#talkingitover

90 Talking it Over, an adaptation of the book by Julian Barnes by Peter Greenberg dir Dorothy Milne for Lifeline Theatre. True story, I auditioned for this play in August, got called back didn’t get it. Katie in it, we opened Butterscotch on Friday, Monday I got a call at work from Dorothy Milne saying they lost the person they cast, and would I be interested in TAKING it over (get it?) and they started rehearsal THAT NIGHT. So of course I said yes, and 8 hours later I was rehearsing a show. The novel is about the relationship between three people, Oliver, Stuart and Gillian, and how they come together, fall apart and destroy each other, and the book is divided into first person chapters. I was Oliver, John Ferrick was Stuart and Elise Kauzlaric was Gillian. Katie played an old friend named Val and Ann Wakefield played Gillian’s mother and a French Neighbor. So it was only five actors and a lot of direct address. I wish I could tell you that I was good in this play, but honestly, and this is the first time I am admitting it publicly, I don’t feel that I was. I felt behind the whole time, on accent, on knowing the character, my Mangan beard felt completely wrong for the character and was distracting for the first month of rehearsal while I still had it. I felt I was working harder (because of my own personal hang ups, not direction) at NOT being the interpretation of the character I brought into auditions than actually working on the character. Luckily everyone else was great and spackled over my shortcomings. The OTHER non-related me problem was, because Lifeline has A space but often is running a kid’s show and a mainstage at the same time, at the end of performances, you have to strike the set to a place where the other set can put up. The way this particular set was designed, every single piece of scenery had to be taken apart and stacked into two piles. And this was a show that only had five people in it. Which I loved about the show, but man it made changeover a PROCESS. #retrospective #2008 #talkingitover #lifelinetheatre #petergreenberg #dorothymilne #julianbarnes #oliver #threecigarettesinanashtray (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WT5dbJq19/?igshid=1xx2q7g0q59sr

He walked down the street towards the coffee house where he had said he would meet Ellen. Pushing open the door, he heard the bell ring and saw no sign of Ellen. He stopped, assuming she would probably not even turn up, he gave a soft groan before sitting down in an empty seat. He held his head in his hands and it took the waitress 5 attempts to ask for his order. He jolted up and told her that he would order when his friend got there. He played with the sugar holder for a while, hoping she would turn up soon, he was starting to attract unwanted attention from the waitress.