We close the show this afternoon, on a matinee. Three matinees in a run of nine shows is too many, but it seems to be a cost of doing business at Asbury. Friday I avoided the rainy rush hour traffic by taking the Red Line and a Ride On bus to the theater, which left me a bit soggier than the drive would have, but a lot less stressed. And I could review my lines on the subway, since we didn't do a line drill during the week.

At Friday's final blackout, I heard an sigh of exasperation or resignation from an audience member, an acknowledgment that the bastards had won out after all. We live for those little moments of reaction.

As long as it is (i.e., as long as it seems to everyone else), I really enjoy my scene with Casey (Rev. Groves); it has a nice natural flow to it. Mostly I'm just flipping cues to him while I'm towelling off after our basketball game (Rev. Groves has almost all the beat changes in the scene). But I have a couple of nice explosions of my own; I get to show some different colors. And I like the audition scene with Ruth, which starts Boyd out in the back of the house, brings him up to the stage and back to the rear of the audience again. I've never asked Andrea whether she can see the change in my body language out in the black of the theater as she grows into the Juliet monologue, as Boyd realizes he's dealing with a natural talent and not a little-theater wannabe.

I'm less satisfied with the scene of Sharon's breakdown. Tiffany (as Ginger as Sharon) is marvelous in it, transitioning from rage to piteous sorrow and back again, and into steely determination. But the setup for it, the breaking of illusionistic theater. has never quite felt right to me.

I like all of my chorus reaction scenes, and I like to think that I've found a range of subtly distinct postures for each. Some of them are a long time standing in one place, and I've found my new tai chi training to be helpful for keeping my knees relaxed and my back straight.

Strike should be easy work. I've got two costumes to carry back to the car, and an airline carry-on bag with an old routing tag left on it. This might be the first time that all of my costumes have come out of my own closet, if you count the gym shorts and headband (bright yellow, 'cause Boyd is a Lakers fan) that I bought at Sports Authority. Say "so long" to Boyd's pretentious goatee.

posted: 12:56:13 PM