For Your Entertainment

Yesterday's blog post seemed so sad when I re-read it, although I do appreciate the comments. So difficult to take it slow again - it feels like I'm returning to start.

Anyway, to lighten the mood I'm posting a video from YouTube - in case you haven't seen it yet. After watching 55 performances of Romeo and Juliet you begin to see the holes in Shakespeare's script and it gets a bit depressing: Death? Again?! So here's how her fate may have been avoided:

Shoes! A Long and Frivolous Post

First, I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on my return to blogging, it was quite a boost after closing a show that wasn't so much fun. Of course not all the actors in Romeo and Juliet were annoying; I actually enjoyed quite a few of them, like Scott Greer who plays a supporting role in my shoe story.

Scott Greer is like the energizer actor; he just keeps on working, all over Philadelphia. The major reason is, of course, that he is a phenomenal actor. In addition, he's a wonderful cast member -- kind, considerate, and fun.

Mr. Greer played Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet only he couldn't make all the performances because right after we opened, he started rehearsals for another play, Shining City, with another theater company (incidentally with the same director who directed R and J). As part of his contract for R and J, the Arden agreed that his understudy would go on for 3 performances.

Enter Benjamin Lovell who was Mr. Greer's understudy. I had met Mr. Lovell when he understudied 2 roles during History Boys (now, that cast I could never complain about). Mr. Lovell was not always an actor. He began his life (or the the part of his life that I know about) as a shoe salesman opening up several shoe stores in the greater Philly area. The shoe stores, Benjamin Lovell Shoes, are quite well-known in the area because they carry some very nice brands--Clark's, Danskos, Naot, etc. I had no idea that he had these shoe stores until he brought us all coupons for the shoe store.

Mr. Lovell has said that when he meets a new person he doesn't look at his/her eyes, he looks at the shoes. He says he can tell everything about a person by the shoes. I wonder about that. I wished I had asked him but we were too busy going over lines and blocking.

I'm not a shoe person. I'm not even a clothes person. I hate spending more than $20 on jeans or shoes. Well, that's not entirely true. I do spend money on running sneakers but I don't buy new ones every 500 miles as suggested; it's more like every 3 years or so. Truth be told, I prefer thrift stores. Going into a department store and seeing the same item of clothing in 50 different colors and 52 different sizes overwhelms me. And, you can find the best stuff in thrift stores. Case in point, here's a totally cool pair of pants I found in a consignment shop recently:

Wait for it though, you HAVE to see the back:

You won't be finding those pants at Target! They fit me perfectly and were only $12. I call them my party pants.

But I digress. Yesterday, it rained all day, and I had some residual bummerness about not being the best of all possible stage managers on R and J, and not getting along with everyone--so I went shoe shopping. And, I spent money. I bought 2 pairs of Danskos because, well they were extremely comfortable and because everyone, I mean EVERYONE has told me how great they are. The salesperson told me that once I own a pair of Danskos, I'll always own a pair. I'm not so sure about that but I am tickled pink about my purchase. I can't tell you why I'm so happy but I am. Retail therapy I guess. Oh, here's a picture of them:


I wore the sandals all last night and they were the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. The clogs I have on right now so I'll let you know.

Who knew shoes could make you happy?

The Return of the Cocktail

So I suspended my blog a couple of months ago because I felt it was stale and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. As I mulled it over, I realized that I wanted a blog to chronicle some new personal goals I have set for myself -- learn how to sing, run a marathon, and become a phenomenal stage manager. Not only will it be great to have a record of what I'm doing in order to reach my goals, I hope it also motivates me to keep trying, even on bad days.

While all this pondering was going on, I was also stage managing Romeo and Juliet at the Arden. The show closed yesterday and it was quite successful. A solid production with some great acting. Unfortunately, working on the show was incredibly difficult for me. The schedule was brutal, especially the performance schedule. We did several student matinees (which meant arriving at the theater at 8 am) as well as evening performances--sometimes in the same day. In between the shows, I had to go home, see my kids for a hot second, make dinner and then return to the theater.

In addition, I didn't enjoy all the cast members as I had during previous productions. I felt that several of the cast members had no respect for me at all. It seemed they just wanted me to stroke their ego and fetch them things. It was very dispiriting for me. I'm sure it didn't help that I stopped running for a while due to weather and a running injury. I do think exercise helps us keeps things in perspective.

But the show itself was good and hopefully as I reflect on the experience I'll learn something from it. Most importantly, it's over. Now, it's on to more singing lessons, more running (yup back on the streets, more on that later), and another show in a couple of weeks. I'll leave you with a clip of our production of R and J:

A Simple Life

Prep week starts this week for Romeo and Juliet so I'll be posting less than usual, which is hard to believe seeing as how I've barely posted lately. It's really just that I've been extremely busy doing...nothing.

Yeah, that's right, I'm the queen of inactivity, the first one to say, "Let's just grab a beer and sit." It's rubbed off on my children as well (I wonder if they've discovered a gene for inactivity?). I may have written about this before but one my favorite sayings by my daughter is, "Mom, you should give me an allowance for doing nothing because it's the hardest thing to do. You can't stop to rest."

Amen, sister.

I have been trying to stay busy and start doing things. For years, I wanted to be one of those mothers who always complained about having too much to do because it sounded like these moms led such exciting lives. Finally, I gave up and turned on the TV to watch Mildred Pierce about a mom who worked herself to the bone for her daughter only to have her daughter turn on her. Instant justification for my lifestyle.

Anyway, I have been filling my time with activities but nothing exciting enough to post about. Case in point, I've taken up knitting. You're excused for yawning. I'm hoping it proves to be a viable activity for me during rehearsals and the show. I can't exactly read during my down time and sometimes, as bad as it is, I'll go smoke a cigarette. It's a boredom factor and it gets me out of the building.

You might say, "How can you smoke and be a runner?" Well, let me tell you it's not that difficult. I don't run very fast and I don't smoke all that much. I'm just hoping knitting replaces the ciggies.

Oh, and I have been running again. I took about a month off around the holidays because of the terrific snowstorm, the high winds, and the general hubbub around the holidays. Unfortunately, I didn't stop eating as much as I did when I was running 6-8 miles at a time. And, guess what? I gained weight! It's never happened to me before. I've always been one of those lucky people with the high metabolism. Make that, I WAS one of those lucky people....Damn the 40's. Everyone said it would happen to me when I turned 40 and I just didn't believe them.

That's about it (besides baking bread which I know I've written about) so you can see why I have nothing to post about. Here's hoping R & J has some interesting moments. In the meantime, how about a beer?