A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work

Some thoughts about the show:

* My legs turned to jelly whenever I was in full view of the audience. I literally had trouble standing. I asked people if they saw me shake; some said yes, some said no. (People who knew me and my manner better said they noticed, so maybe most of the crowd didn't). Objectively, even as I was delivering my lines, I thought what an interesting and unexpected phenomenon this was. Subjectively, it was rather alarming.

I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that before. I wonder why, until I realize that, golly, this was actually my first real full-on stage experience. I succeeded in swallowing my nervousness, but then it went straight to my knees.

* Everyone came together really well for the main piece, the Chicken Heart play. It was great and brought the house down. Such as it was. And the house, I will note, was packed to the point of cast members scrambling to set up extra chairs when dozens of unreserved walk-ins all showed up minutes before curtain! I spoke briefly to the woman whose film project all this was a benefit for, and she was as pleased as you'd expect.

* She also asked if I wanted to be an extra in the movie, and I gave her my email. But you said no more..! Eh, it's only one shoot, next weekend. And anyway, movie! How could I pass that up?

* Once again, someone commented that my "performance voice" sounds like "Weird Al" Yankovic, at least for the "Ray" character, whose lines I did practically half-sing because, ehm, he's kind of a fruit. That said, I also learned that some heard my delivery as less gay and more Stimpy which I thought was interesting... I had misgivings at first about playing a stereotype, but if I succeeded in making the character into something more nuanced (cough) that's a win. (OTOH most Ray-lines that had people snickering at the rehearsal were met with dead silence at the performance. Tuff crowd.)

* Unforeseen not-quite-intentional humor: to simulate the sound of a flesh-eating mass of protoplasm devouring a hapless scientist, one of the sound guys noisily slurped a handful of Jell-O in front of a mic. We knew this would be funny. But then the followup line "It swallowed Dr. Atkins whole!" was, when actually performed, even funnier, because the panicking intern seemed to suddenly be talking about the sound dood (whom everyone in the audience was, at that moment, looking at) and not the chicken heart.

* My only note about working with Kibo is that he seems like a nice guy but it's kind of unnerving that he's actually really into all the stuff he's known for writing about, and will talk about them at every opportunity. For instance, he and I happened to be idling on the stage before the show last night, and he commented that the stage should have some orange cones on it. What can you say to that? When it's coming from the source, I mean.