Dee-di-loo, dee-di-loo, dee-di-loo ...
In my little not-so-little town, there is a local theatre. A community theatre. One in which I am pretty active. I've acted in a handful of shows, about one a season, and for the past three years I've also directed a show each year. On top of that, we have an in-house comedy improv group that performed almost-monthly and rehearses weekly. I also teach an improv comedy class for youths, which is cool, and something I've been looking into expanding. Anyway, I did all of that pretty normally without much disruption to IHAO. Really, I had gotten into a pretty good groove. A friend and I reconnected and started doing weekly films, which only helped the site and our friendship, which is cool (friendship isn't an easy thing for me, for whatever reason ... I'll talk about that some time, too, since I'm blogging for whatever stupid reason right now). I'm also a house-husband, which is the best thing about my life, really, since my wife is so flippin' successful in her field (she's a clinical therapist). I'm not a great house-husband, but I like to clean for the most part and I like to cook a whole heap, so it works pretty well. Normally.
All in all, busy, but not overly so. Though it got cranked up starting in January. First came 12 Angry Men. I suspect you know the story: a group of twelve jurors have to decide the guilt or innocence of a young boy convicted of murdering his father. I played Juror #7, the guy who just wants out. It was a nice experience, with a good group of actors. And I was able to really do something with my character, really think about what was driving him, really push myself and the audience. It is not a thing I normally get to do as an actor, being a fat guy that tends towards self-deprecation and humor as a defense mechanism. It was a real good experience, and by itself would not have been much more difficult than what I was already doing.
At the same time, and before, and after, I was directing American Buffalo, the next show in that space at the theatre. It is an amazing show, and we are currently halfway through the run, which is why I can finally breathe again. The show has had some barriers and difficulties, like losing time because of losing an actor, and having to rehearse basically every night of the week every week until we opened last Thursday. But golly, is it a great show. Of the three shows I've directed, two of them have been able to capture my vision, which is awesome, and puts me above the curve.
Between 6 hours rehearsals, running around doing prep before hand, set building, costume finding, publicity concerns, and a million other things, we also had our improv group. My favorite misconception of improv means that there is no prep. That's just crazy. Improv is not the same as a play, certainly. Improv is much more like a sport, as my roommates and I have been postulating, which requires practice, running through techniques that make the show better, and improving those improv-ing muscles. Of course, it couldn't just be that though, as we had some shake-ups at the theatre of the local power structure. Resign-ings, promotions, quitiing, money-issues, publicity problems, all sorts of things.
I also should point out that all this work is unpaid. That doesn't make a difference mind you, but it does take its toll. When I'm rehearsing, I'm not cooking, which means we are spending money eating out. Also, because of time crunches, we are eating worse because we have to eat fast. Add to this above cocktail of scheduling, stress, and hardwork: depression, ADHD, insomnia, and the small amount of free-time activites I try to have in roleplaying games and board gaming, loneliness, food poisoning, sinuses from the changing seasons ... Well, I spiraled.
In this metaphorical gif, I get to be Emma Stone. So ... you know ... that's a plus.
What does all this mean for IHAO, which was finally starting to get on a roll? I don't know. But I felt like I really needed to share SOMETHING. I'm the kind of guy who needs to talk out his feelings to stop ... feeling them. Well, stop holding on to them. And that's what I'm doing.
Once things start to get more constant, IHAO will as well, I'm sure. And I have some other cool stuff lined up soon, plus all the neato summer movies coming. So, see you folks soon. More than likely.
~Jessel
