Meow House Theatre

I have been cast in a video, shooting this Sunday. It’s for a 7-part sort-of mini-sitcom, one of those modern ones that don’t have a laugh track. Think “The Office” meets “Awkward Geeky Math Nerds’ Love Affair.”

I am actually not quite sure where it’s going to end up playing; I think it’s one of these new Internet-based TV-style serials, which apparently quite a lot of producers/directors and studios are starting to put out. After seeing the enormous success of lonelygirl15 and her 13,000,000 views and 101,000 subscribers on YouTube, advertisers and the TV/media industry realized the huge potential there is in shooting specifically for Internet broadcasting. Several networks are now producing full-length TV series and movies specifically and solely for broadcast via the Internet. I think it’s going to be a huge market very soon.

So I got an email from the director and I was cast! I play “Secretary.” It’s not some huge part or anything, but I do get to open every episode. And it will be fun; it turns out there are several people I know who were also cast. And it’s a credit, one more line on the resume.

If you want my autograph now, while they’re cheap, lemme know.

I was just getting read to post an entry about the play I was in this past Sunday, in which I mentioned that one of the actors didn’t show up and the director had to learn his part in about 5 minutes, and I just received word that he didn’t show up because he was found dead in his apartment yesterday morning.  I was really worried on Sunday because it wasn’t like this man to just not show up, or not call … he was one of the giants of the Boston improv community and completely professional and committed. His obituary isn’t in the paper yet so I’m going to wait on posting his name. I’m just shocked by this. We had our rehearsal last week and he was as wonderful as always. I had just friended him and his group’s MySpace profiles and hadn’t made a “hello” comment yet and I feel strangely awful about that.

No word on any arrangements yet. So terrible. A big loss for all of us.

I have a terrible problem with pants.

Every time I buy pants, I try them on. I cannot buy pants like I can shirts: shirts I can look at and figure out if they fit. Pants are mutant garments that morph in the time it takes to remove them from the rack and get them home. They might seem like they’re going to fit, but they don’t.

Anyway, I pick out pants and they fit in the dressing room. But once I get home and wear them for an hour or two, they stretch out and become huge. I have to keep them up with a giant safety pin. (Big enough to set off metal detectors.) Some of them have stretched SO much that I can take them off without unzipping or unbuttoning them. I might have lost a little weight but I’d had to have lost 30 pounds to make them this big. The pin works okay but it’s a bit of a hassle, always having to pin and unpin myself. Plus it makes a bit of a lump in the front. Not much, but I notice it. Other people probably just think I’m fat. Fatter.

So I’m tired of the safety pin so this past weekend I bought several more pairs. And I bought ones that were slightly tight. Because then, when they stretched out, they’d be normal.

I’ve worn two pairs already. The first stretched out to the point where I don’t quite need a safety pin but they are too big.

The second is worse. They haven’t stretched AT ALL. There is nothing more uncomfortable than wearing too-tight pants. And, they are too short. I didn’t realize this before. I am hardly a giantess and yet it’s hard to find pants that are long enough. Or, they’re extremely long. These are short and I feel like all I need is a short-sleeved man’s shirt, a pocket protector, and a visor, and I’ll fit right in at the local Dungeons & Dragons gathering, or perhaps a MENSA meeting.

This non-stretching is unusual though. Usually they become too big. I want to know what country is trying to take us over by manufacturing pants that behave this way. I think there’s a plot to sell us pants, have them stretch out to the extreme, and then one day when we’re all suddenly flailing around with our pants unexpectedly at our knees (not everyone knows where to buy giant safety pins), that country’s terrorists will win.

The movie The Women, a remake of the 1939 George Cukor film, is being filmed outside my office. I think it’s Meg Ryan and Annette Bening. Possibly Andy Garcia; I heard someone mention him. I had actually come across their filming already, on Friday, when I went to get my car parked in South Boston. But at the time I didn’t know what movie it was. They were set up but it was late so they weren’t filming right at that moment, although there were crew milling about.

I feel bad for the local businesses; they are sort of taking over the street (and have blocked all vehicular traffic) and while they cannot forbid people to walk down it, the crew is making it seem like you’re “not supposed” to. Which is complete and total bullshit. They are even asking people where they are going. I’d like them to try that with me. (I walked right through it but I cut around a corner so by the time they could have seen me, I was halfway in.) They plonked themselves right in front of the local grocery and did not “let” anyone in or out for 3-4 hours this morning. And they are not compensating the owner. He is far more reasonable than I would be.

I saw Meg Ryan earlier as I went to get lunch. I’ll see if I can film anything unobtrusively with my trusty I-take-it-everywhere video camera. I feel kind of weird shooting video at these people, given that I don’t even like Meg Ryan in the first place. She has always struck me as a bit of a ferret-faced whiner. Although I did like her in When Harry Met Sally, because I enjoyed the anal-retentiveness of her character. Oh, and that scene she did in Top Gun when she ran into Anthony Edwards’s arms–that was actually really sweet and heartwarming–I guess the army brat in me appreciated the joy of a homecoming. Everything else she’s been in, well pardon me while I puke hearts and flowers. Her usual roles are far too treacly for my taste.

I just found out that I got the last slot in a workshop at The Second City in October. Woot! So I fly in on a Thursday night and then it’s all-improv all-the-time for three whole days. Plus going to a Mainstage show with the class on Friday night; of course I’ll go to one on Saturday night too. I’ll have to go to as much as I can while I’m there–I need to check the schedules for iO and the Annoyance too, because it would be bad if I don’t at least try to hit those while I’m so close by. I wonder if all the theatres are grouped together like they are in New York, where it’s easy to make a quick run from one show to the next one and thus see several at different venues in one night. I’ll have to figure this all out before I go; I’ve been to Chicago before but I would not say I am “familiar” with the city at all.

I am rather curious about seeing a Second City show, not to mention being in one of their workshops, because from what I gather it’s quite a different style than I am used to. I am not entirely sure I’m going to like it as much. Although of course I am keeping an open mind. Plus it’s The Second City! Just the name alone makes me think there’s bound to be some part of it I really enjoy, if not all of it. There have been too many people whose work I greatly admire who studied there to not like it just for that alone. Plus it’s good to work with different teachers and see different styles, so I am looking forward to it very much. I’m so glad I got in! I have planned to go and then the flight I would have needed got completely booked so I said screw it, but then on a lark I checked again later on and the flight had re-opened–so I bought the ticket and sent in the application and now it’s all set!

As if I’m not crazy enough with flying to Chicago for a class, I am also taking another UCB class every week in New York starting in October also (which starts after the Second City one of course). So my current plan is to drive to my mom’s in Connecticut on Friday nights and then drive to New York on Saturday morning, take my class, and then hang out in the city for the day—see various shows, go to museums, whatever–and then drive back to my mom’s on Saturday night and spend the night. Maybe stay over a few times in the city but not every weekend. Then on Sunday early afternoon drive back to Boston so I can take my other class at ImprovBoston that night. This will last about 8 weeks although there are a few weeks in there that I won’t have both classes on that weekend because IB is moving into a fabulous new space and so the class schedule got adjusted while they set things up.

And I’m in a play (a scripted–not improv’d–play) in September, just a short little thing but it sounds pretty funny. I get to act silly and maybe even speak horrendous French! (Please note that I actually speak beautiful French–thank you very much–but it’s fun to do it “bad”–terrible accent, loud-talking [that makes it easier to understand, doesn’t it?] , pronouncing all the S’s, etc.)

Phew! That’s a lot of driving and improv! It also means that for 8 weeks I will have barely any time on the weekends to do anything else. This is really going to be the time I need to hire Merry Maids.

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I went to the 7:30 show of ASSSSCAT 3000 at UCB on Sunday.  It was completely hilarious. Really good lineup: Amy Poehler from UCB and SNL, as usual; Seth Meyers from SNL; Samm Levine from Freaks and Geeks; John Lutz from 30 Rock; Lennon Parham (UCB and many plays and commercials); Miriam Tolan (UCB, The Office, The Daily Show); and several other guys from 30 Rock and UCB, please forgive me for not getting everyone’s name. Yes I admit I don’t watch 30 Rock and so didn’t recognize everyone. Not that I wouldn’t want to watch it; I just don’t watch that much TV. I was also told Horatio Sanz (UCB, SNL) was there, which surprised me because I had no memory whatsoever of seeing him and thought I must be slowly (or actually, maybe it’s more appropriate to say “quickly”) sliding toward forgetful dementia, until someone said it’s possible he was only in the later show, not the earlier one that I attended.

The way ASSSSCAT works is fairly similar to the structure of my class show at UCB (obviously these performers actually know what they’re doing and are really good at it). Amy comes out and introduces the show and talks for a few minutes to explain everything: they have a guest monologuist (Samm Levine) who starts off by doing a 2-minute talk based on some word that the audience suggests. He then sits down and the rest of the group do scenes–based on that monologue. I guess it’s not technically a Harold that they do, but the scenes to tend to intertwine and refer back to one another. Sort of a half-Assssed Harold.

The first word suggested was “Eggos” (as in the waffles), which led to scenes about summer camp, a Jewish basketball team, and later on to a Taliban group struggling to find an available domain name (my favorite: I think it was Seth Meyers who offered “How about Talibang.com?”). The next monologue was about Samm’s experiences as a child who loved milkshakes, until he accidentally drank his mother’s beautiful creamy milkshake-like drink that turned out to be probably a heavily loaded Brandy Alexander, and whose throat is still on fire from it all these years later. All in all I think there were three or four monologues and scenes off all of them. It was a laugh riot. If you haven’t gone and are in New York, you really should try to make it. You need to reserve and pay ahead for the 7:30 show (it costs $8.00); the 9:30 is free but you have to line up probably starting about 7:00-7:30 for that–no reservations accepted. For the 7:30, I arrived at about 6:50 and there were over a hundred people in line already, but some of those were for the 9:30 show only. I actually ended up in the front row on the side, although I thought I was very far down in line. I guess I wasn’t, or people just didn’t want to sit in the front. The house gets completely filled though, and then some. They also allow one row of people sitting on the perimeter of the stage for this, something I’ve not normally seen at UCB. It’s worth the money–go!

I also went to the Museum of Television & Radio (aka the Paley Center–just can’t get used to that name) again and watched another couple panels from The Daily Show. I could watch those things all day. I really love the interaction between what ends up being, every time, five to seven male writers/actors/producers and Madeleine Smithberg, the co-creator of the show and only woman, I think, who has ever done a Daily Show panel. It’s clear to me all the guys either really adore and respect her, or they are MUCH better actors than they are given credit for.

Between the Paley and UCB I met up with an old friend and we went to lunch at Elmo, down on 7th Avenue in Chelsea. It was quite good. I was starving and had Eggs Nova (that’s like Eggs Benedict except with salmon instead of Canadian bacon) and a side of sausage. And a delicious peach Sangria. That was only about $30 including tax and tip, which surprised me–that’s kinda cheap for NYC! I wish I had taken a picture of the drink: it was the most gorgeous shade of blushed purple-y blue-ish red, with whole blueberries and chopped up pear, peach, and apple floating in it.

I was a little worried about parking on the street–why, I don’t know, since I doubt any thief would want my oh-so-sexy (not!) Mom Wagon–so I didn’t this time but I probably will next. And yes, I drove all the way into the city. I don’t know why people are scared of New York drivers–they’re a LOT worse in Boston. New York is pretty easy, especially in upper Manhattan where the streets are in a grid. And driving there is cheap–I can go all the way from north of Boston to NYC and almost back to Rhode Island on $35 worth of gas. So I figure while I can drive–before the weather detours into the “possible snow” category–I better.

When commenting, be sure to do the simple math question (to deter spammers) or your comment will be gone with the wind. And tomorrow is NOT another day. It will be “today” tomorrow, and then you’ll forget all about what you meant to write yesterday (”today”), and I’ll feel so sad for all my remaining yesterdays that you’re ignoring me today.