I'm 90% memorized...  that 90% is 50% shakey but I am 100% sure that I'll have the other 10% down soon.  I memorize in 3 main ways:

1. Repetition at rehearsal.  Even at auditions.  The more I run a scene, the better I know it.

what is the source of this (joy,freedom,exhilaration)? for if it leaves my job is to find it - if it grows stale I must be able to re-fresh it. Does it come from 'shrugging off the mortal coil' or caring for no-one but myself or being in such a lovely womb of creation or  HER balm of words, words, words. For now and future - amoral,immoral - mortal, immortal - conscience,conscious [A stream of conscienceness from an unconscionable corpse]

Well, we've finally arrived at the last weekend of Dead Man's Cell Phone.  I can honestly say that I'm going to miss performing in it.  The whole company has been a lovely group to be around and audiences in general have loved the show.  Imagine my frustration when several reviews came out saying they didn't like the play.  They LOVED the performances but were confused and confounded by the play.  This left me confused and confounded.

Paper lanterns

Embossed invitations

A spoon, Salt, a cup.

Lipstick 

Meat.

Edward Hopper....   

Cell Phone

Sarah Ruhl is, at this moment, my favorite playwright.  

_____________ 

Last night's read-through felt completely bizarre.  It were as if i was only there for a one-night-only-play event.  I guess 13 months is a long time to go without doing a show.  Sure, I've gotten to do some work as a narrator (Stage West pairs with the FWSO to provide narrators for the orchestra's Neighborhood Arts Program) and I worked right up until I had Matilda with The StoryTime Theater, but this is the first time I've really been in a play since April 08.   Again, it just felt extremely temporary.  Standing the play up in rehearsals tonight nipped that in the bud.

This weekend, the ladies room began to explode with rich (debatable) conversation.  Until now, we'd all been buried in our scripts/focused on lines, characters.  Now confident in our performances, we're beginning to gab some.

And now the family begins to form.  I have known the following quote for a very long for a long time, and it never ceases to devistate me. for what it is worth I share it with this family.  It is attributed to the diaries of Emily Dickenson,

"I dream about father every night, always a different dream. and forget what I'm doing daytimes---wondering where he is . . . I am glad there is immortality, but would have tested it myself, before entrusting him . . . Home is so far from home--since my father died."

Tonight is the final dress rehearsal for Dead Man's Cell Phone.  I'm super excited to perform it for an audience tomorrow.  

This play contains way more silence than I've ever encountered with a play before.  The playwright calls for it.  It has taken sooo much to get used to that silence.  It's an interesting device.  So much of this play has to deal with the noise of cellphones...  that juxtaposed with silence is delicious.  I hope the audience feels the same way!!!

The show opened last weekend.  We had jam-packed houses for most of it.  The feedback was fantastic.  Lots and lots of interesting commentary and complementary words for all of us actors.  

Frankly, i had no idea how it was going to be received.  It IS a bit of an odd show.  I've taken to thinking of it as a bizarre, hallucinatory, comedy-thriller-drama-romance written with fabulous dialogue that sometimes crosses into a poetic format.  

Mother, a pecan tree grows too close to my head-Hermia, I miss'd you how is matt-Dwight, you look nothing like me lucky bastard-Woman, you continue to complete me even  after death-Jean, I hear you loudest and agree who the hell are you? Tomorrow I meet our maker --- g.

Ahhhhhhhh.... week 2.  This is always the week when insecurities creep in and start to plague me.  They are a result of not quite being off-book but acting like I am.  This tends to result in a lot of "ACTING."  

I hate this week.  

As you might guess, Dead Man's Cell Phone contains a 1/2 dozen or so scripted phone calls, all made by my character.  Sarah Ruhl provides the occasional clue as to what the person on the other end is saying but for the most part, it's up to me and Jim to decide.  

All last week I sounded like a broken record, "I have got to take some time and sit down to figure out what they are saying on the other end of the phone call...."  Finally on Sunday I had the chance.  This allowed for some good discovery and creativity.

What a delight to feel a stranger honestly search you eyes, your face for answers.  To be so wanted/needed. many thanks.  what power in not responding - whether you can or not is irrelevant.

What if God is an elected position?  How does one campagne?  Who votes?

Does one elect(accept) oneself to govern(create) oneself...and when?

I must say 'good-bye to clocks ticking'!!!!  why must I push, rush? Nothing is discovered in panic.

Photo call last night.  I think we got some nice shots.

Afterwards, we started rehearsing at the top of the play.  This meant I'd finally get to do my first scene with an actor who hadn't been contracted to start rehearsals until last night.  What a delight!  Though the majority of the scene is on my shoulders (physically & vocaly), having him there made all the difference.  Before then it was a monologue with an imaginary scene partner, one of my LEAST favorite scenarios...  Once he arrived, the whole scene finally started to take shape.  

It's not often that I read the back of a play script and think, "That's the perfect way to describe this play."  However, Charles Isherwood (New York Times) wrote the back jacket for this script and I do think it is perfect: 

I had a good rehearsal tonight.  I think everyone did.  Things really began to take shape.  

....now, if only i can figure out what I did and repeat.  8 rehearsals left.

Well, we've made it to tech week.   It has been a good rehearsal process thus far.  The only choppiness has come from some actor scheduling-conflicts and sicknesses that could not be prevented which caused some absences...  My character is the link between all the other characters (well, me and the dead guy) and it's no exaggeration to say that I am desperately in need of a few solid runs of the show with everyone present and with lights illuminating our stage-world.

I get that wish granted this week.