Tag: Beau Jest (2005)

Beau Jest

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With the End of the Holidays…

I know it has been a few months since my last entry in October, but things are beginning to pickup again. What I did not want to do during the fourth quarter of 2005 was: 1. miss out on my family vacation in December and 2. Spend the Christmas Holidays in a play. So I took November and December off.

I am so ready to do another play. I have been since October, but… see above. One of the plays I have been looking forward to auditioning for is Play On, which last I heard, is a play selected by and will be directed by Lane Teilhaber. If you remember, Lane directed Beau Jest. I would love to work with Lane again. A great director he be.

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Audition for Postmortem update

Apparently a large number of people auditioned on Tuesday night at Kudzu Playhouse. Jason Meinhardt, who will be directing, was at the theater till after 10 PM. Well on Wednesday night, Lane Teilhaber (director of Beau Jest) and I were the only two males to audition. Half-dozen or so females, so Lane and I read with different ladies for the same side. It actually gave me an opportunity to read over the side many times before doing it before the director.

Jason was to phone for callbacks last night and today. I think I did well, but that does not mean anything.

An interesting note: One of the sides I read was for WILLIAM GILLETTE. GILLETTE is well known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and has blurred the lines between Holmes and himself. GILLETTE quotes the well know Holmes axiom “Eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” This is the single line which defines GILLETTE/Holmes as a character. I never did read that line to my satisfaction. In my mind, a perfect reading of that line within the side could land you the part.

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Dinner Rehearsal

With Lane Teilhaber, director of Beau Jest, the priority for the actors was blocking first, characterization second and memorizing lines last. Lane did not want us to concentrate on line memorization until after we had blocking down. Lane moved consecutively through the script; All of Act I Scene 1, then Act I Scene 2, everyone present.

Well each director has there own method of directing. For The Man Who Came To Dinner, director Mary Binaco is no exception.

For The Man Who Came To Dinner, there is one main presence on the stage for most of the play and that is WHITESIDE. There are many other roles that come in and out during the play. Mary has been taking the smaller roles and going over each of there parts individually with WHITESIDE. For my character, DR. BRADLEY, we went over all his major appearances, skipping over all other parts in between.

Last night we continued that method but the focus was on MAGGIE. Most of MAGGIE’s parts ended where DR. BRADLEY’s began. So, rehearsal went from WHITESIDE and MAGGIE into WHITESIDE and DR. BRADLEY in one large chunk. Skip to the next MAGGIE area and continue.

In the mean time, Mary would like for us to have as many lines memorized as possible so we can concentrate on the blocking. Mary is also surrounded by yellow notepad papers with notes. And she seems to be always thinking about and analyzing the script. Tweaking.

I am not complaining or really meaning to compare. As far as I know, me being a newbie and all, there is no wrong way to direct. These are merely observations; A note of my experiences.

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Jest a Second is a No Go

Tammy and I went to see a play Saturday night at the Stage Door Players in Dunwoody. The play is Blithe Spirit. Mary Sittler, who was in Beau Jest with me, and my friend Mark Grey were in this play. And by chance the director of Beau Jest, Lane Teilhaber also attended Saturday’s show.

As you may recall, Jest a Second is the sequel to Beau Jest. Lane was hoping to do Jest a Second at Kudzu Playhouse, with the same cast as Beau Jest, and at the same time next season. Well it turns out that Kudzu does not want to do Just a Second.

The story of Beau Jest was that SARAH created a fake boyfriend to please her parents because, they did not approve of her real boyfriend. So in Jest a Second, JOEL, divorced parent of two, is afraid to introduce his significant other, RANDY to his parents. The impression is that RANDY is female when actually RANDY is JOEL’s boyfriend.

What Kudzu has an issue with is not the potential controversy, the same controversy Stage Door experienced with a homosexual relationship in Deathtrap just recently, but that it would not draw the audience or even chase away the audience when they call to find out what the play is about.

Well keep that a secret. Say something like: “Jest a Second, a sequel to Beau Jest. In Beau Jest, SARAH has problems and hilarious consequences over the issue of presenting her boyfriend to her parents. A year later, JOEL is faced the very same issue.”

See. Let the audience assume whatever they want. Jest a Second, like Beau Jest is about family and family relationships and not about sexual preference. And after seeing the play, I would hope the audience would see it the same way. It is a very good play and I hope one day to be able to be in it.

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Actor’s Nightmare

I had a nightmare the other night. I dreamed I was in a production and we were at opening night and I did not have ANY of my lines memorized. So I was going to use the script on stage. Then I couldn’t find where I was supposed to be in the script.

Before that part of the dream, I had all my stage clothes locked in my truck and I could not find my keys. So here I was on stage, without my clothes, did not know my lines, nor could I find where I was supposed to be in the script. No I wasn’t naked. I was wearing gray sweatpants and a long sleeve button-up.

But wait, there’s more. Before I realized I did not have my clothes, and before I realized I did not know my lines, there was the phone call: “You do remember we have a show tonight?” AARRRGGHH!

So there I was, on stage with no lines, no clothes, not able to find my place in the script and I was late!

Oh, did I mention that it was sold out?

So no lines, no cloths, not able to find my place in the script and I was late for a sold out show. With all that said, once I was on stage, not delivering any lines, large parts of the audience in the 250 seat theatre were leaving! What a disaster.

And then like all dreams, the plot twist arrived: The remaining audience stood up and cheered. Still don’t know why. Maybe it was because at that point I found my place in the script and read a few lines. So I started yelling for them to be quite so I could read some more and they wouldn’t. Lane? oh yes, the director was Lane. You know, the director of Beau Jest. Lane then told me to let them cheer if they wanted to. OK. Fine by me.

The worst part of all this is that I am dreaming about acting. This isn’t the first time either. Other dreams included auditions and other plays. Is that a good thing or bad?