Things Done or To Do

Yesterday, my body finally gave out for a while. It was about time. Since the show on Friday, I'd still pretty much been going and going in my waking hours, so I guess I needed it. Still do. Still on the downward slide right now.

This happens with some shows I'm in/performances I give. Even 15 years ago, when I played Marlowe's Faustus, I'd spend half of the next day in bed recovering, even more than with Hamlet, though I was much younger, lighter, and in better shape (Faustus was actually a more demanding role than Hamlet). I dunno. I'm better at not knocking myself out quite so much onstage as I used to be, but I still need to keep working at being in the shape to handle this with actual strength rather than adrenalin.


Again, the show went great on Friday, and we had a great, friendly house. A couple of old friends of mine, Sean Rockoff and Julie Bennack, came to see it, and we had a good talk about the show afterward (and since then, by email) where they made it clear that they got everything I was trying to do with the show, which always feels good. Sean may even come back and see it again, which means he really dug it, so good on me.


Saturday was my birthday, so I got birthday wishes by phone from the various groups of family, then B&I were off at Daniel McKleinfeld & Maggie Cino's yearly birthday bash/cookout at Daniel's - originally a B-day party for the two of them, now expanded to all of us June babies. We were there from something like 4 pm to 1 am, and the party extended back a couple of hours from that each way. Most members of the cast of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet made appearances, as well as most other members of this little tight-knit corner of Indie Theatre, at some point in the afternoon/evening (as well as rezendi, who's a friend of Maggie's).

Maggie (who's in the show) insisted that I had to talk to another friend of ours who saw the show on Friday, Robert Ooghe, about it, and I spent quite a while happily listening to Robert tell me everything he got from the show, which was EXACTLY everything I WANTED anyone to get from the show, right down the line, without me having to say anything. Now, that's a way to make me happy - give me an audience member who knew nothing about the show going in, who enjoyed it, and "got" it, without me having to hit them over the head with anything. Happy birthday.

So, good party, good food, good drinks, good company.


Sunday, off to Ossining to see my father and stepmother and her mother and stepfather for Father's Day, Dad & Ivy's anniversary, and Berit's and my birthdays again. Another good party, good food, good drinks, good company. Home again, very tired.


Yesterday, over to The Brick to releg two of the platforms from Ian W. Hill's Hamlet for Q1: The Bad Hamlet. They wanted to use two of my three platforms, but at different heights (I have all mine at 2', they wanted one at 8" and one at 18"), so I made up different legs to put on - in return, I get to use their coffin and skull. I tried to make up the legs as interchangeable, ready to be bolted off and on easily, but it wound up being difficult to make the legs all work that way, so I'm just screwing them off and on. Actually wound up being easier than anticipated, even with having to paint the legs for them to match the platform tops (we use a fabric masking around them for our Hamlet).

Came home, meant to sleep (felt like I had to) and instead wound up watching John Boorman's Point Blank and Richard Lester's Petulia (photographed by Nicolas Roeg), which are a perfect and amazing double-bill of Brit New Wave directors working in the USA in the late '60s (even sharing a number of San Francisco locations). I was going to move on to Roeg and Donald Cammell's Performance, for a perfect stylistic trilogy, but Berit wanted to play Guitar Hero on the PS2, and I couldn't stay awake anyway.


So, today, lounging about in a dazed haze. Everything seems to take too much effort. Picking up a cup of coffee. Typing (this has taken me over four hours to get together). I thought I had to work at The Brick tonight, but no, I checked the sked and it's tomorrow I'm on from 6-11 pm, so today, lying back with relaxing film -- I've got Performance going right now, and will follow it with Roeg's Bad Timing, and then Godard's Masculin Feminin and Tout Va Bien.

Danny Bowes once had a laugh at my expense when I mentioned on here that I was having a special "relaxing-at-home" day with a Jean-Luc Godard film festival -- he said that I needed a lesson in how to actually "relax." Well, this is relaxing for me. Actually, now that I've realized I don't have to be at The Brick tonight, maybe I'll throw in The Man Who Fell To Earth, and Contempt for that all day and night, dreamy, non-linear narrative state of mind . . .


Then, things to do the next few days. I've decided that the best plan for the shows to do at The Brick in August would be to bring back the entire NECROPOLIS series to date: NECROPOLIS 1&2: World Gone Wrong/Worth Gun Willed plus NECROPOLIS 0: Kiss Me Succubus and NECROPOLIS 3: At the Mountains of Slumberland, both short pieces, as a double bill. These would alternate as the "main" shows, with late shows (and possibly matinees) of the also short The Hobo Got Too High by Marc Spitz, if Marc will let me do it. Plus I want to get a few more performances of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet in, if possible.

So, I have to check again with the cast of Ian W. Hill's Hamlet about their July availability.

Check with Actors Equity about what I'll be allowed to do, and within what time period, as far as an extension.

Check with Marc about Hobo.

Check in with the 10 members of the cast of 21 on World Gone Wrong who have said they can and want to do it again, recheck with the 7 company members who haven't responded, and recast the 4 people who definitely can't do it.

Check in with the people still around from the other NECROPOLIS shows if they're interested and available, and recast the parts where they aren't.

Fix up the apartment, which is a hellhole, as usual during production of a show. Worse now, as I now have an secondary A/V system lying around in pieces all over the place (given to me by my brother as he's got a new one), including a huge 35" Sony Trinitron in the middle of "the living room," all of which needs to be arranged somehow, especially before my mother comes next week to see the show and will be staying with us (a good excuse to be forced to clean up).


But that's tomorrow. For now, I'll sit back and enjoy The Man Who Fell to Earth and other states of mind.


Oh, and some amusement courtesy of a link from sarahlangan, my answer from The Classic Leading Man Test (and I do have more than enough ego to say . . . yeah, seems about right . . .):

Your Score: Humphrey Bogart

You scored 45% Tough, 4% Roguish, 38% Friendly, and 14% Charming!

You're the original man of honor, rough and tough but willing to stick your neck out when you need to, despite what you might say to the contrary. You're a complex character full of spit and vinegar, but with a soft heart and a tender streak that you try to hide. There's usually a complicated dame in the picture, someone who sees the real you behind all the tough talk and can dish it out as well as you can. You're not easy to get next to, but when you find the right partner, you're caring and loyal to a fault. A big fault. But you take it on the chin and move on, nursing your pain inside and maintaining your armor...until the next dame walks in. Or possibly the same dame, and of all the gin joints in all the world, it had to be yours. Co-stars include Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall, hot chicks with problems.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I'll tell you this - the only performance that makes it -- that really makes it - that makes it all the way - is the one that achieves madness, right? Am I right? You with me?