Jury Duty aka a boring post

I was called, for the first time in my life, to jury duty. I had deferred it until I returned from Utah and this last week I reported to duty at the Los Angeles courthouse. I thought I was going to get out of going in at all, but Thursday night I received word to come in Friday morning. So what was jury duty like? It was a lot like being on a long flight. I sat in my chair all day long surrounded by a group of strangers, read my book and occasionally nodded off. It was also a little like being back in school as we filled in our scantron sheets and answered to roll call - there was a guy with the last name Goldfinger, which made me chuckle each time it was called, although no one else seemed to be as amused as I was.

My lunch break was great. We had almost two hours for lunch and I used it to explore downtown L.A. I love downtown L.A. There are tons of great places to eat (I ate a super vegan sandwhich - tofu patty and cranberry chutney, yum), there were farmers markets (I got a package of raspberries for .50 cents!), outdoor concerts, cool buildings, theatres, music halls. Downtown L.A. is not like New York City or Seattle or Portland or any of those - you don't really go there unless you have to - but they have been working to make it more visitor friendly and I'm sold now.

I didn't get placed on a jury, so I am now scott free for another year. I got to read a ton of the latest David Sedaris book (it's great by the way), have a fun little tour of L.A., and do some interesting people watching - all while doing my civic duty.

Our chance to keep American promise alive

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
-Shawshank Redemption

I hope. Man, do I hope. I hope Americans realize the importance of this next Presidential election. I hope you all listened to Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech. If you did, I don't know how you could not see how much this country needs him for our next President. If you didn't listen to it, I deeply urge you to. It was a beautiful speech and he covered every doubt one could have and addressed every important issue facing our country. Please find it online and watch, I'm sure it will be up soon. The possibility of Obama in office is almost more exciting than I can handle, but the alternate thought of McCain taking over, terrifies me more than I want to imagine.

Obama is strong. He has plans, plans that will work. He is moral, he is kind. He can unify our country. He can protect our country. He can transform our nation sullied by the Bush administration. He is an inspirational, honorable leader.

It was a great speech. I'm excited. Barack Obama makes me proud to be an American.

I hope.


Watch his biography video here

One of my heroes

San Diego

Well, I was hoping to get some pictures from the trip before I blogged about it, but that might take a while so just a quick word on our little trip to San Diego. On Thursday Whit's family came into town and we went to a Dodger game - always fun, always enjoy a Dodger dog.
On Friday we headed to San Diego and spent the day at the zoo. I hadn't been to San Diego since I was a little kid, so it was great to go to that expansive zoo. I always love seeing the big cats; there were two gorgeous cougars (my favorite animal) and the hugest panther I'd ever seen. Also cool to see Panda's which I don't think I've ever seen in person before - they said there were only 12 pandas in the United States.
Saturday was beach day. It was really nice - the water felt great and I had more fun playing in it than usual - since I am still fairly terrified of drowning. Unfortunately, I got burned like crazy. I just didn't reapply the sunscreen often enough and it was a sunscreen I had never tried before and turned out to be crap. Right now my back is pretty grotesque as the peeling has started!
Sunday night we had a bonfire and made 'smores - regular smores and smores made with peanut butter cups. Yum. It was beautiful.
Monday we did Sea World. The shows were fun, the churro great and the pressed pennies...flat.
Now we're back in the Burb and I have started my job search. I hate it. I just want a job that pays well, makes me happy, fulfilled, excited and motivated - is that too much to ask?
Here's one picture from the trip that I stole off of my Mother-in-laws' blog. It's from our awesome breakfast at The Mission:

Still so cool...

Flapjack

We drove back from Utah with our friends, Jim and Amanda. We stayed in Vegas Sunday night. In the morning we went (on the suggestion of our other friends, Ryan and Kristen) to Hash House for breakfast. It was rad - the pancakes were crazy huge!
This is Jim with a regular flapjack. Whit and I shared a cinnamon banana pecan flapjack. It was great.



Jim and Amanda leave today and Whit's family comes in today. Tonight we go to the Dodger game and tomorrow we head to San Diego!

AC

Anderson Cooper is just so rad. That's all.


Also read his book (Dispatches From the Edge) if you haven't, it's interesting, honest and inspiring.

Back to the Burbank

We closed 12th Night on Saturday with a fantastic show. I had a wonderful time in the SLC. I loved being surrounded by so many great friends for the last month and a half. I already miss being in the world of Viola. Now it's back to reality and back to trying to find a new job. Boo.
Here are a few pictures from the show - selfishly, they are mostly pictures of me, but it is my blog, I suppose.

Doctor. Doctor.


Uh, no boobs here, Sir.


One of the many times Olivia tries to seduce me, hot:


Oh, I love Sean's face too much:


Come Away, Come Away Love luh luh luh love:


Poor Viola, so in love


One of the best parts about playing Viola? Getting a fight scene.
Sean learned how to fly for our show:

James Taylor

Last night we went to the James Taylor concert at the Usana Amphitheatre in Salt Lake City. My Mother-in-law surprised us with tickets. Whit isn't really a fan, but he actually had a good time last night as well. I had seen James several years ago and had badly wanted to see him again. It was a great concert. His voice is golden - it's still so clear and perfect. He is such a funny, cool dude. A night full of James Taylor always makes me feel positive and happy. Loved it.

One More Week

First of all, let me say I know my blog is crazy boring lately, I just don't have the time to do anything creative, so it's just updates here and there, blah, blah, blah.

So, we are officially half way done with our 12th Night run. It was a great week. After a lot of weirdness leading up to our opening, the actual run of the show has been a lot of fun. We had a smaller audience tonight, but a good audience never the less. I just feel super lucky right now that I get to be in a show where I wear a tie, fight with one of the funniest dudes I know, be felt up by a beautiful lady, kiss a gorgeous guy, and speak Shakespeare's lines on a nightly basis.

I was struck with sadness driving home tonight realizing that I have one week left in Utah. There are still so many people I'd like to spend time with, places I'd like to go. I'm going to be so uber sad to not see my friends every day as I have been for the last several weeks. Plus it will be weird to return to my responsibilities back in Burbank. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'll just enjoy my time here while I can.

More Utah

Yesterday was our last day of teaching at Youth Theatre - huzzah! In the end I really grew to love my little ones. My home room class consisted of twelve 12-13 year olds - and they really were pretty adorable. I'm gonna miss those little butts (not literally their butts, you know what I mean). I did love having weird little stories each day of what a kid said or did - teens are strange and awkward and so amusing to observe. I was really lucky in that I didn't have any brats - all good kids. Last night we stopped by their party called Teen-a-palooza. It was so funny to me - kids mingling, dancing, bein' awkward.

Twelfth Night is going really well. We had a great show last night - enthusiastic audience. Two more shows this week - tonight and tomorrow night and then we have a couple of days off. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love my cast. I look forward to seeing them every night.

Whit's old time friends, Ryan and Kristen came for their first trip to the SLC to see our show, so today we are going to give them a taste of natural Utah - take them to Big and/or Little Cottonwood Canyons. Should be pretty - I love those canyons.

Buckle up.

Well, I was going to wait so people could be surprised when they saw the show, but here is a pic from 12th Night - that's me sans hair with my bro. Jay Perry in the background (thank you Liz Perkins for the pictures). Tonight is our 2nd Dress/Preview, tomorrow we open - my bowels are starting to churn with nervousness! I hope everyone I know in Utah can come and see the show and I hope I don't screw it up!



July 30th - August 9th (no Mon. or Tues.) matinee on the 9th at 2:00 all other evening shows at 7:30. Babcock Theatre, University of Utah. Tickets through Kingsbury Hall 581-7100 or kingtix.com

And another update

Just a quick update - any of my updates these days are going to have to be quick as time is a very sparse thing lately. To follow up on my last post, I did cut my hair, oh boy, did I. It's short. I cut it on Tuesday so I am still getting used to it, but it's okay. It's good to have a change, it doesn't look too bad. If I had a picture I would post it, but I don't and it's probably better that people are surprised when they see me in the show (if they do). Rehearsals are going pretty well, we are running every night now, it takes lots of energy but it's nice to be using this kind of energy again - this intense, complete, mind, body and soul focus. We open in less than a week - yikes! I mean we'll be ready, but it's still scary, I just don't want to suck. For those reading this that want to see Twelfth Night, it opens on Wednesday July 30th and runs to Saturday August 9th (everyday but Monday and Tuesday). It's at the Babcock Theatre (basement of PTC) and you can get tickets from calling or visiting Kingsbury Hall. So there's that.
We have just about a week of teaching left, cannot wait for that to be over.
Later.

To cut or not to cut

That is the question. I am in the middle of trying to decide what to do with my hair for 12th Night. I dress up like a boy and I'm supposed to look like my brother. The guy playing my brother has very short curly hair. He's getting it chemically straightened, so we'll see how it looks then, but basically if I want to really match it I've gotta go pretty short with my hair. There's no budget for wigs and no wig person to tend to the wigs, so basically I was told that wigs are not an option. So, okay, I can cut my hair, but there's a short haircut and then there's boy/pixie short. I know it's just hair, hair grows, but cutting it that short would mean a year to two before it really grew out - that's a long commitment. In talking about this people say that I'd look good with short hair, that I could pull it off, but I do know I'll feel pretty unattractive for a while, most likely. What to do, what to do. . . Luckily I've been pretty sick of my hair lately, it usually just ends up in a pony tail or a bun, so a change will be welcome - but it looks like it might be quite a change.

Animated

These are pretty fun:

I'm Back

Hoorah! We tapped into the internet thanks to a neighbor so we are in business at my parents' house.
I wanted to talk a little bit about teaching.
So I'm not going to lie, I was dreading teaching. I just got stressed out thinking about having to entertain a bunch of teens for the Summer, but it's been going pretty well. We're teaching at the University of Utah's Theatre School for Youth. I have my home room class which meets twice a day, I teach two Dialects classes and a class called Acting Methods(?). My home room class consists of ten 12 & 13 year olds. We're writing a play right now to perform at the end of the session. It should be pretty cute (I hope). Acting Methods was weird to me - I got assigned this class and I had no idea what to do with it - it's just such a general term, so I started teaching them Uta Hagen exercises, I have no idea if they are liking that class, but whatev'. I love teaching dialects. I don't feel like I'm particularly qualified to teach this, aside from the one dialects class I had in college, I don't have a great amount of knowledge, but I sure do enjoy it. This week we worked on a British dialect (RP) and it is fun to try to get the kids to stick their little lips out to make the correct sounds. It has reinforced the fact that I really love speech/language/dialect work - maybe I will finally fulfill my dream to go to Central School of Speech & Drama in London and get a degree in this so I can be a dialect/speech coach.
As extremely tired as I am from teaching, it has been good for me to review a lot of acting information - it is good timing to remind myself of the basics and the lessons I learned in the Actor Training Program as I am working on 12th Night.
By the way, rehearsal tonight was incredible. We worked on an Orsino/Viola scene which is just so beautiful. I adore working with Creighton James - I love this show, I feel so lucky.
Okay. I'm going to sleep.

Utah

Wow. This is the first time I've been on the internet this week. I'm staying at my parents' house and they don't have internet access and I finally got a password to get on the computers at the University of Utah. I wanted to write a quick blog update while I have a few minutes left of my lunch break.
It has been super busy. Super busy. We started teaching and rehearsing on Monday - so it's been getting up early for school and teaching from 8:45 to 3:30 and then going to rehearsals anywhere from 5-11 at night. There is no down time, no relaxing. I mean nothing I can't handle - it just means I am tired.
Rehearsals are going well. The cast is absolutely amazing. I am constantly amazed by how great my fellow actors are in this show. It's such a fun, positive, exciting process already and we've only had our first three rehearsals. The first table read on Monday night blew us all away. The best table read I've been to. I guess it's just my own low self-esteem, but I do fear being the weakest link - or at least a weaker link - but I need to not worry about that and just enjoy playing with these people. Most of my scenes are with Amanda Fulks (Olivia) and Creighton James (Orsino) and I am besotted with both of them. I couldn't ask for better scene partners. Sean Kazarian is playing our Andrew Aguecheeck and he makes me laugh so hard, it's a fantastic character. Whit is, of course, going to be a great, unique Malvolio. So that's 12th Night, so far.
Dang it! I gotta get to class already - so I'll write about my school experiences the next chance I get.

A couple more pics

My dear friend, Liz and her husband, Dave were in town - it was great to see them again!


Had a couple exposures to use up, and I actually like this picture of Whitby and I:

So Long, Farewell

Thought I'd post a few pictures from my last day of work on Friday. I'll miss my friends from work, but I must say it was nice to not have to go to work today and to know I don't have to go to work tomorrow. I look pretty haggard in these pictures, I must say, it's sort of embarassing, but I'll post them anyway.

My desk:

Me and "The Replacement"

Olivia and Kristin:

Shop dudes: Antwione, Jesus and Armando:



My boss, Sue:

El Jefe, Ron:

Sydney:

Noorsy:

Maria and Joseph-to-be:

One last Image IV cake:

WallE

I loved loved loved this movie. Pixar, you've done it again. It's pretty amazing to tell a story so beautifully with no dialogue for the first 3/4th of the movie. The issues addressed in WallE are THE issues that we so desperately need to work on - and they are, of course, handled with humor and poignancy. The story was interesting and creative and the characters were fantastic, led by the adorable little WallE.