For The Love of Kermit

Today was our first day of rehearsal at St. James’ High School, which is a rural school about forty-five minutes from our motel. I saw the Mississippi River for the very first time when we crossed the Lulling Bridge. About twenty minutes into the drive Bill said, “See that? That there is sugar cane.” (Imagine an older southern gentleman saying this and you’ll understand why it has become a cast catch phrase.) Five minutes later Bill said, “That over there? That's just more suga caine..." Boy, did we pass a whole lot of sugar cane. The next big site to see was the levee. I thought back to all of those Pub Nites at Swat and recalled the lyrics “I brought my Chevy to the levee,” which I sang every Thursday night during senior year (without knowing exactly what a levee was). It is simply an artificially constructed wall used to regulate water levels. Now, I know.

When we arrived at St. James, home of the Wildcats, we unloaded the truck and learned how to assemble the sets. We have nine periactoids on wheels, so that we have three separate sets: King Arthur’s palace, the Evil Knight’s forest and The Lake of the Lake’s lair. The main props are King Arthur’s throne, some magic trick props, a small table, shields, swords, Excalibur, the Scabbard and several dummies who act as prisoners in the Evil Knight’s castle. Usually we will arrive at our performance two and a half hours before the first show is scheduled to start. The cast will assemble the set pieces while Cassandra and Josh set up the lights and sound equipment.

We spent the entire morning loading everything into the auditorium and ate lunch at the “One Stop Grub Shop” down the road. In the afternoon we had a read through of the script. After imagining these characters in my head, it was exciting to finally hear them. Zach’s Evil Knight is inspired by the French guard from Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, which is absolutely hilarious. Craig practiced some of Merlin’s magic tricks for us and my absolute favorite is the “Zombie Ball” trick. I won’t give away his secrets here. I hope to record his magic act and share it here sometime!

We had a great dinner at Harbor Seafood and I had my very first po-boy! While ordering, I felt like a pro because I knew what it meant to have your po-boy “dressed.” (It comes with pickles, lettuce, tomato and mayo- thanks Jen and Melissa). The grilled catfish was spicy and delicious, but another item on the menu really caught my eye–“The Swamp Platter” which includes Fried Alligator, Fried Crawfish Tails, Fried Frog Legs, Turtle Soup, Crawfish Etouffee, and Cajun Alligator Sausage for only $17.50. For the love of Kermit why would I want to eat frog legs?! Although I was not brave enough to sample any of these southern specialties, we will see how I am feeling in a few weeks. Zach wants to try to turtle soup and I may be tempted to try it as well. Since we will be based in New Orleans, we have plenty of time to research the best place to try some authentic Cajun cuisine. Here I am eating my first po-boy:

I’m looking forward to meeting Henry, who works at the front desk, tomorrow evening. Bill told us that he will probably call us “The Movie People” and enjoys taking care of the theatre kids who pass through here. When I asked for Henry at the front desk, the woman immediately dialed him on the phone so we had a quick conversation. He sounds like a real character! He was thrilled just to hear my voice and said, “Well, this is just beautiful!”

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Louisiana

Hello and welcome to my blog! As some of you know, back in July I attended an audition for King Arthur and The Magic Sword. It was that 104 degree Saturday and I had been up very late the night before hanging out with Peter and his cousins, so I was a little out of it. By 4 pm I was in a silly mood while reading a scene with a guy named Mike and we both received callbacks for the following morning. After a long weekend in a sweaty studio, the group of twenty five actors were narrowed down to four! I am very proud to have been cast, especially since over 150 women auditioned for the show. This is my first long-term paid acting gig and I am thrilled to be a working actress right out of college.

I am writing from my motel room in Metairie, Louisiana. Somehow I escaped the wrath of Hurricane Irene and took a 6:45 AM flight out of JFK to The Louis Armstrong International Airport. The adventure began this morning when Dad, Mom and Leah drove me to the airport. While we were waiting in line at the kiosk my mom pointed out a 6'4" bearded man with a guitar on his back and said "that must be an actor!" and sure enough, moments later, Zach and I were posing for a bon voyage photograph. The airport was an absolute zoo! Countless flights were cancelled because of the hurricane and we found out that we were one of the very last flights out of New York before the airport shut down. Everyone seemed to be a little bit on edge. (Later, we found out that one of Craig's magic tricks, the stiff rope, was confiscated when he went through security! Apparently, it did not qualify as a "toy weapon.") When Zach and I got to our gate we were united with Craig, who was able to pack for five months on the road in two very small carry on bags. Zach went to get some breakfast, while Craig boarded the plane. We still had about twenty five minutes before we were scheduled to take off, so I took advantage of the water fountain and savored my last few sips of delicious New York water. All of a sudden I heard a final boarding call announcement, but Zach and Mike were nowhere to be found. Immediately, I panicked and remembered that the afternoon flight to New Orleans had been cancelled! I pictured Mike and Zach strolling in the airport, Jamba Juice or au bon pain in hand, and thought "Oh boy, it's going to be a long five months!" Luckily, the guys arrived moments later and I was able to breath once again. After a quick three hour flight, we arrived in New Orleans and waited for Cassandra to arrive from Michigan. Sadly, we couldn't find Josh, and we later found out that he missed his connecting flight.

After a short wait, our producer/director, Bill, picked us up in the van and we checked in at our motel and had a leisurely lunch at Subway. I did not expect there to be so many restaurants and shops right near out hotel. We are basically staying on the Baltimore Pike of New Orleans, complete with Starbucks, Target, Macy's, and dozens of restaurants. Our Subway server could have been speaking Spanish because I could not understand a word he said! When he asked where I was from and I said Staten Island, New York, he started ranting about Jersey Shore. Sadly, I couldn't contribute to the conversation because A) I have never watched Jersey Shore and B) I could only catch a few words here and there! But I did take this as a photo opp - here's a photo of Bobby and I. (Bobby was kind enough to give me extra cucumbers and pickles on my veggie sandwich. See, Mom! I got some veggies down here already.)
From left to right, here is:
Craig - Merlin, The Prisoner
Zack - The Evil Knight, The Sable Knight, Sir Gawain
Me - Lady of the Lake, Old Woman, Lady Miriam
Cassandra - Production Coordinator
Mike - King Arthur
Josh (kneeling) - Technical Director

I will definitely be writing more about my castmates as I get to know them a little bit better. Perhaps they will follow along, especially since every five seconds I say, "Oh yeah, I am writing about this on my blog."

When we left Subway we walked through a parking lot and all of a sudden a man was running towards us and he shouted "Hey, are you guys the theatre group!" Zach's fists clenched and most of us were thinking "Wow, word gets around fast here! Did Bobby tell his friends about us? I hope this guy doesn't wanna hang out or something." However, it turned out to be Josh, our technical director, who just arrived from California! Finally we were all together. Here is our very first group photo. (I learned that Josh does't like to take traditional smiley photos because he played Goofy at Disney Land for three years! I imagined our TD as a burly intimidating dude, but I am pleased to report that Josh is jolly and extremely friendly.)

We spent the afternoon loading up the truck (a twenty four foot cube truck) with our light/sound equipment and sets. Luckily, most of the heavy boxes are on wheels and the set pieces are relatively easy to lift. After spending numerous Sundays striking heavy sets at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, I was expecting more cumbersome set pieces! Also, let me take a moment and acknowledge how chivalrous my fellow cast mates are. The guys took on most of the heavy items. Bill started joking around with me and said things like "Ok honey, I need you to move all this (pointing to a large pile of crap in his storage unit) into the truck" and then promptly reminded me that he is kidding. I have been called honey by quite a few strangers today, which is something I suppose I should take as a complement.

After a long, sweaty afternoon we stopped at our motel and walked to The New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood restaurant down the street. An appropriate choice for our first night in the Pelican State, no?

Such a long post! I guess I am excited about the next few days. We start rehearsing tomorrow and I have a great feeling about our cast. Even though we were all sleep deprived today, we were all smiles and full of energy. Ok, Mike was a little grumpy at moments, but we'll let it slide this one time :) Now, it is time to get some sleep.