Superstition

I am still feeling a little odd about our opening on Tuesday.

I think I did divorce myself pretty much entirely from the producer/director bag while I was doing the show, and was there only as the actor playing Hamlet - in fact, I even left the theatre for a few minutes to catch my breath and not think about the show, but just my part in it, at the beginning of (our) Act II, specifically trying to be an actor and not a director -- this is also the point in the show where the actor playing Hamlet gets a (comparatively) sizable rest, which I think of as the "Burbage Break." I can just imagine Richard Burbage complaining to Shakespeare, "Christ, Bill, I've been going full blast for an hour now, can't you send me off to England or something for an act, have Ophelia go mad and kill herself, and give Armin some funny business in the graveyard before her funeral to kill some time? I really need a pint and some food after all that hugger-mugger before I come back on for the killing." Bill's an immensely practical playwright when you're dealing with him from the inside.

I think I did okay as an actor. I wasn't bad at all, but I can be better, easily. It was the first time I ever felt really good about the "rogue and peasant slave" speech, which suddenly took flight for me. I felt I had the manic, crazed side of the whole character down really well, but I lost a bit of the stiff preppy prig I've been working so hard on. But not bad. In my nervousness, I went up on a few words and/or lines that I never have before, but I didn't stumble, plowed on, and got through it.

But as a result of my concentration, I don't have much of a sense as to how the whole show actually went, or how the audience took it. We started late (very late) and ran long, it was damned hot in the theatre, there were some especially shaky moments at the start of the show, and it seemed to take them a while to warm up, but there was a point where I suddenly felt, "Okay, I've got 'em." And, eventually, the laughs started coming in the places where they were supposed to (it's hard to judge if people are being affected by the dark, nasty bits, or if they're just tuned out, so laughter - there are LOTS of funny bits in this tragedy - can at least signify engagement). Thankfully, no laughs at all in places where they're not supposed to be.

But I can't tell really how it went, and I'm not sure how the other actors felt (some were happy and effusive to me, but I'm paranoid, and tend to think they were just trying to cheer me up).


And there are other reasons not for public consumption leading to a more-than-average amount of stress, worry, confusion and depression. Of course, that's part of my normal state post-opening (it gets worse post-run), as all that time and work finally comes out . . . and . . . now what?


In any case, I was brought out of that unpleasantness and into a state of bliss for a time this morning by this video - another one of those "things I saw on TV once years ago and have remembered ever since" items for which I bless YouTube. In this case, a piece of Sesame Street that I remember from the original airing sometime in late '72 or early '73.

I think I still have the 7" single of this I got as a result of this appearance and played over and over on my little plastic turntable. It's still one of my favorite songs (and one of Berit's, too). Here's Mr. Stevie Wonder with "Superstition":

And . . . Now What . . ?

Okay, so Ian W. Hill's Hamlet is open. Still have to work it, make it better, be more ready. Sure.


But then what?


Well, the big thing is figuring out what I'll be doing in The Brick in August, as the primary slot (and possibly others) are all mine. I had a list of shows I wanted to bring back - my two originals, World Gone Wrong and That's What We're Here For, The Mind King by Richard Foreman, which I did as a solo piece, The Hobo Got Too High by Marc Spitz, and the three Chekhov shorts, Sad Clowns On Velvet. So I emailed the 25 actors involved in these shows.

Thus far, 14 responses. It looks like World Gone Wrong will come back as the "main" show - ten members of the original cast of 21 are up for it thus far (including me), and I think I'll have at least four more - if I don't get at least 2/3rds of the original cast, I'm not sure about going ahead with it. Four of them definitely can't do it, but I can deal with that. I'm pretty sure another one can't as well, though he hasn't responded, as he's getting married.

That's What We're Here For will have to wait, though it really needs to come back. Both Berit and one of the cast members have made the point that it deserves a lot more work and going over before opening again, more than we could do before August. Also, I wouldn't have a good number of the original cast members I wrote it for, and that would be harder to deal with here than on other shows.

I will have to get ahold of Marc Spitz to see if he'll let me do Hobo again. I don't think he's very fond of that play, and he may not want it shown again. I hope he lets me do it. It's funny as hell and a good crowd-pleaser, and I want more people to see it.

The Chekhov will have to wait - Peter Brown and I would be up for doing it again, but we need a third actor. I'm not in touch with the original third actor anymore, and the one I wanted to take over for him is unavailable.

Mind King is a hard one for me, but I could probably get it up and running again. I'd like to have it always ready to go, in any case. Good to have a simple 45-minute solo piece standing by at all times.


So, maybe I'll also consider bringing back the other completed parts of the NECROPOLIS series thus far: #3: At the Mountains of Slumberland (after H.P. Lovecraft and Winsor McCay), and #0: Kiss Me, Succubus (after Jess Franco, Radley Metzger, Jean Rollin, et al.).

Those would be a bit of a pain, but there's something attractive about having the four completed NECROPOLIS collage-plays going on at the same time (those two with #1&2: World Gone Wrong/Worth Gun Willed (after film noir)).

Then I could start thinking about a smaller way to do #4: Green River (after road pictures and long-form music videos). As written, Green River would require a giant stage with a fly system. Not gonna happen anytime soon, so, how to scale it down? Also, I'd have to rethink it for new actors, as it was dream-envisioned to star Yuri Lowenthal (now in L.A.) and Jennifer Clark (now out of acting). Actually, Matt Gray and Dina Rivera might work well in it, and it'd be nice to have a real couple as the onstage couple (the female part needs a trained dancer, too). Anyway, that's a while off no matter what.


Okay, back to Hamlet. Gotta do some work - tonight we're going into The Brick after the last show to prepare things better for the quick changeover between shows so we don't start late again (Tuesday was terrible that way - we had a crucial part of the set delivered to us, several days late already, by UPS at 7.05 pm for an 8.30 curtain, then had to rush to the theatre, getting stuck in bad traffic, and put the whole furshlugginer mess together as fast as we could, which wasn't fast enough, really).

But first, I have to go get better cleaning supplies to clean up the blood we leave behind the show (we haven't had proper cleanser, sponges, or brushes at the space), then go soak in a tub and run my lines again and again and again.


Tomorrow looks to be a big night for Ian W. Hill's Hamlet, housewise, and especially for friends and family of yours truly. I have the feeling it'll look like Joe Gideon's final number in All That Jazz for me out there, though hopefully without the same ending. I'm feeling oddly confident and calm and expectant now, but I'd better give myself some good reason to feel thus.