Happy Birthday, eh?

I've the red and white Smarties set out in a bowl, my flag t-shirt ready to wear, and the Canucks are set to arrrive around happy hour. For those that don't feel ready to celebrate here's some help.
And here's a fun quiz to help you get to know your neighbors to the north.

We stand on guard for thee...

What do you do with a drunken sailor?

So I couldn't decide what to write about as this weekend was almost too weird for words. Friday night I was Rocky Horror with the incomparable Wade McCollum. I love watching that man but since most readers will not have the chance to see this show (even though it is extending through August 20) I won't trouble you with a full review.

Instead I shall share what I have learned about the Portland Pirate Scene. First, there is one. Second, it's musically based. Third, costumes are involved. Apparently Pirate Rock is all the rage. It makes sense...sea shanties, drinking, men in leather, and women laced into cleavage all make for a fine evening! So by an odd twist of fate I ended up at this year's Festival of Pirates presided over by Captain Bogg and Salty. Captain Bogg is fronted by a guy I vaguely remember from college and much of the Portland theatre community are fans (for reasons which may or may not appear obvious). While I was not in full regalia (I managed a striped shirt) I had fun and will have to look into this phenomenon more at a later date.

Better Living Through Baseball

So, what says Happy Father's Day more than 9 naked actors showering on stage?

Today, the family (all big theatre goers and also major baseball fans) went to see Take Me Out at ART. LOVED it!

"Take Me Out" imagines what might happen to his team if the world’s best baseball player woke up one morning and announced that he is gay. The team? The Empires (gee who could they be talking about?). The player? Awfully Arod-ish although I think that was this particular casting.

So yes, there are nude shower scenes. Three of them. The first one makes a statement, the second (the whole team together) was awfully pretty, but pretty pointless, and by the third (and only one that the play really needs) we were kinda desensitized. Not to mention that I was more interested in the mechanics of a working team shower in a black box thrust stage...

I thought it was very well written. And while a non-baseball fan might enjoy the play I don't see where it would hold much interest for them. My favorite character was the outted player's financial manager. Once assigned to his account he becomes obsessed with baseball. He develops a love for everything about the sport: its numbers, its rules, its rituals. His material is some of the funniest in the play and takes us back to whenever it was that WE discovered our love of baseball and tapped into its collective subconscious ("I'm having memories that aren't even MINE"). It was beautiful.

And then to come home and see the end of the M's sweeping the Mets! Bliss.

Top it off with BBQ ribs and a soap on a rope and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! I love you!

Happy Birthday PacMan!

I'm really much more of a Ms. Pacman fan (as many of my friends who have had to wait for me to finish one of my marathon games can attest to) but it all started with the wocka wocka of this little guy. Today he turned 25. I said it before and I'll say it again...I'm old.

I can't. I have rehearsal.

The title comes from a T-shirt that one of my actors has. I want one! We're about one third of the way through the rehearsal process for Much Ado and I'm already exhausted.

But it has been a good week to be a Stage Manager. Both shows I did last year were up for consideration for Monday night's Drammys (Porland's theatre awards) and while we didn't win there was a vibe of "Love thy Stage Manager" all night. Two actors mentioned in their acceptance speeches that it was unfair and wrong that there wasn't an award for SMs and the winning director brough her SM up on stage with her. It was odd, but nice. I don't know how you would award an SM since if you notice me that means I screwed up. No audience member can walk out of a show and say "Wow, that was some impressive stage managing!".

Anyway, I was treated like royalty at the after party. And I was forwarded this cute email that I thought I would post to enlighten my non-thesbian readers to the structure of the theatre community:

Producer:
Leaps tall buildings in a single bound.
Is more powerful than a locomotive.
Is faster than a speeding bullet.
Walks on water.
Gives policy to God.

Director:
Leaps short buildings in a single bound.
Is more powerful than a switch engine.
Is just as fast as a speeding bullet.
Walks on water if the sea is calm.
Talks with God.

Playwright:
Leaps short buildings with a running start.
Is almost as powerful as a switch engine.
Is faster than a speeding BB.
Swims well.
Is occasionally addressed by God.

Actor:
Makes high marks on the wall when trying to leap buildings.
Is run over by locomotives.
Can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self-injury.
Dog paddles.
Talks to animals.

Chorus:
Falls over doorsteps when trying to enter buildings.
Says "Look at the choo-choo."
Wets himself with a water pistol.
Plays in mud puddles.
Mumbles to himself.

Stage Manager
Lifts buildings and walks under them.
Kicks locomotives off the track.
Catches speeding bullets in his/her teeth and eats them.
Freezes water with a single glance.
IS GOD.

You lost?

I was having a discussion with long time reader Natalie when I had an epiphany.

The Breakfast Club is one of the defining movies of our generation. This was not my epiphany, just a statement of fact.

The epiphany was this: just as guys have a thing for Princess Leia in her gold bikini I would argue that many women of our generation have a similar thing with the storage closet scene from this movie. For many years I thought it was just me and perhaps it really is. At least I have pinpointed where my long-standing desire for diamond stud earings came from.

The Red Sox Get Queer

While insecure Yankees fans everywhere are hurling homophobic insults I realize I need to upgrade my cable. No Bravo for me. The photos will have to do.

They call it a make-better instead of a make-over. What is better than a World Series Champion??? A friend was saying how he hoped Carson and Jai would help straighten out Alan Embree and Keith Foulke, pun very much intended. I hope this comes out on DVD...

And on that note I must go buy tickets to Take Me Out playing here in town.

You wouldn't know him from Adam

It's here!!!

And I'm reminded that Adam Pascal should be my next boyfriend. I can't believe I had let this movie slip off my radar. Soooo excited now.

Casting couch...

I'm on the couch reading about some exciting casting news I must share so we can discuss.

#1 Two Pirates sequels are on the way. I'm happy about this both in that my Halloween costume shall get more use and that we get more Depp! But it seems that Bill Nighy shall be playing the villian for the both films! Yay! His quote when asked about his career direction made me giggle: "It does seem I've reached that difficult age where I'm playing men from different dimensions. I've been a zombie, a vampire. And now I've played a man who designed the Earth in a very funny pair of trousers, but it's all working out."

#2 This is a downer. I had originally read that the Amelie chick was to play the female lead in The Davinci Code and have now read that it is instead Sophie Marceau. I only know her from Braveheart and while she's pretty...I'm bummed. I guess I have a year to get over it.

#3 Superman Returns...Where to start. My beloved Kevin Spacy as Lex Luthor - not buying it but I trust the man, Parker Posey as Kitty Koslowski - close to sounding like a Bond Girl name, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane - does Lois surf?, and no we don't know the guy playing the man himself but he looks good. Whatever. The one that slays me is the fact that Marlon Brando is playing his dad...since he is presently deceased ("he ain't dead son, he just went home") this one perplexes me. I guess they are using the old excess footage from the first film. Yikes!

#4 Gnomeo & Juliet. This one takes best title away from Die Hardest. It's set to be an animated musical version of the play featuring...wait for it...ceramic garden gnomes! OK. This has GOT to be a joke but has (per IMDB) Ewan McGregor, Kate Winslet, Judy Dench set to voice Romeo, Juliet and the Nurse but also has Tim Rice and Elton John attached for music!

#5 This is not so much casting as mulling over the idea of a Xena movie that there are rumors of. Why hasn't this already been done I ask?

By any other name...really!

Just read this at Eonline:

ARRESTING NEW ARRIVAL: Comedian-magician Penn Jillette and his wife had a baby girl on Friday. The baby’s name is, and we're not making this up, Moxie CrimeFighter.

What is this crazy trend? I checked other sites to see formore research and have look-see at what I've found:

We have Apple, Lyric Chanel, Yamma, Coco Riley, Presley Walker, Gracie Fan, Keili-Shea, Aquinnah Kathleen, Schuyler Frances, Fifi-Trixibelle, Peaches, Pixie, Homer James Jigme, Alchamy, Heavenly, Hiraani, Tiger Lily, Steveanna, Kafka, Chaia, Amber Rose, Saffron Sahara, Tallulah Pine, Lola Simone, Zahra Savannah , Caspar, Cash Anthony, London Emilio, Dixie Dot and Bibi Belle.

I could go on but I'm tired of typing.

And my mom apologizes for how she spelled my name!