Food for Thought.

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And then I read this article and this article.

And all this just got me thinking about the role of women in society and how far have we come, in work and in our relationships. A lot of my friends have been getting married lately so it's got me thinking about why it's so important and how does it change a relationship (besides legally of course)? And why does anyone care if two gay people get married? Let them. This argument about marriage being sacred and only between a man and woman is BS. The sanctity of marriage was destroyed a long long time ago by straight people. Besides, most of the gay people I know have stronger, longer, and healthier relationships than some of my straight friends. Enough about marriage, now on to work...

I work in a heavily male populated medium and in both of my recent interviews (go here & here) I have been asked about how my being a woman has influenced my work as a director or on a specific script. I dunno. I am what I am and I direct. I don't understand how the two can be mutuality exclusive.

Maybe it's because my mother always worked, but I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a mom and have a career and I wasn't going to sacrifice one for the other, even though I've been told that someday I'll have to. I'm stubborn, what can I say. So it's nice to see examples or working mothers in the directing field, although they are few and far between.

All this to say that I think people, our government, our employers do need to be a bit more flexible with our schedules our health care (don't EVEN get me started here...but it needs to change in America now. now now.) Because at the end of the day, America we don't have to do everything the same way. The 9-5 the marriage the living in the suburbs. It's much much better to be different and open and accepting of our differences.

I will step off of my soap box now.

FOOL FOR LOVE OPENING!

My boss put that up the day the preview article from The Oregonian came out. That way everyone who came into the office could see it. Thanks Kristin!

Check out our fabulous preview from Mr. Marty Hugley from The Oregonian. Thanks Marty!

And last night we participated in Free Night of Theater with PATA's help.
It was amazing to have a full house on our first advertised Preview, but I had never seen many of these people before. People come back to the theater even when it's not free it's still totally worth it!! I promise!

I'm very ready for the show to open tonight. I think we all have done some amazing work and I look forward to having people see it and celebrate in the lobby proceeding the show.

AND...that's all I got because I'm super tired. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!

x

Rehearsals & Tech

We just finished tech and we open on Friday!! Below are pictures from our process.


The boys: Spencer Conway, Chris Harder, & Tim Stapleton




Spencer takes a nap while he waits for us to get to his scene.




The first stages of loading in the set.




Chris and Tim wait while we make adjustments.




Val Landrum, Chris Harder & Tim Stapleton work during tech.




Chris and Tim are made for these roles.

Tech is always long but this one was pretty painless and is shaping up nicely. I can't wait for you to come see it.

Design

So clearly I've been a HUGE slacker in updating everyone...opps. Please forgive me. Above is a picture of set model. Designed by the one and only Tim Stapleton. As you can see I took away the walls. For many reasons, but mostly because I feel like Eddie and May are trapped in this cycle. I think of that science experiment about the fleas. If you put some fleas in a jar they will jump to get out and hit the top. After a while they learn that they can only go so far. Then when you remove the lid. When they go to jump again they only jump as far as they did when the lid was on.

When reading the script, I became fascinated with May's need to hide in the bathroom. I wanted to see her in her safe place and see the vulnerable side of May. I wanted to see her in all of her shit. So with this in mind I took the walls off the bathroom too.

Another thing I did was move the Old Man from the platform outside the playing area (something Shepard requests in the script) and moved him inside. He's connected to May and Eddie and he's the reason they are this way. So it seemed important to take him out of the audience and put him in the space.

And to top it all off we have Annalise Albright on sound (who will now be responsible for making the walls and door reverberate) and Don Crossley on lights. I am in good technical hands.

Back in the Saddle Again...

I know that song by heart. Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry. It reminds me of my dad because it was on the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack that he played on repeat as we drove all over Portland. And an image of my dad playing pool with my friend Ashley's dad comes to mind every time. It's weird how certain things can make you recall the most inane moments.

Well I'm back in the directing saddle again. I am directing FOOL FOR LOVE by Sam Shepard for CoHo productions. It stars Val Landrum, Chris Harder, Spencer Conway, and Tim Stapleton. I am so lucky to work with such fabulous people!

What I love most about this play is Shepard's poetry and the intensity and raw emotion. He says it should be relentless. I couldn't agree more. May says to Eddie, "You're like a disease to me." It is this crazy love that makes you sick but you can't quit even though you know you should. I think we've all been there.

Opening Weekend & Reviews

The Bullet Round opened on Friday. I can't believe that's over. Steven and I have only been talking about this play for two years! This must be what planning a wedding is like. All this prep and then it comes down to the BIG day: Opening.

I picked Steven up from the airport Thursday night after the final preview and notes. There was an accident on the lower level so they were rerouting traffic, so that paired with the fact that we forgot to exchange phone numbers made it a bit tricky. But I found him! Yea!

Opening day was awesome because even before we opened we received two lovely previews from Marty Hughley of The Oregonian and Ben Waterhouse of The Willamette Week, which made me feel like the prettiest girl at the dance. I must thank Trisha Mead for her PR expertise. This woman is amazing. A-MAZ-ING. Well, that and the fact that opening night was sold out and full of nice VIPs including, Pier Carlo Talenti all the way from the Mark Taper in LA. He was Mr. Mead Hunter's guest of course.

Sitting through the 90 minute show was hard. For the first time all week I wasn't able to stop the show if something went wrong, and unfortunately there were a few things that I wish I could have fixed. Not being in control is hard sometimes.

The reception went off beautifully. Food donated by The Blue Monk and wine from Castillo de Molina. Everyone was so lovely and it was a huge relief to have the show open and out of my hands.

The next day Steven and I went to dinner and discussed the show, our favorite parts, other theater related topics and of course our dogs.

And then the reviews came. Mead was the first on his blog. The Oregonian review came out Monday. And the Willamette Week review came out on Wednesday. I am pretty pleased with both. I am so surprised and happy that this came together so beautifully (but of course not without my technical director, stage manager and myself suffering from some serious sleep deprivation). Thank you everyone for all your help.

Please spread the word and direct people to www.bulletround.com for tickets or call 503-781-2156.

Our sweet poster

Need I say more? Designed by the lovely and talented Patrick Weishampel.