Week from hell

This week's heinous work schedule has made me question whether the Pinedas are supremely ambitious artists or just plain stupid.  I'm actually leaning toward the latter, as would many who have worked with us in the past. Oh, the things you can learn from facebook.

Thankfully, NJ Transit now has a strict "no donkey" policy, making my long commute much more pleasurable.

Carousel rehearsals are in full swing with just a month until opening night.  We're also heavy into tech week of Little Women which opens at the performing arts high school this Thursday and we just finished callbacks and sent out notification letters for our summer production of Legally Blonde.  

 For any full-time theatre artist, working on three shows simultaneously would be considered an ambitious feat.  So what the hell am I doing committing to all these projects now that the theatre is just an elaborate "hobby" for me?

As a recently turned corporate zombie and slave to the 1%, I have sold my soul for the luxury of a regular paycheck and health insurance.  Can you blame me?  A decade's worth of dignity crushing auditions and the degradation of serving hors d'oeuvres to snooty NYC socialites between the occasional acting gig will do that to a person.  Ironically, now that I've "retired" from the business, I'm busier than ever with directing and choreographing gigs. 

Since last Friday, I've slept in my apartment twice.  Everyday this week I'll head to my 9-to-5 and then run to Port Authority for a Jersey-bound bus for a rehearsal, run-through or performance of some kind.  I'll then turn around for the lovely commute back to my wreck of an apartment in Queens - getting home after midnight - for a couple of hours of sleep and to throw my unopened mail onto an ever growing pile on the kitchen table.

Speaking of my kitchen table (left), did you know that fisherman chic is the latest trend in interior design?  Not.  Those are just some fishing nets I've tea-dyed on my stove and hung up to dry.  You guessed it, I'm also the scenic painter, set designer, and set dresser for Carousel. FYI two-liter soda bottles make dandy fishing buoys with just a little creative papier mache-ing and craft paint!

Did I also mention my parent's are visiting and staying in my apartment for a couple of days?

I know, I know - I still owe you all a Once review.  Well, you'll just have to keep waiting.

Is facebook a sign of Armageddon?

How am I expected to get any work done in the office when I have access to facebook on my computer? I mean, really, it's like digital crack. Soon enough, face-to-face social interaction will become obsolete. Instead, we'll communicate via sentence fragment on each other's walls. Very sad. Although I'm all for finding new ways to stay in touch with friends and family, is it really realistic or necessary to have 235 friends? Is it even possible to have 235 "friends"? Can you really define a "friend" as someone you have little or no communication with except for an occasional poke, or superpoke? Are we raising a generation of socially retarded kids who don't know how to hold an actual conversation in person? Oh dear, I'm getting a bit too philosophical here, but you get the idea.

Anyway, last night's first dress rehearsal for Pirates was, well, interesting, to say the least. Half the cast wasn't there because they had their High School chorus concert and the half that did show up only knew about 65% of their lyrics, lines and blocking. Tonight's final dress is going to be a doozy. At least they'll have four performances to get it together. I really can't wait until Sunday night. No rehearsals for anything until the end of June. I'm free! I'm free! I'm free! And I'll finally get my weekends back, at least for a couple of weeks.

Facebook

OK, so I was on my facebook profile just now and realize I have all these High Schools listed under "my networks." I totally look like a pedophile! For those of you with straying thoughts, shame on you. You should know by now I prefer an older, experienced gent. Although now that I myself am older, though not much wiser, and sadly, way more experienced, I may have to reconsider my preferences and pass on these experiences to the next generation. My legacy shall live on!

Happy Birthday to me, ya'll!

Well, it's my thirty-mumble, mumble, mumble-eth birthday today. Since my big three-oh mumble mumble years ago, I’ve not placed any importance on my birthday. It’s really just one more day of the year I can mooch free meals off my friends guilt free. Note to fellow cheap skates: do not use the “darn-I-forgot-to-stop-by-the-ATM-can-you-cover-me-until-next-time” excuse more than once in a row with the same person. They eventually catch on. Tonight, Trish and I will celebrate with the amahzing Seth Rudetsky. No, we’re not great childhood friends. We’re not even passing enemies. Quite frankly, to Seth I’m just another nameless Miss Saigon chorus boy. Trish was able to score TDF tickets to Seth’s Broadway 101 concert tonight. I went last year and it was a blast. Basically, it’s his comedy show with Broadway actors, dancers, singers and orchestra acting as his “back-up” while he gives a “lesson” on how a Broadway show is constructed; a deconstruction of Broadway construction, if you will. My I’m clever. Anyway, more on the show later in the week - right now I must get back to my demanding survival job of answering phones and appearing to look tremendously busy while covertly updating my facebook page hourly.