February 1st, 1997
Shaky
is how I feel right now. And that's o.k. We put the same hour long act in the show on
Thursday and it didn't work quite as well. It didn't flow as well as the night before.
That's o.k. though, it still had its energy and worked o.k. Thursday the show came in
at a little over 2 hours. Yikes. Can't happen. Yesterday we changed everything around
again and did internal cuts. The show was its proper time last night. Yesterday was
a shit fire day. Started with a photo shoot and then rehearsal and then some Actor
Equity dispute and then some money stuff re: set and lights and blah blah. The show itself
is in decent shape but we're still light with a couple of actors and the material, for
my taste, is not quite there. Overall, I'm a little shaky but confident. It didn't help that
last night, after a horrendous day, both audiences were pretty quiet. Yee Haw.
Glenlivet is a fine single malt scotch.
A day
Most people in the world don't have the kind of day I'm going to have.
Right how i'm doing this then in an hour I teach my Saturday class here at The Annoyance
and then I will go get some horrid hot dog or something from Wrigleyville Dogs and
then go to the Gingerman and eat that with a beer and then have another or a bloody mary
and talk and play pool with my students and then go to my apartment and nap and work
out and then go to Second City and watch both shows and the set and then go to The
Last Act and then The Ale House til about 5 in the morning.
Fun Day.
Tude
Over the next week my attitude in rehearsals will take on a different hue.
Instead of being so open and diplomatic I will progressively become more
pointed and intense as I penetrate into exactly what this show will become.
I will accept less suggestions from anyone and inject my own influence on
the show. My mind races at a hundred miles a second with all that needs to be done.
Nothing will be important as each moment in the show and my life outside of that more
or less goes away. I will seem distant in a hundred conversations this week. I won't actually
be having them. People will talk to me about whatever and while they are chatting away
I'll be thinking about whether that line Kevin says in Country needs a half second more
pause. I usually offend people during this part of this process. I don't like to but I'm just
not totally there.
This is a conversation I will have 20 times before we open.....
"Hey Mick, what's wrong, is there something wrong?"
"Hm, what...oh no, I was just thinking about the show."
"Oh, good....'cause it just seems you're distant lately.....anyway, back to my dream...I was
with my father by the river I was telling you about, and we were floating above........."
(I say this because it's one of my big pet peeves.....I HATE when people tell me about a dream
they had the night before......I HATE it.)
Well, I'm gonna go do one of the few things that actually is a welcome distraction......teach
improvisation........until the next time in spacetime.
email mick
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