Day 24 of 33

I'm behind again, forgive me. In addition to it being tech week, the NFL is back and mad roster realignments have taken up the majority of my internet time.

On Wednesday we had our second 10 out of 12. We were able to run the show twice, do notes in between, and still have a photo call at the end of the day. It was fantastic to see the difference in the two runs with the notes. You don't always get progress like that, and we appear to be way ahead of the curve.



I have moved into leftovers mode on the food front, because I really can't take food home with me and I need to finish off what I have. Most of my meals today consisted of variations of rice, corn, and figs. They may need to fumigate this apartment after I leave.

Day 23 of 33

More technical rehearsals today.

We had a 10 out of 12 today, which means we can work 10 hours of a 12 hour period (we took a 2 hour dinner). In that time, we managed to finish teching the show, including a very complicated scene in Act 2.

I often find myself in one of two working conditions in the theatre:
1. I am given meticulous details on what to do, to the point where I feel as if nobody trusts me to do anything myself.
2. I am given almost nothing to do, to the point where I worry I'm not doing something that everyone expects I should be doing.
In this case, I find myself in the latter. I am mostly left to my own devices, with the exception of occasionally jotting down a note. Perhaps I should volunteer more ideas, but I don't want to interrupt or go beyond my bounds. Also, I find it very interesting just to take everything in. I figure nobody can be too upset with me, since they aren't really paying me anything, but I wish I could actually make some impressions.

Well... another 10 hours tomorrow!

Day 22 of 33

Oh gosh, I've hit the last third of my time here in San Diego. Fortunately, I think I have already done and seen so much, there's not much more I feel I absolutely MUST fit in. Hopefully I can find some time to see some friends from LA, but that may be a stretch.

Today was my day off. Instead of going on some grand adventure, I spent the day trying to line up work for when I get back. I played some smart moves so I think I can go back to the jobs I left... but I'd rather not have to do that. I realized how few people I actually know in high enough places to get me some jobs. I started emailing people I did not know, because I figured only good things can come of it.

In the afternoon, I went to see a reading of a developing play by John Cariani called Last Gas. John is one of the actors in the festival shows (and very good, at that) and is the author of one of the most popular plays among regional and summer stock companies in Almost, Maine. Henry, the director of Shaw was directing the reading, and a couple of actors in shows from The Old Globe acted in it. Note: the picture is not THE reading, just A reading for clarification of what a reading looks like.

I found out that Alex had actually seen this same play in a previous incarnation when it was staged at Portland Stage in Maine. I talked to John briefly after the reading and he said that, because he had already seen a staged production, he could not stand seeing a reading of it. I think everyone in the room really enjoyed the show, though.

It reminds me that I really want to work on developing some new shows. I wish I had a great venue in New York that was willing to just give up a room to have a reading in.

I had some more adventures in cooking last night, as well. When I first went to Nebraska and ordered tacos, I was surprised to find them not in a shell, but laid out on what I called corn latkas. Well, I tried making my own corn tortillas and discovered why. It was extremely difficult to roll out the corn flour into small pancakes, and then to try and transfer these to the frying pan to solidify. I made quite a mess on the stovetop here. Fortunately, I'll be leaving soon so I probably don't need to clean it up. Long story short, making nice tortillas for soft tacos was not in the books.

I then took some sliced garlic and threw it in a pan with some oil and lime juice, then threw in some shredded chicken to get it to a nice brown. Right before taking it off the heat, I gave it a little sip of corona.

The final product looked like this. We've got the corn latka topped with the chicken. On top of that is some home made guacamole (Yes, I finally made some!), some diced tomatoes and tomatillos, and cheese. Delicious.

Day 21 of 33

We started technical rehearsals today. Apart from one scene in the second Act, it is not a technically difficult show, so we managed to get clear through the first Act today.

I felt that I was able to provide some help today, which was great. With everything going on, the director would occasionally ask me to relay some notes. Also, I have a good relationship with the playwright, so I would go back and forth between the two and try to keep everything going smoothly.

I tried to snap a couple pictures of the theatre and backstage, but only when I was alone, so as not to reveal myself as starry-eyed. This is one of the hallways around the theatre. Immaculate except a few boxes scattered around. Apparently this theatre is very new, perhaps only 2 years old or so.

It was fun to work in a professional atmosphere with professional designers, because I think I don't often conceive of what could be possible, as opposed to what we get stuck with on the summer stock and off-Broadway circuit. Although the show is very simple, we have some fairly complex technical elements during transitions that are very nice and beat the heck out of a blackout.

Generally it is frowned upon to take pictures of the set outside of publicity, because it is considered the property of the designer. Since I'm pretty sure the readership of this blog is limited to my parents, I felt it was probably safe.

I may not have mentioned this before, but we are actually working in the round. This offers a unique set of obstacles and I'm glad to have the opportunity to assist on a show in the round before doing it myself.

I went home for dinner break, and got ready to come back for that night's session. There was supposed to be a shuttle that picked us up at our housing at night and brought us all over to the theater, so we don't walk through the park at night. However, the pickup time came and went and there was no bus nor anyone waiting for it. I jumped on my bike and sped back to the theatre (I'm pretty fast, so it was not an issue).

I discovered that Hershey Felder, who was doing a show in another theater in the complex and I mentioned earlier, had sprung on dinner for everyone! There was a huge spread in the green room with pastas, dips, salads, and deserts. All the actors decided to hang out and get free food at the theatre instead of heading back. The stage manager then thought they should cancel the shuttle since nobody would be taking it. Apparently, I went forgotten in all these proceedings - Womp Womp Womp...

Well tomorrow is a day off. I think I need to spend some time on my career instead of leveling up my Petilil on my illegal Pokemon game. Where would I like to be n 5 years? I'd like to not be forgotten!

Day 20 of 33

We go into tech rehearsals tomorrow, so we took another easy day in rehearsal. It is rather unconventional to begin tech at the end of the week, because it can be a grueling process, but that is how everything lined up for us. Today was our last day by ourselves in the rehearsal space, so we simply did some scenework and then ran the play again. Again, everyone reiterates that it seems to be in very good shape.

I've grown increasingly frustrated with my position in my career. Not in regards to the process out here, which I am enjoying tremendously, but with the realization that I have nothing to come back to. I now have a great Assistant Director credit to add to my resume, but it only gets me so far. I started to apply for a directing fellowship for new directors, but they want a reference from a theatre professional who can evaluate my directing. I can come up with something, maybe, but it would be a stretch.

If I had done work that a "theatre professional" had seen, and I felt it was good enough to be critiqued, then what would I need a new directors fellowship for? Wouldn't that make me a theatre professional?

It is frustrating because there is no good track to get where I want to go. There are no entry level jobs in directing, and I find myself playing the endless game of Chicken-and-Egg (you know, which one comes first?).

As I go through the business, I find more and more people connected with the Yale Drama Program. When I went out with the director and designers the other day (who had all gone to Yale) I mentioned that I was looking into the program. The Lighting Designer responded "For Directing, where else is there?". He was being completely honest with this question and not facetious. There are a couple of other good programs, but that question really shows how important a degree from Yale is.

Now I feel like I need to rush to build enough credits and references just to be able to apply to Yale in December. Their website says they want my resume to show at least two years of professional directing outside of college. If I had two years of professional directing, what the hell would I need graduate school for?! However, I worked with a director at Shakespeare Theatre of NJ who got into Yale Directing program directly out of college, so I'm not sure how strict they are with that and how much they just put that to scare people off.

It just continues to overwhelm me that it should be so difficult for me. I know that I am smart enough, talented enough, and hard-working enough to work as a director. I have to know that in my heart or I can't go on. I just can't get there fast enough.

Day 19 of 33

Today was a pretty interesting day. As I mentioned, we had our designer run-through today. It looked like the show was in great shape. I took some sparse notes, and the past couple days I have felt my notes have been on point and I'm on the same page as the director. I am looking forward to tech rehearsals on Thursday and possibly having some more to do.

After rehearsal we had some meetings to attend with tech staff and designers, and then we grabbed a drink with the lighting designer.

I went to see "Amadeus" tonight, the final show playing in rep at the Festival Stage. It is a fabricated story based on the rumor that Salieri had poisoned Mozart. I thought it was very well done and well acted and I had a lot of fun.

Sorry, no grand musings or funny pictures tonight.

Day 18 of 33

When Marketing Initiatives Backfire!

More on that in a moment. I had a fun day today. We had another good rehearsal and are homing in on tech rehearsals. The designers come to watch a run tomorrow and we get into the theater on Sunday. Generally, tech is crazy, but I have a feeling this one won't be so bad.

After rehearsal, I went back to the San Diego Museum of Art, where they had an exhibit of Spanish master painters called From Greco to Dali. I learned a decent amount about Spanish painters in my High School Spanish classes (Kudos, Senora!), so I was interested in going.

It was a nice exhibit, and just my size. It was very interesting to see the distinct change from the early religious styles to realistic to surrealistic. I thought it would have been such a nice finishing touch to the exhibit if they could have tied in local art that perhaps tied back to Spanish influences.

I headed home for dinner and to run some lines with a cast member. However, I began to hear the call of the nerds. The Comic Con opened today and, while I really have no interest in most comics or superheroes, the gravitational pull of so many nerds in one place pulled me in. I hopped on my bike and sped downtown. The highlight of my night was going to be a free performance from Cirque du Soleil on the side of Petco Park, the baseball stadium.

I had a great time at Comic Con. The people-watching alone was worth the trip. Most events were reserved for people with badges or tickets, but there were some fun things to do. One of my first stops was into the faux-museum set up by Conan O'Brien featuring all the fan art for his comic persona, The Flaming C. Literally, they managed to fill an entire store with fan art, and gave out food and swag to boot.


Many of the restaurants had been taken over by tv networks or companies. One of the pictures above is at the "Cowboys and Aliens" Saloon, named for the upcoming movie. The SyFy channel took over the Hard Rock Cafe and turned it into the CafeDiem from Eureka.

I found two more temporary exhibits that must have taken over empty storefronts or warehouses. One was for Monstergeddon, a superhero themed Monster truck show. They were showing off some of their cars and selling tickets for their next show, coming to San Diego. Most importantly, I found the SEGA Arcade. They had an entire club littered with gaming systems to promote their upcoming games. True to their word, many of the games had an arcade feel to them. I tried playing a handheld game, and then a destruction game for XBox. The Highlight, though, was a new hands free Zombie Slasher that they were featuring in its own private room. The game used the Microsoft Kinect hardware so that you use no remotes, but stand and control your character as you bash and slice hordes of zombies. I found it sort of frustrating. It might take time to get used to, or it might need some tweaking.

I walked around for a little more, but we were getting close to the Cirque show. In my limited experience with Cirque shows, I knew they were better with a buzz. I downed a beer at a hopping outdoor bar, and headed to the ballpark. People were already taken seat in the prime real estate, so I found a comfy piece of pavement and waited out the next 25 minutes.

The audience counted down the final ten seconds and then grew completely silent in anticipation. The show started amid cheers, but then they apparently had some technical difficulties with the sound. They played around for a minute or so, with a mostly supportive crowd (it was free, after all) and then got it up and running.

They performed a fight between about 10 characters running up and down a wall, although it seemed like you had an aerial view of the fight. There were only 2 live characters, though, and the rest were being projected. In my opinion, I thought it was OK at best, but I understood their real performance was in Vegas and they were lacking some. The fight came to a close and everyone got ready for the next scene.

Instead, we were greeted with a sign that read "See the rest of the show at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas". The entirety of the show, INCLUDING technical difficulties, was 7 minutes. A roar went up from the crowd and people started booing the performance. They had built up this performance, and people like me found themselves waiting for over 3 times longer than the show lasted.

When marketing your event, it's important not to show too much to give away, but to show enough to get people interested. A good show may have sold tickets. This definitely did not. Bad move.