Happy Fat Tuesday!!!!!

Woot!

It's Mardi Gras people!!!!

Want to see what's up on Burbon St? Here are some web cams.

Mmmmmm.... a King Cake recipe.

Carnival Basics
Mardi Gras always falls on the Tuesday that is 46 days before Easter. It is always the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Lent.

Carnival refers to the season of revelry before Mardi Gras. It begins officially on Jan. 6, which is known as Twelfth Night or Kings' Day, so named because it falls 12 days after Christmas on the day the Wise Men are said to have reached Bethlehem.

Carnival celebrations fall into two categories: public and private. The private celebrations are balls, held by clubs called krewes. Some krewes let anyone join, while others are exclusive and made up mostly of FONOF (fine old New Orleans families).

The first Carnival ball of the season is always the Twelfth Night Ball, held on Jan. 6.

Most krewes are named for figures in Greek mythology, like Bacchus for the god of wine or Orpheus for the god of music (no coincidence the latter was co-founded by Harry Connick Jr.)

The parade season officially begins on the second Friday before Mardi Gras, although the parade calendar is expanding. At the beginning of the season, parades are held on weekends only, then become more frequent until the week prior to Mardi Gras, when there's at least a parade a day. There are nine parades on Mardi Gras, most notably Rex.

Rex (don't say "king of"; it's redundant) - always a prominent New Orleans businessman - is considered the king of Mardi Gras.

Every parade has a theme, usually borrowed from mythology, history or Hollywood. Most parades have mock royalty, kings and queens and dukes and duchesses, either drawn from the ranks of the krewe's members or celebrities.

All parade riders throw trinkets - beads, doubloons, small toys, candy - from the floats to the crowds.

The colors of Carnival are purple, green and gold, chosen in 1872 by that year's Rex. The 1892 Rex parade gave the official colors meaning: purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power.

The one ubiquitous food of the Carnival season is the king cake. Sweet roll-like dough is shaped into a big circle, cooked and brushed with purple, green and gold sugar or icing. Then a plastic baby, representing the Christ child, is tucked inside. Whoever gets the piece of cake containing the baby must, by tradition, provide the next king cake.

Okay now you know! So get out there and have FUN FUN FUN!

Company Manager selected....

Okay so I have not been able to confirm this personally (on account that it is only 7 am in Utah) but a source close to the Festival has stated that a new Company Manager has been named.

It's our very own HEATHER!!!!!! The best news (for her) is that she no longer has to live at the Ave!

The best news (for us) is she already knows the returning personnel and all of our insane quirks. How cool is that?

SO....





See you in a couple of months!

It's over....for now....

*sigh*

Playfest is over for me. I closed up Studio B last night for the last time.



Now on to 3 weeks of vacation......


Good thing I have a pony to play with and endless sunny days!





Yeah.....theatre rocks.

Randall Scenic Crew rides again...

ZAK IS BACK, BITCHES!!!!!!


As soon as he gets his ass out of bed and calls me - - I'll let you know the rest of the Randall Scenic crew!

Some stupid Valentine's post....

Hey!

So Jamie (not THAT Jamie, my Florida friend Jamie), is the Company Manager here at Orlando Shakes and she posted a list of Daily Observances on our office door. Every day has several and so here are some alternatives to plain old.....

If you are single and happy you can celebrate...


Ferris Wheel Day!!!!!

OR.....

if you are "Bitter, party of one"

You can celebrate...

Married, but wish you weren't????

Well...... Happy Call In Single Day!!

It's also "Quirky, Alone Day"

Not to mention......

Have a Heart Day.

Now our calendar says that Feb 14 is Race Relations Day

but this image from the Human Rights Commission says it's March 21. Well if it is - - we are just celebrating early!!!!!

Okay I hope this gave you something to do for five seconds and took your mind off of whatever it is that was annoying you.

Some stupid Valentine's day post.....

Hey!

So Jamie (not THAT Jamie, my Florida friend Jamie), is the Company Manager here at Orlando Shakes and she posted a list of Daily Observances on our office door. Every day has several and so here are some alternatives to plain old.....

If you are single and happy you can celebrate...


Ferris Wheel Day!!!!!

OR.....

if you are "Bitter, party of one"

You can celebrate...

Married, but wish you weren't????

Well...... Happy Call In Single Day!!

It's also "Quirky, Alone Day"

Not to mention......

Have a Heart Day.

Now our calendar says that Feb 14 is Race Relations Day

but this image from the Human Rights Commission says it's March 21. Well if it is - - we are just celebrating early!!!!!

Okay I hope this gave you something to do for five seconds and took your mind off of whatever it is that was annoying you.

Playfest!

So I have been rehearsing a workshop for Playfest at Orlando Shakes this last week or so. It's pretty cool and if you are in Orlando, you really need to come to see something. You can get into most of the shows by purchasing a Playfest button for $5. Seriously! $5 to see something like 15 plays.

There are a few shows that cost an extra $8. They are the workshops. The one I am doing is called "Breaking the Shakespeare Code" and it is really cool. It's sort of a look into the acting process - - you get to watch an actress (The divine Sarah Hankins) work with her acting coach (The fantastic Darren Bridget). There is more to it, but I would hate to spoil it for you.

Playwright John Minigan had this show read last year at Playfest and has graduated to "workshop." I think the script is very tight and quite witty. Kristin Clippard directs with flair and uses a "now try it like this" attitude to get the actors going in different directions. I couldn't be happier. We had our tech rehearsal today and got all the way through with hardly any problems. (HOW OFTEN DO YOU HEAR THAT FROM A STAGE MANAGER????????? - - hardly ever!!!)

Anyway, really - - come see these shows. Oh, oh, if you are not in Orlando you can watch the web cam plays. That's my Sarah in "Removing the Ring" and "Study Abroad." They are good. Some are funny, some aren't. Check it out, they are all pretty short.

What else? Oh, so in addition to being SM for "Codes" I am also the venue technician for our black box theatre (Studio B). This is sort of like a throw back to my college days where the budget demanded that the SM run the boards as well. I am the lightboard operator and the CD player operator for all the readings being done in Studio B. It's sort of cool because I learned how to use a light board that is a two scene preset with no computer in it at all. Crazy, wacky, scary but fun!

Right now I am waiting for my portion of the tech rehearsal for "The Stone Face" to start. I have another hour and a half. The bummer thing about having so many shows is that I have to wait a while between rehearsals. My "Codes" rehearsal got over at 5p and I was done with the report, etc. by 6p. BUT I have another rehearsal at 9:30p so I'm just waiting around. I did go to dinner, but I hate to drive all the way home in rush hour just to turn around and come back 2 hours later. Oh well.

Now I leave you with a TOTALLY funny video clip that reminds me that I am not the worst exerciser in the world!