No, really, I insist

Under Milk Wood was fabulous! Whenever we do these kind of smaller, ecelectic theatrical pieces there is always the fear that we're going to have more people on stage than in the audience. I'm pleased to say that it did not turn out that way at all. We did both shows last Saturday, one a 3 and one at 8, and although the afternoon matinee did have a much smaller house we can boast that at least there were more people watching than performing.

And what a show!! I absolutely love this piece of work. Thank you for the well-wishes! The show, intended to be performed for radio, has been recorded and is just as awesome on CD as live (in fact, probably better since you're not faced with the distraction of watching the actors - most people in both audiences just closed their eyes and listened). So, if you'd like me to send you a copy of the performance on CD, let me know. (My favorite sections are still in act II when I get to sing Polly's lines)

So, hopefully, those of you going to Wicked got my email with details and questions - if you didn't, say your spam filter chucked it - let me know and I'll re-send it.

Now I can focus on the next big project: The Vagina Monologues. Auditions are coming up this Wednesday and Sunday and I am getting really excited about this project! Given the buzz and the amount of audition pieces that have been handed out, I think that this project is going to have a huge presence, and that I'm not going to be short actresses at all. Ideally I'd like to cast it at no less than 20 women, but I think I can expand it to have up to 40. So, that's next.

I'm good - after a week to let my brain turn to mush, I'm back feeling refreshed, reenergized, and interested in all that's going on.

I haven't really had much time for internet stuff this past week, so I've only found one thing worth sharing: I was loving this comic strip, dark, funny, and, well, dark.

What I'm Watching:

Here's a bare outline of the story: The old king, wrapped up in politics and intrigue realizes that the only way peace can be achieved is by offing himself and leaving a note to his son telling him to make peace with his enemies, avoid his brother (the boy's uncle), and protecting his sister. However, the evil uncle finds the body first, makes it look as if instead of suicide the old king was murdered by the same enemies that the boy is supposed to make peace with and conspires with his crony friend to send the boy off on a chase to hunt down the enemy for revenge, kill the sister, and take the throne. Meanwhile the boy prince, outside the boundary of his castle, gets an eye-opening about the evils his royal family has committed, falls in love (with the enemy, of course), and realizes what must be done. Anyway, that's just the beginning of the story. Here's the catch - it's acted out with marionettes. In fact, the old king commits suicide by cutting his head-string - the idea of marionettes connected by strings is a huge part of the story, which is suprisingly beautiful and graceful for a puppetry medium that I've always found choppy and forced. The movie: Strings. I highly recommend it.

Creature Comforts - from Aardman studios, this independant collection of shorts first appeared, to me anyway, on Atomfilms a few years ago. I'm glad to see that they've made it to a DVD collection.

And since I missed it at the time: Happy birthday, Laurel!!