Author: theactorvist

I love the Theatre. It's my church. It's my joy. I have been performing in plays and musicals for over half of my life, and I would be lost without it. Now more than ever, people are cutting back on everything that is too expensive or unimportant to their lives. As an actor, heck as a person, I don't know of anything that is more important than the arts. Art reflects history. It shows humanity at its worst but also its best. Every day some artistic program is getting cut from a school or a great show goes unseen. Maybe a talented singer isn't able to audition for American Idol. There are a ton of people who live in the South Bay Area of California, who go unseen or unheard. There are many production companies that are just bursting with talent, but people don't see the shows. I will do my best to bring you interviews with local artists of every kind, send out the call for local companies looking to cast people in productions, and much more. Stay tuned because this is only the beginning.

No going back now!!!

I'm gonna do this!!!

When I was in 8th grade, the AIDS epidemic was still a major topic. Nearly 10 years that it had been announced as a major killer of so many people, schools began to talk about safe sex with their sex education lessons.  I don’t know how many schools had this, but I was lucky enough that mine did.  While I don’t actually recall the name of the program, I spent most of my 8th Grade year talking to other students about safer sex.  The program was saying that there was really no such thing as “safe” sex, because there’s always a risk.  I even got to go to a conference with other students.

The Aids LifeCycle is a 540+ mile bike ride that begins in San Francisco and ends in L.A.  It’s all done in 7 days.  It’s all along the coast, so the ride should be beautiful, provided the weather is good.  See for yourself what the route is like.

Now that I finally have a bike, I am so excited to finally do this.  I supposed I could have asked around to borrow a bike, but I know that I already am going to have to ask around for a tent.  So I just want to give you all a heads up that I will soon be hitting all of you up for donations for the ride.  BUT here’s the good news: It’s not until next year.  Next June, the coast will be MINE!!! Muahahahahaha!!!

I really wanted to do this year’s ride, but I was just 2 months too late.  Shucks.  It’d be nice to finally do more than to just give a few bucks here and there.

Just in case your wondering what it’ll be like, check out the documentary that was made a few years back about a group of riders in one of the past events.  You can find it on Netflix!

It’s raining, It’s pouring…

Sometimes, especially this week, I wonder if we as Californians are spoiled when it comes to the weather.

Here the sun is often shining, and usually the temperatures are pretty moderate.  Unless of course we are talking about summertime.  Jeez! It’s been super hot here the last two years.

Now that I am working in the nursery, I do pay a little more attention to the weather and the seasons.  It’s such an impact on the industry that it’s impossible to avoid.

I enjoy the cold with a happiness that most people in California, can’t seem to understand.  There’s something about it that makes me feel like I am fragile yet strong and part of the elements.

I love to walk in the rain, when I am prepared for it.  I don’t often use an umbrella, but I do need my ipod or something.  I also love to have gloves.  Other than that, I prefer to just feel what it’s like to have the drops land on my head.  To soak my hair.  To run down my face.  Sometimes the drops are stinging and freezing cold and other times like in the summer, in Nevada, they are heavy and warm.

So you may be asking, “Jery, why in the hell are you talking about walking in the rain?” The answer, dear friends, is simple.  While the rest of the country nearly froze back in January, we here in the Bay Area, enjoyed a gorgeous month.  So we had what seemed like a very, very brief winter.  February came and it was mild.  A little rain here, some warm breezy days there.  All in all, it was a nice month.

Then at work we had a presentation at work about rain harvesting.  It was a company called Bushman’s.  He continued to tell us about the seriousness of drought and what the people of Australia have had to deal with.  People are so strict about their water usage that there are even calls to the police!

It’s a pretty alarming scenario, especially when you realize how precious water is.  People are trying to privatize water in other countries and it’s angering! What right have these companies to deny water (which is frackin’ FREE) from villages of people?

Please watch FLOW: For the Love Of Water or This from the History Channel.  Please!  You will find it so hard to pay 3 bucks for “fresh” water that a company got for pennies from land that isn’t theirs. Did  you know that there is LESS regulation for bottle water companies than the company that filters your tap water?   There have been things like arsenic in bottled water, just to name one item.

Without all this rain to replenish at least some of the drinking water that we use to do things like water lawns or clean off the car, we, my friends, may be prone to similar actions of other drought stricken countries.

What will we do when all the fresh water has been depleted?  Will we have to resort to drinking recycled water, like other countries?  What happens when the water in the States becomes privatized?  What happens when the fighting begins for control of what’s left of the drinkable water?  Water will be the new oil.

Embrace the rain my fellow, Californians.  It’s helping to keep your gardens gorgeous, grow your sustainable foods, and water your lawn.  Consider harvesting rain water for future use in your garden.  Save the drinking water for consumption.

And we’re up and running!

Tonight was Opening Night and it was weird.  At least it felt weird to me.  But after the insanity that was our final dress performance, I suppose that it turned out pretty well.

Last night, just before the end of Act 1, one of my cast mates slipped and hurt his back pretty bad.  Then there were a crapload of costume malfunctions.  I totally forgot to remove a table.  Woops…tee hee.   There were missed light cues due to the fall.  A scene was cut and we had to change the order of one of the scenes.

So now that we’ve come to showtime things are getting back on track.  I felt like there was a scattered energy throughout Act 1.  It seemed like there were a lot of extra pauses that we’ve never had before. Then came intermission which seemed to last FOREVER. Finally when the audience came back in and Act 2 got under way.  This time the focus was there and it totally just zoomed by.

Great job to my fellow cast mates, you are amazing!!

And a special note to Ms. Melinna: Gurl my friends loved you!

 

Tickets are on sale NOW!!!

Tickets are available NOW!!!

Click on the picture to get your tickets!

As I pulled open the door to the Mexican Heritage Theatre’s cast entrance, I could tell that the mood inside was not only playful, but incredibly positive.  I know you are probably thinking “Well, duh!”

So let me backtrack, Tuesday at work was just a funky, junky day, to be brief.  So when I got to the theatre after work, I wasn’t in the right head space to feel or “see” that there was some weird energy going on around me.  I carried with me all the frustrations and problems of the day as got my costumes on and props prepared for the run of the show.  This would be our first true run thru of the show with the lights, and sound and set changes all happening.  Because of this important point in the rehearsal process, I had an even harder time finding that calm one usually needs to find the character that you are about to bring to life. So I was still in my own little world even after I stepped onto the stage for the first time.  This is always bad.  Always.  As I walked off stage, I FINALLY began to get into the swing of things.   But the mood felt odd.  Still.  I thought it was something that I had brought with me, but as the night wore on, I realized that there was something more going on here. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though. As we get to the intermission break, I begin to hear grumblings in the dressing room and BOOM!!!  Now I know that we are officially in the dreaded Hell Week.  Sarcastic Hooray inserted here.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, we loving refer to the week before Opening Night as Hell Week.  This is the week where everyone is needed for what seems like forever, as we stand around for lighting cue set ups, and the stop and starts of scenes to test set changes, costume changes that may or may not work due to how fast some of them are, and organizing where you need to have your props set for minimum travel time.  While this whole rehearsal process has had it’s ups, it’s also had a few things that have become a habit.  Those habits were the foundation of the anxious energy that was in the building.  Add the stress from the past weekends events, and the new challenges of the run, and you have people who were seriously on edge, and by Act 2 Scene 8, things had reached the point where people were getting angry.  So after the run, the group had a pow-wow and a whole lot of frustration was let out!  Luckily the people who voiced their frustrations used well thought out criticisms and made valid points. So as I left the rehearsal that night and drove home, I wondered what the ramifications of the event were going to be on the next few nights.

Before today’s run thru of the show, we all took a moment to get on the same energy and wave length.  And even though I was late (What? I have to work.) and made it into costume 15 before places, I was able to share and focus my energy and dedication to the cast and production.  So when we hit the stage, there was a few minor hiccups, but things sailed and we made it with a show of 2 hours running time.  I did break my bottle of booze, so the props manager had to make a snap choice and gave me a plain old cork to use.  Minor crisis averted! Personally, I screwed up two of my lines.  One of them, I am supposed to say “Puro vaquero” and it came out more like Puro Cabrone, I don’t even know what that means.  The other line I missed was more like I jumped on top of my cast mate’s line.

Everyone who participates in this process is important.  Allowing them to the chance to talk openly and constructively made for a positive change, while bringing up those issues that need to be handled.  Even more important, as long as the words they use aren’t voiced as personal attacks, the lines of communication stay open and fixes for those issues begin. Just like any other problem.

So even though the last two nights have produced two different performances, I am totally confident that we’ve got a show kids!  Woo hoo! Get your tix now, guys. Click on the picture above to order your tickets and there’s an early bird special.  If you get them ahead of time and not wait til your at the door, you can save a  couple of bucks. Maybe donate it to a good cause.  Like Teatro!