Archive for August, 2009

Nepotism and my good standing

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Urgh. I know I’ve been bad about keeping this thing updated. I’ve had a lot going on but I can’t talk about it until the dust has settled.

In the meantime, I auditioned for Cannibal! The Musical at Unexpected Productions. I wasn’t expecting to get cast… my reading was okay but my singing was pretty awful; the accompanist played my piece quite a bit slower than the tempo I gave him and I actually wound up running entirely out of air in one of the phrases. Plus I kind of forgot how to act while singing. Let’s just say it’s been a while since I’ve auditioned for a musical, and it showed.

Anyway, I was offered the part of Humphrey, one of the miners. Thanks to nepotism and my good standing as an ensemble member at UP I’m not too surprised I was offered a role in the show in spite of my bad audition. What has surprised me is that after watching the movie I’ve discovered it’s a fairly principal role, even with a couple minor solo singing lines here and there. I’m really not looking to take on another show at this time but after some consideration I’ve decided to do it. It’s a relatively short rehearsal period and run, it’s at a theatre I would already be spending a lot of my time at for Theatresports, and it looks like it’ll be a ton of fun, which is always good.

Also: I get to play on a recorder in the show, which is just about the only musical instrument I can still play to any significant degree, in part because it’s the instrument that’s so simple they get kids in 4th grade to play it. I have no idea what the director has in mind for that, but any show that has a recorder in it (other than Godspell) must surely be destined for greatness.

UP finally had its auditions for the Theatresports ensemble, and we have a bunch of new members, which is very exciting. Tomorrow evening is a party to welcome them, and I’m looking forward to that. Tonight I’m going back to the mansion for a birthday party. In general, I’m keeping busy and it’s a good thing.

Dan.

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Falling out of practice

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Not a whole lot new to report. The weather has returned to normal and things have been going slowly for me while things churn at work. I’ve been really tired for a number of reasons, but the weekend gave me a chance to recuperate somewhat.

It was an improv-heavy weekend for me… I performed in two shows on Friday, then got pulled in on Saturday to run lights for Theatresports when they were short-staffed. Then this morning I ran an improv workshop/rehearsal over at SecondStory in place of the guy who’s normally in charge. Everyone at the rehearsal thought it was the best they’d had in a long time… I’m starting to feel like I ought to be directing again. The two shows on Friday were an outdoor gig in Redmond followed by Theatresports. Both went okay but felt like it could have been stronger… I worry that I may be falling out of practice. The theatre held auditions for the ensemble this week, so it will be interesting to see who the new recruits are.

I’ve been watching the first season of Dexter, which I’ve owned the DVDs for quite some time (a friend recommended it back when I was looking for some travel material). It’s delightfully dark and entertaining. It may tide me over until the next season of Entourage becomes available, although I got through the first season alarmingly quick.

Still no change to the mysterious power outage in my living room, but I’m getting away with extension cords so I’m not super-motivated to do anything about it. Actually, this weekend was probably when I should have taken a look at it. Oh well, I guess I can try again next weekend. In the meantime it seems my condo board has actually succeeded in getting a loan, the last piece required before they can begin their big repair project that was introduced to us nearly a year ago. They’ve finally begun collecting for the assessment on my condo, so I’ve got to remember to send a cheque in tomorrow. Originally I was planning on pre-paying the full amount, but things are uncertain enough for me at the moment that I want to maintain liquidity, so I’m sticking to the monthly fee until I figure things out. The good news is that with any luck they will actually get repairs underway soon, and we can have a brand spanking new exterior. That’ll be worthwhile, right?

Dan.

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Gone and busted itself

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

I’ve been bad at keeping up with this blog again… truth is, though, I wouldn’t be updating right now except that I’m stuck at home waiting to see if I have a working water heater or not.

I had some weird electrical problems this past weekend, where basically my entire living room lost power without tripping any of the fuses. It then mysteriously came back, then mysteriously went away again. Right now I’m running all of my living room equipment off of an extension cord.

But then this morning I noticed I had no hot water. My first reaction was to think “oh great, now my water heater’s gone and busted itself as well”, but then I figured it was more likely tied to the electrical problem I was having in my living room. Except that water heaters are on their own circuit… when I checked the fuse panel a third time, I noticed that one of the double-throw switches wasn’t entirely in the “on” position… I must have failed to turn it all the way back on when I was resetting everything, trying to solve my living room problem.

So now I’m stuck waiting for enough warm water to build up for me to have a proper shower.

In other news, we’re reaching what looks to be the end of a record-setting heat wave in Seattle. We’re talking temperatures in the triple digits (Fahrenheit, of course). Thankfully the humidity hasn’t been too brutal, but the heat on its own has just been absurd. My two fans have been working overtime, and I’m thinking ironically back to the portable air conditioner I saw for sale at Costco back in March… it looked like a good deal, but I didn’t bother because the last two summers have been so cold and damp. Well, live and learn.

I’m deliberately avoiding any major commitments to shows right now, but I went to a rehearsal last night for a show called Army Men that’ll be running this month at Unexpected Productions. It’s a silly, fun take on World War II movies, where the audience gets to select old plastic army figurines to represent each of the performers, and arrange the scene however they please. I think it’s going to be a hoot.

Dan.

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