What a fun day. We had a Tom & Huck show at the Miller Outdoor Theatre this morning, which is a beautiful big theatre kinda like the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. And to be honest, the dressing rooms with the lights around the mirrors kinda made my morning.
The first genuinely cold day I've seen since we left Melbourne didn't keep too many people away, and we had a meet & greet with the audience afterwards, which swelled my ego nicely. (You try being humble after crowds of adoring children look at you with those big shiny eyes and say they liked the show.)
Shemica and Alex backstage at Express
After unloading the set and bumping in for tomorrow's show back at Express headquarters, the cast and Sammie went out for lunch. I think I'm a little bit in love with everyone. We're working fairly well as a team (albeit with chronic lateness) and having lots of fun in between times. At the restaurant Alex pulled what is apparently a regular trick of his and pretended it was my birthday so I got free dessert and the wait staff singing at me. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.
Drums for our Music class at Hope Stone
It was nice to blow off some steam at lunch. Also went shopping with Bekah yesterday on one of her rare days off, so that was nice too. I feel like I'm working really hard and kind of just keeping it all together....I got home from Hope Stone last night, went up to Lucas and said "What's for dinner? I'm starving!" to which he replied, "Um, I don't know, I'm going out tonight. Aaron's picking me up in fifteen minutes..." and my brain slowly ticked over...Lucas getting picked up by a friend...for an event I wasn't invited to...meant I was supposed to be busy somewhere else...crap, Sound of Music rehearsal, forty-five minutes away! But we're at the stage of rehearsal where we're starting to run large chunks of the show, and they didn't get to anything I was in til after I was there, so no-one minded too much that I slipped in half an hour late. BTW, I just found out I'm understudying Sister Margaretta, which is cool. But it does mean yet more material to learn, with Tom & Huck still not completely under my belt and Rudolph starting next week....But what am I complaining about. I love it. I mean, I hate learning lines, but I love having so much to do. And I think freelancing suits me well coz I get bored easily. At last, feeling a little bit more like I belong here. And the "no day but today" mantra is still reminding me to enjoy each day without having large existential crises all the time and some giant standard of what my life is supposed to be like looming over my head.
I've taken some more photos so you can get some more visual ideas about what my life looks like here! Click this link.
I just took off my visitor pass from Patterson Elementary School and realised it says "raptor" up the top. I had no idea I was a raptor. I'm cooler than I thought.
We had back-to-back shows of Tom & Huck at a school in Houston today. They went pretty well. The version of the original script that we've cobbled together worked ok, and it was fun watching the kids scream when I told Tom Sawyer "I love you" and kissed him on the cheek.
Working with Express is in some ways similar to Tony Bones in Melbourne and in some ways different. At Tony Bones, Tony pretty much ran everything - creatively, administratively, on and off stage. Express has more staff - Tracey the Artistic Director, Pat who is Tracey's boss, Shirley the guest director, Benito the Stage Manager, Sammy the MD, Marshi the costumier and Vincent (aka the alien choreographer), plus a cast of four and Nick & Rita in the office. This means there is much more opportunity for miscommunication, which is frustrating, but it feels more like being a part of a team, which is life-giving. It also means that people tend to have a stronger idea about what their role in the team is and their place in the hierarchy, which to me is a relief. It also makes bump-in and -out much easier on the body! It feels more relaxed at Express, but I'm glad I worked at Tony Bones first so I learned how to snap into hard work mode. This process has been hard. There is this reluctance I feel in the team...I guess because we've pulled this show back from the brink of having no cast and almost being cancelled. We keep giving off subtle signs that it's just too much hard work. E.g., we're unable to start rehearsal on time.
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I wrote the above yesterday and didn't get around to posting it. Got a call from Benito today to say I'm definitely in the Christmas show, starting rehearsals on Monday. Hopefully it will be at least as fun as Tom & Huck, and somewhat easier and more organised!
I. Am. Exhausted. Seven hours of Tom & Huck rehearsal today. We finally have a fourth person in the cast, so we've had two days to work on the new version of the show for back-to-back shows at a school tomorrow. It's fun, and I really like the other cast members, but it's exhausting, like all good shows are! If you're not completely whacked at the end, it's not an interesting show!
In other news, I submitted my new voiceover demo and a video to an agency here in town, and I got in to see them next week! The recommendation from the voiceover coach really helped too- he's with the same agency and he called them on my behalf to make sure I wasn't just an anonymous package on someone's desk.
Tonight we're going to see the dress rehearsal of Fidelio with the comp tickets I earned lightwalking at the opera last week. And somewhere between now and 9.30am tomorrow I need to go over my lines for Tom & Huck.
I've been kinda homesick the last few days, but it's manageable at the moment. Sunday we were talking about Christmas and it hit me that I won't be spending it with my mum and sisters, so that was a few tears, and then an afternoon eating comfort food and watching a movie. There's a song in Tom & Huck that sounds kinda like "I still call Australia home" and it used to make me sing it, but I decided to stop coz it's just too sad & I need to focus on the show, not how much I miss Australia!
It's been three days since the Mosquitoes declared war on the Residents of Texas. They're freakin everywhere. Their attack mechanism is dastardly. They hide until a Resident walks outside, then swarm around him or her, and even hide on his or her clothing to gain access into buildings (formerly safehouses for Texas Residents, but now falling fast to the Mosquitoes). In response, residents have been practising the government-mandated swatty-slappy-spinny walk, although this issue has divided the community. For example, I met two parking garage attendants who used their free hands to practise the swatty-slappy-spinny while forced to work on the frontlines, and yet the guy next to me at the bus stop this morning refused to join me in the swatty-slappy-spinny. You are not cooler than me, guy in black. And this was after I had already sustained wounds to the neck, face, head, feet, back and legs, including parts of my back and legs covered by clothing.
There is no escape. Pray for us.
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S., a hub of wealth and the arts, and filled with trees that look lovely on the beautiful sunny days. And yet, sometimes I feel like I am living in a post-apocalyptic version of far north Queensland. Tropical bugs and other creatures, almost zero foot traffic, roads of appalling quality, rubbish public transport, and until recently, unbearable heat. Sigh. I have heard both good and bad things about Houston, and they are all true.
I am blogging on my shift at Hope Stone, listening to the cute three- to five-year-olds in their creative movement class. One of them just remembered the word "allegro", which I find very impressive. And one of my teen kids just walked in wearing makeup, which is unusual for her, and it's thrown me and now I can't remember her name.
This morning I was trying to figure out why I was feeling so unmotivated to do anything productive and then realised that I probably have licence to be tired right now, what with a hardcore rehearsal of Tom & Huck (with the alien choreographer) yesterday followed by a dance class last night. So I took it easy this morning before going to another Tom & Huck rehearsal. I drove the alien choreographer to his house afterwards...or tried to but missed the exit, so he directed me to Hope Stone and caught a bus home. I'm catching his vibe a little more now, and I really enjoyed rehearsing with him today. Now tonight it's off to Sound of Music rehearsal.
I had a good chat to the creative movement teacher before her classes started and she was asking me how I've been getting to know the theater scene in Houston, and I realised that I'm slowly putting faces and names and places to all of those things I read on the internet before I even got here. It's cementing more and more in my mind that I want to apply for the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Houston, but I need to actually meet the people there before I mentally sign up for it. Plus I need to look at the tuition fees and figure out if we can afford it. (Remind me again why Americans dislike economic socialism??? They just love overpriced degrees they have to pay off before they're ready???) The Head of Acting has said he's happy for me to come in and view a class and chat to him about it, but Tom & Huck rehearsals are kind of preventing that at the moment. Hopefully after next week the show will be up and rehearsals will calm down.
It's cold! What's happening to the Houston I've come to know and love? I think it was hotter in Melbourne yesterday than it was in Houston! Damn you all! I've been secretly gloating while you've all been whingeing about the weather, and now...enter the fall...
I often don't feel stressed, but notice my behaviour as if I'm a very well-informed outsider and conclude that I must be. E.g, just under a year ago, fairly soon after we decided to move to Houston, I wasn't really feeling anything about that decision, and then I broke a small mirror while cleaning the house, and cried for half an hour. So, I guess I'm busy enough at the moment, because I've started having bad dreams. A couple of nights ago I was arrested by the Iranian government because I was behaving in a manner not accepted in an Islamic country (I'll leave that up to your imagination), and last night my mum got stabbed to death. Still, I so much prefer work stress, manifest in dream-world harm to myself and my relatives, to the kind of bored existential angst that I've been experiencing. Sorry, Mum. Hope you don't mind if I text you every morning just to check you're ok.
The Adventures of Tom & Huck is the cause of all this stress. The company's organisational and communicational skills have left a lot to be desired, but things are picking up this week with the introduction of a plain-speaking, clock-watching, decision-writing-downing Stage Manager. There's also a new Choreographer, but he often gives me the feeling he's from another planet. Almost everyone else on the team has worked with him before, and so that's nothing new to them, and apparently they enjoyed watching me "experience" him for the first time.
But each day this week I've reminded myself, "no day but today", and it allows me to try and deal with the challenges of each day without it becoming a question of my whole life's point or worth or success. It's also caused me to rediscover how crazy I am about my husband. You know how y'all think Lucas is funny and silly and smart and great to be around? Well, I get that every day! And yes, sometimes he annoys the crap out of me. We've developed this stupid little bedtime ritual where he turns the dimmer on our bedroom light up and down for about five minutes before we go to sleep, and it pisses me off somethin terrible, but it at the same time it makes me giggle. It's also thawed the ice on some conflict a couple of times, because even when we're hurt or seriously angry at each other it helps us remember we're really good at laughing together.
P.S. I'm well aware that I used the phrases "y'all" and "somethin terrible" in the above paragraph. You try living in Texas and working in about three different accents every day and not becoming some strange hybrid language monster.
So far the "no day but today" challenge has made me a little more productive, and less shy about talking to people. I went and hung out at the crew table at the Opera today instead of hiding away in a corner :) A large part of the conversation was about how Obama wants us all to be communists, by someone who clearly hasn't experienced how good socialised healthcare is, but other than that it was fun to chat. And I'm going to sign off really soon so I can get my video submission to a prospective agent done.
The weather is beautiful now. It's still hot but nice to be outside, and the evenings are actually quite cool....standing outside Jones Hall on Saturday night at 10.30pm was the first time I've been cold while outside for about five months! Lucas and I went for a lovely walk yesterday after our semi-regular breakfast at the Yale St Grill & Gifts, and then I went shopping with Bekah and Janette (a dancer who I've met at Hope Stone and Houston City Dance). Hooray for Old Navy, and the Whole Earth Provision Company....good shops. New pants. Hurrah, coz it's still too hot to wear jeans.
p.s. Thanks to all from Melbourne who send me nice long emails to catch up on things!
Last night we went to see Idina Menzel perform with the Houston Symphony. It was at Jones Hall, the Symphony's concert hall, which is an amazing, impressive venue. So impressive vertically that we exhausted ourselves walking up about eight flights of stairs to get to our seats in the balcony.
The first half (much shorter than a half, really) was dedicated to the orchestra, and they did four pieces - "Baba Yaga", "Funky Chicken", "Javelin" (written for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for the 96 Atlanta Olympics) and "Ride of the Valkyries". I really enjoy orchestral music, and I think we're definitely going to go back to see them! They do a lot of pops stuff as well as classical repertoire. In a few weeks they're screening The Matrix while they play the soundtrack live.
Idina came out after interval, in a stunning dress, and bare feet. She sang songs from Glee, and Rent, and Wicked, and The Wild Party, as well as other shows she hasn't been in, and just other random songs she likes, and did lots of patter in between. Gosh, it must take a lot of self-confidence to just talk and tell stories to thousands of people who've paid at least $50 a pop and not stop halfway through to go, "why the hell am I still talking? I'm sure no one cares". But she was really funny, and her stories were really interesting. She also sang some of the songs she and her husband make up to sing to their little son.....backed by this eighty-piece orchestra!
Two of her songs were the highlights of the night for me. She sang "No Day But Today" from Rent, and later on did "Tomorrow" from Annie as an encore. I never thought that song from Annie could make me cry, but think about an adult person offering it as a song of hope when she knows that hope is often desperately needed....
"When I'm stuck with a day that's grey and lonely
I just stick out my chin and grin and say,
The sun'll come out tomorrow..."
It was simple, and beautiful.
"No Day But Today" really struck a chord with me as well. I seriously spend a lot of my time worrying about what I will regret in the future. At the moment I'm stuck in this angst about my career: what if I never make it? what does making it even mean? when will I be satisfied? what if we have kids and I have to sacrifice my career to them? what if we don't have kids and I regret that? And yet, whilst you can do some things in terms of choices and education (and birth control!), you really can't control your destiny. The guy who wrote that song died the day before the show opened. One day he was there, so excited to be working on his first professional show, and the next day he wasn't and the team had to put the show on without him, and his death in a way became a part of the story. He was in his thirties and no one saw it coming.
So many people who have satisfying, meaningful careers, including my own parents, and a guy named Lafayette who I met at the Opera this week, couldn't have planned them that way from the start. So many people who have satisfying careers, including Idina Menzel, have times of unemployment and despair and self-doubt. Since the concert I've had "No day but today" ringing in my head, and I want to let go of the future and the past and live in the now, because I suspect that is what will be most fulfilling. If today is my only day, I am filling it with art and people. Hold me to this challenge, please.
Check out the youtube link below if you have no idea what I'm talking about.
Just a quick post while I'm procrastinating. Learning lines is so boring, it's the least favourite part of any job. But, holy mother of god, we're performing tomorrow. Gah! So Express still haven't found themselves a Tom for The Adventures of Tom & Huck, so tomorrow we're doing an excerpt from the show that will pretty much just be an adventure of Huck and his friends.....
Yesterday I woke up and was sad to not be going to work at the Opera (I don't go back there til next week). Funny, for a job that I was thinking would just be something to get me out of the house and meeting new people, it's actually really enjoyable! Funny story...they have such a clear chain of command that no one gets to move props except the props crew. So the other lightwalker was instructed to move a chair and then someone yelled "don't touch it! Props, we need you to come and move a chair!" and she had to wait until the props crew came onstage to move this chair for her before she could sit in it.
Ok, I'm going now to learn my lines. And at some point I need to finish this video submission to a prospective agent. I gave myself that goal while I didn't have any work, and now I've got stacks of work and no time to finish the video!
Idina Menzel is performing with the Houston Symphony Orchestra weekend! Hurrah! And I can get cheap tickets because of one of the theatre mailing lists I'm on! Hurrah! This is the kind of thing I was looking forward to about living in the U.S. :) (It's just occurred to me that some of my readers might not know who Idina Menzel is. She was the original Maureen in RENT on Broadway, the original Elphaba in Wicked and she does guest spots as Rachel's birth mom on Glee. Less well-known credits include Kate in Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party.)
Things are going pretty well at the moment. We continue to enjoy cycling around the neighbourhood, and did the Heights Bicycle Rally a couple of weekends ago with Scott and Maggie and some of their friends. It was twenty miles around the Heights and downtown, answering riddles and clues about things as we went.
But the main reason things are going well is that I am really busy! I have five half-days of work this week and next with the Houston Grand Opera as a Lightwalker. If you've ever been through the process of tech for a theatre show, you know there are times when you just need bodies on stage using the props and interacting with the set so that you can see how the light falls on them and tweak them just right. Well, Houston Grand Opera has so much money they can afford to pay people to be those bodies, allowing the rest of the tech army to do their jobs. People sometimes use the cast for that, but a) the cast are more expensive if you're paying people, b) the cast have better things to do like rehearsing or resting between rehearsals and c) the cast often confuse the tech process with them rehearsing on the stage and try to make it about them.
My job with Express Children's Theatre has also finally gotten off the ground. For I while I really felt like they were screwing around with me, calling me at the eleventh hour for rehearsals which never happened. But we had an honest-to-god rehearsal yesterday, which was really fun, and the guest director, who has worked with them a lot before, said that this was unusual for them in her experience, which gives me confidence. Two other people have been cast at the last minute, and it's really refreshing working with professionals. They both slipped into their roles so easily, and the Music Director is so brilliant he just writes the harmonies as he goes, and we got two songs off the ground and sounding great in about fifteen minutes. I'm still a little wary, but as I get to know these people more I think I'll trust them more.
Fall is here, and I am wearing jeans for the first time since May! Both the temperature and the humidity have dropped significantly, and it's really lovely to be outside. The mornings and evenings are cool but not cold, and the daytime is sunny and hot, but temperate enough to actually enjoy being outside for more than a couple of minutes.
Lucas and I went on a bike ride together for the first time ever last night! We rode about twenty minutes to a restaurant we hadn't been to before, then felt awkward coz we got there and realised we had underdressed. Then later on in the evening we went to a pub called the Firkin & Phoenix, where they were playing the AFL Grand Final. It was such a fun night! They had Aussie food on the menu (sausage rolls & sauce, yummy yummy), and Cooper's & Boag's in specially (still cheaper by the bottle than you would get it at a bar in Melbourne), and there were so many Australian accents - lots of fun. It was totally packed with rabid expats, including at least a few vocal Collingwood supporters...although you could pick them before they even opened their mouths :) Nice to be immersed in something good and Australian, although I think if it had been something Australian that I really care about (like the Melbourne Fringe Festival or something, not just the footy!) it would have been too much on the homesickness front. And I also thought, you know what? I'm glad I'm watching this here and not in Australia, because I do have that sense of feeling richer for having lived in a different place. During the national anthem, all the Aussies stood up and put their hands on their hearts - it made me smile to think that they'd obviously been overseas long enough to miss their country, because they wouldn't be caught dead doing that back home.
