Winter's Tale

Why is Shakespeare still so popular?  It's because he understood the human condition better than anybody before or since.  (Hell, Freud used his characters as models for his own work...that's how human these characters were and continue to be).  In our current political climate, what with a would-be tyrant sitting in the White House splitting up families and accusing everybody who crosses him of lying, there are things in this play that are so current you can't help but marvel at how little we've progressed in 400 years...or in 2000 for that matter.  There is a moment in this play that always gets a laugh.  Whether it is a laugh of recognition, discomfort, or absurdity doesn't matter.  It always gets a response.  I have sent Cleomenes and Dion to Delphos to get the truth from the Oracle of Apollo.  The word of god!  The absolute truth!  They show up during the trial scene with this sealed document, open it up and read it.  It comple...

We had three Winter's Tales all in a row this week.  Starting on Wednesday in La Mirada.  If you aren't sure where La Mirada is, go outside during the day and look up at the giant ball of fire in the sky.  We were there on Wednesday. There was also a really noisy generator too close to the stage and we were fighting with that.  It was a brutal way to start the week.  The show was fine.  Greg had a great insight.  He said, "man, it's too hot out there to do anything but be honest."  No doubt, gregbear.  Thursday we were in Santa Ana.  It was a bit hot, but after we had braved the heat of Mordor, we didn't sweat it.  I love doing the show in Santa Ana.  Something completely unexpected will always happen...so I guess I expect that, but not what it will be.  This time, somebody snuck backstage and stole Bohemia Bob's bottle of wine and a fake flower. We have this jug of Chianti that has been cooking in our truck for two mon...

We've hit that point in the summer when life is just hot.  These are the dog days of tour.  We are challenged daily.  The challenges we meet as best we can.  This week on tour for "The Winter's Tale" was a tale of two cities as we hit South Pasadena and Long Beach. It was the best of times in South Pas!  It was way too hot, but hey it's Pasadena in July.  The show was the best it has ever been.  Everybody was killing it!  Justin filled in for Cy beautifully.  He brings a different energy to Autolocus.  Cy is great.  Justin is great.  It's fun to watch them both do their thing.  I had so many friends turn up in the crowd.  Including some of the best actors I've had the pleasure of working with.  There's something special in the air when you are performing for peers and those you admire.  It's not that you try harder, or want it more.  But you kind of do.  And to have them, the people I admire grea...

First week of tour is done (for Winter's Tale only folks...suck it Merry Wives and double cast people...no don't suck it...I love you all).  Man oh man, all the new folk sure got a crash course in what this is all about this week.  Wednesday we were in one of our favorite places...Hermosa. (That's Spanish for beautiful).  I can tell you that the set build was not hermosa.  It was muy, muy mal hermosa.  (I don't speak Spanish, so I hope I didn't just offend anyone there).   Although we love Hermosa Beach-- and we do, (The audiences we get there are so great!  The park is beautiful!  Because of performing SBTS in Hermosa, Dency came into our lives.  And we love Dency.  He is another person that I want to be when I grow up and he is on our board now and he hits the streets to raise money to make this happen.  He's a great dude), we do not love the hill we have to walk down with huge set pieces.  And being our first tour stop ...

Our initial home run at Pt. Fermin in San Pedro is done.  Saturday night we loaded everything (somehow miraculously) into the Penske and hit the road.  Merry Wives had their first tour stop Sunday night (but it wasn't one of the ones I am doing, so to hell with them).  Just kidding, I was following all of them on IG and FB to make sure all was well.  However, if you want to see me in Merry Wives you have two chances remaining.  Thursday in Hermosa and Sunday in Rossmoor.  Although, if you want to see a great Dr. Caius, see it literally any other night, because BJ is genius. Thursday night, both Allie and I were sick as dogs.  Also the wind was not messing around.  Plus lots of (after) 4th fireworks.  So, remember last week when I lamented that we never get everybody at their best, with audience at rapt attention?  Yeah, well...  But despite all of that, we had a good show.  I can't overstate how good this show is.  I kno...

Our third week of performances is already under our belts.  We had some interesting challenges this week, which always rally the troops to come together to perform better...except when they don't and just break you.  But we are not broken. We are tough. We had understudies for both shows this week.  Justin went on as Autolocus and Robbie as Polixenes, and both of them were great.  Then I went on as Dr. Caius and it went better than expected. There were lots of distractions on Friday night during Winter's Tale.  During the trial scene there was a scene happening between two screaming people fighting about a stolen baby.  It was quite intense.  There were also fireworks.  And a pesky motorcycle rider really wanted everybody to know how cool he was as he kept zooming back and forth near the park.  But this did not break us. We are actors!  Overcoming obstacles is part of our job description.  Often times when we are sick or tired...