Striking: V-1.0

There's a lot of us at Steinhardt that tend to make faces when individuals stop an elevator filled with people in order to transport themselves between the Lobby and 2nd floor.

I mean, it's an elevator, and you sure can use it to go to any floor it has a button for. But, when you look like a healthy individual carelessly delaying 15 other New Yorkers for 12 precious seconds, it's like "dude! Take the stairs!"

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule: a person carrying a heavy object or numerous objects, a person wearing a leg cast, VIP individuals, elevator being empty... AND wardrobe strikers clearing dressing rooms.

As it's shown below, we strikers make that ride worth it. And we kind of fulfill every exception mentioned above... So you better don't judge us for using the elevator.

xox

TMZ: Sweeney Todd Edition.

So, this was meant to be the real TMZ Edition of Sweeney Todd.

Sure, I got sidetracked after Quinn's fall (which totally deserved its own TMZ moment.) And, yes, I neglected to interview Jared and to re-visit my original interviewees for updates on their comments. But, oh! How I hate to waste useful video material!

So, I came up with this ---which, considering all of the above, does comply with the TMZ format, now that I think about it.

Xox

Serendipity and coins

Coins were a special part of Sweeney Todd.
Tobiases got them from customers, the Mrs. Lovetts counted them and put them down their shirt, while other London citizens gave them away to the always collecting Beggar Women.
I was one of such Beggar Women.

When the show was running, one of my favorite activities to do backstage while waiting to go on was to play/count the coins I had collected so far in my little alms dish. These varied from show to show, and included everything from what seemed to be actual British coins to fake currency made out of shiny plastic.

During the last of my coin-counts, I was baffled when I picked up a one that seemed to speak to me in a particular way... A VERY direct way.
Upon its finding, part of my brain thought that my method acting exercises had taken me to the verge of madness. However, closer investigation allowed me to prove that I was not mad at all. I was just the [very] lucky recipient of a serendipitous event.

How awesome is THAT?!

Regardless to say... I dared to keep such coin.
And no one will take it away from me.
(My precioussssssssss)


xox

Method Acting: Exercise No. 3

Yes. This comes in a bit late. Maybe that's me trying not to be done with this blog... But the task is due.
Of course, before that, I'll make sure everything that needs to be posted is posted, so the recounts of Beggar Woman's Bloggin' are complete.

Moving on, next is the final approach to Method Acting. Funnily enough, it was the very first one to be recorded (as the lack of cockney will reveal.) AND, funnily enough, it has a hint of "Bat Boy" in it. So is when the first two Spring 2011 productions collide (awwwwww!)

This specific video responds to the equation:

 μ(4) + (Cd * t) - Ρρ = MA3

In which:

                          μ = Music Theatre Students
                       Cd = Cookie dough

                           t = Time (or, in this case "tiredness after long rehearsal")

                       Ρρ = Pitch pipe

                    MA3 = Method Acting 3

As far as copyright infringement goes, considering Ρρ (aka: the lack of pitch pipe) and the fact that my early cockney makes the lyrics not really be what they ought to be, I think we're safe.

xox

Sweeney after hours

Well, if you thought the posting was over because the show is... You have no idea.

Sure, I seemed to be away for a while collecting my alms, but I'm back and ready to share more with the world before saying goodbye.

This particular clip is close to my heart as it shows our Fire Marshall on fire after hours... And, who knew there were strobe and disco lights available on the Sweeney set?! (Light cues courtesy of Joel E. Silver, sitting in the audience after hours as well.)

xox

Method Acting: Exercise No. 2

I think this one speaks for itself...

xox

Method Acting: Exercise No. 1

In order to complete this exercise, I specifically requested an 8-year old to the agency. None was available. So, I ended up with this.

So... Exercise No.1 = Fail?

Regardless to say, I'm thankful he didn't have a razor in his hand.
And, I think we both agreed on the fact that "shop" was apparently my operating word.

Child Protection Agencies: not to worry. At the end, I returned him safe and sound... Oh, well. With a little Sweeney on his mind (Mischief!)

xox

Sleepless wondering...

If Sweeney sings:

♪ ♫ And are you beautiful and pale,

With yellow hair, like her? ♪ ♫

Then why does he later annoy Anthony with:

♪ ♫ There's tawny and there's golden saffron,

There's flaxen and there's blonde... ♪ ♫

                                           ?

xox 

Making Justice... League?

Complying with the communication we recently received from a Mr. Allen -which I post below, the staff of Beggar Woman's Bloggin' pays due praise to the one that managed to prevent worse damage to the first victim of the Sweeney Stage.

(Click to enlarge)

The aforementioned victim did not fall completely through the unfinished after-throat-slashing slide thanks to the diligence of the gentleman below.

To him, we proudly say: THANKS!

Sweeney Stage takes its first victim

Although, between us here, I think she was just giving a try to the unfinished after-throat-slashing slide, since she plays one of the three characters that manages to make it alive to the end of the show.

Either way, this was NOT fun.
I think we just love each other enough to take everything heartily. (Awwww ♥)

(Thanks TMZ slide designer! Consider this your credit)

Keeping on with other news...

Rumor has it a Sweeney prop also took on a victim this week.

The event was described as whipping painful.

(Haaaaaa. Not fun. I know. Geez... Where is that line everyone talks about supposed to be?)

xox

New name?

I've been thinking of changing this blog's name to:

http://aaalms*breath*aaalms.blogspot.com

Ha.

Who knows?
Maybe that'll do the trick.

(Thoughts?)

I see dead people...

And scared people.
And an invisible meat grinder.
And Caleb's head.

Wardrobe Time!

I know... It's been a while. Bad, bad blogger!
To be honest, it hasn't been that long. But five days in on-line time does seem like forevah (yeah, someone is still focusing very much on her cockney.)
There's so much going on that the majority of the posts I have in store live either on my camera -waiting to be edited- or in my head -waiting to be pulled out by a magic wand (I still have not seen the latest Harry Potter, by the way... Which is upsetting my cockney-Surrey self.)

Getting back into business, though: It's wardrobe time! (AAAAH!)
I was crazy lucky enough to volunteer for wardrobe duties during last semester's production of The Fix.  I like wardrobe duties and I always flip a bit with excitement when this time of rehearsal comes. In the case of Sweeney I would say this was enhanced by two facts:
1. We're dealing with period pieces, and
2. I get to wear them! (Woot!)

The appointment was at the Theatre Development Fund's Costume Collection, which stores approximately a gazillion pieces (over 75,000) from "Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, opera companies and touring companies" (aaawesome!)

This dreamy place is located in a warehouse building on 11th Ave., which -I believe- also made this adventure my first endeavor to what seemed to be the Western-est point of Manhattan (it's not... I know. I'm just trying to give some color to the point.)

Once in, there was such an overdose of wardrobe pieces neatly arranged in loooong hallways that I don't really remember much. I do remember thinking about my friend Amira (*hug*), who would have passed-out in such a dreamy land; and meeting our wonderful costume designer Karen, who managed to led me through the fashion maze all the way to a dressing room.

There, a dress waited for me (well, a dress, an underskirt, a shall and the most comfortable pair of shoes ever conceived for a show.) I tried them all on, and -since my mental shots tend to be defective- I snapped one with an actual camera to keep the moment alive forevah:

What?! Blurry?
Photoshopped?!
Well, duh! I'm not going to ruin the surprise before the show starts! :-p

To compensate though, I leave you with the funniest video of the staff at TDF Costume Collection, which not only shows the purpose of the institution, but the actual premises, way better than my Blackberry can :-p

The End!

Poster's out!

So... Poster's out!

This is our amazing and bloody poster.

If you click on it, you'll get to see the names of all of those involved in the production.
And, if you notice the line of text sticking out long from the left side column... Yep. That's me!  I win the title of loooooongest name in the poster. (Thank you! Thank you very much!)

Silver medal goes to Mr. Schufman (not that he cares, but again, this is my blog) and Bronze goes to Mr. Santangelo -after a very close race with Mr Howell and Mr. Longstreet, that is to say. The "o" at the end of his last name gave him the thirtieth of an inch he needed for the title.

Longest Name Winner's Circle (What would Freud say?)

Elephants = Sweeney?

Apparently.
At least according to my Facebook ads.

Just sayin'.

Selection Mayhem!

Well... If you thought the song selection technique used by our Anthonys (and shown a few post back) was high-tech, you have no idea what the Sweeney production team came up with for dividing performances.

A snippet of the occasion, here:

(Dear mom, please note my selection mayhem process is not on the video thanks to my Assistant Camerawoman's lack of pressing the "record" button - Yes, Rebecca. That means you.)

After a Floridian-style recount, the final results are as shown:

	Thurs	Friday	Sat Mat	Sat Eve	Sun	Mon
Sweeney	Shane	David	David	Shane	Shane	David
Mrs. Lovett	Katie	Katie	Katie	Eleni	Eleni	Eleni
Anthony	Andrew	Andrew	Jared	Jared	Andrew	Jared
Johanna	Rebecca	Quinn	Quinn	Rebecca	Rebecca	Quinn
Tobias	Kenny	Bryan	Bryan	Kenny	Kenny	Bryan
Pirelli	Sean	Drew	Sean	Sean	Drew	Drew
Judge	Kevin	Joshua	Joshua	Kevin	Kevin	Joshua
Beadle	Thomas	James	James	Thomas	Thomas	James
Beggar Woman	Elena	Scheherazade	Scheherazade	Elena	Elena	Scheherazade

*Please note this may be subject to change.

You better make sure you get as many tickets 

as you need to see EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US 

(Yes, that's on CAPS. You read right.)

BUY THEM HERE!

Cockney 101 (The "before" video)

All those silly Jane Austen movies have unknowingly ruined my cockney accent.
I should have auditioned for... Emma: The Musical, or something.

I guess this could be considered as fun for those who are not me, so... What the heck.
This is the BEFORE video of my "cockney" accent. BEFORE any cockney coaching or research.

(Background music courtesy of Johannas)

I'm soooooo voting for Evita as next semester's musical.

Here's to the AFTER video!
(Can't wait.)

Some credit...

I honestly consider some credit should to be given to the individual (or entertainment industry scheduling software) that managed to make a Cast Day Off coincide with the following wonderful-but-chaotic event:

So, dear Sweeney Individual (or scheduling-software Designing Engineer), here's some credit to you!

Cheers!
(Not cockney yet... Just me still thinking British.)
P.S. Happy birthday Sam! :)

Puttin' it out there...

I'm just going to put this out there...
I know they sound gorgeous and everything, but this didn't seem to happen before Ms. Kostell and Ms. Shadko started singing and questioning the poor blackbirds.

(To read the full article... CLICK HERE!)

Maybe those circumstance reports need to be adjusted for the sake of the environment.

(As the singing will continue, will any volunteer please keep an eye on Green Finches and Nightingales? Feel free to report through here.)

;-)

"Soft Conflict"

How do you classify the events in your life?

The most recent classification I was presented, requested of me to indicate whether an event or occurrence in my calendar was negotiable (soft conflict) or non-negotiable (hard conflict--- There are so many jokes in my head regarding this last one that I need to pause for a few seconds.)

[PAUSE]

After a family discussion, I went on and marked my dad's 70th birthday as a soft conflict. Why? I will never know. 

I seemed to have a harder time with this than my dad did, and it was his birthday, but still.

We managed to celebrate together a few days ago, when 50 degrees of temperature didn't separate us. But the official day is TODAY.

So... ¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS, PAPIIIII!

Yaaaaayyyyy! [BALLOONS] [CONFETTI] [CAKE] [HUGS] [KISSES] [GIFT]

I managed to be part of the reprised celebrations thanks to wonderful Skype. 

You will recognize me as the only one in the picture whose face is trapped inside a square.

Well, no one can say I was not there :)

Evil twins and their sensitivities.

I've said that one of the many wonders of double-casting is that you suddenly have an evil twin that understands, takes your side, and just gets any weird dark joke you make about your character (Well, maybe that's just Elena and I.)

Evil twins however, don't last for long after rehearsals start and people start getting split up in every combination possible. As much as I would love to have a Stereo / Diplopia performance [where characters come in doubles like in some weird B-movie], that will -most likely- not be the case for this production. *Sigh*
Nonetheless, there are interesting moments that can only occur between two human beings set to play the same character on-stage.

CUT TO: Exhibit A.

While waiting to start the full sing-through of Sweeney I bumped into Evil-Twin Anthonys dividing their songs for the occasion. Far from limiting themselves to ACT I Vs. ACT II, they just went song by song using a classic technique.

Upon seeing such event, I just had to request a re-enactment to share.

(Is it wrong that I love their quick response to my "Do it!"? I wonder for what else that may work... [Insert evil laugh])

Wood!

When I was little, my grandpa had a furniture store. More than just a store, he had a whole workshop where people made the furniture he sold.

I loved going there -not only to jump on the biggest bed they had on display- but to sweep the floors. Back then, sweeping only made sense when you actually could see what you were sweeping... And sawdust made a pretty strong case.

The point: I get all excited when I see woodwork and today the excitement was doubled, as it was woodworking for the set of Sweeney Todd (Aaaaahhh!)

We are not rehearsing on stage yet, but the theatre door was open and we have to walk by it anyway to get everywhere else... So, naturally, I took a peek.

This is the stage were I'll get to stage-die for the first time (just realized that. Wow.)

Beggar Woman's Bloggin'

Well, who does really know?
Maybe she would have a blog in this time and day, and she collects her alms to pay for a few minutes at the cyber cafe. (Question #1 for Mr. Sondheim. Check.)
The fact is that I'm just entering into a pretty wonderful performance experience and I thought it would be lovely to register a few of the things related to it through here. As, for example, the fact that I used the word "lovely" in the previous sentence because I'm thinking of the cockney accent that I don't quite have down yet. *Sigh*

I tend to get wordy...

So, that's the NYU 2011 production of Sweeney Todd, for which I am Beggar Woman... And for which I should go to sleep RIGHT NOW.
Post #1, done!