🎼 Get It Cracking If You Like, Must Be A Full Moon, Feel Like One Of Those Nights…🎶

It kind of looks like a backdrop with a large spotlight shining thought the fabric. She so pretty!😊

Hello Gentle Reader!😃

Last night, there was a big beautiful full moon!🌕 (Does that ⬅️ look like a ball of cheese to anyone else?) I have always had a bond with her. I don’t know why. I always greet her with a “Hello, Bright Lady” when I see her in the skies.

Sunday night, I had the hardest time getting to sleep. I don’t know if it was subconscious energy that kept me awake for all but three hours of the night but when I got out of bed this morning, I wasn’t tired. I am not saying that there is any thing to tie the two together, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wondered if there were.

To me, a full moon is a perfect time for reflecting. I think of it like the moon is a big spotlight in the night sky asking you to share your thoughts about what’s happened since the last time you were in that light. The moon isn’t going to tell anyone. Your secrets and plans that you are too afraid to tell people are safe with her. In sharing those parts of yourself you may not feel comfortable sharing with people, you kind of let go of that energy that was bottled up. This is a great thing! Think of that energy as a sparkling water. Over time, all those bubbles eventually leave even if the can or bottle was never opened. The drink was never tasted and enjoyed. Now, my Dear Reader, think of the enjoyment that happens when you get to take that drink. Maybe even finish it. And who knows, perhaps restock with another?

I did a sort of meditation today for no reason whatsoever with all of this in mind. I really do think it was spurred on by the lack of sleep, because I don’t really meditate, although I always say I should. 😂 As I laid in my bed waiting for sleep, I began to read a book called Milagros by Helen Thompson. One of the big take aways she has written about so far (since I haven’t finished reading it) was that when something is bothering you pay attention to that thing. Then it talked about charms, but that is a little more involved and it tied those things together… Anyway, I am getting off the topic…

When you have a headache, you try to figure out why. Stress, dehydration, hunger, iron deficiency, caffeine addiction… you go through the check list to see why your head is bothering you. If these aren’t the culprits, you keep digging. This is like a total DUH! moment, right? Well, I decided why not try and go through the same process with insomnia? Where did this energy come from when not an hour earlier I was falling asleep on the couch? I wasn’t stressed. I definitely wasn’t dehydrated. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the room temperature or the bed. I didn’t have anything on my mind. Or so I thought.

My Sweet Reader, I had looked up when the full moon was going to be at it’s maximum just before I went to sleep. I don’t know why. I get these random urges and energy spurts occasionally and just have to go with the flow. If I don’t, I become cranky. Like I am fighting a prime objective or something. I got in bed and turned to my routine of looking up YouTube ASMR videos to mellow out my brain. As I watched, I began to fall asleep. Once I took off the headphones and prepared to fall into dreamland, I couldn’t keep my eyes closed. I noticed that my heart rate had quickened slightly, so I tried to adjust my breathing to get it back to normal. It seemed to have worked, but by that time, my body felt like it was awake. So I laid there for hours waiting.

After what felt like forever, I had began to read, got up and walked around the apartment, tried to knit and scrolled through social media (which I know is a bad thing because of the blue light in the screen) I decided that I was going to place my stones to get charged by the light of the full moon. I began to think about the moon and watched the moonlight on my floor under the window. Somehow, watching the slow movement of the light finally got me back to feeling like I would be able to rest. I thanked the moon for her help and finally began to fade away.

Don’t know why I have this fascination with her.

Today, I wrote out a promise to myself with the moon watching overhead what I wanted to do during this next moon cycle and once I finished it, I felt a very real shift in my energy. I am much calmer. MUCH calmer. I have more focus. I was able to complete another project that I kept procrastinating with. I began my character development on the next show I am going to be working on. I can’t say that writing the promise and the energy shift are linked, but again, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I wonder…

I mean, we all know that the moon affects the tides and the ocean and since our bodies are mostly water, it makes sense to consider that the all mighty moon just may be that influence that helps you to reach out to those stars in the sky.

What a nice thought to ponder as I lay my head down for the night.

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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!

Pet Peeve when it comes to staging…

I have this pet peeve when it comes to certain parts of staging. It’s called a cross. A cross is when an actor or dancer is told to move from one point of the stage to another. I didn’t want to say crosses in the title of the post out of fear of having the religious people freaking out. Well, that and it’s about more than just crosses. Anyway, I hope this helps all of the actors that this applies to.

Crosses

When an actor is told by the director or choreographer to cross the stage, I can’t tell you how many times it looks like they are just moving because of that exact reason. They were told to. When asking the actors what they are doing during the cross, they say, “I don’t know. You didn’t tell me what to do.” I want to pull my hair out! I want to grab it by the fistful.

The director or choreographer is only there to give you just what the title implies, direction. It’s up to the actor to create the reason why s/he moves. Putting intent behind movement creates interest and energy which adds to the show. If it looks weird, or out of place, then the actor will be told ways to adjust the cross. That first step has to come from the actor, I feel. Otherwise, it would take 4 months of rehearsal to get the show up and running, and even then it would look bad. It would look bad because it would be over worked and lose that spontaneous feeling that reality has. No one plans out every single movement that they will do, do they?

Eye contact

I find that I am thrown, yes thrown, as in flung from the momentum of the show when I see this happen.

When an actor is speaking to another, it’s incredibly important that you maintain eye contact during those intense or intimate moments. The difference between an actor that maintains the connection and one that doesn’t is HUGE! When the connection is lost, it shows that the actor is uncertain or unfocused which to the audience translates as unprepared or not as talented as the actor truly is. When an actor can keep that connection, the moment gets taken to another level because the audience is engaged in the tension that is being built up between the characters.

Staying in the moment

Along the same lines of eye contact, if a movement is not something that the character would do, don’t do it. I know, that’s easier said than done. Here’s what I mean: Just for an example, if an actor was playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, there is no appropriate time for him to adjust his dance belt. Or if an actor is playing a corpse and adjusts their shirt because they are self conscious about their stomach. It’s not character appropriate, and again takes the audience out of the moment as well as the actor. When an actor is fully immersed in the character, they will forget their personal issues.

Yikes, I feel like I am being super negative about these things. I don’t mean for it to sound that way. These are easy basics that will help an actor. And I truly do want to help and sometimes speaking truthfully is difficult to hear.

Now, go get’em!!!