the arrival!
At 0825 this morning, the 31 May 2007, Hannah Erin came into the world. Our first niece. Big Friendly has been sobbing. Like a…baby. We are filled with delight and wonder. Our family grows. There is much love flowing.
headless chicken
It’s so weird! Ever since Sunday night (not counting the fact that I have had a brilliant time with family and friends) I have been a bit at a loose end. Ok, on Monday night I played TheatreSports for the first time in ages, which was fab. But, even though I am working really hard on many things, I haven’t had to go to the theatre every night. And I miss it. And it’s only been 3 nights. Even doing door, lights and sound is addictive. I don’t know. It’s that old fashioned thing of going to a dark and empty space; the big sound of turning the dimmers on, the crackle and boom of the mixing desk and amp, the stuffiness of the dressing room, the creakiness of the floorboards. Then, the space gradually transforms with the arrival of each and every audience member. SOHAR had a great second week with lots of people and brilliant feedback. So now there’s a small hole until Grahamstown.
It’s not really A HOLE as such. We play the TheatreSports funraiser on Saturday night at the SABC auditorium in Sea Point. There’s TheatreSports on Mondays at the Intimate and Tuesdays at the Kalk Bay Theatre. I am rehearsing Shez Sharon almost every day now, and a cute industrial theatre project which performs on Tuesday.
Then, next week we hold auditions for the upcoming (we start rehearsing in September) The Circus Side Show, another musical theatre collaboration between me and Graham Weir.
So, I’m not complaining. Although I am sure I will when I get to Grahamstown. It’s just…I like having to go to the theatre every night.
Maybe there’s something good to see?
weekend of love
My brother and his wife came to CT on the spur of the moment on Saturday arvie so they could be at the final show of SOHAR. How cool is that? We spent Sunday hanging out in Langebaan, at Die Strandloper. Yesterday I fetched my darling friend from the airport and he too spent the night last night. And what’s more, my cuzzin was also in town yesterday to deliver some stuff. So it’s been some few days (because my big best friend was also here on Thursday) of real love. I am happy.
dompelplons
This is Big Friendly’s new most favourite Afrikaans word. Any guesses what it is?
Living Proof
My best friend in the world came to visit for one night last night (she lives in Aussieland) and she got to see Songs of Hangings and Redemption. She is more obsessed with Springsteen than I could ever be, has a musical appreciation that is vast, layered and eccentric, and she loved the show. I am so glad she got a miracle chance to see it. When we were rehearsing she was constantly on my mind. It has been amazing, actually. We have had absolutely no publicity for the show and had to rely entirely on good reviews and word of mouth to spread the word. And it has worked. People are trickling in after being sent by friends or a good word in the press. And they are loving it. Yay.
PS. Only tonight and tomorrow left, for those interested.
horrified by sick images
I was having a business lunch in a chi chi restaurant yesterday and there was one of those big screen tvs behind the person I was meeting with. I thought I was going completely nuts when I saw a live cow being thrown off the back of a truck only to be shredded by a group of tigers! It was still alive after being mauled. This all took place in a huge like parking lot with tour busses in a circle surrounding the action. Then birds – ducks and chickens – were flung out of vehicles and snatched out of the air by the tigers. All this while people, adults and children, looked out from bus windows. The worst part is that the footage was part of a CNN loop, so before we had finished it came on again.
What the hell is that? I asked if anyone else had seen it and a friend said she had and it was in China. What the HELL? It’s the worst thing I have EVER seen. I am shocked and sickened and I struggle to close my eyes. I am disturbed and freaked out and am having nightmares. Did anyone else see it? Is there anything we can do?
Help or hazzard?
I know I should shut up and be grateful. But it is so hard! … …No. I can’t. So we got a really good review in one of the dailies yesterday. Well, I think the reviewer liked the show. The problem is that the review is mostly incomprehensible. And inaccurate.
Firstly he gets the musicians wrong. Pitchie and Fuzzy, both well known musicians from bands and other stuff around Cape Town, are switched around and mis-identified. Now, I think that’s horrible. Then, I quote, “It is clear that director Megan Choritz didn’t interfere much with the staging, because the artists rarely move from their respective position (sic).” I mean, how lucky was I, as the director, to not have to interfere with the staging? I virtually had nothing to do, since I chose not to interfere with the staging!
Then comes my best and most incomprehensible part. “Weir has always appeared unafraid to shy away from a bit of camp, and his costume particularly communicates a certain degree of self-awareness as to the material he is covering.” Please. I need help here. What does any of this mean? I can’t even break it down. I am entirely bamboozled.
Like I said, I should be grateful. But boy it sticks in my throat.
let’s get Intimate
I went to my first Let’s Get Intimate last night. I have as mixed feelings about the concept as I do about the performances which were a mixed bag. So, how it works is on Sunday nights (at 1930) there is a kind of showcase/open mic session at the Intimate theatre. Kati, the ‘boss’ of The Intimate does a really good job of making the venue and bar and even outside look pretty and red and inviting. Last night was obviously not a good judge of how successful this is. It was freezing cold and coming down in buckets. I think the audience (most of whom came late) totalled about 14 and I think a lot of them were recycled performers.
Graham, Fuzzy and Pitchie performed two songs from SOHAR to start. I guess they are used to tiny audiences. Brendan Murray emceed the evening and he is cute and charming and sometimes even funny. Then was the turn of a stand-up comic (forgive me but I have NO recollection of his name, which is probably just as well) who did a dreary little set with a couple of slides. He had arrived late to set up and I thought he was irritating. I’m not that good with stand-up in general though. Next up was a cute singer/songwriter/pianist called Frieda. I have auditioned her before. She is very talented and has a beautiful voice. She needs some direction though. Her stuff is very complicated. Very Tawdry Amos.
Then there was a break. Then there was a guy called Stan who is one of the performers of Like Fire, Ilana Wetzler’s collection of male singer/songwriters who perform on Sunday nights in May at my favourite venue The Obz Cafe. He was ok. The magician didn’t pitch. Then Godfrey Johnson did three Brel numbers. I love Godfrey’s Brel. I am biased. I directed his show when he performed them and he does them just the way I like it. That was it. Oh, I did win the free VIDA E coffees for heckling the emcee.
The performers were lucky last night. They had me doing sound. That’s because I didn’t want anyone touching our mixing desk which is set up for SOHAR. They all sounded beautiful through Pitchie’s mics and our speakers, amps and desk.
So here’s the rub. Last night was a bit of a musical variety show. Which was a bit boring. I suppose the real challenge is to get a strong and contrasting line up every week. I have been slack. Kati has asked us to come and do some TheatreSports and I think we should and we haven’t yet.
Back in the old days Melinda Ferguson used to run ‘Theatre Voltaire’ up in Jozi on Sunday nights. First it happened at the Junction, a seedy downtown club (seedy and downtown were different in the very early 90’s) and then at the Coffee Society in Rockey Street. What was brilliant about Theatre Voltaire was the range of stuff that people came to show. Strippers, fan dancers, scenes from new plays, short films, stand-up, drag. There was always a huge audience who were very vocal about their likes and dislikes. We fought like cats for slots at Voltaire. A good response could determine a future for whatever you were doing. I performed the first ever ten minute version of The Rhino Woman at Theate Voltaire. It went on to become a brilliant one woman show that even had a sequel, The Return of the Rhino Woman.
So maybe I’m stuck in the past, and maybe I want thrings to be ‘like they used to’. But maybe it’s a different world out there. I guess people are not that interested in each other’s work anymore. None of the students on the Drama School campus have come to TheatreSports or SOHAR. They weren’t there last night. Where is everybody?
Sharks and Bulls – those kind of animals
Big Friendly is so depressed. He’s got a tummy ache. He is pacing. He is staying at home by himself tonight while I go to SOHAR. The sharks lost. In the dying moments of the game the Bulls scored. Big Friendly used the ugliest words to describe them. I must confess that I slept out my karaoke hangover through most of the game.
An unexpected delight
A friend and TheatreSports player had her birthday celebration last night. After SOHAR Big Friendly and I went to Sea Point to join about 15 friends for KARAOKE!! You would think that a bunch of performers would want to celebrate off-stage and differently, but no. Song after song was sung with gusto and interpretation.
And what a fabulous place. With the most unlikely and extraordinary bunch of people. My best was a young drunk guy who was with two, what looked like, foreign language students. He was just fantastic. Nerdy in is stripy T shirt and jeans pulled up a little further than they should have been, he hopped up jerkily in response to every song. He danced and applauded and sang along and fell asleep.
The place itself is very strange. There is a big ‘hall’, a place for everyone to have a go, with four small banquettes, one big one and a table and chairs in the middle. Then, there are private karaoke rooms for hire (just like Lost in Translation). I discovered these when I saw someone I knew but who I couldn’t attatch to our party. He confessed that he was “in a private room with friends” and I went to have a look. Apparently they go quite often and five of them hire out the room for an hour or two.
It’s addictive. And weird. And humiliating. And amazing. One of the girls in our bunch was the most astounding. She is not an actor. She is loudly, beautifully, unnaturally tone-deaf. And she sang her heart out. She was huge.
Aside from the fact that people can smoke inside (which is weird and hectic and hard for me) it is a wonderful and fun thing to do. So, don’t look for me and Big Friendly on Friday nights. We’ll be in our room. Singing Hey Jude.
-
Randomness
