Optimally different!

This is my first mostly-day-off in... damn, a really long time. Closing night of EDTM tonight, and hopefully will get some progress made on the workwork project on which I remain behind, but other than that, today has been spent either running low-stress errands (yay sunny day and things within walking distance!!) or sitting in bed with tea and goodfoods, trying to recover from the cast party. MIT's musical theater guild has some... ill-advised traditions, IMO, not least of which being having the cast party the night before closing. There's a rationale for doing it that way, but suffice it to say I am achey, grossly underslept, and, as Henry Rollins once put it, "my body feels like Billy Idol himself". I have no idea what that actually means, and yet it seems to capture what I feel like right now nonetheless. Still, just one more show. If can just baby my voice enough today to pull off one more non-sucky performance this evening, I will go out with a bang and all will be well.

In other news, I owe redfishie big time for introducing me to Raquy and The Cavemen. I can't decide whether listening to them makes me want to pick up my doumbek and play more, or never bother touching it ever again. Seriously, if this track in particular blows my mind. MUST. SEE. THIS. LIVE. I will dance until I break, and then I will die happy.

In other other news, I have officially run out of space for both clothes and costuming in my closet, which raises a serious question: where am I gonna put all my clothes now?

There's an episode of Red Dwarf wherein the crew discover a research lab that had created "positive viruses", like regular viruses but with beneficial effects (yeah yeah not all viruses are negative-- bear with me, it's just an intro). Lister finds that the notion explains a lot, and remarks upon how there have been times when, just as one sometimes gets sick out of the blue, he would just get happy out of the blue, even when nothing is going right in his life.

Things are not going badly for me, but I'm kind of having one of those times. I'm exhausted, overwhelmed, overscheduled, and underslept. Normally this is a recipe for a bout of depression, but every now and then I roll some sort of critical success on my fatigue-check, and instead get slightly loopy and just sort of feel in love with the world. I don't really have a frame of reference for comparison, but I suspect it's similar to the "I love you, man" phenomenon in drunkenness, because I really do kinda want to just say that to random people/everyone right now (the main difference between this and drunkenness being that I still retain my inhibitions... mostly).

Anyway, it's an odd but pleasant state, and it happens often enough that I figured I should mention it, since I whine about the "sleepyemo" phenomenon often enough, and I'm curious whether others experience anything similar.

Opening night of EDTM went well. The audience was amazing. This show is made for nerds, and it brought glee to my little geekheart hearing people not just laugh, but cheer at every campy, self-aware reference or stupidly gratuitous effect. Thanks a TON to everyone who showed up. I was bragging all night to the rest of the cast that I recognized at least a third of the splatter zone. Apologies to those within the zone on whom I failed to bleed sufficiently, and to those outside of the zone on whom I succeeded to. ;) Btw, if you've seen the show and liked it, please do us a favor and spread the word! The link for showtimes reservations, etc is here.

Some fantastic pics from the final dress performance of the first act, plus some rehearsal shots are now available here. Apparently they never put second-act pics up until after the run, due to spoiler-concerns. For this show, the current pics are as spolery as anything from the second act could be, but really, your experience is not likely to be negatively affected in any case.

And so, onward to the next performance! Second night is always the toughest, because the "holy crap, we're going up!" adrenalin rush of opening is gone and people are usually tired after celebrating a successful first performance. Despite going to two parties after the show, I was still asleep before 2, and am taking it relatively easy today. But it turns out that after a week of nightly runs-through, performing a part wherein I bust out the rock-belt in the first act, then yell and scream for pretty much all of the second act, and then do a solo at the end, takes a cumulative toll on one's voice. Who knew? So, spending the day locked in my room catching up on day-job work, which pretty much owns me whenever I'm not on stage this weekend, ODing on tea with lemon and honey, and talking to as few people as possible in the hope of making it through this weekend's remaining performances intact. Wish me luck! :)

Gotta say, though, I am pretty damn impressed with this production. Some things were a bit touch-and-go right up until opening night, as is often the case, but we've taken a show that is a lot harder to run than it looks and, IMO, run it very well, with a solid cast, great sound, lighting, sets and props, and two awesome blood-techs (that's right, we have "blood techs"). I am very thankful to not only be in one of my favorite shows but to have it be a production of which I'm genuinely proud, and in which I'm having a great time. The chemistry among the cast has come together enough that even during the opening night performance, there were all these little ad-libs we kept throwing in, just improvising off of one another in the background. I love that feeling.

Thanks again to everyone who showed up, and to everyone else who plans to. I really appreciate the support!

Final rehearsal went pretty fabulously.

A few tips for those who intend to come to the show:
- If you want the most... complete splatter-zone experience, sit near the cellar door (center block, stage right)
- ...no, really, I mean complete(ley covered in... stuff).
- Second best splatter seats are probably center block, stage left.
- ...but if you end up in another part of the splatzone, don't worry. We'll still get you. ;)
- If, on the other hand, you want to be sure you leave in exactly the state in which you arrived, be sure to sit 5 rows back or more, not just on the edge of the splatzone (center block, first three rows). We're still working on our aim. :) But seriously, if you sit well back you'll be fine, and will have no problem seeing things, as it's a small theater. Lest I give the wrong impression to those unfamiliar with edtm, it really is a catchy show, with more to offer than just comically gratuitous gore (and one particularly tasteless joke, IMO, for which I apologize in advance), I promise!

...and finally
- If you want to say hi after the show, give me 5-10 minutes. Each actor is responsible for cleaning his or her costume after the show, which is, as you may imagine, a bit of a chore. ;) Feel free to text or gchat me if you're waiting and I'll hurry.


Hope to see y'all there! :)

Tix and dates here