Macbeth shall sleep no more

There is a long held belief that this play is cursed.  There are lots of facts to back this up.  (Like people dying whilst working on it). You can google it.  I've had some bad things happen while working on different productions of Macbeth.  But I don't really believe that they are related to any sort of curse.  I think the real curse of this show is that it is really hard to stage and play convincingly.  Like The Tempest, Mackers is filled with magic and supernatural happenings that test the mettle of those who make plays.  And like The Tempest , which we did a couple of years ago at SBTS, we have the good fortune of having Stephanie Coltrin directing.  For those that don't know her, and don't follow my blogs closely, Steph is literally the artistic yin to my yang.  We have the same aesthetic, but approach it from different angles that just seem to compliment one another.  The greatest artistic successes I've had as an actor wer...

My dear readers, all six of you, I am sorry I have been so negligent.  But this is my first day off since Memorial Day, which was my first day off since, I don't know...February?  I have started several blogs since then (and my fear is that this is just another one that will be scrapped) but not been coherent enough to actually post them.  And it would be silliness to try to recapture what I wrote an abandoned. -fun fact, I once was writing a novel (by hand in a notebook) and left it on a plane.  I probably had a couple hundred pages of my first draft done.  I never recovered it.  And I couldn't bring myself to rewrite all I had written. So, let me give you the highlights of what has transpired since I last wrote a blog.  I turned 50.  I'm ok with it. Actually, I'm sort of owning it.  (Because I may be a mediocre looking 30's 40's dude, but at 50, I'm pretty well preserved.)  We went through tech and opening of "Taming of the Shrew...

This weekend may have been even more crazy than the one I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.  Saturday I started off at 10 AM with a costume parade for "Macbeth" and "Taming of the Shrew," then Steph, Elena (our amazing stage manager), Melissa (my Lady M), and I went out to Pt. Fermin to look at the Ocean and do table work on the Macbeth and Lady Macbeth scenes.  And then I returned to Little Fish to do an 8 PM performance of "Dinner with Friends."  Today, I began at 10 AM with a Macbeth rehearsal, then I had a 2 PM matinee of "Dinner with Friends," and finally had a 4 hour rehearsal of "Taming of the Shrew."  I don't say this to brag, or complain, or for any other reason than to mention that my heart is full, and my tank is low. But I really want to talk about "Dinner with Friends" in this blog.  It's been a journey for me since I pitched it to Suzanne and Lisa last August.  As a company member of Little Fish, we ...

I've started writing this blog several times over the last two weeks.  Seems like a lot longer, but two weeks ago I had the fullest day of theatre in my life.  I had a company meeting for Shakespeare by the Sea.  Then we read "Macbeth."  I then went to our tech rehearsal for "Dinner with Friends."  From there, I drove to Hollywood for a production of "Macbeth Revisited."  It was awesome.  It was exhausting.  Since then, we have opened "Dinner with Friends."  We have closed "Macbeth Revisited."  And I have had meetings for "Macbeth."  I'm also doing fight choreography for Macbeth, as I did for Dinner with Friends.  I also did a bet of fight choreo for "Sylvia" at the Rubicon which had a very successful run last month.  So, I'm busy.  We only have 4 more performances of Dinner with Friends.  I have come to really love this production.  I mentioned before that the first read was so amazing that I was afr...

This may be my favorite line in the play.  (The blood thing above).  I think before every really terrible decision I made in my life, I felt this way and said something like it.   "Fuck it, I've already gone this far."  This line also occurs to me every day as I make my epic journey from the South Bay to Hollywood to do the show.  There is a point after I've finally reached the 405 from south Torrance, and exited onto La Cienega, and made my way over to La Brea that I hit the half way point.  About 45 minutes in.  I say...what the hell I may as well go do the show instead of stopping at a bar to drink. Anyway, I did want to continue talking about Shakespeare's Army because I will never write that book (if you are asking "what book" go back and read my last blog, you bastards) and I didn't get very far into the list of those who serve in this Army. Lots of people have commented on how cool it is to have a female Banquo.  (And I think the g...

In my younger days as a professional actor, I spent a lot of time carrying a spear (as the saying goes).  Not at first.  In High School and College, I played lead roles.  When I left college and entered the acting world, I was a kid with talent, but no real technique.  (This is not meant as a slight to the schools I went to as an undergrad. Technique is something you acquire by doing the work. The whole Malcolm Gladwell thing about 10,000 hours needed to master something thing). Fortunately, I love to work.  I love the process.  I really fucking love creating theatre.  So, when I moved from Las Cruces to Washington DC, and a couple of years later to Seattle, I took whatever I could.  The day I arrived in DC, I auditioned for a "Julius Caesar" with the Washington Shakespeare Company.  I got cast as the sort of right hand man to Caesar who became the right hand man to Antony (lots of little roles tied together).  I was a kid, but I was i...

Time is flying.  Time is fleeting.  Time is precious. Our second week of Macbeth Revisited has come and gone.  Doing a play two nights a week is the norm in LA theatre.  But that doesn't mean that it is easy.  We had such a great run up leading to opening weekend.  We have been rehearsing 5 nights a week for like a month and a half.  We were living in the world of the play nearly every day.  And then we open and...see you in a week.  It's jarring.  Especially in a piece like this where there are so many of us who have been breathing the same air, getting on one another's nerves, getting over it and coming together.--And then there was tech. Speaking of so many of us, I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the other people in the play.  Don't get used to it...if they want to be talked about they can write their own blogs.  But I do love them all. David Purdham, who is an absolute treasure of a human being and geni...