$22.50

I love Mondays! I get to sleep in, do laundry, cook something tasty to feed me for the rest of the week but most of all I get to roam around Long Beach at my own pace and most places aren't super busy and there is an abundance of parking because every one else in this part of the world is at work.
I spent most of today exploring vintage, consignment and thrift store type stores. There is some great stuff around here. My two new favorite stores are:
A: Immoni -  a cute and funky atmosphere, full of amazing vintage finds along with one of a kind hand made pieces. The gal who was working there was so nice, extra helpful and actually chatted with me while I browsed the racks. The clothes, shoes, and accessories are organized so well and adorably that you just want to look through everything twice because it is so easy. I left this store with two dresses that I plan to pair with leggings and cute shoes.

and

B: Out of the Closet - a nonprofit chain of thrift stores whose revenues provide medical care for patients with HIV/AIDS. The chain is owned and operated byAIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a Los Angeles-based global organization that provides medical, preventative, and educational resources for patients. AHF is the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention, and education provider. Out of the Closet thrift stores generate income to help fund the medical services AHF provides for those patients who are unable to pay. In addition to regular thrift store operations, several stores also offer additional services, including free rapid STD and HIV testing on a walk-in basis, along with counseling in a separate location of the store. How great is that? I also read somewhere that they donate $0.75 of every dollar to AHF - not sure if thats true or not but still seems like a great place to be spending money on clothes and books. I left the store today $22.50 poorer but came home with two pairs of jeans(brands: New York and Company & Dickies), one skirt from White House Black Market, two long sleeve shirts (one was an Armani Exchange) and two Gap short sleeved shirt/t-shirts. Just think how much money I saved! :) Oh and I forgot to mention that this store has sales each week like every other thrift store I've been to and all but one of the items I found were 50% off! Hooray for fluorescent green tags!

Happy to report that my purchases filled up my laundry basket enough to justify running a load of laundry and everything is dried and put away.
I am relaxed and re-energized to start our last week of previews and excited to get to Friday and opening night.

First article about the play....

Not technically a review but so far I think it is the first article specific to our production.
You may read it here:
http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/trieschmann-318633-people-kansas.html

Oh and in the picture that accompanies the article you can see my handwriting on the whiteboard that is behind the actors :)

Pizza Night!

Dad,
I know you read the blog because I'm pretty sure Mom prints it off for you. Anyway last Monday when I made pizza I was really wishing you were around to roll the dough - I am way out of practice, it was bigger than the pizza stone - I had to trim it - not really round and for some reason didn't taste quite like it does at home a bit more flour-y. I also think I let it rise one to many times but I couldn't help it I was being paid to run lines over the phone and that was $40 I was not going to pass up. Anyway it turned out pretty good and fed me for the week at tech rehearsals - that and the beef stew I made in the slow-cooker last weekend. Here is documentation that I successfully made pizza all by myself - I didn't even have a helper.

lop sided crust #1 with $3.99 rolling pin from Marshalls

The toppings - fresh onion, pepper and asparagus from the farmer's market with the dancing fruit

Pepper jack and cheddar cheese

The final product - melty goodness mmmmmmmmmm . . .

Crust #2 in the back ground - looks more square than round from this angle

 Gotta love home made pizza!

Tech Week.

Tuesday of this week was our first day on our stage. The past few weeks we'd been rehearsing in an alternate space while they hosted an event on our stage and started/finished building our set. This show has been a crazy process. Most of my time has been spent on book - as I explained before, I think, this is when a person reads the script as the actors are working so if they miss a line or call for a line you can feed it to them. I was on book for what seemed like an eternity. Until Tuesday. Tuesday Deb (the assistant stage manager) and I moved onto the deck of our stage. The deck is basically another term for the back stage area of our set. We are in charge of making sure everything is in its place on and off stage before the show starts and sweeping/mopping the sets and then during the run of the show we hand and catch props to and from actors, assist with quick changes, if there were set pieces to move we would move them. This is all relatively easy because you've been studying the show for some time but with OUR show things kept changing. Props kept moving, entrances got switched around - it was a bit chaotic trying to keep track of everything for the first few days. There was also a rumor going around that I was going to be moved into the booth to run sound - don't get me wrong that would have been fine, I would have done it - but I didn't not move all the way to California to run a sound board. I want to learn about managing a deck and stage management. I am happy to report that as of tonight I am NOT moving into the booth. I am maintaining my position as second in command on deck. Tech week is LONG - we call them 10 out of 12 days because we rehearse for 10 hours and get a two hour dinner break except that as crew part of dinner break is spent accounting for notes we've received, re-setting the stage for where ever rehearsal will pick back up so for the crew it is sometimes more like a 1 and a half hour dinner break. They are long days but it is so fun to see the show finally come together. Everything makes sense now and the last pieces of the puzzle are being put into place. Besides our actors we have a dresser back stage, her name is Alma and she is quite wonderful; she too lives in Long Beach and we have talked about occasionally sharing a ride to the theatre. Tomorrow we have a invited dress rehearsal then Sunday at 2:00pm we officially start with our first Preview or our first show with a paying audience - they are not paying full price yet so we have some room to tweak things and make adjustments. How the World Began opens Friday, September 30th - that is a week from today or yesterday as it is now past midnight.

I very much miss the Montana nights, it doesn't cool down quite as much but if I roll my windows down on the drive home it gets close and I desperately miss the stars. They just aren't as bright because of all of the "light pollution" - as if there weren't enough pollution down here already. I'll be sure to report on how our first run with an audience goes - should be interesting. We have invited some group that the writer is affiliated with who happen to be part of some Christian organization so it will be interesting to see their reaction to the play. The websites description of it is as follows: "They have strong beliefs in Plainview, Kansas. And high school biology teacher Susan Pierce knows the score. A transplant from Manhattan, she arrived here with a desire to start a new life and a willingness to help out in the aftermath of a devastating tornado. Susan tries to tread carefully, but sometimes things fall out of her mouth willy nilly, like that offhand comment in her biology class about the origins of life. Folks in Plainview get up in arms about that kind of thing." 

$0.85, an extra day off and a pan of brownies

On Sunday I myself and extra good lunch to take with me to rehearsal and headed out the door to drive to Costa Mesa like I do everyday of the week except Monday. I was less than a mile from my door and my phone started to ring so I turned on a side street quick and answered because it was my ASM (assistant stage manager). I answered the phone to Deb's voice saying "No rehearsal! GO HOME!" Yippeee! Rehearsal was cancelled because our lead actress contracted a really bad case of food poisoning and because she appears on every page in our script except 2 our director decided to give us all an extra day off. Two days off in a row -?? I didn't know what to do with myself - well thats not true, I spent most of Sunday watching football and making soup in my new slow cooker. I thought it would be a good idea to test it on a day where I would be home most of the day so I quick ran to the grocery store and got what I needed to make some vegetable - taco - chili. Slow cooker works great and I still have left overs! Sunday night our neighbors talked me in to baking dessert for a Monday evening at the pool so on my second day off I made a pan of brownies and a batch of cupcakes. Cooking with a gas stove and a significantly lower elevation has certainly made things in my kitchen interesting but I am happy to say that as of today I only have 2 cupcakes and 3 brownie slices left. Dessert at the pool was a success AND because of it I am this much (pinches fingers together) closer to convincing my roommate that we need a table and chairs.
Now your probably wondering what the significance of $0.85 - it just so happens that I also turned in our recycling on Monday. Along with a handful of tin cans, a few cardboard/cereal boxes, and plastic fruit containers, I turned in eighty-five cents worth of plastic bottles and soda cans. My roommate finds this to be a frivolous activity but I am now 85% closer to one load of laundry - who wouldn't recycle!? Especially when a: your roommate is doing it for you and b: it's common sense! So you will be happy to know that I recycle for the both of us - as if there isn't already enough wrong with the environment on earth let along in California proper.
We are moving right along in rehearsals - I spend most of my days in the hallways/lobby with a single actor running lines, which is ok by me but gets a little old because it is so much reading! And sometimes they are very stubborn about what the line actually is even though I am reading it off the page. I think I am hanging out tomorrow evening with Sarah to do extra line running but she is fun to be around and I'd like to get a good reference. I'll let you all know how it goes :)

an evening at the beach

I had been in Long Beach for two weeks and had not yet made it to the beach. This was something that needed to be remedied so last Sunday as I was driving home from rehearsal and noticing the great cloud formations in the sky and the fantastic light the sun was producing I decided I was going to get to the beach. I ran into my apartment, put down my rehearsal bag, grabbed my camera and tri-pod, ran back down to my car, realized I forgot my drivers license, ran back up to get my wallet, ran back down the stairs responding to my neighbors "good evenings" with "I really have to get going but I'll be back as soon as the light is gone" got in my car and drove to the beach. If you drive west on Redondo Ave. You run right into the ocean - you can't drive into it but if I were running . . . I found a parking spot pretty easily - though I imagine it usually isn't that easy, followed the signs that said "stairs to the beach", walked down yet another set of stairs and finally made it to the sand. It was perfect. I sat on the beach and watched the sun go down and people jog/bike/run/beach comb, the birds were fascinating as well. Here are a few photos from my adventure:

Week One. Status: Complete

I've finished my first week as an intern at SCR and I just have to say: I LOVE MY JOB! I know I mostly make coffee and observe but it is so refreshing to be in a professional theatre environment. I work with two wonderful ladies who answer all my questions and so far are doing their best to include me in their stage management process for which I am very grateful. Along with making coffee I am also at the beck and call of every other person working on this show - actors included. I spent a good chunk of one day running lines in the hallway with one of our actors, and got hot water for another at least once a day - I am not complaining one bit - any opportunity I have to make a good impression that might come back as a positive reference or recommendation for a job I am taking and running with. I have also spent the majority of my time in the theatre being "on book". This is following along and giving lines when they are called for, it is pretty repetitive and I do get tired of reading/following along but a very necessary part of the process of putting on a show. I have been "on book" many times before but Jenny and Deb made it sound so much more intimidating before I actually started. I am proud to say I think they were just trying to scare me a little because really it isn't any different than my "on book" experiences have been in the past.
I have been told at least four, count 'em, FOUR times this week that I am doing a "very good job." I don't really understand how an intern with my same responsibilities couldn't be doing a good job but apparently they have existed in the past. I did finally meet another intern - she is working on Pride and Prejudice - she had a deer in the head lights sort of look to her and then revealed that they had been working 12 hour days for the last three days, and she had to wash 7 boxes of dishes the other day and they had to be at the theatre an extra hour early AND she got snapped at for not making coffee right away AND . . . I was thinking to myself this whole conversation "I'm sorry my life is so much better than yours is right now" but eventually we will be in tech as well and the hours will be similar - not as many dishes but very similar hours - but those hours will end when the show opens and I am already on top of the coffee making situation.
There are three Sara(h)s working on our production of How the World Began which is sometimes very confusing - most of the time I can sort out which of us is being addressed by the content of the conversation. Sara the set/costume designer, Sarah the actress, and Sara the intern.
Our tiny little show only has 3 actors in it which is quite nice. Scheduling rehearsals has been a breeze and because of their situations they are all car-pooling down from L.A. which is good but starting to be a problem because if one of them is late they are all three late. I was asking about what happens when it becomes a chronic problem and haven't gotten a straight answer yet - the actors unions make everything a bit more complicated. If your curious our actors are: Sarah Rafferty, Time Winters and Jarrett Sleeper. For the most part they crack me up on a daily basis and it is so much fun to watch them work in rehearsals. Our director Danialla Topol is also quite wonderful. She is letting me use her parking pass for the time being because she enjoys walking to the theatre from where SCR is housing her. So for the moment no more illegal parking at the mall.
It is an overcast Labor Day here in Long Beach but the clouds seem to be rolling along rather briskly and the sun peeks out every once in awhile - enough that my laundry doesn't seem to have trouble drying on the rack outside. HAPPY LABOR DAY!