Funny memory from the Rudolph tour:
Tracey (my boss, large black woman with husky voice & fun smile): Hi-i-i!
300 children in unison: Hi-i-i.
Tracey: Whatcha doin'?
Still in unison: Nothin'.
Life here is going great. Haven't had a crappy homesick day in about a month. Friendships are growing lovely, work is just the right level of challenging, Lucas is fantabulous as always and I've been to the Down House (excellent restaurant/bar within walking distance) twice in the last few days.
Freedom Train is in the last phase of rehearsal before we open tomorrow. Details are getting ironed out, and the performances are growing and gaining in energy (especially so when we know a good run will get us released early). Check out photos and video of us on the Express website. (Yes, that's me in the blonde wig for Goldilocks. No, I don't know if I'm actually in that show or not yet.)
I've had a couple of really good auditions in the last couple of days too. I got a callback at Masquerade Theatre, but alas not at Main Street Theater. I forgot how much the waiting and the rejection suck. I only found out I didn't get a callback for Main Street (my favourite company in town) because one of my friends announced jubilantly on facebook that he did, when I still hadn't heard anything. I had to drive aimlessly around for a little while this morning to wait for the sting to wear off. And then I came home to a lovely message from said called-back friend encouraging me despite my own lack of casting.
I feel my resilience growing. I'm self-talking so hard my head hurts, and that's what's getting me through audition nerves and the post-rejection blues. Jane, the Artistic Director of Hope Stone, has a little blessing she likes to say at the end of class: "Honour yourself and your body for your practice today, because it was where you needed to be as an artist and as a human being." Lucas knows I like to repeat that to myself before auditions so he says his own little blessing over me before I go to remind me: "In nomine patri et filii et spiritu Jane-u..."
I'm also really enjoying my weekly Shakespeare class. I feel I've improved so much in only two classes so far, and it's fun to meet more theatrically inclined people as well. I'm working on an Ophelia monologue (was doing Joan of Arc from Henry VI but then I realised how stupid it is to rehearse a monologue from a show you don't know).
Today I enjoyed a morning off, with a pilates class at Hope Stone, breakfast at the Down House, and some time just thinking and being. And then after our last Freedom Train rehearsal I'm having coffee with Leslie (a beautiful new friend), and THEN we open tomorrow! Hurrah!
Ok, so the day totally went downhill from there, but it's nice to read how happy I was earlier this morning.
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