store called The Fresh Market, which is sort of like Whole Foods, and I like to go there for meats and produce.  I eat Vietnamese food at least twice a week and I have to use every drop of willpower I have not to stop at the awesome donut shop between the apartment and the theatre each day.

Marcus and Dean came to spend the weekend with me.  As soon as they were in the park leading to the theatre, Marcus's truck died.  After a 2 1/2 hour wait for a tow truck (which, fortunately, was free and which was, incidentally, driven by a man named Sword), the repair was very simple and inexpensive.  We spent a lot of time playing in the park, feeding the ducks and geese, exploring the Shakespeare Gardens and playing at my apartment.  The weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday and we had a great time playing outside.  We had dinner at Outback, where Dean had his first Bloomin' Onion. (Which, of course, he loved.)  Dean got into the fireplace while Marcus was in the bathroom on Friday night and covered himself in soot.  Heh, heh.

I got home early this morning and have been enjoying a great day off with my boys.  Dean and I did some grocery shopping after a full morning of reading, playing with puppets, building with blocks and eating cookies. That's right--Mr. I-Only-Eat-Fruit likes oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!  I know it's silly of me to be so excited about that, but GAH, Dean, it took 2 years for you to discover the simple pleasure of sitting on the snack step (our bottom step) and enjoying a cookie with your mom.

I got a new vacuum cleaner last week, which I used for the first time today. (Marcus took her on her maiden voyage around the house last week.)  OH. MY. WORD.  I love to vacuum, but this is ridiculous. This thing weighs 12 pounds and flies around the floor like a magic carpet. I am in lurv.

I miss you, my bloggy friends, and I do read your posts. Forgive my lack of comments, but know that I'm keeping up with each of you, cheering for you as you run races, are granted tenure, hatch chicks and raise your babies. I'll try to make a video on my webcam for you this week, but not before I get a brow wax.

One up!

The first of my 2 shows opened yesterday afternoon.  The technical rehearsals for this one were a booger, mostly because it's a new play and we continued to make changes (some minute, some drastic) up until the last possible second.  Most nights last week were very long and I didn't get to bed before about 2am on average all week.  Add the extra kick-in-the-pants of daylight savings to that and you've got one exhausted Jen.  Needless to say, I have loved my day off this week. 

Here's an article about my show, which also includes a video montage with some rehearsal footage.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100313/LIFESTYLE/3130352/Nobody-takes-the-stage-at-ASF

We have the daytime hours off tomorrow, so I get more precious hours with Dean and Marcus before heading in for our first rehearsal for the NEXT show at 6pm. (No rest for the weary!)  Marcus and Dean are on spring break this week, so they'll be coming down to stay with me for the weekend.  I can't wait to show them off.

I miss my time at home, but MAN it feels good to be doing my "thing" again.