Halftime Report

Special matinee performance for Girl's Middle School ...check
Reception for Girl's Middle school...check
Cast&crew BBQ...check
Located Saratoga city hall wifi...check

Now I'm just passing the time till the 8 pm show. Cast call in half an hour. I didn't bother getting out of costume & makeup, though everyone else did. Why bother? Didn't worry about spilling anything on my costume - no one would notice. Didn't spill anything though.

Last night's show was not so good. I started by hitting my head on the too-low, raw wood of the "alcove" entrance. Bad scrape on my head, minor concussion I think because there were a couple of moments where I was woozy later on in the show. The mikes were way too hot for the show, I was getting major feedback during my number. Ruined it completely for me. The audience was kind of quiet, the curtain call was just a notch better than polite applause.

Got my nails done and the litterbox changed this morning, but did not have time to get the pet supplies. Tomorrow, maybe.


The Middle School benefit was just the opposite. Everyone was "on", and although Don Q rewrote some of the script it was all easily recovered from. Massive standing O at curtain call, lasted about 5 minutes. Would have gone longer except the scrim was brought down after they handed us flowers. Two girls from the school handed a rose to each cast member. Don  Q is the school librarian, and the benefit was to help build a new library. I still hate extra shows and two shows a day and daytime shows, but the audience response made it less painful.

Midnight Show

That was the joke going around after our second show of the day. Another amazing audience very close to sold out, another standing O. Far tighter show than the afternoon performance, but once again we were flooded with fake smoke, and the air conditioning was not keeping up. When we go out to meet the audience, people keep telling me this is the best show they have ever seen at this theater. That's a big compliment - the Saratoga group has a history of strong performances. One of my favorite crazy people, Heidi Kobara, was in the audience. She was my best friend's GF many moons ago, and has since done Foothill College's actor's studio and is a regular at City Lights, among other local places. She was in a show with our Aldonza while La Mancha was still in rehearsals, and knew several other folks in the cast. She does a lot of shows.

Tomorrow will be interesting, several friends are coming, including the one who is bringing the friend I don't want to meet. Also coming is one of my stage wives, whom I will introduce to the current stage wife. They can compare notes.

Boring stuff to do tomorrow:
Buy some aquarium stuff
Hit the used book store
take out the garbage
Put away the whites (laundry)

Which reminds me, I finished reading Black Like Me, one of the many books we were required to read in high school which I didn't. I recommend it highly, with a couple of caveats. The author comes from a very strong Catholic upbringing, and he focuses a lot on this yet never attends a church service as a black man. He says he is looking for work, but never gives any details on what kind of work, or what the employers' responses were. For such a heavyweight experiment, it is a very lightweight piece of journalism. Still, I admire his courage for even publishing.