We officially live here--we have beds

So I'm sitting on a train with my laptop, trying to be productive. A blog update is productive, right?

Cash on Delivery is going into its last weekend. I love this cast, and I'm so blessed to have had this opportunity to work with them at a, well, a new theatre. This is Granbury Theatre Company's fifth official show (1776, The Secret Garden, I Do I Do, Plaid Tidings, Cash on Delivery). Anyway. Such a wonderful group of funny people who have a boatload of talent. Only four more shows.

And then The Sound of Music opens at Plaza. Norseman is sort of excited. I've not seen a rehearsal, but he says he's literally in two scenes, which is about four fewer than he'd anticipated as a chorus member.  But I guess a good portion of the show takes place in the Von Trapp household, where only family members are. That opens next Friday, and runs five or six weeks.

I did not get cast in Title of Show, so I have nothing officially on the horizon until March auditions for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  Granbury Theatre Company is doing Fiddler on the Roof, which opens just after Scoundrels auditions. That will likely audition sometime next month, and I would love to go for Fruma Sarah. That's the part I'd wanted when Plaza did it last February, but the role was cast before callbacks. I was happy to be Yente, though. Carrie Rivera kicked boo-tay as Fruma Sarah in that production (and earned a Column Award nomination for that performance! --edited 2/2)

Sunshine was asked to be part of the chorus of her school's production of Guys and Dolls, but with only two weeks' notice. That and the $100+ in costume fees (say what?) caused her to politely decline.

I guess our big news, at least for me, is that we adopted a piano! It's a 1903 Kimball upright player piano. The player part is non-functional, but the piano part is fine. It's even mostly in tune, though I'll have it tuned up soon. My friend JL posted a picture on Facebook Saturday saying 'Free to good home! Just come get it!' My thumbs could barely type a reply fast enough (I was on my phone), as I nearly hyperventilated with excitement. Dad, the kids and I took his flatbed trailer to get it the next day (and then moaned and groaned in pain all day Monday—player pianos are even heavier than non-player pianos). I've wanted a piano since before I was five. Grandma Greenawalt had a piano, which I was sometimes allowed to 'play.'  Our piano is missing the player roller assembly, but it has the pneumatic bellows and such. Norseman and I went poking around in it, figuring out how it worked, how the player pedals folded out, how the player control panel was revealed. It was like National Treasure. “I wonder what this lever does... Oh wow, that is freaking awesome!”

Also, as of Sunday, we all now have real beds. No one is sleeping on a mattress or fold-out foam couch on the floor. All mattresses are now on real bed frames. I got my bed frame a few weeks ago, Norseman got his Sunday. Only six months after we moved in.

One other piece of odd news: I'm parting with my brainchild, ShutterMuse. A professional photographer in Canada contacted me about purchasing it. At first I was reticent (understatement) and completely ignored his inquiries. ShutterMuse is mine, dangit. It's part of me, part of my growth as a photographer, and by association, as an artist. But he persisted, and I had to concede that it really is doing no one any good as is. It's parked, unused,  And realistically, I'm not likely to do anything with it in the conceivable future. So I gave in. And I have mixed feelings about selling. It's weird, I guess. Even weirder to have such mixed feelings about what is essentially a blip of creative thought.

Chances are slim, but hopes are pathetically high

Norseman is deep into rehearsals for Sound of Music, Cash on Delivery and See How They Run are both open (got a great costuming mention in the Column review today!), and we're still not as busy as we were during Carol rehearsals.

Now that Cash is underway, of course I'm looking ahead to what's next. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels auditions aren't until mid-March, which is kind of an eternity away when you have nothing in the wings until then.

I'd initially figured I wouldn't audition for [title of show] because only two of the four roles are female, and with only four roles, all roles are major roles. I figured there was nothing in the show for me; that I really had no chance of getting cast, so why bother, right?

Then I did a show at another theatre. In Cash on Delivery, I'm working with a whole group of very seasoned actors, many of whom actually make, or have made, their living doing this--cruise ships, ballet companies, theatre directors and teachers, with more than a hundred years combined experience--who don't know where I've been other than what's in my bio. They see where I AM NOW, what I put on the stage NOW. And they utterly respect me and the talent I bring to the show. I can more than hold my own among these pro and semi-pro actors.

And then I listened to the cast recording--I mean truly listened. To the lyrics and the characters who sing them. The whole show is so FUN! Plaza is doing the Apropos version, so it'll be somewhat different, but still: FUN! One character in particular stood out, though, and I went, "Hey! That's almost me!"

So I'm auditioning. I know I'm capable. And if by chance I can convince the director I'm capable and right for the role, that the baggage of what I could do ten shows ago has no bearing on what I can do now, I'll have a kick-ass time on this show.

If not, the audition will be valuable experience, and I'll look forward to my Dirty Rotten Scoundrels audition, with perhaps another Granbury audition before then.

Here's a pic of our awesome Cash on Delivery cast!