Heaven Can Wait No Longer

Metaphorically, that is. Yesterday afternoon, the show closed in Hagerstown.

Historically, my blog entry about the final show is less about the particulars of the show, and more about the fact that it is over. More of a look back. This one will be no exception, though I will say I felt almost as good about my performance as I did on Saturday. About 90% to that level, I would say. So I got to close on the second best performance I gave.

I found the worry bead, but stuck with the washer for the performance though.

This production, as I have said, seemed quite fast all things considered, though once we got to performing it seems a little slower in some ways. When I think that opening night was a mere ten days ago it's a little hard to fathom. It got fast at the end though for a different reason. There was no strike. I had been preparing to help strike the set and clean the entire theater after the curtain come down, but much to my surprise I was told that other than picking up out personal property, the cast had not striking responsibilities. This is the only company that I have been a part of that does business like that. It actually felt weird to leave the building the last time with the set still in tact. (It will be taken down later in the week.)

The cast party was also a short and sweet affair. I have been to some cast parties that lasted hours. This one was just under 90 minutes. But fun. We gave fake awards to each other, mocked each other, and congratulated each other. We even played "Heaven Can Wait" trivia, which was fun, though I only got one right. No matter. It was the show that was the thing.

Most shows improve a bit the second weekend when compared to the first, but I think Heaven Can Wait was one of the most obvious examples of this trend. The four shows on the second weekend were worlds above the three shows of opening weekend.

Which is one reason why, in the end, I have opted not to address the sensitive issues I mentioned a few days ago here on the blog. I realize that I said I would after the show was over, but by and large the issues, both from a personal and a professional standpoint were corrected. I of course would have preferred that they never happened at all, and I maintain the did not have to. But I cannot in good conscience mention the issues when so much energy was put into correcting them, eventually. So I will just leave it at this: I am relieved and gratified to know we got passed them, even if we did so too late for my tastes. That business is well concluded.

As for other things, this final show was strange for a few reasons. To begin with, as I have said a million times before here, my last exit from the show is (was...) a good 20 minutes before the final curtain. My final line was just over a half an hour before same. So I had more time to gear down, and come in for a landing with the realization that it was all over. I spend most of that time picking up my trash from the green room, getting a head start on what I thought would be strike.

Sometimes when the end of a show comes, you feel that you have done exactly what you set out to do, and that makes it easier to accept its ending. I put Heaven Can Wait in that category. I came off stage the last time knowing that I had put everything into "Tony" that I possibly could have done. I was satisfied with the overall improvement that was obvious in the entire cast in a short amount of time. And I enjoyed most of the crowds that we had. I felt it was a good place to conclude. I agree that it would have been nice to have a third weekend, because we were all just starting to hit a stride with things as it closed. But I do not regret what happened.

More importantly perhaps even than the show, was the fact that I not only introduced myself to a whole new company, (which I plan to be involved in plenty of times again in the future), but I made new friends. That doesn't always happen in a show, especially with someone as difficult to get to know and understand as I tend to be at first approach. I feel good about having a few more theatre people in my life now.

Plus, there is plenty of time to get to know some of these people more. In the past I tried to say a million things in my "final" cast email, (which I sent last night), but now I realize, in the age of Facebook, we can all take our time and get to know each other gradually. Not just by being in shows again together, (which I am sure will happen in the future), but outside of theatre as well. I've never been part of a new company in the Facebook era before...so hopefully it will help me keep in touch with some of these great actors and people now that the show is over.

So, to those involved in the show that may be reading this, once again, thank you. I will see you soon. On or off stage. I'm glad I auditioned.

Pinnacle of "Heaven"

In the last entry, I described my desire that the quality of our performances be added to a larger, responsive crowd in the future.

Last night I got my wish. It was bar none the best presentation of the show that we have yet given. Audience was huge and responsive. Cues were being hit. The lines were being snapped off with nearly peak efficiency all the way around for a tighter production.

Every single person involved in last night as a right to be proud of what we accomplished.

Laughs came at some expected moments, and at some unexpected ones. (I think somebody must have been making a face behind me during one scene, as laughter ensues after I spoke a thoroughly unfunny line.) And this audience was particularly fond of "Max Levine", though as I said, everyone was on their game.

My character, of course, is not really that funny. However there were a few lines that got some laughs, just out of a morbid sense of twisted humor, I suppose. (The man is a murderer after all.) I continued the trajectory I established last night of making him more outwardly affected by the proceedings. I took pains to not go much further than I did on Thursday, as one can adjust things too much, too quickly. But the overall result is one of which I am quite proud, if I do say so myself. Everything about what I did just seemed to run a smooth but energetic course the entire evening. )Which may be why it seemed to go faster in the first half than ever before.)

One thing I did play up with my character's antagonism with the previously mentioned "Max". That actor has from the beginning played Max as someone who cannot stand Tony, and lately I have been playing into that more as part of my enhanced performance. It does help out a bit, to have a character like mine have something to play off of directly when he is not dealing with "Joe" (the lead part.)

Also for some reason, last night was the physically hottest night for me on stage, I think. Perhaps it was due to a combination of so many people in the house, and the extra energy being burned on this top notch performance.

The director relayed a message to the cast to "have fun with the curtain call". So we did.

This curtain call never has been, thankfully, an in-character affair. I do not generally approve of curtain calls that require actors to bow "in character". In theory it is saving the 4th wall, but to me after the final curtain, the fourth wall is history. So I have enjoyed the informal nature of our final bows as a cast.

Last night it was kicked up another notch. I decided to bring the gun that I use during the play on stage during the curtain call. When I walked out with my group to bow, I pulled a 007; I spun towards the audience, and threw my hand back, pointing the gun towards the house, (but not at anybody particularly of course.) The way 007 does at the beginning of the older films. (Like Thunderball) I think I got a few laughs. If not from the audience, certainly from the cast. (Though one of the cast mates thought I was pissed off at first, when I walked out.)

Afterward, some of us went out to eat. "Joe" mentioned a fear of my blogging about some of the conversations going on during that event...but since that was after the play I don't suppose it technically belongs here on the blog. For now...

Two more nights. Some think we peaked last night. There is of course no way to be certain of this until the show is over. But if we cannot really top last night, I think that we should be able to match it at least one more time. It is Saturday, afterall. Historically, more shows I have been in have peaked on the second Saturday than any other day. (Though I am told Playmakers shows often do best on Fridays.)

None of my friends have come to see me in this production.

Hopefully, a lot of other people will though.

Opening Night: Heaven Can Wait

The die is cast. The Rubicon is crossed. Use whatever old expression for it you like, but opening night is behind us, and "Heaven Can Wait" is now officially underway at the Academy Theatre.

It was odd not having my entrance for 20 minutes. I have mentioned before that I've never entered a show that late in the action before. It sort of threw off my preparation rituals, and had my nerves in a different place than I am used to. It wasn't horrible, but I think I would have preferred to enter sooner, all things being equal.

On the other hand, by the time I get out there, the audience is already warmed up. So maybe there are pluses as well as minuses to the situation.

As for the quality of our first performance, I will say, first and foremost that it's hard for me to judge the overall show. I don't see the whole thing. Just the scenes I am in, and a few minutes before same. But judging by those moments, and from what I hear from my cast mates, the show went quite well. Some say better than the final dress rehearsal. I am not sure I would agree with that, but each person judges the success of an individual performance differently.

One of the main reasons I can't be as satisfied as I might have been was that during the first scene a major cue was missed, and an important entrance did not take place. After a moment of silence waiting for said entrance to occur, and a (hopefully) casual glance off stage to see that the performer in question was not about to enter, I was forced to ad-lib something.

Not that I wanted to. Not that I ever really want to do that. Not to that extent. But being on stage when a cue has been missed and the action has stopped is a bit like knowing you will vomit in the near future, but you have no idea when. You hate the idea of puking, but you just want it to be over with because the time leading up to it, knowing it is going to happen, is worse than the actual act.

Sitting on the couch next to my cast mate, with two "ghost" characters who cannot interact with us behind me, I just wanted that "I have to throw up" feeling to go away. I desperately wanted to moment to be over. So I came up with the only thing I could on the moment. I called out for the character, and instructed them to do what was they needed to do.

In other words the worst kind of jarring improvisation possible. One that telegraphs to the audience...

"Attention! Somebody has missed their cue, and the actor on stage is trying to fix the problem! Please stand by."

And stand by they did, though I think I heard someone laughing. The performer in question also stood by for another few moments, until they finally arrived. But not in the manner I had hoped, because they brought with them a character I wasn't supposed to see yet.

I turned to my co-star on the couch, skipped to my final line of the scene, and proceeded to exit as normally as I could. I acknowledged the extra character, and walked off.

I'm told by others that it was a nice cover, and that is very nice of them to say. I hope it did not look as ridiculous as it felt to me when I did it. But I honestly had no clue what else I could have done.

I actually don't remember all of those moments, now that I look back. I know one of the "ghost" characters did ad-lib something, but I don't at all remember what he said. I don't remember looking at the actress next to me, though she says I did so. And finally, I remember putting two filled whiskey glasses on the prop table. I don't remember picking them up before I left.

I sent the stage hands asunder because in my nerves I said, "we skipped about five pages", when I intended to say, "we skipped about 5 lines."

Hopefully such a mistake won't happen again. There is no reason for it to, at any rate.

I confess that that incident had me a bit more shaken than I usually am for the rest of the show. That may have been one of the reasons I dropped a line about half way through the first act. Thankfully it was probably my least significant line in the whole play, having nothing to with a major plot point. But the actress on stage covered it well. Her character is ignoring my character at that point, so she never even responds to the line I dropped. I was lucky.

My nerves tapered off a bit at intermission, but I hope to not be that edgy for that long during the remaining performances.

The gunshot went well. As did all other moments in the play for me. Execution thereof anyway. The nerves I will have to work on.

The audience was lukewarm in most places, I thought. Their favorite seemed to be the actor who played "Max Levene". They didn't laugh at a few of the laugh lines, and some of the things they managed to laugh at I didn't think were supposed to be funny. They laughed at nothing I said or did. (But I have never been sure if Tony is supposed to be that funny or not.) That's an audience for you. Tonight they may laugh at totally different things. The truth is, they probably will. No matter how much acting I do, I never fail to be awed by the mystery that is an audience dynamic.

Most of us went out for some food after the show. That was fun. (And not bad food.)

In many ways I think last night was our final dress rehearsal. Or a preview show, given that about 100 people were in the audience or so. Tonight may be the first REAL performance in the sense that the opening night hurdle is behind us. Let us hope so.

The Walls Go Up

For the first time, we rehearsed the entire first half of our production of "Heaven Can Wait."

We just didn't do so in order.

A few people from the first scene had to arrive later in the evening, so we opted to run the third scene (out of three) of the first half, and then go back and run the first two scenes.

The third scene is the longest scene in the play, as I have mentioned before. Though I was mentally prepared to do the second scene, I wasn't thrown when we opted to start with the third. In fact I have to say tonight was the smoothest it has gone so far, and that goes for everybody involved. There is a great deal going on and a lot of lines and blocking to remember just for that scene, and there were no huge difficulties during it that I can recall.

It was going so well in fact that I felt at liberty to experiment a bit. I tweaked the delivery of a few lines because now that the books are gone I have noticed that I am not consistent in some places. My cadence changes somewhat in a  few scenes as compared to others. And while that could be accounted for by the differing action in each scene and probably would not be noticed by anyone but myself, I have never been one to ignore a problem once I spot it. Especially when I know I can iron it out with a bit of effort and attention.

It is a little harder to be snooty and confused or shocked at the same time. It is there that I wish to strike the balance, and it is with that goal in mind that I delivered some of my latter lines differently. It felt good.

The director did have to remind me to grab items with my upstage hand. I know better. But being right handed I sometimes naturally gravitate towards that hand for certain actions. But the table is on my left, which means my left hand would be the upstage hand. So I will have to make a conscious effort to pound that into my mind.

I still am working on retraining myself to cross my legs in the more snooty fashion as opposed to the "cowboy" way of doing so. I am getting better at that, so there is hope for me in getting the upstage hand to do the work in that short section.

All and all the director seemed pleased with the scene. As did some of the other actors in the house, who are not in the scene but were present and able to watch it for the first time, given that they were in the other scenes we were scheduled to do tonight.

One such scene is the prologue for the play. This runs about 15 minutes. Because our assistant director is out due to illness we have all taken turns being on book for the actors on stage should they need to call for lines. It fell to me this evening to be on book for the prologue. And boy did they ever need me.

Not that I am making fun of my talented cast mates. Everyone can have an off day, and by their own admission tonight's run through of the prologue did not go very well in regards to remembering lines. Which is a little weird because it has gone better than that in the last week. (The director herself said this.) It will be better next time, I have no doubt.

The set is also starting to take shape. Three walls. A set of french doors. A platform leading to same. Nothing is painted yet, but it is certainly giving we actors the correct sense of space for the performance area. The ideal is the have all set pieces secured and all set dressing completed with about two weeks to spare before opening. (In other words within about a week from now.) If that ends up being the case it will be one of the fastest set completions for any production I have ever been in. (Sometimes paint is still drying on opening night.)

At the end of the evening after everyone had gone home, the actress playing opposite me, as it were, wanted to work with the director on he very first entrance of the play. The timing for same had been awkward since we first blocked it and she wanted to smooth some things out. I offered to stay behind and take my position on the set for her entrance, so she could run it in the same manner she would during the show. She was very grateful for my offer and accepted.

I always try to help out other actors in that fashion. We are all in this together, and actors should look out for one another within a production and when one of us improves or feels more comfortable, we all do. Plus I know how much easier it is to commit something new to memory when the environment resembles as much as possible how it will look once the show opens. I was glad to help.

Tomorrow has the potential to be a very productive night. Head shots are being taken, and the costume person may show up to take some measurements. Plus the running of the entire second half of the show. I look forward to what that will bring for us all.