Okay, so today I am writing to you from a random Coffee Bean somewhere in San Diego. After our show this morning I decided it was far too beautiful our to spend the day in my very beige apartment. So I ventured out of my secluded neighborhood to a Borders and consequently a big outdoor mall. I've been sitting here for about an hour, sending emails, updating resumes and all that wonderful stuff and it has become apparent to me that I am surrounded be people on first dates. Most of which seem to be blind dates. Over and over now I've watched people walk up to each other hesitantly, laugh awkwardly while shaking hands and murmuring nice to meet you. What is this place I have entered? Is there some dating site that suggests this specific Coffee Bean as a good neutral place to meet your future mate? Luckily everyone seems to be having a good time. I haven't seen any of these daters running out screaming and running for this hills. Most are deep in conversation and hopefully unaware that I am totally stalking them. Maybe all those e-harmony or match.com commercials are true...?
In other news Frida Libre is going gloriously! Well I should rephrase that, I am having an amazing time performing in what I keep calling a total gem of a show. Today's performance though, (our last preview before we officially open tomorrow) was rough to say the least. Yesterday the kids who got to see parts of our rehearsal process finally saw the whole thing with costumes and sets, the whole she-bang. And that show went great. The kids were so receptive and delightful. After the show we have a small question and answer period and it is really interesting how perceptive some of the kids are. Sure we get the usual little kid questions such as "do you really like to paint?" or "do Alex and Frida loooove each other?" but sometimes they are truly insightful. As if I couldn't love kids enough, hearing their awe and laughter is truly amazing.
Today's show however was our first one in a brand new space we had never seen before and boy did it make us work for our money today. That's the beauty and pain of touring. Showing up, seeing what you got, and making work as best as we can. The space was a sort of inverted "kiva" as they called it. The kids sat on stairs while we performed on the flat space below. On top of that they were seated in a thrust formation. Meaning instead of having audience just in front of us there were little people sitting on THREE sides of us. Talk abut making adjustments. Unfortunately this meant masking the backstage was impossible and a handful of kids saw EVERYTHING we were doing back there, but hey, it's an educational experience right? Watch a fun show and see how all the magic happens behind the scenes. On top of our thrust formation the room was thickly carpeted which made it very difficult to move our sets and props that were on wheels. Oye, apparently at one point our big flat almost tipped over on me and the amazing Rae had to save the day. I had no clue until after the show...oops
I think tomorrow will be our first real test. Sadly, all the creatives have now left us, and from what I understand we will be entirely on our own for the set up and strike of the set. Once again we will be in a new space figuring it all out all over again. There are trying moments, and heavy pieces which will hopefully turn into nice ripped biceps by the end of the run. I cannot express how much fun I am having. It's such a wonderful little piece of theater with a lot of sophistication that most would never expect from a children's show.
Along with my adventures as Frida I have been choreographing a dance piece to be a part of Dance in Flight as Pepperdine University which also runs this weekend. I spent my day off driving up to Malibu to tech and light my dance on the stage before rushing back to San Diego for an 8:30am call time on Monday. I am so proud of my dancers and the whole show in general, directed by the amazing Bill Szobody whom I've assisted in the past, is going to be fantastic. I can't wait to see it this weekend.
Many more stories and fun to come. Who knows maybe I'll come back to this Coffee Bean just to people watch and witness more blind dates. Or is that creepy? ;-)
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