catch up

It has been crazy busy here recently. We now have 3 of our 5 shows open. The most recent one is the musical, Smoke on the Mountain. There is plenty of musical talent in the company which is nice, but this is accompanied by a bit of arrogance and pretentiousness unfortunately. My character is a very awkward 17 yr old twin who I interpret to be slightly deficient in regards to not only his social skills but also his mental development. This is a dangerous choice to make, but it has been met with support and encouragement so far. I don't feel that I am doing anything offensive. Just living honestly under imaginary circumstances like I was taught.

We are now rehearsing for the last show that will open, which is the 3rd and last one I am in. I am the male lead and I'm working alongside the most competent girl here - in all respects. Also the director is a member of the company and not the same one who directed the first two shows I am in. Blocking seems to happen about ten times as fast as before which is a huge relief and great help to the cast who is required to prepare shows in such a small timeframe. So far I am mostly happy with how it is going, but the play is not very good mostly due to the writing. It is very hard to memorize, especially at such a fast pace, but it's coming along. A couple of the other actors in the show don't take the work as seriously as I would like, but that's something that has become normal around here, unfortunately. The purpose of their roles in their eyes seems to be to entertain themselves rather than to tell the story with as much truth as possible. One girl consistently invents traits for her characters that either have nothing to do with anything in the text or traits that blatantly conflict with the circumstances provided in the text. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach, but with the hundreds of battles I have to choose from each day, it gets more and more unrealistic for me to attempt to preserve the integrity of the theatre. The bullshit is just piling up much faster than I can shovel it out, I guess. But we carry on!

The company is kind of split right now as to who gives two shits about the work they do. The half that DOES care is experiencing an ever growing animosity for the other half. It is incredibly unfortunate that such a split exists here, but I finally feel some comraderie now that I know I'm not the only person who recognize the rampant irreverence for our art here.




W