(5) things

After Show Snacks
A combination of peach yogurt and pinot grigio straight from the bottle.
Yummmm.


Sherlock Season Two
Ruth and I finished watching it today and OH GOOD GOD. The guy who plays Jim Moriarty is maybe my new favorite person. He is so. mother. fucking. crazy.
Yummmmm.


Movie Nights
I want to set one up for everybody who works in tech at Artists Rep. I want us all to cuddle on a bunch of couches and eat popcorn, like movie nights were in my Kirby days. I want to action movies or maybe a scary movie - provided I was wedged between the scene shop boys and Ruth or Lauren. With blankets and pillows and red vines.
Yummmmm.

Flannel
Right now my bed has flannel sheets on it. They're warm and cozy and I love 'em.
That being said: I cannot wait for spring to arrive and it get to get warmer and for me to go back to my reg sheets. But for now? Flannel: the upside of it still being winter.
Yumm.


Circle Mirror Transformation
Closes next week. This will mean that I will no longer work at Artists Rep, where I've been working since I moved here in September. I have another show lined up so I'm not facing job-less-ness but this does bum me out. I kind of love everybody there and don't really want to just pick up and leave...
(Not yumm.)

1989

Current blog views = the year I was born.

(Personally, I think that blogspot just makes the page view shit up because I cannot actually believe that my blog has been viewed 1,989 times because I am simply not that important. I mean, I'm not Lindsey Lohan or Michelle Obama or anything, guys.)

Meaningful Conversations

Today is my first day back with Zo after nearly two weeks. Right before I took her upstairs for a nap, we ended up sitting on the couch together. We weren't playing a game or reading a book. We weren't tickling or counting or singing a song. We were talking. Just talking.
She doesn't really speak English but that's still what we doing - talking. We talked about her mom's pregnancy, how I feel about this summer, how I feel about money, how I feel about men. And as ridiculous as I knew it was, to be telling all this convoluted and complicated stuff to a two year old, she listened so sincerely.
Then we went upstairs, changed her diaper and lay down for a nap. Right before she fell asleep she reached out and held my arm for a second. Then she rolled over and was out.

I've missed her a lot these past two weeks.

Tisket Tasket (prt III)

Lauren admitted that she didn't text me a lewd basket joke while craft shopping yesterday because she was afraid she'd overwhelm me with texts.
Hint: I will never be overwhelmed with texts. I love all the love, man. All of it.

Things I'm worried about today
- Finding a new place to live come May
- Who will I be living with come May
- Whether Kiran will stab me when I get to work tomorrow morning because the last thing I did today before I left was take away his video game privileges
- Making sure I have enough nanny work to float me through the summer

Tisket, Tasket, I wish I had this summer wrapped up in a basket

True Love

When a friend can honestly tell you: "I will always ship you and someone hot - someone worth it."

MCC

I never was
the pretty girl in school.
I never was
fast, tough and cool.
All I was
all my life it seems,
was hard to love
and harder now to keep.

- Mary Chapin Carpenter, I Have a Need for Solitude

Tisket Tasket (prt II)

That's what Lauren and I kept singing to each other as we hid a sandwich in the scene shop tonight.
"How about here?"
"Humm, I dunno... tisket tasket... Try the vaccuum."
"Right here? ...Imma put you ass in mah basket."

Spent the day working on paperwork for The Storm in the Barn, which doesn't even need to go into prep till mid-March but I was home sick so whythefucknot, right?

Spent part of my night at the Commedore drinking/losing at pool with Tozzi, Jason, Dave and Lauren and part of it with Manager Jack and his friend, Harris(on?).

My original plan was to come home and watch Titanic, which was foiled by the arrival of my two gentlemen friends. Instead we watched half of Jurassic Park II: The Lost World, drank an entire oversized bottle of wine and ate an entire Target bag of pizza rolls.

SO now I'm full, tipsy, smiling and a little afraid a T-Rex will start snuffing at me through my bedroom window. Good thing I have my resident dinosaur to keep them away.

Since we moved to Portland, Horris has been sporting a bubushka kerchief.  
I will always support him unconditionally as he explores his sexuality; he is my little dino.

Tisket Tasket

Today:

1.) I got paid to sit and read for two hours while a two year old slept on me. Paid.

2.) Someone left a big wicker picnic basket in our greenroom over our days off and when I finished my preset, I came back to find my cast playing with it/making jokes about who they were going to stuff into it.  The best was when Jason picked up and jauntily hung it from the crook of his arm and said "Tisket, tasket, Imma put yo ass in mah basket."

Decisions

One behind me, one ahead.

I wish I could be in September, just for a moment, looking back and thinking "Oh - that was the right call."

"Some Kind of Emergency"

I've been spending more than my usual amount of time in the scene shop recently, so I was a little surprised tonight to find something I'd never seen before.
This sign was hanging on the back of a door that is never closed (except during performances), separating one part of the shop from another.

Reason #682192 Why I Love Scene Shop Men

Marry Me

...Josh Turner.

Those blue eyes, that deep voice... I just can't control myself. I am ready to commit to this man, and we've only know each other for two days.

On: What is Said (Circle Mirror Tech - Day 6)

What was Said? What was Said in the theater today? The Scottish Play.
Yes. That one.

It was said, by name, twice by two different people who were both standing on stage today.
And one of them was me.
As soon as I said it my jaw dropped and I grabbed Tozzi and booked it outside to spit/swear/spin/knock/ask to be let in. Tozzi was yelling about it all over the scene shop and I had to beg her not to tell anyone. She kept on rolling her eyes and going "Murphstein! What have you DONE?!"

This was before our 1:00p Photo Dress, during which Beth ran face first into a vom railing and crumpled to the ground during a blackout.

After the 1:00p run, we took a dinner break and then did notes when we reconvened at 6:00. During notes, somehow, Beth said it. Danielle was sitting between us and said "Oh my god! That is the second time someone has said it in here today!" So Beth asked who said it first, Danielle told her it was me and Beth blamed me for having run into the rail. SO now we think that the bad luck from Beth saying it is going to come after me, since my bad luck went after her. SO now I'm really afraid a light or a ladder or something is gonna fall and that will be it for Miss Olivia Katherine.

Not that I'm superstitious or anything.

On: What is Said (Circle Mirror Tech - Day 5)

Today yielded some serious gems in the What was Said department. Our 10/12 turned into a 7.5/8 because we're in a pretty good shape for previews on Tuesday (we still have a 10/12 tomorrow though) and I think it put everyone in a playful mood.

Jason to Richard re: who would be big spoon while they nap during our dinner break
"It's about the love, not the position."

My director: "I've got some nit picky things..."
Actress: "Pick my nits."

And my favorite note of the night was for the moment when Schultz and Theresa run off to the bathroom together, and my director has asked them to make certain noises from backstage.
Today they tried a different type of noise and my director said:
"You shouldn't be in the throws of an orgasm... It should be more - "
Theresa: "Playfully orgasmic?"
Schultz: "Okay, Allen, sure, but it felt good."


This has been a painless tech, as far as techs go, but I've still been walking around with a serious face. I had three or four people ask me if I was okay today. Maybe it's the weight of some decisions I've got to make? I'm not sure what it is, but I have been feeling a little down recently which is ridiculous, since so many things are looking up. I think the last couple weeks are just catching up with me and I am craving some lay-down-and-be-quiet time.

On: What is Said (Circle Mirror Tech - Day 4)

Today began with a fair amount of silliness. While I pre-set I got to giggle with the carpenter boys (who I am in love with) and gossip with our master electrician (who I am also in love with). It was really nice and, well, fun.
At one point our production manager, who is also our props designer, came on stage and asked me if I had looked closely at the "Shirley Community Center" bulletin board she had put together. I came over and I saw a fake calendar with silly classes on it - a key on a key chain - a hand written note - and a Kevin's menu. I gasped when I saw it and Kelly laughed, seeing I recognized it.
She told me she looked for something from Bennington especially, to surprise me. Looking at that menu tonight kinda just bowled me over: I missed school, I missed my friends, I couldn't believe Kelly had thought so much of me to design a bit of the show around me, I couldn't believe Bennington is actually over for forever. All of a sudden I was standing onstage, broom in hand, crying. Crying in front of my boss, my new friends, my colleagues and my superiors.

Later, I walked into the shop and I heard Kelly telling Van (our T.D.) about when I saw the menu. She had such pride in her voice and she said "... totally! She cried when she saw it!"

On: What is Said (Circle Mirror Tech - Day 3)

A joke told to me, during a break, by my light designer:

"How many light designers does it take to change a light bulb?"
"IT'S A LAMP, DAMN IT."

On: What is Said (Circle Mirror Tech - Day 2)

Tonight, Richard (playing James) told me that he wanted his prop cell phone pre-set on his dressing station each night, so he could put it in the pocket of his costume's pants. I told him I will gladly do so, but warned him that I will have to ask him, every single night, if he has it since I cannot check the pre-set with my own eyes.
When I told Richard this, Jason (playing Schultz and Richard's co-inhabitant of the men's dressing room) snarkily turned to me and said,
"Well, what are you going to ask me every night?"
"How much you love me."
"And I'll say, 'There are no words.'"

So, tonight, when we finished teching and went back to beginning, Jason and I were standing in the stage left vom, awaiting the blackout so he could go to places. As the pre-show speech was going I turned to him and said, "How much do you love me?" and he dutifully responded, "There are no words."
I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and he smiled and said "mmmm, kisses in the vom."

New memoir title: Kisses in the Vom, by Black Velvet




An addendum: What else is Said.

Actress: "Well, I'll let you be the judge of that."
Director: "I am the judge."
Actress: "And jury?"
Director: "And you're guilty."

On: What is Said (Circle Mirror Tech - Day 1)

Here it is: my blog subject for the next six days! What is Said.

I came to this topic partly from a suggestion from Maria, "dinner break conversations," and partly from today's happenings. I got to the theater at 11:15a, to prep for a 6:00p tech. I was nervous, worried, tied in knots. I felt myself unwind little bit by little bit as we tech-ed and I saw that all my prep was paying off.

My first big laugh of the night was when Beth (playing Marty) walked from the SL hallway to the US portion of backstage and, in the dark, approached one of our masking curtains. I watched her approach and, as she bumped it, she turned to and said (very seriously): "Pardon me, Olivia. Didn't see you there."
When I started laughing from another direction, she started laughing too. And then spent the rest of the night calling me "Black Velvet Curtain" or "BVC" or just "Black Velvet."

So, for tonight, among all the snappy, inspiring, silly, sincere and stressed out things that were said on the Alder Stage at Artists Rep, I choose this one.

And now I informally go by Black Velvet.