And Today's Fixation Will Be...

Okay, I admit it - I get these fleeting fixations on subjects that will preoccupy my mind for weeks sometimes and then slip from the top of my consciousness. I will always love these subjects but they only possess my mind in it's entirety for a bit.  Take the Muppets - I LOVE the Muppets, I will watch their movies or shows all day, if allowed, and am currently working on an amazing Muppet movie script with some of the most awesome people ever (I hope the new movie does well so the audience is there).  However, it will never take over my whole world as it did when I was getting the show on netflix.  I watched endless hours of interviews and special footage, I read large chunks of the muppetwiki site, I even looked into how hard it would be to get a job at the Creature Shop in London (very, very, exceedingly hard by the way).  But after that three week period, I only think about them in spurts.  Same thing has happened to me with Ardal O'Hanlon (why oh why did I watch every episode of Father Ted?), Hyperbole and a Half (a blog), Precious Metal Clay, Knitting (although I sustain this one better), and many other subjects that I have vast knowledge of for no real reason).

Today I will admit it's Magic.  I don't think I'd seen a magic show in around 5 years.  That's a long time for someone who's mother does magic and who was a clown and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.  The reason, or catalyst, for this recent fixation is Piff the Magic Dragon.  It was like the 1st or 2nd flyer I got up here on the first day of the festival and I knew I had to see it. I mentioned in last blog about the serious awesomeness of his act.  Looked into him as a person, inside dragon costume, and found he's also a proper legit magician (not that he didn't do real magic in his show - loved how he worked in cigarette magic which seems to be a dying art) by the name of John Van Der Put (not sure if it all is capitalized or not) and winner of magic awards and inventor of magic effects (check out VDP).  This has sparked the magic bug again.  I will be seeing a further 4 magic shows this week and I've been trying to catch up with what's happening in magic these days since I haven't paid too much attention since I stopped spot light op-ing magic shows around eight years ago.  It also is a great reminder that straight theatre is not the only job opportunity for a stage manager.

I will say this for my seemingly random fixations - I learn a lot of truly interesting information and it leads to interest in surrounding topics that I would not normally have looked into.  And I never really move away from the subjects, I love them all, and I look forward to greeting them like old friends.  I'd totally see Piff or Ardal again, and I can't wait to have time to make jewellery again and the Muppets are always with me - long live the fixations!

21 Days

So I visit SoCal (can't believe I called it that) in just a scant three weeks.  I shall be there for three weeks before moving to London.  I have not had my interview yet and I don't have a place to live and, you guessed it, it stresses me out.  I can't believe I will get to see your shining faces so soon :)  it will be amazing.

I saw Piff the Magic Dragon, supported by Mr. Piffles the first levitating chihuahua, live on stage on Monday.  Dude is a full grown man who dresses as a dragon to perform magic (not a kids show) and I was so excited to see him.  He opened with the cup and ball - no joke.  He was great, funny and had amazing eyebrows.  I think he's probably funnier the more you know about magic but even still I would recommend him to anyone.  I am lead to understand he also does straight magic but how can you go back to that after the amazingness of being a dragon?

So excited to see you all soon!

So We Open

It's completely bizarre to think that I have been here over a week.  I've been here a week and a half.  The first day we opened all the shows but one because of projector issues.  It was way less hectic than I thought it would be and the shows went on time.  We're doing eight shows a day at the minute.  Our biggest change over is from "Broken Wing" (with lots of flying pieces) to "Fragments of Ash" (with a floor cloth and five flats).  At the end of each show we lower all the set (apart from the flats) down a hole at the back of the room and lift out the next shows stuff.  I like the pit, it's got this neat basement sort of smell.

After our opening day we went over the another venue called the Pleasance to have a drink.  Whilst there were given free tickets to see a comedy show and, though it was very late and we had to be in at half eight the next day, we went.  Rich Halls Hoe Down.  He's an American, there are loads of them here now, and he told some jokes but mostly played comedy songs with the help of his country and western band.  Some of it was quite funny, and in general I liked him - but alas he sang a song involving Jesus and it's not really a laughing matter for me.  I've actually seen it so much and I do wonder why they can't just leave him alone?  Why is it that they can't find their comedy somewhere else?

"Fragments of Ash" got a four star review the other day and "Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary" got Five.  My favourite show at our venue, "Hotel De L'avenir." only got three.  It's not fair, they said such nice things about it in the review - why only three stars?  Caitlyn took over box office for me so I could run and go see "Piff the Magic Dragon."  It's this grown man who puts on a dragon suit to perform magic and levitates a Chihuahua (also dressed as a dragon).  It was sold out through Friday, I was gutted.  I did, however, buy a ticket for next Monday so all is not lost.  As a consolation I went and saw a show my friend Lewis was in and it was gorgeous.  It's called "Muscle" and it is brilliant.  It's about men, about being a man and the experiences they go through as fathers and sons.  It was beautiful.

Edinburgh is a lovely city.  It missed most of the bombing so it's wonderfully old.  I haven't toured the castle yet, or climbed Aurthur's Seat, but I've wandered the streets and it's a great city.  Been learning about my ancestry.  Apparently we (the family Kerr) are known for being Left Handed and our spiral staircases curve the oposite direction from everybody else's.  In case you are not awar, spiral stair cases are built so the defending men (coming down the stairs) can swing their swords freely whilst the attackers (coming up the stairs) keep hitting the center of the spiral.  We're from the border lands and were often Wardens of the Middle March.  We had couple long and bloody feuds (one was between two batches of Kerrs).  And we were absolutely split on the issue of Queen Mary.  Met another Kerr in a shop, I think she was left handed.

Love you and miss you all - see you soon!

The Beautiful Edinurgh Sunshine

It lasted about half an hour maybe.  Our church hall definitely looks like a theatre now.  We have a stage and seating and lights and everything.  We managed to get our hefty to do list done and are on track for focus and later on a rehearsal for Broken Wing.  I have been the one organizing the pit, which is a basement area that smells of earth and makes you feel more like your under a ancient castle than a church hall.  I love it down there, it's so cozy.  I've had two amazing jacket potatoes (baked potatoes) with baked beans and cheese - so very  good.  If you haven't discovered the wonders of British baked beans I highly recommend a trip to the British Emprium on Central in Montclair (across from The Hat) and trying it out.  Whilst you're at it try cheddar that isn't bright orange (Welsh for choice) and I promise you won't regret it.

Hello Edinburgh, and how are you doing this day?

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Edinburgh, after only seven hours in a van.  We listened to Daz's (one of my lecturers) occasionally strange music.  We did stop at s really nice rest stop that had barbecued burgers and a duck pond - so cool.  Other than that our ride up was uneventful.  My last weekend in Cardiff was a bit surreal, knowing it was my last couple nights in my cozy little house and my last days in that town I love.

So Shannon and I decided to commemorate it first by going to a bar we had been threatening to go to since probably week two - the Cathays Liberal Club.  It's this old man bar near our house.  The people who frequent it do so just as their fathers and grandfathers and probably great-grandfathers have done so, time out of mind.  They serve up the local Brains ale but I had a Guinness, as is my wont,  and we played the Beatles and Meatloaf on their, and I use the term loosely, jukebox.  We sang along and others joined in - it was magical.  We celebrated our last night by going to our local bar and getting dinner and then headed off to two of our favourite seedy clubs.  On these adventures we dragged poor American Joe.  American Joe is a student from Virginia who did an exchange program a year and a half ago and is now jumping into our Venue 13 team.  He's on my team actually.  He's been a pretty good sport about the things we've made him tag along to do, sweet kid.

I miss my house.  I hate that my stuff is in a storage unit on City Rd.  I can't believe that when I come back from visiting California I will be living in London and not my lovely Cardiff.  I'll just have to visit Wales often to get my fix.  And to clear my lungs, London had chewy air, like LA.  Luckily, first before I visit Claremont I will be camping in Pembrokeshire.  I miss camping and it's a part of Wales that I have not had the pleasure of seeing.  I miss my room, my overgrown back garden, my chip shop... sigh.

Our first day in Edinburgh has been great.  We unloaded, moved everything in and hung the truss, rigged the lights and Shannon and I got to organize this pit under the stage where we keep the props and set pieces for the shows.  We have this cute system for organizing tea for tea breaks, there's a chart showing how everyone takes their tea and a piece of electrical tape across the counter with everyone's name and their mug is right there so it's all set up so easily.  Tea breaks are a big deal here.

Gonna try to blog everyday whilst I'm at the Fringe - we'll see

Love you guys!

5 feet from Ardal O'Hanlon

This is kinda about British things (I know Ardal is Irish - keep cool, I'll explain).  I have now lived in Cardiff for 6 months. The house I live in feels like home, the food I eat seems normal and when it rains I don't complain or become discouraged - I just bring out the umbrella I carry everywhere, everyday.

When I got here there were a whole bunch of terms I was either unfamiliar with or knew but had never used.  So now I can say AJ instead of C-wrench, lighting desk instead of light board, torch in the place of flashlight, prompt book instead of prompt script and various other terms related to my work in theatre (like get in and get out instead of load in and strike).  But as I learned these things so that I could function properly in UK theatres other terms seeped into my everyday speech.  Word like - proper, "he is proper Welsh," calling people lovely - "how are you lovely?" and things like ending my statements with "to be honest" or beginning them with "to be fair."  Those last two at the start I tried to keep them out of my speech but they got in some how.  One term that can be awfully embarrassing if you don't know is "pants," that right, not some strange out of the way word, pants.  If you, as an American, think the word pants is what you mean then the word your after is "trousers," as I said before it's not hard to adapt to these words you just get used to it.  However, if I were to say C-wrench to a UK person I would get a blank expression, if I said light board they would probably guess my meaning - but that's because those words don't have any meaning here - "pants" does, pants means underpants, as in underwear.  So if one forgets and uses the word normally in a sentence, like when describing the Christian school you went to in kindergarten and say "we weren't aloud to wear pants," or perhaps you tell an actor to tuck his shirt into his pants (made more awkward by one of his costumes being just his Captain America "pants"), you get some funny responses.  So I can say lift when I mean elevator, and tabs when I mean drapes (theatrically speaking) and film when I mean movie, but pants is a hidden trap that lies in wait for me.

I don't feel like I'm 6000 miles from my house.  I try to picture the globe, or go on google earth, and see myself as on this island with a great big ocean and a whole Continent between me and Claremont (ei everything I've ever known) and it doesn't process.  In the first couple months I would walk down a street and take a picture because the street was some completely and awesomely not American, I don't notice now - they're just streets.  You may have wondered why I didn't include chips vs fries in the above section, that's because I know they aren't the same thing.  Chips are lovely, I didn't think so six months ago but I do now, I like 'em better than fries (Shock! Horror!). Accents only register if there particularly strong, like a guy starts talking and he is proper Welsh, I love that accent, especially if they're proper Cardiff Welsh (watch some British Torchwood, you'll here it).  The strangest accent to hear is my own.  I run across any middle of the road US accent and I nearly flinch when I hear it, not in a bad way, just in a surprised way.  There are words I no longer use because they sound harsh to my in my accent.  This was slightly tough for my birthday as one of the words I avoid is thirty.  Thirty sounds so harsh, so instead of saying it's five thirty, I say it half five - a perfectly acceptable phrase here.  My accent has gone more beachy Californian as well, slower sometimes and elongating my words.

I realize this gone a bit ramble-y, I tried to keep it in sections but my life isn't in sections so it didn't pan out.  This brings me to Ardal O'Hanlon.  If you do not know Mr. O'Hanlon then I recommend you watch his stand-up on youtube and then take in the first episode of My Hero, he was also in the Doctor Who episode Gridlock, but he was kinda made up as a cat so not the best for identification.  I love Ardal O'Hanlon, not romantically though, My Hero is just the right kind of cheesy superhero thing and he's amazing.  But it's British to like him, most Americans have no clue.  It was goal 2 on my list of things I need to do in the UK - see him live.  Be in the same room with Ardal O'Hanlon.  Oddly, I am more familiar with Eddie Izzard's stand-up and whilst I would gladly see him live, it's not a priority.  So why Ardal?  I think it has to do with him as a person, I've seen him interviewed and I think we could have a great conversation.  I can see us sitting and having a long, satisfying conversation.  However being in the room with him was important because it's so essentially British.  I like a great number of UK products, like the Beatles and Monty Python and Eddie Izzard and Keeping Up Appearances and Doctor Who and things like that.  All the things I've listed are widely known in the US, most people have heard of those, a great number of people have seen them.  If I said I wanted to see John Cleese live most people would know what I was talking about and it would be amazing.  But being 5 feet from Ardal O'Hanlon.  That's British amazing that is.  That is an experience that I can really only share with the people of these two islands.  He made British Ilse political jokes and I got them.  He informed me that Americans are upbeat and jump out of bed, ready for the day - well, you can't win 'em all.  I know I'm not British, there are many things I don't understand or don't relate to, but last night I got a gleam of what it could be like in, say, ten years time.

In Which Liz turns 30

     So I've been working on a show called "In the Blood" in the Caird Studio at college.  It was not the show I wanted but it turned out to be a way better environment then any of the other shows.  I felt bad at home talking about the show because Chris and Shannon were not having an easy go of it and all I could say was how lovely everyone I was working with was.  It has been great working with Charlie, wandering Cardiff, poking about in skips and peering over fences into church yards looking for American looking garbage for the set.  Our Stage Manager Ethan has been supportive and didn't micro-manage.  Bethan, the Deputy Stage Manager, was cool and kept us well informed.  Seriously - our crew is all so calm, super chill, and beyond that we all get our work done so there's no worry about whether something will get done or not.  It's been fantastic.
     Tech week was amazing.  Spent all day lifting heavy things, climbing ladders and using tools.  I really enjoy focusing stage lights and I was one of the only people who enjoyed it so I got to focus many of them.  I know it probably makes me some kind of freak, but I also enjoyed running the cables and making them all neat and tidy.  Any day spent mostly at the top of a ladder is a good day in my book.
     Some of the props have been interesting.  Not just picking up the oil drum and having the nice man give us honey from his bees and maple syrup, there was this cross.  They required a neon cross - buying one is prohibitively expensive but renting one wasn't much better.  So we rented this thing from Welsh National Opera, it's a pine outer casing with lights inside and this neon wiring in it.  The wiring was a nightmare.  In order to plug something in at college it has to pass PAT testing and this thing would never pass, not ever.  It had exposed wires, the lights inside weren't clamped down, the neon wire didn't actually run into anything.  So I stripped the cables and took out the lights so we could just use the neon wire - that was assuming that the neon wire was going to work, which it didn't.  So in the end I striped the neon wire and we ended up putting battery operated LED lights inside and I gotta say it looks amazing.
     So we get into the actual tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals and it falls to me to the costume changes for a gentleman named Lewis.  Lewis is what is described in this country as "well fit."  A nice guy, not really my type, but not at all unpleasant to dress and undress.  He proposed actually, twice, but only in that appreciative of my pastry way.  We do all the scene changes which is fun and of course there's blood.  I took over the blood, I kinda jumped on it because I really wanted to make blood packs and I get to everyday!  It's this awesome blood made from molasses, I kinda want to use the spare blood and make a treacle tart.
     So today is our last show and also my 30th birthday.  The cast and crew are going out after and we're gonna celebrate!  S arrived Thursday night so he'll be here to, which is nice.  I left him the college bar last night whilst I worked the show, I left him with the guys from workshop... ya.  He already is making friends and a girl who is a twin asked if we were twins - we said yes.  My birthday is a gorgeous day here in Cardiff, we just got back from Tescos and it is lovely.  I'm wearing a new dress and feelin' fine.
     We got our placements for next term as well.  I got the one I wanted *jumps up and down* it's Deputy Stage Manager for the four shows running at the same time in the college's brand new theatre, The Richard Burton.  It's probably the best vote of confidence they could have given me.  I get to call four separate shows, the first shows in the new space.  I am so excited and terrified and jumping up and down.  God is good.