Saturday's True West run was the best we've ever done, we had the biggest house we've had (60 or 70, which is about half full), and we got the show on tape. That never happens in community theater.

We made up for it with various prop meltdowns on Sunday. Andy dropped a piece of wax fruit before a word was spoken; the paper shredded in the typewriter; I dropped my glasses; I popped a jacket button; the champagne fizzed over again; I took my watch off at intermission and then couldn't find it five minutes later.

posted: 11:07:59 PM  

Al designed the other major fight with Rob and Brian tonight. Brian has a lot of combat training, and Rob has pluck. Al taught them how to do a pike-over. The two stand back to back, struggling for control of a staff that they hold overhead. Brian bends sharply at the waist, and when Rob feels his feet leave the ground, he kicks up. Rob flies over Brian's head, and so long as he remains tucked, he lands on his feet facing Brian.

The move looks fabulous.

Now all they have to do is learn their damn lines. John was out sick, so we ran lines in the scenes that we could. Next rehearsal is Thursday, and we put this in front of the festival audience in 22 days.

posted: 11:03:32 PM  

Babí léto (Autumn Spring) is a darling little movie from the Czech Republic. Vlastimil Brodský plays Fanda, a septuagenarian merry prankster with a heart too big for his own good. A former operetta singer (but always in the chorus), now on a government pension, he has no patience for his wife's plans for a well-heeled burial; when she brings up the subject, he's likely to put his oxford to his ear like Maxwell Smart's shoe phone. His favorite stunt is to shop for million-dollar estates, posing as an emeritus member of the Metropolitan Opera.

Fanda doesn't want to admit that he's going to die, and neither does the movie. That's the film's small weakness, for it leads to an ending that rather fizzles out.

But there are hilarious moments in the meantime. The best bit comes in a cemetery: Fanda accosts an elderly stranger, saying, "You don't recognize me? Your best friend?" He carries on for four or five minutes with the guy; he finds out that the desolate man has just buried his wife of 50 years. And Fanda gives in to his ultimate indulgence: he gives the stranger 200 crowns just to cheer him up.

posted: 10:56:29 PM