Next!

Well, we wrapped up the show this weekend.  It was a great experience overall, with some crunchy bits on the production side.  That came through at the Post Mortem and I am trying to put that crappy night behind me. It's too bad that it had to play out like that. It made me think a lot about my commitment to Walterdale (which is sad) but it is hard to work so hard and feel unappreciated and (worse) resented for the work that you do. I luckily have a little video of a snippet of the show to watch to cheer me up and make me remember what I loved so much about the experience of doing this show.  I made some great connections and have plans to work with some of the cast and team again in the future. I am chairing the From Cradle to Stage One Act Festival, but I am more tentative about it now.

And now, onto the next adventure!  This week is jam packed with Christmas fun!  Two times two Christmas concerts at the boy's school (2 dress rehearsals and 2 evening performances), With Bells On at Theatre Network and the cleaning of my house will take over my life this week.  I have to go shopping in there sometime too. It's a good thing the kids are still in school so I can theoretically get some of this done.

I am also diving headfirst into Spelling Bee.  I hope to reread the script at least 5-10 times before auditions. The audition sign-ups are amazing and I am excited to get to those auditions so I can can this thing.  It's such a terrifically silly and fun show with fabulous music and just looking at the audition sheet makes me giddy.  Such great singer/actors on that page! I am looking forward to asking them to be ridiculous!

At this point I have seen or been involved in 56 Theatrical Events this year, and With Bells On will make it 57.  I also have plans to see some shows at The Snow Globe Festival and Oliver! at Festival Place, so I think I will hit 60. This surpasses my goal of 40 shows, so I am very, very pleased with myself.  I will have to re-evaluate for next year!

The Misanthrope Makes Me a Philanthrope!

Reflections on The Misanthrope Experience. 

I have had such a wonderful time working with this cast and crew.  I have met so many wonderful people and been inspired by their dedication to do good work on the stage and with each other.  I regained a sense of silliness and joy with them that I haven't had in a while (at least as an actor).  The newer actors in the cast made me revisit my early days on the stage.  The one who bailed us out when we lost a cast member made me appreciate the spirit of the show must go on and there are no small roles. Working with Afton made me realize how lazy I can be and because of her phenomenal hard work I pushed myself to be more present. It is hard to express how much I value that. It can be too easy to go through the motions and thanks to her example, I never felt like I was. It was also so lovely to share the stage with some fabulous emerging artists like Zachary, Brennan and Amanda and I hope to see them in lots more stuff and (cross fingers) work with them again.  The main thing is, I got to work with some great people onstage and from our joy-filled ridiculous warm-up every night, to our creative sign-in sheet, to getting laced up every night up to bows and the Act afterwards, this has been great. I also enjoyed being a part of Janine's first directing gig at Walterdale.  I am glad she got to work with this group and tackle this challenge (because it wasn't an easy script).

Anyhow, I leave The Misanthrope a Pilanthrope, and that feels good.

A Couple of Nice Reviews of the Show... First week recap...

The first five shows (plus two previews) are done and tonight we head into the final stretch.  We had a nice opening week and I am excited to get back onstage this evening.  When you spend so much time with people you like you really miss them on the dark day.  But it was a much needed dark day as there was a lot of laundry to do!

Opening Night was tonnes of fun with an audience who seemed primed to laugh. It's always interesting to see how different audiences react - some are laughers and some are listeners.  This is a play that requires heavy duty listening skills, but it's worth it.  Best night for me was Saturday night because my sister was in town all the way from Toronto and she and a friend came and saw it.  It has been a long time since she has seen me onstage so I was very happy that she made it out for this one. Plus, she is sharp and a loud laugher so she got a lot of the funny stuff and we were rewarded.

There have been a few reviews so far, and all are (yay!) positive. Here are some links.

From Sound and Noise.
"If you’re able to keep up with the rapid-fire dialogue, this play will have you laughing and leave you thinking."

From St. Albert Gazette.
"...director Janine Waddell Hodder has created a solid production that provides stimulating discussion."

A Personal Blog.
"I thought the play was very funny, and it probably would have been funnier for someone with a more intimate knowledge of the source text.  For one thing, the dialogue (some of it possibly a different Molière translation than I’d read, and some of it completely modern) was in the same kind of rhyme and metre used in the source text.  The actors – especially Brennan MacGregor who played Alceste – did a great job phrasing the long speeches for sense rather than emphasising the metre."

I hope that people can make it out.  This has been a wonderful challenge for me and I would love it if people saw it.  Learning the dialogue felt like it does when you are doing Shakespeare and I am very proud of what it is. There are only five shows left and then it's gone...

The Misanthrope Loves Everyone Who Came to the Show Last Night!

See what I did there?

Anyhow, we had a fabulous Opening Night for The Misanthrope at Walterdale Theatre last night.  We had enjoyed Previews, but the audience last night was HOT! It was thrilling to hear all the laughter and feel such gratitude to the generous audience.  I always say that a show is nothing until there is an audience to perform for so it is nice to be finally open and sharing this new twist on an old classic with people.  I love the character I get to play and the people I get to play with.  We celebrated the opening with a lovely after show reception (mmmm, lobster tarts...) and Tonight is 2 for 1 Night so hopefully we get a nice sized audience from that to continue with the journey!

Totally not Typecast... and I have the pictures to prove it... Media Call for The Misanthrope...

Just take a look.  These pictures tell a story.  They also tell you that I am gifted in the art of facial expressions... no really, they do... Can you guess what my character is like?

Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up..

Making a move (see my hand?)...

No over-acting here...

I think this is my favorite 'face'...

Stirring up trouble!

* all photos by Douglas Dollars Stewart.  For the full set check out this link.

Media Call Tonight...

Media Call tonight!  Yikes! It's not even noon and I have already started on the hair and make-up... I hope it survives the afternoon.

Since I am in a show, I get hard pressed to make it to everything so I wanted to comment on some shows that I have been hearing about that I wish I could get to.  I haven't seen them and unfortunately I am unlikely to be able to because I shall be on stage myself for the next 3 weeks, but I wish I could:

Attempts on Her Life

MacEwan University Theatre Arts - Nov 28-Dec 2

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

U of A Studio Theatre - Nov 29-Dec 9

The List

FTA (Theatre Yes and Theatre of the New Heart) - Nov 29-Dec 9

There is also A Christmas Carol at The Citadel starting in previews on November 30th and running to December 23rd, but I will be able to get to that.  I am hoping to catch one of the above on my dark day, but I might need my sleep so we shall see.

Have a great few weeks.  Hopefully you can get to some of these and, of course, The Misanthrope at Walterdale Theatre (we open December 5th!).

Fringe ReBoot/Felt Like a Show Tonight

So this week has been mixed.

I went to the Fringe Lottery last night and had a fun time live tweeting it and listening for our name to be called, but alas, the call came rather late.  Finally Sauces was called at #26 and Round Barn at #31 on the waiting list.  Those are pretty far down on the wait list.  If we were under #20 I might hold out hope, but now we are looking at alternatives.  I don't really want to go the BYOV route, but I also don't want wait too much longer before I get these scripts on a deck.  So.... stay tuned.  When I know better I'll let you know. We are disappointed, but that is the way of the lottery. It's how it works.  To those who were drawn I saw - please be excellent!

Today I feel good about a lot of things.  I finished the very last of the painting - Yay!  Now I can just think about acting and being in the world of the play. Tonight we had a run that felt really good for me.  It felt like we had a SHOW.  That was nice.  I am only in two of the five acts so hopefully everyone else felt the same.  I only know where I am at and what I felt. I am anxious for an audience, but will have to wait for Monday for that. Tomorrow is media call and I am called for that. It has been awhile since I have been an 'actor' at the media call so I expect a few nerves, but I also hope it will be fun!

And now, to bed.  It is late and I got stuff to do tomorrow...

Commencing Tech Week! The Misanthrope at Walterdale!

We are entering the last week before opening for The Misanthrope.  This week tends to have it's ups and downs.  It is exciting to add all the bells and whistles, lights, sounds and costumes and real props, but each new addition can also mean adjustment and take you out of the world of the play.  One of the ways that we are spoiled at Walterdale is that we get a whole week to adjust and settle into the finished world. Today we have costume parade before a tech run. I love my costumes! I cannot share a picture of my final costume as it is to be a surprise, but we have the best costume designers and builders at Walterdale and I certainly feel spoiled every time I do a show there!  So nice to have a costume built especially for me!

I have a couple touch ups to do on the paint this week, but not a lot. Probably only a couple of hours.  It is nice to feel like that job is done so I can focus on the world of my character in the play. This is my week to gather show gifts.  I am a big proponent of show gifts and I like to make them appropriate to the show and character.  I have some great ideas and can't wait to go out and do that shopping trip!

Here is the 'pretty much done set' with rehearsal food (we don't really have Tim Bits in the show...).  Designed by Travis Metzger, built by Pierre Valois and painted by moi! Bear in mind, some of the furniture is just rehearsal pieces... we have the real stuff coming in this week.

Kristen hits a Wall... and Bounces... This Too Shall Pass...

Yesterday I hit a wall.  Suffice it to say I have taken on too much, and then overreacted because all my filters shut off due to system collapse.  I am a little embarrassed in retrospect, but I cannot do anything but apologise, so there you go.  I think it's all good. I hope so.

How did this happen?  Well, I think there is a reason why Walterdale frowns on people doing more than one big job on a show.  It can stretch you too thin and in combination with my other life jobs (mother, store-owner, and all the rest...) I simply stretched too far. There are other factors stressing me out - some challenging dynamics on the team, coming off another show so quickly, planning for the next two (which overlap), anxious about Fringe - so it was really a perfect storm situation.  I should have known.  On the way to the theatre to paint in the morning I was on the verge of tears the whole way and didn't know why.  I was yelling at the radio, other drivers, my gloves... I was clearly not in good shape. Today I am taking a rest day.  I have nothing but laundry and grocery shopping on the agenda today and I might even squeeze in a nap.

Anyhow, the set is coming along nicely.  I have posted my most recent picture, but I have actually done more since I took that picture.  Tomorrow I should be done and I will take another and post that. We are waiting on the 'real' furniture so it will continue to change when all that comes in. The show is also moving along.  We got some wonderful work done on my big scene last night and I finally feel I have my feet under me in it. I get to work with some wonderful, generous actors in this show and I am so grateful for that. I will be glad when I can just think about the acting... soon...

First Day of Painting - The Misanthrope at Walterdale

So I started painting The Misanthrope today.  It was primer day and the walls are high.  When I got to the theatre, the set looked like this:

A few hours (read: 5 hours) passed and a lot of painting was done with two fabulous helpers and when I left the set looked like this:

I have a lot to do.  More wall treatment on Thursday and Friday and hopefully I start the floors by the weekend.  There is also furniture.  I am recording the progress so that I can see all the steps involved!

It is going to mean a lot of hours at the theatre for me - since I am in the show, too - but it's home!