An Illegal Erection
This Shakespeare in the park thing in Portland is interesting.
I mean, first there was the fountain and all the drama associated with that. Now Romeo and Juliet is closed, and As You Like It opens this coming Saturday.
It's a production that has been fraught with....stuff. The two lead women are in other shows at the same time as this one, one of which opens the same day as ours, just at night, when we are in the afternoon. Due to this, we will not have had a single rehearsal with the entire cast before we open the show. Wow.
And then last night's rehearsal, well, that was something else.
It actually started before I got there, so this part I just heard via our SM. Some people arrived early to set up the changing tent, and once done, were approached by a policeman who said "this here is an illegal erection. The federal police are on their way." Um. We put up a tent in the park, so you called the feds? Anyway - the federal police arrive, our director (Bibi - she's like everyone's mom. It's impossible to say no to her. It would be like letting down your mom or grandma...) shows them our permit, they say that we can keep the tent for today and they will let us know about the future. Thanks.
So as we are starting rehearsal, the PDX Pop NOW festival kickoff was starting. Actually, PDX Pop NOW is usually something I get into, but they made some unfortunate choices for bands (and why are you doing this outside at the courthouse, again? Old Time Relijun, The Watery Graves, and Little Sue. Local bands I've not heard of, and won't be following up.
Then, at the end of Act I, they finished. Which is great - Act II needs more work, we can now hear each other, yay!
Halfway through Act II, the sprinklers on the other side of the park suddenly went off. It freaked us out, but they weren't really hitting the stage, or where we were sitting, so we pressed on. Fifteen minutes later, they popped up on our side. One came up right under the tent! We all got doused as we grabbed our things and ran. It was hilarous in it's absurdity - and sadly, sprinkler systems are rather disinterested in performance permits. We were done for the night.
And so I went to a concert. Alan Singley and the Pants Machine. Needed to wipe away the memory of those bad bands. Alan was great, and I actually got to chat with him before the show. He played my favorite song of his "the pie song" and even asked me to come on stage and sing it with him. I demurred, as I get funny about singing, and actually prefer not to be on a stage when I'm not working. The opening band, The Sort Ofs, were excellent, and I really like their CD, which I bought. So that worked out.
Oh, and out in the park, doing this show - this is me:
I mean, first there was the fountain and all the drama associated with that. Now Romeo and Juliet is closed, and As You Like It opens this coming Saturday.
It's a production that has been fraught with....stuff. The two lead women are in other shows at the same time as this one, one of which opens the same day as ours, just at night, when we are in the afternoon. Due to this, we will not have had a single rehearsal with the entire cast before we open the show. Wow.
And then last night's rehearsal, well, that was something else.
It actually started before I got there, so this part I just heard via our SM. Some people arrived early to set up the changing tent, and once done, were approached by a policeman who said "this here is an illegal erection. The federal police are on their way." Um. We put up a tent in the park, so you called the feds? Anyway - the federal police arrive, our director (Bibi - she's like everyone's mom. It's impossible to say no to her. It would be like letting down your mom or grandma...) shows them our permit, they say that we can keep the tent for today and they will let us know about the future. Thanks.
So as we are starting rehearsal, the PDX Pop NOW festival kickoff was starting. Actually, PDX Pop NOW is usually something I get into, but they made some unfortunate choices for bands (and why are you doing this outside at the courthouse, again? Old Time Relijun, The Watery Graves, and Little Sue. Local bands I've not heard of, and won't be following up.
Then, at the end of Act I, they finished. Which is great - Act II needs more work, we can now hear each other, yay!
Halfway through Act II, the sprinklers on the other side of the park suddenly went off. It freaked us out, but they weren't really hitting the stage, or where we were sitting, so we pressed on. Fifteen minutes later, they popped up on our side. One came up right under the tent! We all got doused as we grabbed our things and ran. It was hilarous in it's absurdity - and sadly, sprinkler systems are rather disinterested in performance permits. We were done for the night.
And so I went to a concert. Alan Singley and the Pants Machine. Needed to wipe away the memory of those bad bands. Alan was great, and I actually got to chat with him before the show. He played my favorite song of his "the pie song" and even asked me to come on stage and sing it with him. I demurred, as I get funny about singing, and actually prefer not to be on a stage when I'm not working. The opening band, The Sort Ofs, were excellent, and I really like their CD, which I bought. So that worked out.
Oh, and out in the park, doing this show - this is me:
posted by Brian at 1:42 PM
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