Support our Teachers!

There are few teachers who I can look back on now and remember their classes vividly, even though I'm sure they were great teachers and the subject was enlightening. I was fortunate to have 2 teachers that made such an impact on my life that I still recall going to their classes and I consider them to be my friends to this very day. One is my high school drama teacher, Lynn, and the other is my high school choir teacher, Alison. Both teachers made profound impacts on my development and I have such fond memories of both of them. I recently had the pleasure of hosting a farewell party/concert for Alison.

Due to budget cuts, the choir program at Northglenn High School has been whittled down to almost nothing, and in order to stay employed full-time, Alison had to transfer to an elementary school. She had spent the past 15 years at Northglenn High School building the choir program into something extraordinary. When she started, there were 4 choirs available. At the peak of the NGHS choir program, there were at least 6 choirs offered (possibly 7 – I’m not sure of the overlap after I graduated). Now, after budget cuts, there will be only ::gulp:: 2 choirs remaining. (According to a parent I spoke with at Alison’s party.)


When I was little, I watched my sister go through the NGHS choir program and I couldn’t wait for the day when I could sing with all those choirs. During my 4 years in high school, I had the privilege of singing in every choir available at the time, including the 2 vocal jazz ensembles. In my senior year, I sang in 3 choirs and even went to lunch nearly every day with Alison and Lynn (Yes, I was THAT student). So, that was 4 hours a day spent with Alison and honestly, I enjoyed every single minute of it. I worked my tail off in every one of those classes. Not being born with a natural talent for singing, I had to focus extremely hard on staying in key, sight reading, and blending with the group. Alison shared her passion for music through her teaching and it made all of us passionate about too. She inspired us to be better musicians and better people, and “good enough” was never acceptable.


I have seen so many exceptionally talented kids come out of the NGHS choir program, and these voices were all on display at the party/concert we held for Alison earlier in August. There were tons of A-MAH-ZING singers that owe a little, if not A LOT, of their success to our amazing choir teacher. Close to 200 people showed up to honor Alison, some of them driving or flying in from across the country. It’s obvious that Alison impacted her student’s lives on so many levels – I just wish the district could have been there to witness it.


A group of us singing at Alison's farewell party/concert



It’s heartbreaking to watch a program you loved and cherished so much go down the tubes simply because there is no money. It’s beyond frustrating to see talented, dedicated, and passionate teachers being tossed around the district just so they can remain employed. In fact, it’s sickening. So many kids are now missing out on an opportunity that I believe would make them more well-rounded, harder working, and just overall better people. Kids deserve GREAT teachers and opportunities to express themselves. But, we treat teachers like second class citizens and force them to do arguably one of THE MOST important jobs with little to no resources, support, or compensation.


I try not to get too political on my blog, but please, for the love of god, support our schools! The next time there is a ballot measure asking you to pay a small percentage more in taxes to support your local school district, VOTE YES, DAMNIT! We can’t expect our children to be well educated and have access to opportunities when we keep voting down measures because we are too cheap to pay our share. Every kid deserves to have fabulous teachers like Alison and Lynn in their lives, but if we keep screwing over our teachers and schools, amazing people will stop choosing teaching as a profession and amazing programs like choir will be a thing of the past.

How I Made Eye Contact with Eric Northman: A Comic Con Experience

This past weekend was the world's most popular convention, San Diego Comic Con. What started out as a tiny comic book convention many years ago is now a giant cluster-fluck of pop culture madness. This convention draws in over 100,000 people from around the globe and this year, Evan, his sister, Megan, and I were part of it. So here is my Comic Con wrap-up.

  

The Facts
Comic Con started last Wednesday night and went through Sunday evening.  We arrived on Thursday morning and we had tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (we left Sunday evening). We stayed at the Hotel Salomar in downtown San Diego which was about 4 blocks away from the convention center.

Thursday

Once we arrived in San Diego, we headed down to the convention center to scope out the crowd and to figure out where we needed to go to pick up our badges the next day.  The crowds weren't too bad around the convention center so we got around pretty easily.  The next thing we did was go look at the Batmobile exhibit outside the convention center.  All the Batmobiles from every movie were on display. It was pretty awesome! After that, we took the ferry across to Coronado Island and had lunch...then we came right back.  There wasn't much to do there, but it was pretty I suppose.

We killed some time hanging in our hotel room, getting groceries for breakfast, and just relaxing until my friend, Erin, picked us up for dinner.  We went to Old Town and ate some great Mexican food. It was so awesome to see her since she moved to San Diego in December.

 

Friday

Ta DA! Comic Con day! Badges were available for pick-up at 830am, so we got there early and surprisingly got right in.  That process was smooth and breezy and pretty soon we were officially Comic Con attendees! Too bad we didn't know that the exhibit hall didn't open till 930am and the Comic Con staff were (needlessly) blocking off other main areas of the hall so we couldn't even wait in line. So we were quickly engulfed in people that were swarming in to the convention center at alarming rates with no where to go. Finally we got in to a room to watch our first panel.  Oh! I forgot to mention, we had intentions of getting in line for the huge Hall H to see some popular panels like the Big Bang Theory, but the line was so freaking long we said the hell with it.  Here is what we DID see though:

-How to break into TV writing
-Marvel: Ultimate Comics
-DC Comics: Justice League and Green Lantern
-DC Comics: The New 52
-The Making of Kaijudo (totally on accident waiting for another panel)
-The Totally Rad Show (My pick for best panel!!)


In between some of these panels, we ventured down to the TOTALLY INSANE exhibitor floor.  It is astoundingly large and completely full of people.  It was a mad house, but some of the stuff was cool to see - like the Lego Hulk. 

Saturday

Since we knew that things didn't open till 930, we took our time in the morning and didn't get to the convention center till around 10. Here are the panels we saw on Saturday:







-Marvel Television Presents
-Quick Draw! (My pick for second best panel!)














-Alphas
-Being Human (My pick for most entertaining celebrities!)
-Shameless












-Glee

After the Glee panel, we all headed down to the exhibit hall once again.  Ok so, we did NOT go to the True Blood panel because 1) Alexander Skarsgard (Eric Northman) wasn't slated to attend according to the program and 2) I just started watching the show and didn't want it to get spoiled.  However, as we are traipsing through the floor, we see on a big screen that the True Blood cast will be doing a signing at the Warner Brothers Booth.  So we head over there...and lo and behold...there is Alexander in all his excruciatingly handsome glory! Yeah, Megan and I were pissed we missed the panel where we could have stared at him for a whole hour, but there he was on the second level of the WB booth.  Of course a giant crowd was gathering.  Then a bunch of girls yelled "Alex!" and he turned around and we totally locked eyes, fell in love, and had 100 babies. Ok well, at least the first thing happened.  This poor picture doesn't do him justice at all.  He is startlingly good looking in real life.

After my brief, but magical encounter with Alex Skarsgard, we left the floor and headed to dinner. So I should back up...across the street from our hotel, people were setting up something that looked like a concert for two days.  Well on Saturday, we walked by and discovered that they were setting up for a fancy hollywood party...the True Blood/Playboy Party!!! Of course, after dinner we went to the roof top patio/pool area to watch the party from across the street.  Unfortunately, nobody showed up for hours so we stared at normal people getting drunk for a long time.  Finally, at about 1145pm, the beautiful Alex showed up to his party.  We watched him walk the red carpet (hastily) and then enter the party and take lots of pictures with people.  It was at this point I recognized what a big stalker I was, but I think I'm ok with it.

Sunday
We didn't have any plans to see any panels this day, instead we planned on roaming the exhibitor floor to shop the Sunday deals.  Unfortunately, 98, 234 other people had the same plan.  Ugh, at this point I couldn't handle the crowds anymore and was totally over it.  There were so many people that you could barely move and you certainly couldn't take time to look at things and actually shop.  It sucked. Evan left Comic Con without buying a single comic book.  Pretty depressing. After the floor debacle, we decided to go upstairs and wander into a panel.  We went to:
-Star Wars Galaxies
-DC Nation with guest moderator, Kevin Smith

Then we went to lunch and headed to the airport.  And so ended our first (and probably my last) Comic Con experience. We all decided that a smaller convention would probably be far more enjoyable. They simply sell way too many tickets because that many people should never be in the same place at once. Ugh! But I'm glad I got to experience it because it truly is an experience like no other. Oh and Alex Skarsgard is now my boyfriend.  Don't tell Evan.

This photoshop masterpiece is what was waiting at my desk when I got back to work!

Backstage to Centerstage: A Dirty Rotten Retrospective

This past Saturday, we had the 10th and final performance of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I’ve blogged about the show from the auditions, so it’s only fitting that I wrap things up with one final blog. Below is a quick (ok, really damn long and boring) summary of my leading lady experience and some little backstage stories and mishaps because who doesn’t like bloopers?!

A Night in the Life of Christine Colgate

Actors are required to arrive at the theatre an hour before showtime. But let’s back up, first it takes me about an hour to curl my hair, do my make-up, and squeeze into panty hose and spanx at home. Ugh, I really loathe curling my hair because it takes forever and no matter how much hairspray I use, my hair has gone flat by intermission. Grr. Then, we hit the road and it takes roughly 30 minutes to get to Longmont. So even though the call time is 630pm for evening performances, my preparation starts at 445pm.

Evan and I show up, sign the call sheet, and I start preparing. The first thing I do is take my final costume and set it up in the stairwell to the light booth in the lobby. Then, I go about setting my props. I don’t have many, but I’m kind of OCD and I have to check them about 5 times to ensure that they are actually where I think they are. After that, I place my costumes on stage (well, in a hallway) as all my costume changes are super fast and take place just behind a curtain. They have to be in the proper order with buttons, zippers and belts un-done for easy changing. I then check these about 5 more times before curtain.

  

Now it’s time for vocal warm-ups. To this day, I have no idea what the complete lyrics are to the Oscar Mayer theme song (it was a common warm-up finale). Must be my aversion to bologna.

  

Next...I do nothing for about 30 minutes. Since my hair and make-up are already done, I just hang out and do nothing until curtain. Once we are underway, I help move a bench on and off stage, but that is all I do for the 40 minutes after the show starts. Then, during one of the big numbers when everyone else is on stage and not in the dressing room, I go and change into costume. And then…I sit for another 20 minutes.

Finally, FINALLY, after about 40 minutes into the first act, it is time for Christine’s grand entrance. I stand in the wings, trying really hard to not be nervous…and not to be seen by the audience through the awful sightlines. “She’s here!” And that’s my cue and away we go. One tiny line and then starts the song with which I have a problematic past. After huffing and puffing through the song, smacking people way harder than I was supposed to (Christine and Linda are quite clumsy), the song is done and I’m in full show mode. No more nerves, all business.

  

After another song, one I can actually sing(!), it is time for intermission. At this point, I relax even further. All my songs in Act II are duets or little interjections here and there – the hard stuff is done. Well, except for the 3 really fast costume changes. Thank goodness I had the help of a cast mate because they would have been impossible otherwise. Some more songs, a tango, fake crying, and then comes my favorite part. The part that I’ve been keeping secret from all of you that don’t know the show. SPOILER ALERT: It is revealed that I am the Jackal and have managed to con $50,000 from the best two conmen in the French Riviera. It’s quite empowering actually. :) Sometimes I was even applauded as I dashed out of the theatre with my briefcase full of money. By far, my favorite part of the show.

 

Then I come back with a whole new persona and all three of us dirty rotten scoundrels are reunited for the finale. By this point my hair is flat, I’m sweating through my panty hose, my make-up is pretty much all sweated off, and there’s a sense of accomplishment that we made it through another show.

  

All in all, playing Christine was fun! It was also time-consuming, stressful, challenging, and at times, terrifying. I’m glad that I auditioned, I’m glad I got the part, and I’m glad to be done. Lots of people will jump from show to show, but I will be taking a break. It had been 3 years since I last performed on stage, and it may very well be that long again. It’s hard work! In the meantime, I will be seeing lots of fabulous shows and getting my theatre fix from the audience. Phew! All done…and now…

Tales from the Wings:

• Every night while waiting for the show to start, a few of us would be huddled in the stage left entry way (right by the band). The overture starts with a big bang/pop/drum hit/whatever, and every night, without fail, I would have a heart attack and jump on that first beat.
• There are several crosses by hotel staff during the course of the play. Each time they are carrying something interesting. One night, an actress was scooting a large clothes steamer across the stage when the top popped off and water went everywhere. Luckily, another actress was passing by and just magically happened to be carrying a roll of paper towels. Divine intervention.
• Acting in the dark is really fun, you should try it sometime. We did, several times, but most notably on Industry Night when the light board decided to stop working. Some scenes were totally in the dark and others had light coming off and on and I started playing a game called “try to run into the light before it goes off.”
• What does Beauty and the Beast have to do with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? Nothing, except this most awesome video we viewed one day in the dressing room. Hey girl!
• Boob money. Sadly, I never got to have any.
• You see that weird piece of foam with green painted sea-shells glued to it? Oh, that’s escargot. No, really, it looks great.
• What’s that? You can’t hear us? Oh you mean, you can't hear 1 person singing over a 9 piece band? Oh, you can’t hear us over the extremely loud scene changes? Well, shut up, we’re creating theatrical magic here people!
• Finally, you know you have one heck of a funny show when the biggest laugh of night is a re-written joke about Fort Collins.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: 6 Performances Down, 4 to Go

Tonight is Industry Night. Theatres starting doing industry nights on Mondays to attract other theatre/industry folks who are busy doing their own shows on the weekends, but are free on weeknights. However, with people so busy with rehearsals, performing in their on industry nights on the same day, or just busy with life in general, attendance on Industry Night can be a bit light. But the great thing about Industry Night is that sometimes a crowd of 15 “theatre people” can out-laugh and out-applaud an audience of 200.

Let’s be honest, one of the biggest draws, if not THE biggest, to doing live theatre is the immediate feedback of an audience. Yeah yeah, actors like to develop characters and delve into the complicated nuances of a play, but really, we do it to entertain people. An audience can have a huge impact on a performance depending on how they react. It’s not supposed to - we are supposed to give the same great show every night regardless - but when an audience is falling into the aisles with laughter, you can’t help milking the really funny bits or pumping up things here and there because you know they will love it.

Conversely, a timid and unresponsive audience makes an actor wonder what the heck he or she is doing wrong. So we might deliver a line differently to test the waters, but usually it doesn’t help. Or we just feel like the show is dragging and cross our fingers that at the curtain call, the audience really did enjoy the show, but were afraid to audibly express it.

No matter whether the audience is quiet or raucous, really, we are all just super excited that they showed up in the first place! Without an audience, well there wouldn’t be much theatre happening. Not only because community theatres depend on the generosity of their patrons to stay afloat, but because without an audience, we might as well just be singing into our hairbrushes in front of a mirror. I am deeply appreciative to all my friends and family that have taken time out of their busy schedules to come and support me and what I do. It means a great deal to me and I can’t ever fully express my gratitude. I know it’s not cheap to come to the theatre and it takes time and planning. Yet, many of you have come to every show I’ve ever been in and some of you come multiple times. You are all amazing and I thank you for your continuous love and support!

Opening Night!!

The time has finally come, here we are, opening night of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  What started out as a dirty rotten audition nearly 11 weeks ago is now a full-fledged piece of musical comedy artistry. The set is painted, the lights are beaming, the band is jammin', the costumes are sparkling, and a cast of 19 is poised to take the stage.  This past week was long and arduous and amidst the feelings of "damn, this is a butt-ton of work" there is an energy in the air. We are ready to entertain you!

Our director spoke to us last night about how musical theatre is this magical thing that exists no where else. Where else do you get to burst into song in the middle of a conversation, or start dancing with a group of people who all know the same steps? When is it ever appropriate to sing a song about "fresh shaved testicles on Christmas Day" or "playing naked Twister" or "praying you look good in shorts."  Ok, well maybe I sing about the last one each time summer rolls around. You get swept away in the absurdness of it all and find that you get to do all this crazy stuff on stage and it is totally acceptable.  Oh, and people come and watch and laugh and clap for you. It's pretty freaking amazing.

I'm glad that I get to partake in such a wonderful bit of magic. It's fulfilling to be surrounded by people who are not only wickedly talented, but also so dedicated and committed to making something great. Will it be perfect? Probably not.  Will it be entertaining? You bet your ass it will. So buy a dang ticket already and come watch us perform a bit of magic for you. And if magic isn't your thing, well then, come for all the hot chicks that are in the show.

Hey look, that's me!

CitySolve Urban Race Denver - 2012

This past Saturday, Evan, Megan, and I once again participated in the CitySolve Urban Race Denver. You may remember that we did this same race last year and our team, The Flux Capacitors, placed 57th out of 310 teams. CitySolve Urban Race is a scavenger hunt race all around downtown Denver. You must solve clues that lead you to different locations around the city and you are only allowed to walk/run and take the bus (no bikes, skateboards, cars, taxis, etc.). 

After last year's race, I was so sore that I could barely walk for several days.  So in preparation for this year...uh, I didn't do anything different. Well, the night before I stretched extensively and then I stretched again the next morning.  Then, about 15 minutes before the race started, I took 2 advil and hoped for the best.

Since we had done the race before, we had an idea of what to expect from the clues. We knew that they like to have people go to places with interesting names and places that are easy to write questions about.  Since I now work downtown, I was making mental notes of every interesting sounding restaurant and bar that I drove by. We also researched the 5280 best restaurants/bar list to try to commit to memory as many places as we could.

At noon, the first clue gets unfurled at Stoney's Bar and Grill (11th and Lincoln) to give us the first checkpoint.

It's hard to read from this picture, but it says: "Which actor was born in Denver?"
>>I don't remember what the other multiple choice answers were, but once I saw "Tim Allen," I knew that was it. After each multiple choice answer there was a location.  That's where you go to get the packet of 10 clues to solve and start the race. The Tim Allen location was at 14th and Broadway, Civic Center Park.
Note: Last year, the first place was at the Capitol. We knew the first clue has to be a place where lots of people can gather and sit and solve the other 10 clues. So I was thinking it would be Civic Center Park and that just confirmed that Tim Allen was the correct answer.

So, we ran (yes, RAN!) from Stoney's to Civic Center Park, grabbed the clue packet, found a bench, and got to work. We started figuring out the clues and quickly discovered that 200 people all in the same place, accessing the same internet was bogging down everyone's service.  It was extremely frustrating! It took 15 minutes for one page to load. Grrr!! Anyway, we had most of the clues figured out and just decided that the ones we still had to look up could wait till we were on our way and got better cell service.

Here was our route:

Q4: Are these really cheaper? Unscramble the following words, and identify the serving size they often share.  Add one to that number get the Avenue this checkpoint is located on.  You'll find your destination on the 200 block, with the help of the numerical theme.  Words: SHOTMN, SOERS, GESG, SELGAB, ROJSUR, SUNDOT.

>>After "MONTHS" and "ROSES", I knew the answer was dozen and the place was Dozens Cafe.  Oddly enough, this was one of the places I drove by and thought, "I'm gonna remember this place just in case it's one of the clues." Ta da!  Dozens on 13th was our first checkpoint.

Q8: Now that's what I call music. The Dave Matthews Band and The Counting Crows have songs with the same celestial body in the title.  Find a pub near Grant and E Colfax whose name shares the subject of the song.

>>We didn't really know what this one was.  But we knew Grant and Colfax was nearby so we figured we would just go there and find it.  And we did: Satellite Bar.

Q10: Go directly to jail, do not pass go...This checkpoint is a cafe at the intersection of two streets. 1) One street is known for a railroad sandwiched between a block of magenta properties and a block of orange properties. 2) The cross street is a numbered Eastern Avenue.  To find this correct avenue, you must know how many spaces needed to travel on the Monopoly board - starting on GO - to get to New York Avenue. When you find this locale, locate the Yelp staff and they'll take you through a fun activity.

>> Megan knew the railroad was Pennsylvania so at least we could start there. I was trying to find a monopoly board picture on my phone, but it was taking 500 years. So I had to look this up while we were walking to the Satellite Bar.  Finally, it came up and the answer to the second part of the question was 19 - So 19th and Pennsylvania was our next stop (a place I drive by everyday). It was a coffee shop and once we got there, we had to find a menu item that was inspired by a cookie.  We found that it was snickerdoodle, told the Yelp person, got our picture taken and away we went.

Q2: Mural mural on the wall...Find this public art, it's located very close to a lounge whose name is the logo on the helmet of Peyton Manning's former team. (It gave a picture of the mural).

>>Ok, so of course we knew immediately that it was a horseshoe.  Last year, we had trouble finding the Horseshoe Lounge, but thought that had to be it again.  And that lounge was right by the coffee shop above.  We literally turned the corner and the mural was right there.  Hooray!

Q7: You're beautiful...People Magazine recently came out with its Most Beautiful issue, but CitySolve ain't gonna make you find Beyonce. Instead, you'll need to find things CitySolve thinks is beautiful..FOOD! Find someone taking a bite of a cupcake, taco, or donut. The person must be a non-racer.

>>We thought we were gonna skip this one as our free skip.  But one of the other clues (VooDoo Comedy Club) was kind of far out from all the other clues, so we decided to skip that one instead.  Luckily, we decided this just as we were passing a convenient store.  We rushed inside and asked the clerk if he'd be willing to eat a donut for us (after we purchased it of course).  He was a little confused, but he agreed.  We bought a pack of donuts and he took a bite. Just as we were taking this photo, a few other teams came in and probably had the same idea.  We were glad we got there first because this guy probably had to start turning people down as the day went on.

Q9: You call that a range....This checkpoint is a shop where you can find home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play. You may also remember the name from a 1980 Gonzo bio-pic. You'll find this checkpoint on 16th Street.

>>I was kinda clueless about this one, but Megan thought pretty quickly of the store, Where the Buffalo Roam. After some quick searching of the 1980 movie hint, we confirmed that was right.

Q5: Everything's better down where it's wetter...Solve the poem below.  You'll find it on Champa Street. Poem: Once mistook for manatees, they rose up from the sea. Investing wealth from Disney fame, begot this bakery.

>>Duh..the little mermaid.  Evan searched Mermaid Bakery and bam the next checkpoint was easy to find.

Q3: Hold the anchovies...This checkpoint will take you just about as far up the 16th st mall as you can go without walking into the river. To find the block number, multiply Julius Thomas's jersey by Wilin Rosario's jersey. You're looking for a place that might make a clover cobbler and a rabbit's foot pizza.  When you arrive, you'll meet the official charity and they will take you through a challenge.

>>This one really confused us. We knew we were headed to north 16th street mall, but could not think of what pizza place this was referencing. We tried searching menus and even called a few places to see if they made clover cobbler.  Nothing was coming up.  Then, as we were walking to the 3rd checkpoint, it dawned on me- we were being too literal. Clover and rabbit's foot were both good luck charms...it had to do something with luck or lucky.  Then it hit me Lucky Pie!! I knew there was one in Louisville, so Evan searched it and they also had a location on 16th street. Woohoo!  We got there and the "challenge" was to donate $5 to the charity.  Good thing we had cash...



Q1: Why isn't there a queen of beers? To find this checkpoint, fill in the following clues. Then, unscramble the parenthesized letters to spell the name of a thematic destination located 1/3 mile of Coors Field.

-Source of bitterness in brewing H(O)PS

-Home of Coors: G(O)LDE(N)

-Amber Lager brewed by Coors: (I didn't know this one)

-Not Bottled by on _____: TA(P)

-2 hydrogen + 1 oxygen: (W)ATER

-Fermentation ingredient: (Y)EAST

>>So I had the letters OON?PWY. I didn't need the "K" to know this was Wynkoop.

And that's it!! We were done!! Now all we had to do was take the 16th street bus back up to Civic Center Park and make our way back to the finish line at Stoney's. We kept checking and double checking our list to make sure we didn't forget a clue (other than our 1 intentional skip). And we didn't, we were done! Once we got off the bus, we ran a little to get to Stoney's and ended up beating one other group by a few seconds.

They marked down our time and we go inside to get our photos checked.  We notice that there are not too many teams hanging about the restaurant. We start thinking that maybe we are one of the first few finishers. The top 3 teams win prizes and the top 25 teams earn entry into the national race in Miami in November. The results were posted yesterday...with a time of 1 hour 38 minutes and 41 seconds....we placed 14th!!!!! There were 130 teams this year. We are stoked!!

Whether or not we will actually do the Miami race is yet to be determined. And maybe the best part of the whole thing is that I felt great afterward! No soreness, no blisters, nothing.  (Well, the next day my foot started hurting really badly, but on Saturday I was fine!) It's important to note that the checkpoints were much closer together than last year and we didn't lose time trying to find a clue. Overall, a super success and another fun day running around Denver!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: 2.5 Weeks To Go!

We are now 2.5 weeks away from opening night of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Holy. Shit. We still have about half of Act II to block and then comes a lot of clean-up work and tightening up of scenes. Oh and then there’s that whole memorization of lines thing….uh…about that…I can positively say that I have Act I totally memorized! Full disclosure: I’m only in 3 scenes in Act I. There are still a lot of technical things to be completed and figured out, but somehow it will all magically come together by opening night. And if you see a flat that is still painted white, well then we totally meant for it to be that way. :)


So what is a blog without some personal revelation? Ok here goes. I’m struggling. I’m sad to write that, but it’s true. To be more specific, I’m struggling with just one song. Probably the most important song my character sings and I fuck it up far more times than I do it correctly. My voice cracks, I can’t find a single note in the right key, and I’m so out of shape that I can’t walk two steps and sing without becoming completely short of breath.

I’ve been worried about this song from day one, but I thought with continual practice I would eventually get better. Plus, I thought once we blocked and choreographed the song, it would all come together and I would magically sound perfect. Nope, it’s just not happening. And I’m pissed off and depressed about it. I want so badly to be spectacular at this song, but I’m so terrified I will completely humiliate myself that I am literally sick to my stomach. The REALLY annoying part is that I know this damn song. I have sung it hundreds of times and I probably hum it in my sleep. There is absolutely no reason I should be doing so poorly. I’m not writing this to gain sympathy or to fish for some form of positive reinforcement. I’m hoping that by putting it all out there, I will kick myself into shape and perform the dang song like I know I can. I need to convince myself to pull it together and rise to the occasion because I’ll be damned if I’ll let all my friends and family come to the show just to watch me make a fool of myself!

UGH! Ok, now that that’s done, let’s talk about the good stuff. What I can tell you about the show is that it is going to be A-MAH-ZING! Yes, even if I totally screw up my song, the rest of the show is so good that it won’t even matter. I mean it’s really freaking good. And hysterical. I’ve heard these songs and listened to these scenes for weeks now and I still find myself laughing out loud because it’s just that funny. The whole entire cast is fantastic, the choreography is complex and compelling, the music is beyond fun, and Pat’s direction is simply divine. So please plan on coming!! Here’s a link to the facebook event with all the details. See you there!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: 3 Weeks Down, 6.5 to Go

So, here I am at the beginning of the 4th week of rehearsals for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Up to this point, we have been primarily practicing music and last week introduced a bit of dance. The next two weeks will be all choreography with a few music rehearsals for principles tossed in. Then, it’s finally time to get down to the blocking and acting portion of the show. I’ve kinda been in denial that I actually have to memorize lines. Isn’t singing and dancing enough? No, apparently audiences want plot and character development too. Jerks.

The music in this show is exciting, but it is super high and complex. The poor baritones and tenors are hanging out in the rafters with the sopranos and most of the leads’ songs  span three octaves and contain at least one key change. Oh and let’s not forget about the thousands of tongue-twisting lyrics, plus the myriad of ohs, ahs, ba das, titty tit tits (yeah, you heard me) that the ensemble sings in every song. It all comes together to make an awesome show, but it is difficult stuff, especially for this trying-to-fake-my-way-through musician.

So it’s a little hard to tell you about the music and not have you hear some of it. So, go here and you will see a music player on the right hand of the screen. This will play a short sample from each song of the show. Hopefully, hearing some of the music will start to make you as excited about this show as I am! It’s gonna be pretty spectacular, so you should go ahead and buy tickets right now.

One Dirty Rotten Audition

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Speaking of random Sound of Music lyrics, SOM was the last musical I did where I had a substantial singing role – the role of Maria. That was my senior year of high school, exactly 10 years ago this month. Since then, I’ve only done 1 musical (Grease, Frenchy) and didn’t have any solos or anything real complicated to perform. I have only done straight comedies and dramas since then. I haven’t even auditioned for a musical since Grease in 2006.


Several years ago, I was streaming the show tunes channel on some internet radio station at work (yes, I’m a nerd who totally listens to show tunes all the time). The song, “Here I Am,” from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels came on and I instantly loved it. At the time, I knew nothing about the musical, I just happened to like the tune. I made Evan download it to his ipod so I could sing along with it from time to time.

Last year or so, when Longmont Theatre Company announced their new season, I noticed that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was on the list and thought, “Hey! That’s the musical with that one song I like.” This is the musical version of the 1988 movie starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine. DRS premiered on Broadway in 2005 and it may very well be the first time it has been performed by a non-professional theatre in the Denver/Boulder region. I’m totally guessing at that, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone performing that around town in recent years. I was planning on auditioning for it for some time because, after some research, I determined that the show sounded really fun. Needless to say, I sang “Here I Am” far too much in the months leading up to auditions. The song is sung by the female lead of the show, Christine Colgate.

Fast forward to two weekends ago, when I actually auditioned for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I prepared “What You Want” from Legally Blonde the Musical. (Side note: If you haven’t seen this musical, buy a ticket to the Arvada Center’s production this summer. Legally Blonde is a giant, pink, glittery ball of fun!) I know this song inside and out because I have been singing along to the CD for years now. I practiced a lot and thought I was aptly prepared for my audition…if it wasn’t for those pesky things called nerves. Singing makes me INCREDIBLY nervous. I love to sing, but I am acutely aware that I am not the greatest singer and I know that my nerves always have embarrassing effects on my vocal chords.

So there I was in a (freaking freezing) room ready to audition. A few people go before me and they are all outstanding! I finally muster up the courage, hand the music to the musical director, slate (give my name and title of the song, for you non-actor folks)…and start to sing. Ugh, here come the nerves in full force! I rush my tempo, can’t decide if I should be singing in chest voice or head voice, my voice cracks and I’m pretty sure I go out of tune on the whole last measure. But, the one good thing I can say about my audition is that I barreled my way through. I didn’t stop or get completely screwed up, and that’s saying a lot for me!

I take a seat and watch everybody else do their audition. I’m not exaggerating when I say that every single person who auditioned was PHENOMENAL. I truly enjoyed listening to them all and thought to myself, “Gee, I hope I’m somehow good enough to make it into the chorus because this show is gonna rock if all these people are in it.” After the singing was over, we got to do some dancing and that was a lot of fun. I was surprised at how well I could pick up the steps seeing as how it has been years since I’ve done any dancing on stage as well.

By some miracle of miracles, I get called back. The evening between auditions and callbacks is spent practicing songs for callbacks for hours. I’m excited for callbacks, but also very nervous again. At least with callbacks, you get to do some reading and if there is one thing I can actually do in this audition, it is act! We do the singing first. I do much better at callbacks than I did at auditions and I finally tell myself to get with the program, stop being nervous, and sing these songs loud and proud. For the most part I do. The songs are all high and belty so it can be a bit taxing, but I sang my heart out. Then we did some reading, which was, of course, my favorite part and something I’m not at all nervous to do. The music in this show is so stinking good, that I was really looking forward to being in the ensemble. The director also mentioned that the each ensemble member will play like 10 parts, so how cool would that be?

Callbacks were over and now comes the waiting. Waiting: The absolute worst word in an actor’s vocabulary. The rest of Sunday goes by without a word. Monday drags on without a peep. Then it is Tuesday…nothing until about 7:30pm.

The phone, that magical bringer or intense joy or grief, rings and the number is unknown. I know this is it and I’m dying to find out whether or not I made it into the ensemble. I pick up and it’s the show’s producer, “… we’d like to offer you the part of Christine.” I don’t remember clearly what my response was exactly, but I think it was something along the lines of, “Holy crap! Christine? ME?! Are you kidding?!” At this point, I am over-the-moon ecstatic and pants-crapping terrified at the same time. I am so overjoyed to be playing this part and completely overwhelmed by the amount of work I’ll have to do to prepare the role.

Time to dust off those vocal chords, stretch out the jazz hands, and get ready to step into the spotlight. Luckily, I don’t have to do it alone. My lovely husband, Ev-face, will be playing numerous roles in the ensemble and will undoubtedly steal every scene he is in. Rehearsals start this week and away we go! Mark your calendars now for May 11-26 and plan to come see this fabulous show!

New Year, New Floor

Evan and I moved into our house 6 years ago.  Since then, we've only made minor improvements to our "builder's basic" home.  We've changed out some window treatments, done some paint (still badly needs more), updated a few lighting fixtures, done slight landscaping and that's about it.  Our house had pretty basic options when it was built in the late 90s - and those basic options just haven't held up very well.  The carpet has become "crushed" in spots and stained/worn in all the high traffic areas. The linoleum in the kitchen, while not an offensive pattern or color, was worn, stained, knicked and showed every speck of dirt. I have hated that kitchen floor since the day we moved in. Mopping quickly became my most loathed household chore because after an hour of cleaning, the floor still looked dirty.

After some budgeting and cost calculations, I determined that now was the time to make some major improvements. So, we took the plunge; new tile floor here we come! As you will see in the pictures below, we have a small entry way from our front door that leads to our living room and then a small strip of carpet in front of our stairs that leads to the kitchen.  This small, but heavily traveled carpeted area, was almost black with dirt.  No matter how many times we got our carpet cleaned, this area was always the worst. So, we decided to tile the kitchen and extend that tile in front of the stairs to meet up with the front entry way.

Here is what the space looked like before:
Kitchen: 
 




 
Area in front of stairs/entry way:
 

We are lucky enough to have a friend, Crystal, who has a boyfriend, Dennis, that is a professional tiler (tile layer?). They came over and looked at the space and gave me a really reasonable quote. All sounded good to me, so I was off to go find some tile. I went to Lowe's and only found 1 tile that I kind of liked. I brought a sample home to lay on the floor and I really didn't like it that much.  That tile was $1.50/sq. ft.

I did some searching online for alternative tile stores and came across Floor & Decor in Arvada. Online, they had prices like .55/sq ft etc. so I thought I need to go check this out! I ran over there last weekend and, again, only really found 1 style that I liked.  I got a sample of that and then grabbed another sample just so I could see a few options.  Turns out, the one I liked was the same one most of my family liked and that made the decision pretty easy. The best part was that the price was $.89/sq ft! Oh, I should mention that this is ceramic tile that is 13x13.

Here is the tile I chose:
 
A little hard to tell from the picture, but it is a mostly gray tile with streaks of beige. Pretty neutral and it should go with the remaining carpet and the cabinets and counter top in the kitchen.

The area to be tiled measured about 203 square feet, so we needed about 225 sq ft to accommodate cutting, broken tiles and what not. With the help of my sister's big Yukon, we hauled the tile back to the house.  Good god those boxes were heavy!! And I had 15 boxes! Luckily my brother-in-law helped me load them into the house otherwise I'm pretty sure my arms would have fallen off.

On Friday, Dennis came over to start the tear out and prime the floor.  The plan was to tile over the existing linoleum to save the effort and labor cost of ripping it out and resurfacing the sub-floor. He started by ripping out the disgusting carpet. I was so happy to see that go!! Even the rough sub-floor underneath looked better than that gross piece of carpet.
 

Next, he ripped out the linoleum (plus stick-on vinyl tiles) in the entry way. Then, he went to rip out the tack strip in the area where the kitchen linoleum met with the former ugly carpet area and had a premonition. He noticed that the linoleum in the kitchen was only glued around the perimeter and not all the way through like it should have been. He pulled up a little strip and shook it and sure enough, the linoleum rippled all the way through the kitchen proving that it wasn't adhered all the way through. Therefore, the sub-floor underneath was smooth, unmarred and the perfect base to lay tile.  So away with the linoleum!
 
 After a few hours, he had the carpet ripped out, new plywood laid where the carpet was (to create one level surface), the linoleum ripped out and the floor primed so when he came back Saturday morning he could start laying out and setting the tile.
 
Ugh, see that big water spot in front of the dishwasher? Apparently some time before we bought the house there was a dishwasher explosion. :) The wood wasn't warped or rotted, just stained fortunately.
 

 

On Saturday, Dennis started laying out the tile and it was fun to see the floor start to take shape. 


 

Dennis got most of the work done on Saturday - much to the dismay of his aching back and knees.  That meant on Sunday all he had left to do was lay a few more pieces in our small pantry and then do the grout.  We also had a carpet guy come to tuck the carpet where the tile meets up with the living room.  It looks like it was always meant to be this way!
 

Finally, it was grout time.  Probably the most stressful part of the whole project for me was picking a grout color!  Ok, so not really, but I had never even thought of it before so I didn't know exactly how to choose the right one.  I went with a light/medium gray and it ended up looking fantastic. 

So, after about 18 hours of work, our new floor is done (well, I'm allowing extra time for the grout to set before I put all my stuff back in the kitchen).  The new tile is BEAUTIFUL!! I love it! We even ended up with extra tile which means there was hardly any waste.  Dennis did a fantastic job! He was thorough, meticulous, and just clearly knew what he was doing. Plus he gave us an awesome deal.  If you ever need tile work (kitchen, showers, counter tops, etc.) please let me know and I'll send him your way.  Simply amazing!  

And here is the finished product: