tired. whew.

wow. so tired.

been very busy. many 5 point days.

play is progressing well. my cast is pretty damn awesome. it's hard work, but will be ultimately VERY rewarding. we open pretty soon. yikes. I have unlimited comps to previews.

Coraline has a gig at Club Waziema on September 11th in the city. short set from 8 - 9pm. very patriotic. twill be fun. special novelty acts.

saw joan rivers show at magic. wow. VERY funny. and very moving. surprisingly so. i recommend it - if you can get a ticket....

did a reading this past weekend of a children's musical. 'Dream Sheep'. About the sheep that are supposed to help you get to sleep. it was so freaking cute. i realized that i have never really worked with kids before. they really do say the darndest things. wow. and they can actually be rather cute when they are calmed down. I played Mrs. Blibbins the Sleep Inspector. She's british and a little crazy and wants to have all the sheep come work in her petting zoo. see - good stuff.....really good stuff. :)

did a trapeze making workshop over the last couple days. it's almost done! just some more sewing to do.... it's pretty freaking awesome to actually MAKE your own trapeze. Well - the bar was pre-made. but we learned how to splice rope and all kinds of good stuff.

ok. i'm so tired that i can't really make thoughts.

dave has lots of photos from our trip on his site if you are interested. just go to merple.com and click the squiggly thing that says photos.

oh - we also finished the 7th Harry Potter book and are almost done with Deadwood. it's hard to have these things end. they provide really excellent escape. :)

goodnight!

longing for the unknown

i really miss the trip today. it's strange. it's like an ache. I can feel it deep in my body. at first i thought that it was just that i'm tired this morning...and then i thought, 'oh, am i cranky? i think i feel a little cranky....' and then i thought - 'oh right...maybe it's just the cramps...' but no. i got outside and on the bike and i thought, 'oh, what a dim day - maybe it's just the weather...' no. i'm sure there are bits of all those things, but it seems more like a stretching of something inside that's trying to get out and back on the open road. yearning to see what a new day will hold...

you know, for something that was not easy to adapt to for the first couple of days, the trip quickly became one of the most amazing things i've ever done... or been a part of...

maybe it's been the watching of 'Long Way Round'. My mom mentioned it earlier on a post and she was right - fantastic stuff - and not just because ewan mcgregor is in it. ;) he and his best mate, charley boorman, set off from london on two BMW motorcycles and ride east, ultimately through siberia, fly to alaska and then end up in new york. and they both have video cameras. plus one more guy on a motorcycle with a video camera. i highly recommend checking it out - netflix has it. they get into some pretty hairy situations, meet some pretty dodgy people, but seem to keep their senses of humor about 95% of the time, which was really rather impressive. i wish i could say the same about myself, but let me tell you, when i protein crash, oh dear, it's not pretty... :)

amazing freaking day

ok. wow. um....where to start.... in a nutshell, that was one of the most exciting first rehearsals I've ever had... the entire staff at the Magic seems insanely psyched about this show.... bill pullman is psyched to finally be doing the real world premiere after doing many workshops of just parts of the script... the men in the cast are all out from new york, having been a part of this show from the VERY start - back when they were in a theatre MFA program in denver some 4 years ago – and they are psyched to be back and getting a chance to dive into the whole thing.... and the newbie cast members, myself and two other local women are, well, rather psyched about the whole venture. And oh boy - we got a chance to play on the trapezes today for quite some time - they are very different from what I'm used to, but they are FUN!!!! They’ve got wooden bars and and the bar is much thicker and wider and the ropes are totally different. It will be such an adventure. Wheeeeeee…

the most striking thing for me today was the adrenaline rush before... during.... and, well, there's still some left.... I mean, it's always exciting to embark on a theatre show, but i think it's even more exciting to embark on new work… and then add NASA and trapezes and bill pullman and a lot of energetic people to that and it freaking rocks.

I think I'm really putting this down here so that I can remind myself later (or sooner) when it gets really hard and complicated and stressful and emotional and frustrating and ego-deflating, that it was really freaking exciting and inspiring from the start and, well, it still should be... it gets really easy to lose perspective when you are deep into the rehearsal process…

i've been away from theatre for awhile. last theatre show was january. Circus, specifically silk, really took over for about 6 months. What with putting together my first routine and auditioning for the showcase and then preparing for the showcase - it was all a lot of work and a lot of time. And totally amazing. i've told myself that it's what i've wanted (a break from theatre) and i actually think i got it right for once. i don't like the never-ending cycle of jumping from show to show to show that SO many actors feel like they NEED to do in order to be 'ok' with themselves. Personally, I really like getting the work... but I REALLY like time off too.

There was a point on our trip that I had this amazing smack in the gut sensation that what I do is so very trite and unimportant and self-gratifying and I think I articulated it by suddenly saying to dave, ‘ god – I should really do something that matters, like become a naturalist.’ And he basically responded, ‘yeah, you should.’ But you know, as I sat there in that room today and listened to people talk a bit about the importance of what we do in the theatre and our ability to make people feel and connect and think and even change (all things that I have actually said through the years, but sometimes start to forget), I remembered that there is nothing trite and insipid about what we do. you work your ass off. you take it seriously. you really care. even the oldiest moldiest musical can change someone’s life.

wow. cool.

nice little article in playbill about my next gig: here

pretty exciting. :)

what else? well - i'm still mourning the end of the trip. still feeling like the city is dirty. BUT - i'm better able to see it's beauty cracking through as well.... well, today anyway....maybe because it's sunny...

excited to have a chance to catch back up with friends... :)

going to circus center for first time in over a month tomorrow. wish me luck. i did have a few too many ice creams and french fries on this trip, so lifting the whole arwen will be a bit more challenging. ;)

oh and i'm still tired. every day since we've returned...tired.

first band rehearsal in over a month tonight. michael got an accordion. twill be interesting. :)

had a lovely massage with jen weed last night. lots of things were in much better shape, except the neck. the neck is BAD. helmets are heavy, i guess. ouch. poor neck.

the birdies loved their time with MOMWOW. they probably think we suck, since we came back and now they spend all day in their cage. with MOMWOW, they had someone sing to them and talk to them all day long... every day. They even learned new sounds and chirps and tweets. Serafina seems to use them the most. It's pretty neat. good job MOMWOW.

how did it get to be August already?

my dayjob seems really boring to me right now. but ask me about the upcoming administrative reorg....that's pretty intriguing corporate bullshit. I even had to deal with it on my vacation. spent about 5 hours on it during vacation. basically (arika - you are going to LOVE this), um, we have to reapply for the jobs we already have. yeah. go corporate america.