Another Project

I'm looking forward to starting work on "Opus," by Michael Hollinger, at the Washington Stage Guild, on Monday. The production will be the DC premiere. Several tense days were had this week, when one of the actors (there are only 5) received and accepted an offer at the much larger Shakespeare Theatre Company, and had to withdraw. At triple the money, his decision was really a no-brainer, but put the Stage Guild into overdrive, in order to replace him before rehearsals begin.

All is well now, as a replacement has been found and rehearsals are set to begin. Bless the Stage Guild for working around my performances of Shear Madness, which are inconveniently scheduled right in the middle of the usual rehearsal day.

Opus is a deceptively simple-looking piece, a depiction of the dynamics of a string quartet struggling with interpersonal issues. The show includes much musical accompaniment to which the actors must learn to mime the movements of a string quartet. So, interspersed with the usual type of rehearsals required for a straight play, we will also be learning how to negotiate our instruments realistically.

Wish me luck with my viola...

A Tony Ending

We're two weeks into the Shear Spring Fling, and each morning I'm waking up with that unlikely mixture of exhaustion and exhilaration that comes only with being In Performance. We have eight shows under our belts, all of the houses populated with a majority of school groups in town on their Class Trip. As a result, the audiences have been raucous but very involved in the Solving of the Murder. The ultimate challenge: to encourage these young audiences to participate, while keeping control of the situation.

What audiences don't know until the final curtain is one of the things which has made the show so successful for so long: when they vote for who they think the murderer is, the cast then plays the rest of the show to reflect their choice. The vast majority of the ballots are cast for the characters of "Barbara," the gum-smacking, wise-cracking hairdresser, or "Eddie," the sleazy antiques dealer. My character, "Tony," is usually perceived as too lovable to commit a crime (except the crime of fashion: I'm wearing pink and white, with Julia Sugarbaker glasses right out of the 80's), so there is very rarely a Tony Ending. In over 200 performances in which I've played Tony over the years, I've been judged the murderer only 3 times.

Until last Thursday, when a group of kids decided Tony was just too fey for his own good, and voted him the murderer. The cast did a terrific job with this unusual scenario (so unusual that we never even rehearsed it together; I was just given the blocking one day, and that was that). There's something to be said for adrenalin (and a sense of underlying panic), and the ending came off well. In fact, I hope I get the chance to play the ending again before the gig is over, as it's great fun turning from the frivolously upbeat hairdresser into the deeply disturbed psycho who stabs the lady upstairs to keep his job.

Alarming News

...on the Musical Theatre front. The only positive spin I can put on this bit of horrifying news is: at least it's not "Cats 2, the Purring Continues..."

Let's see:
"Bring Back Birdie"
"Annie Warbucks"
"Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public"
"Divorce Me, Darling" ("The Boyfriend 2")
"Shock Treatment" ("Rocky Horror Show 2")

... has there ever been a successful sequel to a musical?

I eagerly await other possibilities:

"Jersey Men"

"Beauty and the Beast Go Hawaiian"

...and one really worth waiting for:

"Monday in the Park with George"

Shear Shock

This was the view out the windows of the Kennedy Center's Theatre Lab for much of this week, but the mood inside was anything but gloomy. An enthusiastic group of actors was being led through their paces with verve and just a bit of urgency. The Second Company of Shear Madness was being assembled and rehearsed, under what must be considered complicated circumstances. But Shear has been doing this for almost 20 years, so somebody knows what they are doing.

The actors all have varying degrees of experience with the Madness, and were in fact rehearsed semi-separately due to the requirements of the ongoing production, which played 9 performances this week.

Our cast includes:

One undisputed veteran of the show, playing the sleazy antiques dealer. Mark fits the role like a glove. He must have played the part a thousand times or more, so we only saw him twice this week. He doesn't need the rehearsal.

One semi-vet, playing the lead detective on the case. Matt has been with Shear off and on for many years, playing three of the four male roles many, many times. He has surely worked his way up from the young cop to the role of Rosetti, who runs the investigation (and the audience participatory parts of the show).

Two actors new to the production, playing the young detective and the society grande dame. Matthew and Catie both rehearsed last month, and joined the evening company for two weeks to get their feet wet with 8 (or 9) shows a week. As they have both been performing in the evenings, we saw them only twice this week.

One brand new actress, playing the gum-smacking Barbara. Tiernan went through the challenging process of rehearsing a week all by herself, with director Bobby and stage manager Robert playing all the other roles. It's guerrilla theatre, necessitating absorption of the entire show in 6 days. I know exactly what she went through, as my first engagement with the Madness years ago was rehearsed in the same way, by myself, with no other cast members available to play with.

Oh, and we have one actor who should have remembered much more than he does, from his two previous stints with the show. That would be me. I joined Tiernan and Matt in rehearsal this week, and was surprised at how little of the previous experiences had stuck with me. But director Bobby pressed on, and as we moved through the show, moment by moment, beat by beat, and bit by bit, the thing has begun to take shape. We won't know for sure until Monday night's opening performance, but from where I'm sitting, this looks to be a comically talented group of very smart actors who know what they are about.

The fact that all six of us will be together to run the show only once, on Monday afternoon, gives only minor trepidation. This show runs like a Swiss clock when it's done right, and all of us are determined that on Monday, it will be right.

Diving In

It's long been said, "If you want to make an actor complain, give him a job." I hope I am not one of those. I'm looking forward with great anticipation to the next several months of work, the first of 2007, actually.

My rehearsals for "Shear Madness" begin tomorrow, and end on Monday. Yep, only a week's worth, but surely enough for a returning actor. The "Second Company" opens Monday night, and will run roughly four shows a week through June 21. It looks to be a very fun group this time out, including several actors I've worked with in the past on other projects. Always fun to reconnect.

Once "Shear" is up and running, I'll be starting rehearsal for "Opus" at the Washington Stage Guild. Very very excited about this production, a DC premiere directed by my grad school buddy Steve Carpenter. So, I'll be in rehearsal, or performance, or BOTH, every day from now until the end of June.

But believe me, I'm NOT complaining...

Who needs a day off from doing what you love?

out the window

Gotta admit: I'm a sucker for the snow.

Rejoining the Madness

Popped down to KenCen for a photo call for "Shear Madness," which I will be rejoining for the spring daytime company (actually, three days and one night per week). I'm sure I will be blogging more about the Madness that is Shear, a production I have been privileged to participate in a couple of times over the years.

For today, the task at hand was snapping pix of the actors, in character, for the lobby display. I was very glad to be present, as the picture previously used for me in the show resembles neither man nor beast. It was fun meeting the newbies who will be learning the show from scratch, and especially hoot-full to be working with Catie Flye, who directed me in "Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush" at Arena many moons ago.

Rejoining the show will be the first in a series of very nice gigs scheduled for the coming months. 007 is looking up!