Today’s Theme: Water

The opening of King Lear at Riverside Shakespeare Festival was rained out. It is a first in the seven or eight year history of the company. Not to worry, the opening night party continued apace with a substantially early start.

More importantly, the home front sprung a leak! As usual I had worked furiously during the day doing all the noisy carpentry stuff (which is done, save a final piece of baseboard molding that goes on after the floors are refinished) and had painted the trim in the kitchen, only to reward myself around 7 pm with hoisting the fridge into place, plugging it in and hooking up the water line for the ice maker.

I know it’s silly but I have been filling ice trays for twenty plus years here in the big apple because one hardly runs into an apartment equipped with a small copper tubing that transfers cold water to the fridge. Seemingly standard with suburban living, it is still rare in the city. So for me, it was going to be a moment of triumph. Ice without fuss.

Long story short, it was leaking at the connections from the get go. I fixed one end and was about to attend to the other when a spray erupted behind the fridge. The copper tubing had been bent into a kink that split. I shut the water off and realized reluctantly that working on the thing past 8pm was not sane. Tomorrow I will have a working ice maker by the end of the day or I will burn the place to the ground. It’s just something I want, okay?

What is it about movers?

I stupidly filled out an online form that promised to get quotes from movers. I have been inundated with phone calls and emails from all sorts of places. Quite a competitive field apparently. I’m still reserving the right to do it ourselves which looks to be about 40% less, but we’ll see.

The Folk At Riverside Shakespeare Festival

Riverside Shakespeare Festival is just about to open it's second offering this season, King Lear. It's directed by a dear friend and the title role is being inhabited by another dear friend. Oh yeah, and my wife is playing one of the evil daughters.

Anyone who is within a 100 mile radius of Iowa City, Iowa has no excuse. Get in the car/train/bus, go see it and catch Merry Wives too.

A Bad Bloggers Rapid Update

I have no pictures because the camera is in Iowa!

Today ended in what was to be a glorious moment, the installation of the new stove. I got it up into the kitchen via a make-shift ramp, hooked it up with the gas line and plugged it in, and I positioned it so as to slide it into place. It didn’t fit!! A quick check of the measurements left me wondering how a fairly methodical and accurate guy like me could have failed to realize that the counter top had squeezed what was to be a 30” opening down to 29 7/8”. Disaster! What to do? Get a new stove? Smash the granite counter top with a hammer? Sell the apartment as is? I remained calm and realized that with a quick yank, I could separate the countertop from it’s cabinetry to the right of the stove. I then cut a groove in the wallboard that would allow the counter top to be pushed inside the wall. All I needed was an eighth of an inch. Thankfully it worked and the stove has been installed. It was a dark ten minutes.

The cork floor was glued down yesterday. Note to self. When going to pick up an item called a “hundred pound roller” from a tool rental place in midtown, remember that they named it so for a reason. My brain (which has been shut down for weeks) failed to realize that returning via subway with a tool that weighs what its name suggests is a foolhardy plan. And so I took a cab, hoisting this ugly, heavy tool into the trunk. I returned it with the help of my car, and am still not convinced that I even needed it.

Painting is underway. Substitute colors for the sublet. When we return from Ohio I will endeavor to paint the place properly. By then I should rested enough to view it as fun.

The floors are to be sanded a week from today! Gotta hustle.

INTRUDERS!!!

My youngest brother and his new bride drove into NYC and stayed with me in the apartment one night. It was great that they could make it down but it left me in the position of having the place seen before it is perfect. This problem is mirrored in my approach to acting by the way. My fellow thespians who willing accept less than perfect as just fine are generally much happier than I. I’m learning to accept small imperfections and, as the apartment will support, the challenges of remodeling are helping me with that lesson.

The young bro and wife/partner/spouse (we can’t really find a good term) gave me a thumbs up and the bathroom even got two “blings” from the female. (Females like nice bathrooms).

The UPS guy is starting to think I’m nuts. I promised him yesterday that it would be finished in three weeks.

I’m starting to think I’m nuts.

Tech

Tech is short for technical rehearsals. By the way, learned something new today. Velcro is short for Velour Crochet, nice huh?

We ‘teched’ 9 to 5 yesterday and today for a ninety minute intermission-less piece. Technical rehearsals are the series of rehearsals where the technical elements are integrated with what has been happening in a rehearsal hall for weeks. The set is up, the lights are hung, the ‘real’ props are present, along with sound, costumes and special effects.

My wife asked me today what in the sam hell we had to tech with this production of Greedy. Here’s a partial list: Moving scenery, scene shifts with furniture and rolling units moving this way and that, multiple drips from various spots in the ceiling, constantly dripping into pails; an actor shot-gunning a beer; an actor taking blood from another actor; a breast pump attached to an actor which produces a trickle of milk; an actor throwing three punches to the face of another actor, producing a bloody lip, an actor wrapping another actors head with saran wrap and leaving it in place for more than 70 seconds. Plus the usual lights, sound, quick costume changes etc.

As an actor, tech rehearsals can be horribly tedious. Stopping while the lighting designer writes a cue, that type of thing. For my money the opera world does much better with this part of building a production. Granted, there is much less “interfacing” with the technical elements and the diva, (stride to center stage and sing) but the technical folks spend hours by themselves with stand-ins building cues, working out scene changes and everything else they can think of before they call in Domingo or Battle or Hampson. “Miss Von Stade, would you mind standing in your light while we work on this cue?” Would never happen. Not in a million years.

As a stage manager, which I once was, techs are loads of fun. Finally, after weeks of rehearsals, where you are watching actors fumbling around, indulging themselves in ‘process’ and asking for fresher coffee, you get to strap on the headsets and start calling the shots. As soon as the designers give you all the information about where to place the various cues, it’s your show, baby. Ok, Kathleen Battle is still center stage singing like an angel but you are the one that brought the curtain up, and made the wall move, and turned on the special so she would shine. You were part of it.

I have so many favorite tech stories. Did you know it took two eight hour days to tech the first five minutes of THE WHO’S TOMMY? One very well known director, after watching these dancing curtains flail and stall time after time finally stood up and yelled, “Alright, will someone tell me, without using the word micro-switch, what the hell is supposed to happen here!” Another famous director, after running a transition over and over again, called out to the cast and crew, “Everybody, let’s do this one more time and then we’ll go back”

Sometimes I miss my headset.