Thursday, February 5, 2015

If music be the food of love...

OK, wrong Shakespeare, I know...still, those of you who have read this blog before know that I usually try to do playlists for shows that I am in. Sometimes, they are as short as three songs. Other times, I will work out the full arc (check out the blog on Irene and "Sherlock").

As we approach the first major break-out rehearsal for the Witches and their Shades, now is probably the best time to talk about this show's playlist.

This character a very movement based character, and it is much more about setting a mood than tracing an arc. I also got to delve into some of the darker themes in my music collection.

And every other song is off a "Battlestar Galactica" soundtrack. Because Bear McCreary is a GENIUS!

1-Heeding The Call (BSG-Season 3): A good opening. Starts light and little exotic, and then builds to something a little more than ominous...

2-Immortals (Big Hero 6, Fall Out Boy): Something upbeat after a slow start...

3-Kara Remembers (BSG-Season 4): This is one of my favorite songs from the entire series. Much like "Heed The Call", it has that slow, slinking build punctuated by some truly amazing beats once it gets going (nerd moment, if I may: I see this as the song that plays during a Mara flashback to the night Vader came back from Cloud City).

4-Animals (V, Maroon 5): There is something animalistic in the Weird Sisters, especially in this production. They are more and less than human, and fully willing to hunt their prey...

5-Apocalypse (BSG-The Plan): SO, this song was actually on a previous playlist, when I was auditioning to be one of the Erinyes in "The Last Daughter of Oedipus".  This song says unseen forces pulling and pushing twisting fate.

6-Bad Things (Jace Everett, True Blood): We are seducing people to the Dark Side; why do YOU think this song is on here?

7-Gaeta's Lament-Instr. (BSG-Season 4): At this point, it is good to assume that I just worship at the feat of Bear McCreary...

8-Going Under (Fallen-Evanesance): The sweet surrender the Dark Side offers...don't fight it...

9-Lords of Kobol (BSG-Season 2): See #7 above.

10-Seven Devils(Ceremonials-Florence and the Machine): OK, so there are way more than seven witches/shades, but we will still pull your kingdom down...

11-All Along The Watchtower (BSG-Season 3): "...Princes kept the view, while all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too...outside in the distance, a wild cat did growl...two riders were approaching...the wind began to howl..." HOW is that not a perfect song for this show?


Bonus Tracks
My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Fall Out Boy). Someone, ANYONE, choreograph a lightsaber fight to this song. I will sacrifice my sanity and well being if you do!!

Storming New Caprica (BSG-Season 3)-Another good fight song.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

On Hard Work and Showing Up...

I believe is hard work. I do. I believe that hard work should be rewarded.

When we are younger, when we are in school, we are told that we should work hard. It was a lesson that was ingrained in me especially hard because, as a very young age, I was informed by my mother that I could do theatre so long as my grades stayed at a certain level. Something about my Scottish blood took that as a challenge, which led to one memorable day where I was up at 6:00 to be a school by 7:15 to take that quarter's AP English writing test (this after staying up to proofread the paper we had to turn in as well), followed by a full day of classes (including a meeting of the yearbook team), followed by rehearsal until 6:00 for the high school show followed by rehearsal at 7:00 for the local community theatre show.

Yeah, I was nuts.

But I believed in working hard. I believed that if you worked hard, then you would be rewarded. If you got good grades, then colleges would like you, and, maybe, even give you a little money.

In high school, it paid off. I graduated 36 in a class of 536, and got into Loyola with a Scholarship.

Yay hard work!

At Loyola at the first meeting of the Theatre School, we were basically told that 55% of our time would be spent on Theatre, and 55% of our time would be spent on Academics. It took us all a second to do the math, and to make sure they weren't joking, and they weren't. The Theatre Department expected you to show up. They expected that, even if you were on the performance track, you would serve as House Crew, Costume Crew, Set Crew, Light Crew...you get the idea.

So I worked hard. I ended up increasing my Academic Scholarship amount, and scoring a Theatre Scholarship by the end of my first year.

Long story short, I ended up going into the "real" world with the expectation that my work ethic would yield rewards...

It took nigh on 9 years for that illusion to be shattered. Yeah, I am a slow learner...

In the real world, hard work SHOULD get you further, and I am sure it does... in most places.

I am not afraid to say that 5 years with a company that I gave just about every summer to did not end well. Blood, sweat, tears, gas money, and when there started to be talk about taking the company Equity and using union actors, no consideration was made to those who had spent even longer than I had with the company when it came to making sure we would still be included in the shows. Even if they had had the courtesy to say that they would have ensured us getting our points, I would have stuck around.

Instead, we were basically told that all our hard work meant nothing.

It took me much longer to learn this lesson professionally than it did artistically. Nine years, in fact. Nine years of showing up and taking on not only my own duties, but others as well. Staying late, coming in early, and working like a dog lead to no vacation days, no sick days, no benefits, and mu hours being cut to three days a week. Not that I blame them: the economy was in the junk heap at the that point, and I was just grateful to have any job.

However, when the opportunity came to leave both of these situations behind, both artistically and professionally, I am not afraid to say I ran.

A theatre company that offers me membership after all I do is work box office and then show up at strike (because that's what I was taught you did at Loyola)? Where do I sign?

An up-and-coming Chicago start-up that wants to offer me benefits, stock options, a 401K, and HOW many vacation days? Done!

Since then, I won't say things have been perfect, but when is life ever? There have been heartbreaks and tears, late nights and lots of wine...and beer...and cider...but there have been lessons learned and triumphs.

It is a hard lesson to learn, when you enter real life: sometimes, hard work DOES NOT get you ahead. You have to know the difference between being patient, and being complacent and comfortable. You have to know when you have given enough, and there has been no reward, no matter how small, that is time to move on.

But I still believe that for every new venture, you SHOW UP. You work your butt off. When I was cast as an understudy for a production, the only time I didn't show up was when I was so sick I couldn't see straight.

I figured, as an understudy, if was my job to cover for other actors when they got sick, not make other actors suffer from the plague I was carrying...

But you work. Every new show, every new job, every new opportunity is a chance for you to make your mark. It is a chance to find a new home.

Long story short (TOO LATE!) we come to the moral of my story, and the good news, and the connection to the show I am working on now...

Fight rehearsals for MacSith are, for the most part, optional. But, as I have become something of the social media maven, and fight rehearsals are usually when you get the best shots of lightsaber fights, I have been showing up.

This past Thursday, it was apparently discussed that the actress playing Lady M would not be able to make it to ChiFi, a convention occurring at the Palmer House Hilton in March where we will be doing two performances of MacSith. The current Witch 1 played the Lady last year, so she will be stepping into those shoes. That means they needed someone to play Witch Primus...

Ladies and Gents, I will see you all on March 19th-20th.