Sharks
Orinally posted on Friday, January 15, 2010

One of my guilty pleasures is Project Runway. I just love Timothy Gunn swanning about his NY Fashion Ave workroom pouting “Designers... how are you doing? Work with me. “ .... His unctuous voice dripping concern.... And then what’s her name, Heidi Nazi Klum, with her litte ego- cutting code line "You’re out, Auf Weindersehen”. My first week at Philippe Gaulier has been the Parisian version ( only much much nastier) of Project Runway. Imagine the Line-up of Shame at the end of PR when the losers face their worst nightmares: public humiliation, excoriation, evisceration.... told that their work is SHIT, and then..... YOU”RE OUT!!! This is the psychic equivalent of the Romans feeding the Christians to the lions. The taste of blood in some mouths is sweet. Simon Callow is another one.... TV audiences can’t wait to hear what horrifyingly nasty verbal vituperation he has saved up for his next Idol vicitim. And he relishes the cutting.


None of them hold a candle to Monsieur Philippe Gaulier. At the end of each exercise, the participating actors ( usually 8-12 of us) are lined up in front of the rest of the class and he asks “Who was the most boring? Who made you so happy when they left the stage? Who would you like to kill?” One young woman from Romania was told that Ceaucescu should have shot her. I was told I should be killed in Pakistan. A Japanese woman was told that MacArthur didn’t finish his job since she was still alive. It’s truly ludicrous. And while you’re working he screams “ You are so f***king boring, leave the stage immediately!!!” I’ve learned that this invective is actually a challenge to do better, but instead it stuns me into silence and provokes a desire for the earth to open up and swallow me.

He also enjoys physical abuse --- we “play” a game at the beginning of class-- a sort of “Simon says” and classmates turn on each other saying “I denounce Thelma” ... Thelma must either then ‘buy’ kisses from someone or Philippe flips Thelma over by twisting her arm behind her back and then hits her and bends her thumb as if to break it.. I’m really not making this up.

So this week has been challenging, to say the very least. It has not been fantastic. Coupled with the slightly disfiguring black eye, I don’t quite know who I am. I am knocked off my pins. I have met some lovely people, but I now know the rules of the game..... No matter what you do, you are subject to abuse and derision. The only way to look at it is as a game. If you are afraid, you’re dead. Sharks smell fear in the water.


Attention! Big Boobs are no longer funny!

Originally posted on Saturday, January 23, 2010

So,today, finally, I stopped caring. Its ‘a good thing, really, and I’ll tell you why. It’s because big boobs are no longer funny.

I’ve spent an incredibly disorienting two weeks navigating my way around the personality of this sociopath, my teacher, Philippe Gaulier. Richard also has been scrambling to keep up with my desperate phone calls, patiently and with so much love listening to my anecdotes of torture and degradation. AND! I’ve gone back to the Church! . Because, did you know, for each new church you visit you get three wishes? ( Catholic childhood mythology) Each of my wishes at each and every church is for courage.

I continue to ask myself the question: is there something I’m doing/not doing that could turn this around? What is the key, the secret, where is the magic door , or the magic words that unlock the magic door or just the magic bullet I can use to put this maniac out of my misery? I barely survive 10 seconds a try at the improvs he invents. I make an entrance, begin to speak, he beats his drum and says in a bored voice: “Horrible. Paula Plum, very nice woman, but so boring. Have a piece of cake. Adios.”


I have summoned all the survival lessons I have learned in 56 years on this planet... Recalling for instance, the light shed by Victor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl’s wisdom and philosophy always serves me when times get tough. Essentially he says I have the freedom to choose an attitude toward the inevitable suffering of life. So I’m trying to choose an attitude. ( not caring) Richard suggests “ironic detachment” , treating this as a sort of -out-of -body experience, watching from a distance without emotional involvement. Unfortunately emotional detachment is not in my gene pool. I usually jump feet first into the deep end. It also does not serve when summoning the passion for the work. At night I think, “Hey , it’s really OK. It’s only three hours a day. I can handle that. “ Then in the morning it takes all my stamina and denial just to get myself to the train.

Anecdotally, doesn’t this sound fairly pathetic? Even as I write this I’m thinking, I’m a Fox Grant recipient? I’m a Distinguished Alum of Boston University? Would a Pulitzer Prize make this any less painful? How about an Oscar?

So: Why I stopped caring. Last weekend we had monsoons in Paris. Saturday, in the deluge, I hunted down costume/mask stores in the Marais district and for a mere 100 Euros assembled a mess of supplies to complete my mask-making assignment. ( Gaulier: "Make three masks. Something funny, a nose.")

I was also heartened in my soggy solitude to suddenly have a wave of inspiration for a scenario for my mask group. A silly idea, but silly is good, no? ...I was in Monoprix in the lingerie department and voila: enormous “soutiens - gorges” ( soutiens = “holding under” = brassiere in French. Amusing, non? ) Suddenly life seemed sunnier. I had masks to make and a workable funny idea for our group mask scene: two women hanging out their lingerie on a clothesline with obvious differences in their pulchritude as demonstrated by said lingerie. All right, a little déclassé, but this is CLOWN people, and low humor has always been the order of the day. I mean, it started with enormous phalluses , OK? Big boobs is not such a leap.

You know the rest of the story. Gaulier hated it, said it was “a horrible moment, boring. We were scandalized by bras in the 60’s but today it is boring.” Boring boring boring. “Boring” is his favorite word. Go ahead. Google “Gaulier boring”. I dare you. Anyway, my group of four women had followed my lead and my idea failed. There was not one laugh. Amongst ourselves, we called it “Le Flop”. He gave us a zero. This is his other favorite thing, screaming in the most exaggeratedly bad Pepe La Pue accent “ You get a zero!”
Msr. Gaulier


The Innocent Masks

Can I just say a word about masks here? ( Remember, We’re doing this lingerie scenario in gigantic white masks) These masks are enormous and enigmatic and graceful and clumsy and astonishing. There is a childlike wonder in their expressions. The masks are innocent and each has a ‘spirit” ; one is led by the ‘spirit’ of the mask. The mask leads you, directs you. If you show your will, the mask dies. You and the audience discover the mask together.

Physically, however, all poetry and art aside, the mask sits on your head like a vice. There is a pair of -- literally-- PIN holes for eyes so you are virtually blind AND can’t breathe because the mask covers your head and there’s no ventilation. If you have the slightest inclination toward claustrophobia, masks are not your game. So while you are blind and suffocating you summon your “esprit” and go for it. The poetry, I mean. Yeah, go for the poetry, be simple, be subtle, and try not to die or have a heart attack.

So: why I stopped caring. Well, partly it was the big boob debacle. Then there was this:


I discovered I loved the mask-making project . We were to use half masks cut off just below the nose , so no suffocation. ( AHHH !!! That’s me taking a breath), and basically, the expression can be whatever evolves in your experimentation with clay, plastic and papier mache. I really got into it. At home in my little flat, I made an Alfred E. Neuman face with big ears and a goofy expression. Then, what I liked to think of as the “Mean Concierge” emerged-- a pale blue/gray hooked nose kind of witch stereotype , but with a little French Attitude. All told, I spent about 20 hours creating these two pieces and I love them. Wednesday I

gathered costumes for my two characters and flew to school thinking, “Yeah, OK. Masks.”


So , Mme Mean Concierge is offstage about to make her entrance,in my pencil skirt, black sweater, boots and turban with a terrifying bug brooch pinned into my headpiece. I have ideas for improvisation, but nothing is set, because the secret is to “deconner”-- to be willing to fool around with the audience. It’s about --as always- being in the moment . I make my entrance. I say something ---( I honestly don’t remember what) and he screams “ No! this is NOT the voice of this mask. You have to talk with a Texas accent. You are American.” I shout back, “I am not Texan, I am French Canadian!” ( I am, actually) He screams , “Start over this is horrible and you don’t want to show your elastic (the elastic that holds the mask to your head) when you exit! Idiot!”

I scream back “ No, I want to show my ASS when I exit.” ( Ha, Got him...... Pause) He says, “That is a very important part of the body” I want to say, “Yeah and you can kiss mine.” As if reading my thoughts he screams “Exit quickly QUICKLY!!!.” I say “ I will exit at my own speed”, and do.


Offstage. Breathe. Reenter immediately. I begin again. “So...” Gaulier beating on drum, more screaming: “NO, Adios. Leave the stage IMMEDIATELY. Horrible. No voice..You get a ZERO. .” Twenty hours of work, 30 seconds on stage. Zero. And as I put my witch mask on the bench, and cross back to my seat, he ends with “Your mask is kind of a self-portrait, no?”

Handling the Hot Moments

Handling The Hot Moments
Originally posted Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Bob Saoud and I as Helene Nadler and the Fabulous Mr. Charles in "New Century"







Potty- mouth Dorothy Lintott in "History Boys"









Alright ,I’m up at 3 AM l unable to sleep, thinking that I have jumped into the middle of my story without exposition. Bad playwriting. So while the clock ticks in the dark corner of my room. at this ungodly Parisian hour, let me give you a morsel of blog background about how I got here. It will take my mind off of school.

The first act of this comedy-- and I like to think of it as a comedy, even though I often play it like a tragic disaster ( I’m talking about my life, here, just ask my husband) -- is that, about a year ago 2009, I was experiencing a ‘dip’ ( euphemism) in my career as a ripely sexual middle aged actress and wondered where my bliss was leading me. One day in April, out of the blue, Paul Daigneault ( Artistic Director of SpeakEasy Stage) emailed asking if I was interested in applying for a Fox Actor Fellowship with SpeakEasy as my host theatre. ( Instant shot of adrenaline.) I had performed in two very rich productions the previous year with SpeakEasy, History Boys, directed by Scott Edmiston, and New Century, directed by Paul. I was thrilled and honored to be asked to partner SpeakEasy in this venture.

I have never written a grant. Grant writing always seemed to be one of those mysteries of life , like the stock market or health insurance , or balancing my check book, ie, not really within my ken. Julie Otis, to the rescue! Julie is SpeakEasy’s Development Director, a completely upbeat gal with endless amounts of positive energy. She brainstormed.with me over coffee and in five minutes we had a plan, a hundred ideas and were simultaneously electrified by that mysterious spark , Possibility. It took me about a month to write my proposal and Julie coordinated my work with the theatre’s narrative and we submitted the joint proposal June 15, 2009. The awardees were to be announced Aug 10.

Cut to August 21, London, 10 PM , the Marriott Hotel in Grovsenor Square. Paula & Richard are on vacation. As I wring out my underwear in the sink, I’m thinking, “Huh I probably didn’t get that grant.”

The phone rings.


The Fox Actor Fellowship is awarded to five candidates a year who wish to strengthen their relationship with a host theatre by developing their skills as actors. I proposed to study with Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris for three months, six weeks in movement and mask classes at the D’ell Arte School and two weeks at Ecole de Mime in Montreal. I have also been writing a play about Edna St. Vincent Millay for a year or so and thought the story of her sexual experimentation with women in the 1920 might be a subject interesting to SpeakEasy audiences. Part of my proposal, then, was to finish writing this play and teach classes based on my experiences at Gaulier, Dell Arte, & Ecole De Mime. Finally, ( and I don’t know where this idea came from, but I still love it,) I proposed to teach a class entitled “Handling the Hot Moments” on the subject of managing those tricky sex scenes on and off-stage. Nothing in my background qualifies me for this, except for a stint as a Sex-ed teacher in the late 70’s at Buckingham Brown & Nichols Middle School, Cambridge But I’ve always found the subject of infidelity as it relates to on-stage love affairs to be particularly common and yet unspoken. How many real-life relationships have been threatened by the on-stage kiss? How does one manage to balance reality with fantasy? This question belongs both in the physical realm and the existential. And, even more directly, how DO you handle the discomfort /excitement/ confusion around physical intimacy in a play?

This will be the subject of my workshop.

First Day of School
Originally posted Tuesday, January 12, 2010


Get up early to meditate , do yoga to be focused and ready for Philippe Gaulier. As I am doing the ‘breath of fire”, exhaling through the nose vigorously, count of 40, then one big exhalation rolling energetically head down to the floor, SMASH, head hits table right at eyebone, and I reel backwards onto the bed thinking, “What’s the French word for concussion?” Enormous egg forming on my forehead, the bruising already collecting around the eyelid. And off we go to school!

My mother, every first day of every shool year, would call out the screen door to my brother and me as we ran to catch the bus, “Get A ! And recite in class!.” That was the magic formula then. Magic would have come in handy today. Black magic.

Its’ not that I hadn’t been warned. Tina Packer ( who suffers NO fools) told me that Philippe Gaulier was “ a dicator” Others testified :“a monster” “ a tyrant” “ a sadist”---- I was not disabused of any of these impressions during my two classes with him today. Essentially he rules by intimidation and humiliation. I jumped into the fire and tried a solo improv ; he stopped me and told me I should be killed in Pakistan. I was unable to do anything fun or truthful for the rest of the class.

So I went home and wondered how to turn this into something positive.

I also wondered why I hadn’t heeded the warnings ...

I have several concerns: One, because I am “sensitive”, “porous” , sometimes “fragile” I absorb negativity like a sponge. One of my life challenges is to let go of the opinions of others ( L’enfer c’est les autres). The other is that, damn it all, this grant was meant to uplift me, not crush my spirit.

On the upside, all of the kids in the class are lovely. It’s thrillingly international... students from Japan, Korea, Catalan, Spain, a lot of Canadians, Italy, Portugal, Ireland. They are all so young, I am the oldest and I’m sure they’re wondering what Auntie is doing running around the dance floor with them.... And they’re shocked to see that no one does splits like Auntie can! Auntie is also working on a pretty mean handstand, Black eye, French concussion and all!

Pick Your Favorite


1. Paula Plum the Black-eyed Blogger
2. Yeah, my fight choreography classes are... swell!
3. You oughta see the other guy....
4. Paris... it's not for sissies.

Fizzy Bubbles
originally posted Sunday, January 10, 2010


I thought I would be incredibly lonely on my first Sunday in Paris so I launched myself into the cold snowy morning, hoping to find an open church with perhaps some music and people with whom to anonymously and silently mingle Just to hear the Mass in French would have been a thrill. I got it all, stumbling upon Ste Clothilde’s , a church full of well-heeled Parisians and their darlingly dressed tots, some right out of a Kate Greenway illustration ( no Nike/ Baby Gap or Oshgogsh for these enfants) - running across the stone floor at the back of the church in perfect outfits chased by stunningly dressed mothers in their furs and stylish boots. The place was packed- SRO, and I wondered why. Then I realized: the music. The organist was astonishing, he did a riff on the only French Carol that I can identify “Il est nee , le Divin enfant” -- he syncopated the rhythm, then moved it into Phantom of the Opera territory with deep frightening cords, resolving it into almost a lullaby of pianissimo, to which a boys choir picked up the melody and then led the congregation in a soft finale. Thrilling. And moving. To stand in the back of a Church in Paris on a cold January morning and witness the sharing of music and prayer and family life.... I felt oddly privileged. At the conclusion the priest invited us all to partake of the blood of Christ which turned out to be Champagne. Who knew the Holy Blood had fizzy bubbles? “ But the blood of Christ, it is Dom Perignon, Non?” So French.

Roamed Paris in the foggy raw afternoon ( I was warned, Paris is gray in the winter) but still so amazed to be here, the weather hardly matters.... and wound my way to one of my favorite temples of the spirit, Ste Chapelle. I never cease to be amazed by the vividness of color and the complexity of storytelling in those windows. ( Fifteen of them, 1, 123 panes relating the Bible from Genesis to the Apocalypse) I had not known before that this church was built by Louis V , later Saint Louis, to feature ( a twentieth century word) the relics of the Cross. The reliquary was later melted down by the rowdies of the French Revolution . The relics of the Crown of Thorns survived and are now stored in Notre Dame.

I am not ashamed to say, after two hours of walking, all I wanted was a Starbucks, and Paris did not disappoint. I am, however SAD to say, there is practically a Starbucks on every block. I sat for an hour with my latte, reading a St. Vincent Millay biography, watching lovely young French women flirt in gangs with their seemingly uninterested boyfriends.

Tomorrow is the first day of school and I am mildly terrified and .... of course , sleepless.

Sun King in the Snow

Originally posted: Friday, January 8, 2010
Sparklers

Jan 7 Thursday
Having mega problems trying to get connected on the internet. Figured I needed a bank account if an American credit card was not accepted by internet providers. Paribas is a sister bank to my bank, Bank of America. Easy? Right? Ha ha. You’ve never been to Paris. The very polite agent at Paribas informed me that a letter of recommendation , which could not be faxed, must be mailed stating my good standing with the bank, and a deposit made for $10,000 to be blocked for a year AND THEN I might want to deposit what I would need for expenses. Wow. So easy. Fuggedahboudit.

Manage to figure out the “Navigo” metro pass for 75 Euros a month after several meetings with ticket agents who squint painfully at my French, the more I talk the worse it gets-- and then find a photo booth in the St Madeleine metro stop and take a very frightening portrait of Paula Plum in Paris to paste on my Navigo pass. The photo is just a little scary. This photo might get me kicked off the return plane home. Paula, keep a good thought,

At 6 PM evening is falling . After a day massacring la langue, I walk down Rue Royale which opens onto Place de La Concord. There is an enormous glittering Ferris Wheel spinning ( who the hell is on it? ) in the dusk. It is white light in the darkness and in the distance-- YES! The Eiffel Tower has begun her show.

When I return to the 7th , Eiffel is a sparkler in the night sky. What a show-off. Remember sparklers? That is what the lights are doing, shimmering sexily up and down her girders. I am French! and I am FABULOUS!!!!

Sun King in the Snow

Originally posted Friday, January 8, 2010







Jan 6 Wednesday. Versailles! Oh! The kindness of Diego Arciniegas! Diego, long-time friend and fellow- actor from home is here till Sunday celebrating a ‘big’ birthday. Today he so generously squired me and his husband, David, to Versailles in the snow ( with the requisite before and after visit to Starbucks). We arrived at the iconic golden castle gates and were turned away by security. Apparently a gas leak due to renovation caused an evacuation of the ticket office. Fifteen minutes later... we were permitted free entry to Versailles! Louis XIV, who charged even his favorite ministers top dollar for lodging, would not have approved!

So. Versailles. What a dump. ( kidding) . These photos tell the extravagant story..... Most interesting is the fact that Versailled took only 30 years to build, workers pushed to a 24 hr round the clock ( by candlelight) schedule to complete the project . Workers keeling over dead from the severity of the task, bodies carried out and buried at night to keep the project moving . We walk literally miles through one extaordinary room after another. I try to Imagine tiny high-heeled pumps with no arch support on these marble floors. It’s almost impossible to answer the question “WHat was he thinking?”, because the extravagance reaches beyond rationality. Who would really want to live here in oceans of unheated space , 30 foot cielings, and every room a lavish temple to one’s ego? Well, when you put it that way... Call me a Sun King.

Diego and I decide that the Dauphin’s quarters downstairs are infinitely cozier with lower cielings and ground-floor views of the gardens.

The GARDENS!!! It is mid-winter, but the expanse of manicured trees and shrubbery ( OK miles of it) extend in all directions. It’s a foggy frigid day ( and all of France is freaking from the climate change) but Diego, David and I are very comfortable and at home in the cold, as true New Englanders., should be.

Without foliage, the trees reveal an obsessive attention to perfection and the control control, CONTROL of nature.

Marie Antoinette apparently hated Versailles and had her own little house far out from the castle called “Le Petit Trianon” where she dressed up regularly as a shepherdess, pretending to be “just folk” Poor thing.Add Image

Returning to the train station, all the gates are open and we are not charged for the ride home. Gifts from the Universe.


Mignon !

Tuesday night Jan 5

Mignon is the French word for “cute” (Yes , you’ve been eating filet “cute” all this time!) My French apartment is mignon-- Mimi in La Boheme would be in heaven here and might not have perished from TB because... there’s a working fireplace! It’s humble in its own little black-marble, gilt- mirrored way. The entire space is about 16’ X 12’--- tastefully adorable. ( Say “adorable" with a French accent, please.) Tiny window seats from which you can see --- YES! The Eiffel Tower! Mini frig, tiny sink, a petite pantry, a lovely little trundle bed with embroidered linen pillows. Everything is miniature except me. I feel like a great American Amazon with my enormous suitcases and .....( fill in the blank) . The shelves are groaning with the books I lugged over , and I’m groaning , ( a little) with the weight of expectation.


View from my Paris Apartment

French Plum

Waiting for Takeoff
Originally Posted on January 4th, 2010

Jan 4th. Monday night on the plane. Everything is so surreal. Richard and I have spent four days of frantic scrambling thinking I wasn’t going to be allowed on tonight’s flight. The problem: My passport says “Paula Plum Snee”, my ticket, “Paula Plum.” . Richard spends hours on the phone with extraordinarily polite Indians named Jerry/Bob/ or Ralph who nearly convince him to purchase a second ticket ( for 1100$) to insure my boarding

I smell a scam and decide I’ll bluff my way through and cause a scene if necessary. Richard, more pragmatic, launches a phone campaign to every ‘connected’ one of our friends and family, until his sister Patty suggests he try John Linnehan, a boyhood buddy from Smithtown, now head of security at Dulles airport in DC. John, unfortunately,can’t do anything for us, but advises that he’s pretty sure, with the right documentation, I’ll get on. At the eleventh hour, Richard connects with someone at British Airways who says “ Oh, yeah, just bring a copy of your marriage license and she’ll be all set.” Why didn’t SOMEBODY say so in the FIRST place?

This problem folded itself into the agony of leaving Richard... Just so hard to leave my husband of 30 years to go gallivanting off to Paris...I’ve been waking up in panic every night wondering, “what the hell am I doing?” Some distant part of me knows that it’s going to be great, but right now it is so so SO FAR outside of my comfort zone.

I am on the plane, made it through security, no one really cared about my name after all.

French Plum
Originally Posted on January 3rd, 2010

Tomorrow night, Jan 4 , 2010, I will start another life as French Plum. I am flying out of Logan at 8:30 PM, British Airways flight 214 bound for France. By Tuesday afternoon, I will be ensconsed in my Paris apartment in the 7th arrondissement, taking a shower which has a skylight that peeps at the Eiffel tower. Or will it be peeping at me?

Philippe Gaulier Clown Show
Here is a video of Ecole Philippe Gaulier where I will be studying.

Coming Soon!

In August of 2009, SpeakEasy Stage was proud to announce their Actor Fellowship with Boston actress Paula Plum. Paula had the amazing opportunity to spend time Paris, France exploring her craft. Keep checking back for hilarious posts from her Parisian blog, French Plum!

Here's a little history on the wonderful Paula Plum: Paula Plum has been one of Boston leading actresses for three decades, most notably in Ivanov, The Idiots Karamazov, Lysistrata, and Mother Courage (American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge;) Lost in Yonkers, The Heiress (Lyric Stage Company of Boston;) and Wit (Lyric West.) She starred in two premieres by John Kuntz Sing Me To Sleep (Boston Center for the Arts) and Miss Price, which she co-produced (Boston Playwrights' Theatre.) Her solo show Plum Pudding garnered her praise and awards in a number of productions over the years. Her movie credits include Next Stop Wonderland, Mermaids and Malice. Television credits include Science Court (ABC) and The Dick and Paula Celebrity Special (FX). Paula was honored this past Spring by the Boston Theatre Critics Association with the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence (past recipients include Sir Ian McKellen and Julie Harris.) Paula was trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic arts and is a Cum Laude graduate of Boston University s School for the Arts, where she was honored last year as Distinguished Alumna.

Click here to check out Paula's website.

Free Wine and All You Can Eat Pizza

Howdy [bostossers] -

Christine here, the Marketing Associate for SpeakEasy. Just wanted to let you all know about a sweet deal we're offering with BRIX Wine Shop. If you still haven't seen [title of show], (or if you need to see it again), get your tickets for Tuesday, Feb 9th because... (drumroll...) We're having a FREE wine tasting beforehand at BRIX Wine Shop!

Stop by BRIX at 6PM before the show for a free sampling of port and dessert wines. The shop is at 1284 Washington Street in the South End, barely a 7 minute walk from the theater. PLUS, South End Buttery is providing free cupcakes at the tasting! That's right! Red Velvet cupcakes! Yummy and perfect for Valentine's Day. (Not sure if they're going to have Rice Krispy Treats, though...)

Also, if you like pizza, check out Picco Restaurant on Wednesday, February 10th for all you can eat pizza, salad, and ice cream for only $25! Seatings are every half hour from 5:30 – 9:30pm and a portion of the proceeds are donated to SpeakEasy Stage.

E-mail piccoboston@gmail.com or call 617.927.0066 to RSVP. Reservations are first come, first served and seating is limited.

That's all from me for now, so enjoy, friends.

[load in]

Wassup [bostossers]-

Load-in is a period of a few days were the crew sets up the theatre to look like the designers evisioned. The set gets brought in and assembled. The lights get hung. Sound and video equipment set up. Through the state of the art camera phone technology, I documented tech day-by-day.

[tech]

Aloha [bostossers]-

I am in the middle of the second of two "ten out of twelves". That means we have a tech rehearsal for 10 out of the 12 hours everyone is called for. The cast was called at 11am, had a dinner break from 4-6, and we finish at 11pm. Throughout the tech process, we incorporate all of the technical aspects into the show. That means sets, costumes, lighting, and in the case of this production, projections.

Tech rehearsals are infamous for being slow paced and boring because it takes a lot of time to build cues and work out transitions between each part of the show. Because [title of show] only has one set, and no costume changes, this tech process has been one of the smoothest I have ever experienced.

There are a lot of light cues in the show that Jeff Adelberg has been programming at lightning pace. Our costume designer Chip Schoonmaker has been changing the cast into different outfits to get it just right. Prop master Natalie Kearns is making adjustments to the props (a few chairs have had to get repairs). Set designer Eric Levenson is taking notes on what needs to be adjusted in the set. And video designer Seaghan McKay is adding some great touches into his fabulous projections.

The long process also allows Paul Daigneaul to tweek blocking and parts of the show that isn't working. Our fabulous cast has a lot of time to work difficult parts of the show and settle into their own characters.

Because there is a lot of down time during tech, the actors came up with a brilliant way to keep themselves occupied...shadow puppets.

[radio]

This morning members of the cast of [title of show] woke up early and performed live on the radio on WERS's Standing Room Only. After a brief rehearsal in the studio, they went on air at 11am. Jordan Ahnquist (Jeff) and Joe Lanza (Hunter) sang "Two Nobody's in New York" and "Part of It All" while Amy Barker (Heidi) sang "Way Back to Then".

I hope some of you got to listen to this fabulous cast performing, because they all sounded so great. With less than a week left before we open, the show is really coming together. Make sure to buy your tickets today!

The [bostos] team in the WERS Studio
(l-r) Paul Daigneault (Director), Will McGarrahan (Musical Director/Larry), Amy Barker (Heidi), Joe Lanza (Hunter), Jordan Ahnquist (Jeff), and Adam Nickerson (SRO Host).

[production meeting]

Helló [bostossers]-

Yesterday afternoon we had another production meeting for [title of show]. These meetings are a way for all the designers to get together with the director to talk about their designs and work through problems they are having.

So much of theatrical design relies on the other design in the show. All the elements of design (sets, lights, costumes, props, projections, sound, etc) are so closely related that the lines become blurred sometimes. For example, the set of [tos] has lighting booms (freestanding poles with lights hanging up them) incorporated into the set design and also includes spaces for images to be projected onto it. These meetings let everyone become involved in the collaborative process and bounce ideas off of each other.

The biggest topic of discussion was led by Natalie Kearns who is our Props supervisor. The show's production values are described as having "four chairs and keyboard". Each character has their own chair that shows a little bit of their character. She has done a great job at finding four really lovely chairs and we were talking about minor changes to be made to make them fit more. She is changing the cover on one to change the color. Painting another. Cutting the legs of another to make it a little shorter.

Here are some pictures of possible chairs Natalie came up with a few weeks ago. Which ones will make the final cut? You will have to come see the show to find out.

[amy]

Hallo [bostossers]-

Mark your calendars (or just click and let us do all the work for you). The cast of [title of show] will performing a few songs this Saturday (Jan 9) live on the radio at 11am. For those of you in Boston (or the surrounding area) tune into WERS 88.9 FM, or WERS.org for those out of town. It will be a great way to hear this [tos]ome cast!

Amy Barker - Heidi


Have you ever been in a SpeakEasy show before?
Sorry, Wrong Number 2008 and 2009!

Where did you grow up?
Austin, TX

Zodiac sign?
Aries

What is the worst job you have ever had?
Temping for a partner at a big NYC law firm (I had to make tea and serve it on a silver platter.) I think I was only there for 2 days.

What is your first memory of theatre?
I was in some shows when I was little. My mom was a dancer and choreographer so my sister and I ended up in the chorus of things. I saw City of Angels on Broadway in 1990 (I think.) That experience inspired me to try acting professionally.

Do you have any funny/embarrassing on stage mishaps?
Too many to count! Most recently, I cut my finger during the opening scene of Sisters of Swing at Foothills Theatre. Since we weren't supposed to leave the stage for the first 30 min of the show, I bled all over place. It was really gross.

Who are your favorite heroes of theatre?
Wow, hard question. There are so many! Agnes De Mille, Cherry Jones, Audra McDonald and Stephen Sondheim to name a few.

Who are your favorite heroes of real life?
Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, my parents and my mother-in-law. Also Mary-Mitchell Campbell, a NYC based musical director who founded the charity ASTEP (Actors Striving to End Poverty.)

What vampires do you face your own life?
The "you're a big toothed, too-tall, talentless wonder" vampire is a frequent visitor.

Rock, paper or scissors?
ROCK.

Milk, dark, or white chocolate?
Dark.

Boxers or briefs?
boxer briefs

Favorite drag queen name?
Tequila Mockingbird

Guilty pleasure?
So You Think You Can Dance. I LOVE it.

Who would play you in the movie of your life? (Lifetime Original or Cinematic release, you choose)
Hmm, I will let someone else cast this.
(Jim Torres, SpeakEasy's Marketing Director, thinks a younger Cherry Jones would make a great Amy Barker)

If heaven exists, what would you like God to say as you arrive at the pearly gates?
Good job, kid. Then I would like him/her to lead a choir of angels in a big gospel number complete with tambourines.

[victoria & scott]

Guten Tag [bostossers]-

Over the next few entries I am going to introduce everyone to the cast through a questionnaire I made up (and lovingly "borrowed" from Proust and James Lipton). They are all in the process of answering it, but our Production Stage Manager Victoria Coady decided she wanted to play as well and sent me her answers. She convinced me to answer it as well, so I am combining both our answers into this one blog post. Feel free to respond in the comment section with your own answers!

Victoria Coady - Production Stage Manager (aka PSM)

Have you ever been in a SpeakEasy show before?
I stage managed "The Wrestling Patient", the co-production between SpeakEasy, Boston Playwrights and FortyMagnolias last year.

Where did you grow up?
Here, in Boston! It's funny that I'm working in this town now- when I was growing up, there weren't a great deal of professional companies in Boston, so I didn't think I'd have the opportunity to be a professional theater artist in this town. It's pretty awesome, kind of a dream come true.

Zodiac sign?
A Leo. *Totally* a Leo.

What is the worst job you have ever had?
Actually, it's related to one of our props in [title of show]! In high school, I worked for a restaurant called Johnny's Luncheonette in between Harvard and Central Squares, and my first position there before I became a waitress was to walk around Harvard Square in the brutal heat of summer wearing a sandwich board and handing out takeout menus. It was such an absurd gig- I became friends with all of the street people of the Square.

What is your first memory of theatre? First show, first class you took, first movie you watched that sparked your interest?
My first memory is of "Queen Zixi of Ix", a play I did when I was maybe 6 or 7. I played a fairy, and my blocking for the first scene was to blow bubbles and do fairy things in the background. I only had one line: "But shouldn't there be a limit to the number of wishes?" I completely dropped my one and only line, because I was too busy blowing bubbles. Thank god we had a great stage manager to feed me my line, right?

Do you have any funny/embarrassing on stage mishaps?
Too many to count. TOO MANY. Curtains getting stuck as the play was supposed to start, an actor that didn't show up for a performance and I had to read his lines from the booth, gunshots that didn't go off onstage... the stories, man. The stories.

Who are your favorite heroes of theatre?
I'm a huge Shakespeare buff, so a lot of my heroes are in that field of theater- Mark Rylance, for what he's done with the Globe Theater, Cicely Berry, Darko Tresnjak, Sir Peter Hall. I am also a big fan of the work of some more modern playwrights, and friends of mine: John Kolvenbach, Deborah Asiimwe, Sigrid Gilmer.

Who are your favorite heroes of real life?
Those are my heroes! They're real!

What vampires do you face your own life?
Well, I've only been working professionally for about three years now, and so the decision to pursue a career in the arts is one that I sometimes question in this economy. It's not easy to make a living doing this job, but I remind myself that many people aren't lucky enough to find what they love to do at a young age, and I honestly, truly can't imagine myself doing anything else with my life. So, I stick with it!

Rock, paper or scissors?
Scissors- I'm a stage manager, I like office supplies.

Milk, dark, or white chocolate?
White chocolate, all the way. Those Lindt truffles are heavenly (cast, you know what to get me on opening night!)

Boxers or briefs?
Uhm... Gap undies?

Favorite drag queen name?
I'm actually going to steal from the show, because it's too perfect: Tulita Pepsi!

Guilty pleasure?
TV. And popcorn.

Who would play you in the movie of your life? (Lifetime Original or Cinematic release, you choose)
Well, I've been told I look a little bit like Zooey Deschanel, and she's got a really pretty voice...

If heaven exists, what would you like God to say as you arrive at the pearly gates?
Places for Act 2, please... haha.

Victoria and I enjoying ourselves on a break from rehearsal

Scott Sinclair - Assistant to the Director

Have you ever been in a SpeakEasy show before? If so, what?
I had a cameo in Jerry Springer – The Opera as “Guy at water fountain” in the video of Jerry entering. Don’t worry, I will make sure to sign autographs for you all.

Where did you grow up?
Suburbs of NYC in a town called Suffern, NY, which was made famous by an episode of Sex and the City.

Zodiac sign?
Pieces.

What is the worst job you have ever had?
I spent a summer collecting census and traffic flow information. That included walking around different neighborhoods in the blazing heat looking at houses and trying to determine how many people lived there by counting doorbells and mailboxes. We also would sit at railroad crossings in our cars and literally count how many cars crossed the tracks over the span of 5 hours. Sometimes we were on back roads where there would only be 4 cars the entire day we were there.

What is your first memory of theatre?
I saw Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan on Broadway when I was 4 years old, and the only thing I really remember is watching the show with binoculars and telling my mom, “They’re not really flying!” The next show I saw, which I really remember is Beauty and the Beast. I was transfixed by the costumes and the fireworks on stage (this was before it moved to the Lunt-Fontainne and was downsized).

Do you have any funny/embarrassing on stage mishaps?
This one time, I was playing Wendy in Peter Pan, and they accidentally pulled the cable for me to fly instead of Peter and I was yanked out of bed…oh wait…that wasn’t me, but luckily it was preserved and is on Youtube for everyone to enjoy!

For real, a funny mishap was when I was in West Side Story back in high school. I was Action and in the prologue, Riff was supposed to hold one of the sharks while I punched him in the face. I went to “punch” the Shark, and accidentally punched Riff in the face for real. Lieutenant Shrank then comes in and breaks it up. While she (of course it was played by a girl because there we didn’t even have enough boys to play all the Jets and Sharks) was talking, I looked down at my hand and saw blood on it and started to freak out. I thought I broke his nose or something. However I noticed the "blood" had a raspberry scent and realized it was the fake blood used in the same scene...

Who are your favorite heroes of theatre?
Tony Kushner. Every word that man writes is gold. Jerome Robbins for brilliantly connecting dance to the plot and adding so much emotional weight to the shows he worked on. Joe Papp for having such a vision that is still being executed to this day.

Who are your favorite heroes of real life?
Ellen Degeneres. I honestly think she is the great equalizer. Who doesn’t enjoy Ellen?

What vampires do you face your own life?
With college graduation coming in May, beginning the job search process is a huge vampire. I am constantly thinking to myself “You aren’t smart enough. You don’t know enough. You don’t have enough experience. You’ll never get a job.” Die vampire die is becoming my new motto.

Rock, paper or scissors?
Paper. I feel you can do more with it.

Milk, dark, or white chocolate?
Dark. If you haven't had dark chocolate Reeces, I highly suggest going to the store and buying a bag. It will change your life.

Boxers or briefs?
The hybrid.

Favorite drag queen name?
Cybil Rights or Robyn Banks

Guilty pleasure?
Jersey Shore.

Who would play you in the movie of your life? (Lifetime Original or Cinematic release, you choose)
The only thing I have ever gotten was Haley Joel Osmont circa the Sixth Sense. I don’t think there is any resemblance anymore.

If heaven exists, what would you like God to say as you arrive at the pearly gates?
“That’s what she said.” I know it makes no sense, but I would hope he has a sense of humor…

[bostossers]

Bonjour my [bostossers]!

Thanks to the beauty of the internet, I have gotten in touch with the mexcellent creators/original cast of [title of show]. They are all incredibly sweet and are really excited about our production (as well as the other four productions going on around the country). We have been listed on the [title of show] homepage and Hunter has just written a beautiful blog entry about my [title of blog]. How ouroboros is this?! Hunter has coined a term that I am now stealing.

As you know [tossers] are chat room slang for [title of show] fans, so fans of the Boston [tos] are now [bostossers]. Tell your friends. Use it in a sentence. Use it in your belated Christmas cards. Let's brand this!

As for the actual show, we are ahead of schedule (for now at least...that will probably change at some point). We finished blocking the show this afternoon. That means all the actors have a vague idea of what they are physically doing on stage for the entire show. Now we are going through slowly with a fine toothed comb and fixing problems, tightening up sections, making sure everyone is on the same page, etc. This is where a lot of the intricate details of characters start to become discovered and incorporated into the show. Over the course of the next week is when the show really starts to come together and is exciting to watch. Don't worry, I will try my best to keep you all updated!

So long farewell for now [bostossers]!