Update on Slings and another friends performance...

We're still trekkin along!

We've run into some issues, but I gotta say - we've bounced back incredibly.  Dave was even saying last night how with as much bumps as we've had, this show is still totally on track!

One of the issues (which I don't consider a total issue but it has it's faults) is we're a floating company.  Basically we have no home.  Now - I'm totally cool with this, as it's just how guerrilla theatre works.  You rehearse where you can and work with your space when you find one to perform in!  But it does have a few drawbacks.  Right now we're rehearsing in people's homes pretty much.

This shot below is a meet and chat we had at Jill's (Gertrude) house.  Beautiful house but she has a mother she cares for, so we had to be respectful of course.  This was not big deal for this meet since it was just table work and alot of snacks!

We've also had a few table reads in Starbucks which is really awkward, but we did it.

Then we rehearsed at our costume gal's house, but she has 3 kids that were in bed when we were there so we had to keep our voices down.  This was not easy and I felt horrible.

Shadow Hamlets and Hamlet

Now this week and next week we rehearse at Rick's (Polonious) amazingly beautiful condo but it's on the 3rd floor, and again - voices down and don't jump around.  Guess who kept forgetting that!  Doh!
The pictures below are all taken by Brenda (Shadow Hamlet #1) from last night's rehearsal at Ricks.

Ophelia Mad

We're a bit immature

Gertrude, Claudious and Ophelia

Dave and I probably sassing each other

Aren't we the cutest Hamlet and Ophelia!

Apparently my ass in Brenda's camera

This coming Sunday and another Sunday we will be rehearsing in a warehouse space for 8 hours each day - so - I know some great work will be coming out of those and I'll blog about that later.

The other challenges:  Remember the last blog when I said we lost Keith (Laeretes) and Jeffrey stepped in?  Well, we lost our main Hamlet.  The poor kid is heartbroken he can't do it, but living in LA, car breaking and financially can't fixing it will keep you out of a show.  So as much as I'll miss Conor, Jeffrey has stepped into the role of Hamlet and is bringing a totally new element.  He's fantastic.  So - that means we have no Laeretes!  Well until just last night.  Craig Johnson an old Rudie and also done alot of work at Garage Theater has agreed to jump in.  SO - we'll see him on Sunday.  Other bad news - we lost our costumer.  That one really crushed me, but she's got some major stuff going on and I totally understand.  We have had a gal step in who costumed Revengers Tragedy which as you see below with a couple of shots was fantastic:

Revengers Tragedy

Revengers Tragedy

But still.  Totally bummer!!!  I have faith in Amanda for sure, but damn will I miss Heather.  I'm her favorite barbie!  Le sigh.

So here we are today!  Still going strong!  I'm still excited, but now getting a bit nervous and anxious because it's coming up on us really fast!  But I'm also very confident because I know it will all come together!

Brenda and my nunnery scene needs some work.  I'm a little lost as to what Dave is wanting and what I'm thinking, but I'm looking forward to hashing that out on Sunday.  The Ophelia mad scene is coming together.  I've been trying different things here and there and Dave has thrown some ideas out and I love where it's going.  I've been able to start to get there emotionally.  Not totally of course but I feel it brewing.  I've been working on this one and my death scene a bit at home by myself trying to find ideas and direction to go.  It's going to be a challenge but I feel good!

I'll blog more into rehearsal stuff after our long Sunday.  But I know Dave is feeling good too!  Here's some updates from the MWC Facebook page:

Best Reason to Cast Good Actors #1:
Worked the scene last night where Hamlet kills Polonius.
My vision of it was that the killing would be a shock at the end of the scene, but Rick argued that there would be more impact if Hamlet was circling him and acting in a menacing way prior to the fatal moment. I disagreed, but told him to show me instead of telling me.
He and Jeffrey knocked the scene out of the ballpark.
Listen to your actors, directors. If you cast correctly, they'll know the character better than you do

Added movement to Hamlet's "get thee to a nunnery" scene and the visual dynamic changed dramatically. In the other scene, we changed a character's gender and motivation, turning him into a giddy member of the 1% and the scene became funnier...and far more biting.


Terrific rehearsals the past few nights for SLINGS & ARROWS, Monkey Wrench Collective's re-imaging of HAMLET.
Jami's Ophelia brought tears to my eyes as she mimed cutting her wrists, while singing The Beatles' Golden Slumbers.
We also searched through a handful of poems about mourning to replace her "song" in an earlier scene, settling on one from William Blake and another from Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Bryan nailed Claudius' opening scene after a few misses and you could see his eyes light up when he eventually zipped through it.
Hamlet sending Ophelia to the nunnery with a few stanzas of Bjork startled me and made me laugh.
Jami and Jeffrey as Ophelia and Laertes playing his goodbye to her with a tenderness and love that made me forget they were acting.
A conversation between the melancholy prince and his two shadow "personalities," as they talk the mentally ill man into murder and incest, was the kind of improvisation most of us can only dream about witnessing. It was eerie, funny and immensely uncomfortable.
A later bonding exercise, with Conor, Adam and Wombat doing impersonations of each other (silently and with dialogue) revealed the three to be excellent mimics. When you see them on stage together at Casa Romantica in April, you'll believe that they're all "related".

So there ya go.  Happy Jami.  Happy director.  Show is coming along!

As I've mentioned before, I also want to give shout outs to other good stuff I'm seeing out there!  SO - as you know, I do that A-Dolts Only Xmas Pageant every year.  Well, one of our cast members is a regular at Medieval Times.  He either plays the King or the Lord Chancellor.  We have razzzed him about this forever and this year decided to take our earnings from the show and all go see him!

It was so rad.  He chose to play Lord Chancellor since it's a much better role.  Here's our Brad below:

Bradley!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a horse!!!

First of all I can't believe Medieval Times is still around!  It was totally sold out too!  We were placed in the Blue Knight section (who of course won), given our paper crowns and sat in two rows.  The poor people around us had no idea who these loud group of adults were.  They do celebration (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) shout outs during the show and the "Dolts" crew got a few.  Brad did a funny bit with the Queen explaining that it's a Xmas show, etc.  Super cute and we of course were screaming! 

I've been once before, when I was a kid.  It's adorable for the chitlins.  Joel and I kept joking that this must be a Ren Faire Geek's life long dream.  The food was horrible and our waitress was a bitch.  The waiter that the other half of our group had was fantastic though and Sean and I ordered a bottle of wine (They actually had real wine) to share so we were happy.  Despite the poor quality and crappy service we had a blast of course!  My throat was totally scratchy the next day from screaming for Brad so much.

Here's some group shots

Apparently the "Mead" wasn't so good

Can you tell we're having a good time?  Some of our crew brought their littles so they enjoyed it as well!  The knights were great.  Our winning knight came into the stands and gave a tiara and his winning sash to the most adorable little girl I almost died.  One of our group caught one of the carnations (Didn't it used to be roses?) and we laughed and screamed and cheered all night.

Brad was fantastic!  He was straight out of Game of Thrones.  His performance was perfection!

We took some photos after and praised him for his performance.  Such a damn fun night!

The hot villain with Kali

Most of the crew minus a few who were outside smoking!

Dolt's Crew!