CityWOOF

I’m getting ready to do the Portland city-wide auditions. I’ve never done them before, but apparently all the theatre companies in this area send an auditor to these auditions and actors like myself get a chance to perform for a bunch of different directors all at the same time. You get 3 minutes to do 2 contrasting monologues. I’m doing mine from THE BOYS IN THE BAND and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

I’m pretty terrified of doing monologues…had a horrible experience in a play a long time ago, where I “went up” (meaning forgot) my speech on opening night…and the playwright was in the audience. I have really never gotten back on that horse.

But I’ve got two good speechs prepared and am going to pay for some private coaching to get these performance-ready.

Here I am, 40-something, and finally deciding to get really serious about trying to become a real, working actor. Most people do this in their 20’s. But everyone always says it’s never too late to go for your dreams…you hear platitudes like that all the time.

The auditions aren’t until the end of February, so I think there’s a fair amount of time left to get ready…

We are having a couple of very nice snow days here in Portland. The city is pretty well shut down and everything is covered in ice and snow. I haven’t left the house, except to take the dog out.

I really should be cleaning…

Tonight at acting class a young, beautiful college girl told me, during our Meisner exercise, that I am…

“Creepy”

Ouch! That really hurt…I certainly never thought anybody ever percieved me as being “Creepy”. Well, we were involved in an intense exercise where you are supposed to be honest and real in the moment, and provoke an emotional response from the other person. And I was leaning forward with my eyes sort of bugged out at her. I guess that would be creepy to a young pretty college girl. After all, I probably seem ancient to her at 43.

The whole class if full of young college-age kids. I am by far the oldest one there. Same thing with the “Charley” cast - The chorus are all young guys and girls. Wonder if they find me “creepy” too.

Time for a list:

TEN PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT GROSSED OUT BY CITYWOOF OR FIND HIM CREEPY

1) My mother (at least I don’t think so)
2) Steven
3) Kelly/Branch
4) The volunteers at Esther’s
5) My dog (Ok, he’s not a person)
6) My sister (that’s probably a lie)
7) Kevin/Dave/Allen and those folks at FPWA
My beautiful fuckbuddy Michael (He finds me the opposite of creepy!)
9) My niece
10)Danielle

Now my challenge is going to be to not go around and ask people I know (or don’t know - believe me I would do it), “Do you think I’m creepy?”

Well, I never intended to take a month off from blogging. I went to Sacramento for Christmas to visit the family, and couldn’t blog there, so…just fell out of my routine, I guess.

Here’s what’s been going on.

CHARLEY
Friday night was opening night for “Where’s Charley?”, the 1948 Frank Loesser musical based on the play “Charley’s Aunt”. The opening went well, and the two audiences that have seen the show so far seem to have enjoyed it. It’s funny, frothy, with an enjoyable score and a really good performance by Alan Anderson as Charley. That man works hard onstage, he’s doing a great job in a really taxing role.

MY LEFT FOOT
The arch of my left foot has collapsed, and I have a pretty bad case of tendonitis there. Walking is very painful, and I cannot walk without a lot of pain. I have custom orthotics in my shoes now, but they have not helped much. On Thursday, I had a cortisone shot in my foot, as a temporary pain relief measure, and it is helping somewhat. Since I have to stay off my foot in order to save it for the show, I have been unable to get around the apartment and clean. My apartment is a nightmare mess these days. There is some discussion about surgery on the tendons of my left foot, as soon as the show is over.

MEISNER CLASS
I’m in an acting class, studying the Sanford Meisner technique. The basis of Meisner is a “repetition exercise” and those of us in the class have been paired up in order to get together outside of class to practice this exercise. It’s a really difficult thing to learn and understand…and it gets really wierd doing this. But I’m plugging away at it. I have this new ambition to become a really good actor, and expand my theatrical horizons.

SO…that’s all the real news for now. I’m in kind of a weird place at the beginning of 2007. Wanting to make lots of changes in my life, but not sure why. But everything is fine. I need to get this nasty apartment clean, now that I have some relief from this foot pain.

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