We closed True West on Saturday night.

My watch turned up during strike! Somehow it had slipped off one of the pins while we were running a scene, maybe 3, and had fallen near the refrigerator.

I always enjoy working with John, even if sometimes he creates a little too much drama offstage. He is one of the best directors I've ever worked with.

He is an incredibly supportive director; he will close every rehearsal with an "excellent work, people;" his notes are usually 40% fixes and 60% "attaboys."

A skill he evinced in this show more than usual was his ability to give actors motivated reasons to move around the stage in order to achieve the picture he wants. Case in point: he wants Lee and Austin at opposite ends of the set at a certain point in scene 2. So he has Lee leave the front door open (in scene 1), and then (when he wants him to) he has Austin notice this, and cross to the door extreme stage right in order to close it. Another instance: he made what could become a very static scene 3 into a game of keepaway with Austin's story treatment. He enabled me to play the scene as "get Saul out the door with my treatment in his hand," and I could play that objective even when I had no lines.

And then in other situations he will just stay out of your way and let you work, performing minor edits. For instance, he just gave me my head with most of my monolgues in the second act, like the story about Dad's teeth.

posted: 11:42:47 PM  

My Bile cast is starting to settle in. They are are in good shape as far as learning their words. Al taught one more of the fight bits tonight.

Unfortunately, John is out this week for a class. We worked through the show once, with Linda's music and effects cues. The Frank wanted to send them home, saying that it wasn't worth it to work it again without John. The cast said they wanted to do it again, so we did, and we got out at about 10:05.

posted: 11:10:39 PM  

Down with Love turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. By far, the production design is the best element of the picture; you find yourself anticipating each new scene to find what outrageous outfit Barbara is going to be wearing. For her apartment to have the fanciful view depicted, with the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings so prominent, her building must be floating somewhere above Union Square, by my reckoning.

But the film does not achieve a consistency of tone. Many of the gags, like the recalcitrant hi-fi, really strain for their effects. Sarah Paulson as editor Vicki makes no impression whatsoever. Ewan Macgregor's dialect doesn't stabilize, except when he's playing "Zip."

Nevertheless, Renée Zellweger channels Doris Day effectively.

posted: 11:06:27 PM  

Another one gone: Hume Cronyn.

posted: 5:41:13 PM  

I almost let Bloomsday pass without remark. Thanks to reminders from ArtsJournal and the good people of Sydney, who spend a whole darn 4-day weekend celebrating it.

posted: 5:41:12 PM  

Some good news, via ABA's Birder Conservationist:

Three pairs of California Condors [Gymnogyps californianus] in Arizona have recently each produced an egg. Two nests were clearly unsuccessful, but biologists continue to monitor the third to determine whether the final pair may have actually produced a young condor. If so, this would be the first condor to hatch and survive in Arizona in hundreds of years.... Last spring, condors in California hatched three eggs in the wild, however none survived. In California this year, one egg was laid and hatched about a month ago.

posted: 10:40:15 AM