5 Things I Missed This Halloween…

Hello Dear Reader!

I hope you had a lovely end to October. Here in the Bay Area, we finally began to feel Fall-like weather. We had some blustery winds and cooler temps which was so nice. Speaking of nice, did you catch that gorgeous Blue Moon on Saturday night? It was stunning! 😍

And totally fitting since Halloween was on Saturday. My favorite holiday was really a bummer this year. Thanks to La ‘Rona, it was nothing like any of the other years. This made me sad at all the things that I didn’t get to enjoy. Let’s see if you missed these too…

5. Release of new scary movies to enjoy in the cinemas – Watching a scary movie in a room full of people with a great sound system is something that I love to do regardless of what time of year it is. Usually there is a slew of scary movies that get released in the months leading up to October. Just not this year. However, I am REALLY looking forward to the new Halloween sequel “Halloween Kills” that is coming next year. I cannot wait!😃😃😃

4. Halloween Parties! – My friends Matt and Jenn would have a super fun Halloween party every year with trophies and everything for costume contest fun. The beverage options are also aplenty! Getting to spend some time with theatre friends is always a blast! The last couple of years, I have attended Big Moves – A Taste for Dance which celebrates that dance is for every body and it is a family affair. There are singers and a costume contest and a chocolate tasting as well as several dance performances. It is such a positive vibe. Somewhere in October, I am pretty sure there was a Club Satori goth night that happens too, so I can get my boogie on! 😂

3. Little kids in costume – I love seeing all the mini versions of superheroes or ghouls and vampires and little witches. The adorableness of these tiny outfits just make me smile. Hearing them scream and laugh as they trick or treat is just a really heartwarming thing for me.

2. Haunted Houses!!! – I love a haunted house. I am terrified and tense the whole time, but I LOVE it!!! It wasn’t until we had gone to the Universal Horror Haunt that I began to appreciate the work that goes into it. From the people that are the characters to the make up artists to the house design, there is a TON of creativity that goes into each house. I feel bad for not really appreciating it before. I was just going in for the purely selfish reason of being scared. LOL!😂😂

  1. Disney Halloween!!!! I was so excited for this year because at the end of March we were supposed to go for our anniversary, but the pandemic halted those plans. Then we wanted to go to the Halloween events this year, but as you can see, we are still not able to go to the parks. As sad as it is Gentle Reader, it is better to be safe than sorry, so I totally get it.

Well, those are the 5 things that I missed for this year’s Halloween. While we did get the awesome Blue Moon, Halloween just wasn’t the same. Do you like Halloween? What are some of the things you missed this year so far? Doesn’t even have to be Halloween specific. I also missed going out to celebrate my birthday, but that was several months ago.

Stay safe and alert, Kind Reader! Be sure to spread kindness and don’t forget to vote! The time is now!👍

Until next time, have a wonderful day and I am sending all the love to you wherever you are! ❤️❤️

From Pippin’s Summer of AMAZING to Zombie Prom’s Fall of FUN…

This summer’s experience in “Pippin” was phenomenal.  I find myself constantly looking back at it to glean as much out of it as I possibly can.  I so utterly enjoyed working  closely with director, Allie Bailey, on character and movement choices.  I plan to use this type of method when it comes to JCS (which auditions in two and a half weeks!!!)  I loved talking through little moments in the show to see if there was something we could try to make the moment stick more, for example,  switching the gun in Pippin’s (Sven) hand from holding the barrel back to the butt at a critical moment in the finale was Sven’s brilliant idea.  It was a spectacularly collaborative effort that just made the experience burrow itself deep, deep into my heart with such tender loving fondness.

Photo courtesy of SunnyvalePlayers.org's Facebook page
Photo courtesy of SunnyvalePlayers.org’s Facebook page

But there was no time to truly mourn the end of this show because there was more theatre to be had!

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This came in the way of the, completely unknown to me, campy little piece called  “Zombie Prom.”  The moral of the story, don’t judge a book by its cover.  The music in this show is so freakin’ crazy hard and WORDY!!  Lawrd, it this show wordy!  There are still lyrics that I can’t quite say.  One would be “What’s your answer? Please speak clearly…”

Now that we have come to my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween, it’s only fitting that we have our first audience for the “Prom.”  We have our final dress rehearsal tonight!  It is so crazy to think just under a month ago, I was finishing up one show and already this one is standing up ready to begin walking.  I know it sounds like I am equating it to children, and in a small, very small, way it is.  The shape of the show and all the elements are there, so it is upright.  To begin performing it, we need an audience, so it would be like taking first steps.  Then, come Opening Night, the show will be running.  Just like a child.  It may even run away from us due to a fire alarm or something.  With all of the funny and all of the cuteness, the story and music are just freakin’ FUN!  I am constantly getting pieces of songs stuck in my head and it drives me bonkers!  My favorite is “There’s nothing like a true blue eh-smoke!” and Kerie does such an amazing job at it!  The cast is so fun and Nate Moss gives such a great performance as Eddie Flagrante.  Jennifer Medeiros plays my favorite character, the cold Miss Strict.   I have to add that character to my bucket list! hahaha.  If RuPaul can play her…

Again, this show is so much fun.  We open officially tomorrow, so I gotta go and practice that lyric!

Get out and see some theatre, will ya?  If you can’t do it because you already have plans,  how about making a donation to this fundrazr campaign.

Until next time,  thanks for reading aaaannnnnnndddd

 

Happy-Halloween

Looking Back Through ’11 (Part 4)

PART 4

Tom and Jery

At the end of September, my BFF Tom moved back to the East Coast.  I had a hard time dealing with it through the rest of the month.  I was crying on the way home from dropping him off at the airport.  It wasn’t the bawling, I-can’t-control-my-car kind.  It was more like the angry if-I-could-stop-my-eyes-from-watering-so-you-don’t-get-the-satisfaction-of-seeing-me-cry-I-would kind.  I held on to that sadness and even now, still can’t see a blue mini cooper without him popping in my brain.  But with the show to distract me and my favorite holiday, I began to deal with his choice.

My favorite scary movie!!! Along with Poltergeist and The Exorcist.

October, my favorite month!  That’s usually when all the fun scary stuff happens, like haunted houses and scary movies.  And of course, there’s Halloween.  I love the thrill of getting scared.  It’s kind of exhilarating.  I don’t dress up for Halloween anymore.  I haven’t in years!  I think I’ve only dressed up for costume parties.  And even then, not often.   I think I associate the holiday with the cooling of the weather and the crunching of leaves under my feet.  I find that sound really soothing when I am out walking in the day.  At night, it’s a little like “Shut up!! People are gonna know where I am at!”  It’s kind of sad that I always assume the worst about people when I am walking about at night.   I think the getting mugged really took a lot of that adventurousness that I had when I was a teenager.

Oh, speaking of scary movies: Paranormal Activity 3 came out…and it sucked!! I think I may have jumped once.  The big ending that was supposed to “mess you up for life” (yeah, the commercials really said that) was LAME!!!!  So lame that merely typing it in caps and making bold wasn’t enough.  It needed to be italicized too!  If you were scared by that, I would be shocked.  I am the biggest chicken and I really wanted to just scream “are you frakin’ kiddin’ me?!”  I regret going to see this movie.

The Purple Gang. And we are SO hard core! So watch it!

Due to the rash of children committing suicide, October became the National Stop Bullying Month.  Yay!! It’s hard enough just to walk with your head high for who you are without having people making you feel less than.  The 20th was designated as the month to wear purple as a show of solidarity that you are against bullying.  Thankfully, I wasn’t alone in that belief.

I went to a cool conference that was all about figuring out ways to bring the theatrical experience to the audience in different ways.  It was enlightening and supremely informative.  The only downside is that I don’t really have a place to test these ideas out.  Also, figuring out the logistics of them would be a pain in the ass as well.  I regret that I didn’t get that much audio to make a podcast for it.  But I even more regret paying $37 for parking for 5 hours in San Francisco!

The Occupy Movement grew from just Occupy Wall Street into a much bigger force to be reckoned with!  Which is good because, this whole gap between the have and have-nots only seem to keep growing and growing.  It’s no wonder that all, yes ALL, politicians aren’t in the loop when it comes to what the people really want.  Have you noticed that they all promise everything just to get into office and fail to deliver.  They got what they wanted, why bother with the rest?

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Ending of H2$

November marked the opening of H2$ and it’s run began.  So many smiles and happy times with that fabulous cast.  I love them all.  Hot stuff!  I’ve heard nothing but good things from the people leaving the auditorium, and read an accurate middle of the road review of the show, but the tickets sales were a bit on the lacking side.  I even got to have my first TheActorvist.com contest for free tickets, and got about a hundred hits on that post but only one entry!  I don’t know if maybe the show wasn’t something people weren’t interested in seeing or if the prices were too high or if people thought it was a bad show.  While the sales were disappointing, it was fun. And as much time as I had the chance to spend with them, I regret that I didn’t spend more.  Oh, and I regret that my Podcast isn’t working.  It featured a pretty good interview with Brett Carlson.

Aside from the show, the month was slow.  Thanksgiving was uneventful, but pleasant.

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Hong Kong's Times Square. Do you see what the hearts are saying?

Which brings us to December!  It’s currently 4:45 on the last day of the year.  People are already starting 2012 and the East Coast begins it’s countdown in about 4 hours. Looking back at this month, there were only two things significant about it.

The first is that we closed out H2$ with a bang!  While perfection was never achieved like I so wanted, the attempt, I feel, only made my enjoyment of the show that much greater.

The second thing that happened was our 3rd annual Pajama/Donut/Game Day!  Again a very pleasant success.  Basically my friends and I hangout in our pj’s the entire day, doing nothing but having a good time and allowing our childish indulgences come forth.  It’s basically our version of Disneyland.  With this being our third year, I wonder if we have to now add a new element to it next year.  No, no, that’s like a 5th anniversary thing.  Nevermind.

SO, that was my year.  Not very exciting and filled with regrets.  But there were a lot of lessons learnt as well.

I look forward to 2012 and possibly the end of time with optimism and hope that people will change.  That the good of very soul will step forth and show itself to everyone else and the world will become a much better place to live.

Thank you all for being a part of my life and I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in 2012!

All the world’s a stage.  Now get out there and Break A Leg!