/SF/10/31/07/opening night/
Opening Night, opening night, opening night - that’s all I can think about.  I’m going to head out of work just a little early to hit the gym, get some food, and make sure to beat the freaks coming out tonight.  Love opening nights – or maybe I don’t really and I’m just pumped about this one.  I can’t tell you how perfect our little space looks and how good you’re going to feel.  We’ve had a few test audience members and everyone’s digging the show.  I may write more after tonight but for now just wanted to let you know how excited I am. 

/SF/10/30/07/dress/
Wooo hooo the place looks amazing!  Looks like the most luxurious apartment ever.  Pictures everywhere, a bed, a throne, a runway – looks awesome!  The lights are amazing with little red globes giving off just the right mood lighting.  Our costumes are complete, from little top hats, to corsets, to my package, everything’s in place.  Can’t wait for opening night tomorrow and to see you there.

/SF/10/29/07/
We did so well over the weekend that our wonderful director gave us the night off.  Of course the tech and crew is up late through the night making sure the space is ready for the show.  Everything’s got to look right – the set, the hallway, the props, the costumes…man they’re working hard.  As for me, I did some work, went to the gym, had a great dinner with the Wu, and went to bed at the wonderfully luxurious hour of 10.  Good times.

/SF/10/26/07/ to /10/27/07/
Aagh…tech weekend!  “Stand here, say this, don’t move.  Now do it 10 more times.”  No it really isn’t that bad.  In fact it’s hardest on tech and director folk.  Actors just stand around, talk, eat, and make sure they hit their marks.  “Are you in the light, can you get to this cue in time” – all that shit but not much more.  We ate well though, the company sprung and fed the actors some good food on both nights.  Who knew Chinese food from a 6-fingered man could be so good.

/SF/10/25/07/
We have most Friday’s off and tonight’s no exception.  We’ll be coming back on Saturday and Sunday for a marathon Tech weekend.  The actors are resting and I’m off to my oldest friend’s wedding in Orange County.  At the end of last night’s rehearsal Erin suggested we bring our warm fuzzy things – anything to make us comfortable for the hell that is Tech weekend.  I’m bringing my blackberry - not warm and fuzzy but lovely just the same.

/SF/10/24/07/
This week is pretty much a blur to me, but generally we’re in the space and our set is gradually coming together.  We have the shrine area, the bedroom, the living room, and of course our runway.  Things still look sparse and 180 Capp sure is a funny little space with all the corridors, the stairs, the freaks on Capp – great times.  This is theatre though – making art in an otherwise totally random world.

/SF/10/21/07/
It’s a late Sunday rehearsal and after the show I’m off to the Sausage Factory for a birthday dinner.  Good times.  We did a run tonight, first one I think.  Kind of painful but quite frankly not that bad.  As Erin says, “It’s all about pacing and energy” – well it’s not all about that, we can’t forget the fun, the wine, the music, and oh yeah all that making out.  I’m happy with it and given we still have more time, we’re in good shape.

/SF/10/18/07/
Worked some specific scenes with Anne, William, and Victoria tonight.  At the top of the show after the dreams and random fish stuff, these three characters help set the mood for the coming party.  We have to make sure our energy is up and we’re having a good time – otherwise who’d want to party with us?  Lots of work to look like we’re having fun, but I think we got it.

/SF/10/17/07/
We rehearsed at the Magic tonight.  From here on we’ll be in the 180 Capp space where the actual performance will take place.  I don’t remember much about this night except that at the end of rehearsal Marc made us all taste the wine that will be served at the show.  Like good critics we each took a swig off the bottle – no need for glasses for our class act – and gave our verdict.  I can’t even remember which one won, I’m not a wine drinker myself – give me a good gin and tonic any day and I’ll be your happy lass.

/SF/10/14/07/
Covered the last two scenes for the first time today, then went back and revisited some of our work from the last couple of weeks.  Things are still feeling awkward but hey we’re rolling around on the floor, scripts in hand, making out, and some of us barely even know each other.  Which is why I think our brave and insightful director, had us finish the rehearsal with a great game of duck-duck-goose – nothing like childhood taunts to build the commodore.  Our goal is to be off-book fairly soon so we can really dig into the characters and start having fun.  Oh yeah did I mention we’re beginning each rehearsal with our choreographed dance number?  Eric Kerr (our choreographer, who happened to have played a Fishhead in the first production) came in sometime last week to teach the Heroes their dance moves.  I missed it but have been practicing at home and think I’ve almost got the “hips to the right, to the left, to the right, and smack your ass” down – but quite frankly no matter how much I work, I got nothing on Linds who shakes and moves, and throws me in a frenzy every time.  I said, “Yowser - mama somebody put out the fire!”

/SF/10/12/07/
It’s Friday night and we’re rehearsing – a rare thing for elastic future on a Friday, but we have some catching up to do and besides folks had last night off anyway.  We covered a lot of ground and in general had an awesome time.  Ended at 10 p.m. and decided we were too wired to go home, dropped by the dive bar on the corner of Capp and 17th for a drink.  Denmo got hit on by some guy with very curly hair, Flynn read me “The Bitch” by Colette and by then we thought it was high time to head over to Marc and Erin’s for our rondez-vous.  Erin was busy making chili for the Crowded Fire cook-off and the rest of us just hung about.  Didn’t leave their place till about 3:30 in the morning but Erin did bring home “Crowd Favorite” at the cook-off the next day so all’s well.

/SF/10/10/07/
Today was picture day.  I’m a bit bummed I’m missing everyone’s costumes – or rather what they’ve been able to pull together so far – but I know the pictures will be great.  Evren will be directing the shoot while Marc takes the photos.  From what I hear everyone is going to be in their sexiest best. 

Go look at the photos now! Scrolling down the page you can’t help but not miss all the corsets.  There’s enough skin in this show to..oh use your imagination.  William of course will be a totally proper young gentleman – no skin for this fine stud – well not unless you ask nicely.

/SF/10/9/07/
I’m actually out of town but my minions are rehearsing without me.  Marc is stepping in as William and sounds like he’s having a fun time over the next couple of rehearsals.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the group comes up with while I’m gone.

/SF/10/8/07/
The Sex Fairy played by Raphael, is a really fun part of the show.  Raph will be rehearsing a good lot with just Erin before joining the group.  The Sex Fairy is one of the characters Sue’s done a little bit more rewriting for and we’re all very excited to see what happens.  Also originally the role was played by a lovely young woman, and now with Raph, all the gender stuff will be great to see as well.

/SF/10/3/07/
Came back tonight and picked up right where we left off last night.  First time in the actual space trying to get a feel of what it’ll eventually look like.  We’re not setting anything yet, just playing around with different ideas - just playing - best part of the rehearsal process.  Tonight’s my last night in rehearsal till I get back from out of town next Friday but I’ll get some info from the others about the goings on while I’m away.

/SF/10/2/07/
Only the “Heroes” were called for rehearsal today - that means Denmo, Flynn, Randy, Lindsay, and me.  Rehearsals are split between the Heroes and the Fish-Heads and we won’t really see those two till closer to opening week.  For now it's about creating a bond and connections between us so right from the beginning Erin wanted us up on our feet, doing warm-ups and group building exercises.  Then we spent about 2 hours rolling around on the floor with some pillows and our scripts rubbing against each other, breathing hard, and hoping our breath didn’t smell – good times.

/SF/10/1/07/
First day of rehearsal.  First read through.  Sat around a table, ate figs, and read.  Erin introduced the designers and together they all talked about what some of the design and costume plans are.  Erin also talked about how collaborative the process will be and a little about the space.  We all smiled, ate some more figs, and when we ended a little before time skipped home on our merry way.

/SF/9/30/07/FAKE/
It’s actually Thursday, 9/27 and I’m at work and have a shitload to do before the end of day when I go home to do laundry and pack for another weekend out of town.  I’ll be back late Sunday night when if I had a chance to write something for Days I’d say, “Ooo I’m so excited about rehearsals starting tomorrow.”  So now I’m just pretending like it is Sunday night and I’m writing about tomorrow’s rehearsal:

“Ooo I’m so excited about rehearsal starting tomorrow.  Who’s playing the fairy again?  Oh can’t wait to make out with Lindsay…he he, what fun.  And who’s playing Marie again.  Shit who’s who anyway.  Will I have to dance again this time, get under the covers?  Oh don’t know.   So many questions, so little time…I can’t wait.”

/SF/9/26/07/
All cast was asked to submit their bio for the website and other online publicity.  I’m actually pretty happy with what I wrote – amazing how funny everything is when you start talking about facial hair – or when you write things at 2AM.  More importantly though I can’t wait to see what everyone else wrote. The bios are all part of the Beautiful publicity campaign.  We’re trying to get the word around.  Be sure to look us up on FaceBook and MySpace.  Of course there’s also the website…but you’ve already discovered that because you’re reading this.

/SF/9/24/07/
One week of freedom left till nights and weekends are given over to Beautiful rehearsals.  I’m celebrating by getting a blackberry which will help me write the Days on the go – yippee!  That’s not really the reason, but had to tell you the fun new toy news.

/SF/9/20/07/
I tend to write Days entries when we begin to do a large production or pretty much when Erin asks me to.  The last entry was in March when we were doing the 365 Days/Plays by Susan Lori-Parks – the last production elastic future did as a whole team.  Now we’re about to start Beautiful so here I go again with the Days.  FYI – in the Days I write about what I’m thinking and what’s going on with the company and our latest production.  Be sure to scroll down for our past Days.

Anyway Sue’s been working on reworking the script for some time now.  We started talking about dates and things sometime in early spring and by summer Erin had started looking for the cast which was finalized in early September.  Rehearsals begin in October and for now Erin, Marc, Evren, and Randy are working out the technical pieces (i.e. marketing, getting a space, etc.) till production work begins.   

/SF/3/24/07/
Well everything went according to plan.  We started at about 4:30 and began filming.  Even Erin and Evren were able to join for a short while before heading out to their own show (BLOOD WEDDING at Shotgun) which opened this week.  It was great to see all company members working on the project – even Randy, who is out of town for production day but had worked on one of Days already.  We filmed all the shots we needed and people had a great time and all in all it was a great process.  Afterwards Marc and I stayed up for a little to try to edit but were too whipped out and decided to call it a night by around 2 a.m.  The next morning though Marc woke up early and together with Josh and Erin edited the remaining shots to complete the project.  Marc’s work on this entire project has been absolutely incredible and thanks to his great vision and editing skills a lot of the Days have come out as great as they have.  The entire thing has certainly been a labor of love for our team and we hope you enjoy them and of course we would love to know what you think.  Check them out here and let us know.

/SF/3/18/07/
Met one last time before our “production” day on Saturday, March 24.  We’ve decided that the remaining days will be filmed with day of participants and that the full event will actually be a workshop in progress with filming going on of the entire event.  We feel this not only works with our mission as a group – that of being collaborative and involving our audience – but also lends well to the 365 plays/365 days project.  The entire work is meant to be available to the public and we feel there’s no better way to make it available to the public than to involve them in the creation of the work.

/SF/3/4/07/
Met up with Marc to film Day 24 – “2 Men”.  The idea behind this piece is that the “2 men” are actually one and that the entire dialogue is an internal monologue.  With Marc’s help and vision we were able to manipulate the film to get this message across. 

/SF/2/24/07/
Met up with Randy and Jim at Balboa on Ocean Beach.  Freezing but we got the takes we needed within 45 minutes.  Randy and Marc will work on the edits but all in all it was great and I think Randy’s vision will come through.

/SF/2/22/07/
2nd meeting for elastic future’s work on the 365 plays/365 days project.  It’s been two weeks since our first meeting and we met again tonight to discuss ideas each person has had on their respective day.  Randy’s idea (Day 21) is that we film on a beach to represent the distance and vastness of the message in her piece.  She’ll need one more actor and because of her travel plans will need to film within the week.  I’ll be the other actor for her vignette.  Marc will be doing the “Snake” (Day 23) and is taking a literal read of the play which we’re all pretty excited to see come to life on the day of.  Josh’s days (Day 19 and Day 20) are also to be shot on the day of with the help of audience participation.  One of my days (Day 24) Marc and I will be recording beforehand and the rest (Day 22 and Day 25) will be shot day of with audience participation.  All in all it’s starting to shape up and we’re getting very excited.

/SF/2/8/07/
After talking and bouncing off ideas we came up with 4 basic things we want to incorporate in the upcoming 365 Days/365 Plays show:

• "vignette" - which in this case means each collaborator is in charge of one (or more) plays and will bring in his or her own thoughts, incorporating these given elements.  These are the four basic ideas though we had talked about more and each collaborator can choose to use those ideas as they like but these are our through line.   
• less formal division between audience and actors
• video recursion
• using living room as our space

The vignettes are divided as such:

• Constant - Sara (FYI - we have to do at least one of three assigned constants.  We're choosing #2.)
• Day 19 - Josh
• Day 20 - Josh
• Day 21- Randy
• Day 22 - Josh
• Day 23 - Marc
• Day 24 - Sara
• Day 25 - Sara

P.S. we’re all pretty burnt out and as some of our company members are busy with other projects to keep from killing ourselves we'll only do one show.  It'll be on Saturday, March 25.

/SF/2/6/07/
elastic future is joining the 365 National Festival, doing 365DAYS/365 PLAYS plays by Suzan Lori-Parks.  For more information about this visit: www.365days365plays.com.

Tonight we met to discuss what our group is going to do.  We’re assigned the plays from March 19 – March 25.  This means we have to do our show about these days, on all or one or anytime during the assigned week.  Most of this week’s plays are about war.  All about war...that's our week. Huh. We’ve got some ideas about how we can create this into a less hityouoverthehead evening but will be discussing more in detail at tonight’s meeting.  Good times.

/SF/1/27/07/
I skipped last night’s entry cause after writing an entry each night, its just occurred to me that you all may not want to know everything.  Still closing night’s important so I’m writing something down.  It was an awesome show – balls out, balls out beautiful!  A great packed house, great energy and the actors were just having a great time.  Afterwards we cleaned up real quick and headed over to Marc and Erin’s for the show’s official after-party.  I can’t even remember really but Paloma and I got home around 4:30.  Real good times.  The next morning all the company members (those troppers) plus Mike and Tim were up at the crack of dawn (or 10…)to tear down the set.  Our strike was the fastest ever – thanks to the magical planner Josh – and we were in and out by around 3.  I actually seemed to have remembered how to tear a set down from freshman year stage tech – you may recall I didn’t recall much while we were putting the set together.  But tearing it down…now that I can do.  I came home after feeling much accomplished.  Someone asked if I was sad that the show was over.  I think I can fairly say when you’re working on a show day in and day out, you’re not sad when it's over, if you are you’re just a masochist.  No, you’re just tired but after some time passes you do look back and that’s when you think – damn that was a great show.  Usually about this time you sign up for another show and the whole madness starts all over again.  Quite sick when you actually think about it, we all just have such selective and poor short term memories.  Great show though guys – can’t wait till we do it again :)

/SF/1/25/07/
First day of the last week’s run.  Things are going well.  I’d been really losing my voice but feel a lot better with sometime off.  We met to have a quick speed-through.  Did this last Thursday as well.  We didn’t have any pick up shows once the show was open which means this is the first time we’ve all met as a cast since last week’s show.  Good times.  Actually we were all pretty jazzed, last weekend shows are always exciting. 

/SF/1/20/07/
After the show went to Fell and Divisidero to a bar I can’t remember, for a Prince and Michael Jackson song off.  It was either that or going to yet another lesbian night where if you’re single you’re totally ignored and if you’re in a couple you’re totally gawked at and that’s not even including the junior high standard flirting – bumping into the girl you think is cute and then completely ignoring her.  Yea didn’t need that – already did that on Friday anyway – so instead I went uptown for the battle of our generation.  I had cucumber infused vodka (sounds gross but was absolutely amazing) and though nostalgia had me with Michael, I had to go with Prince as the king of the night.  So much dancing my back hurts this morning.  Either that or the Priestess’ moves are starting to do a number on my back.  Every night folks have come up to tell me how much they dig how the Priestess moves under the mask – how unnatural and weird it looks.  That’s great to hear when you’ve been working on a character and it reads as well as you had hoped.  The Priestess is not human but a beast and its cool that the audience sees that.  In general we’re all getting great feedback.  Every actor has their fan base/praise, even our lovely king Agamemnon (p.s. Agamemnon has no lines and dies in the first scene – hope that wasn’t a plot spoiler). 

/SF/1/19/07/
Wonderful audience and packed house tonight.  Starting to see repeats in the audience.  It’s fun, when folks come back again and again – makes you feel like you’re doing something right.  Folks coming to see the show more than once, bringing their friends, that’s great.  There’s a perk too - $5 for anyone (mask or no mask) who’s coming to see the show again.  Cool policy huh?  Better get in line quick though, tickets are going fast and we’ve only got four more nights left.

/SF/1/18/07/
Came back tonight for the first performance of our second week.  Small house, but tonight proved that that can be fun too with this show.  We really got to feel every single person in there.  Usually its so packed there’s a certain energy, tonight was a bit more mellow – if that’s even possible with our show.  Anyway since our last performance we’ve received some good press and attention.  From local papers to blogs, folks are writing about us.  And they’re writing good things.  People are getting it, enjoying it, and blah blah.  Actually I love the blogs and I love the articles with opinions but man did the Bay Area Times article blow!  I think their critic was writing about a whole different show.  After the show he talked with some folks, and I actually think he enjoyed himself but you’d be taking a wild guess at that when you read his article.  Not only is it confused its utterly confusing.  Good luck guy and thanks for the write-up but man if you’re going to critique at least get the names right, get the story right, and for fuck’s sake pay some attention.  Hey but listen, thanks for coming.  What I got to throw that in, we’re a small company after all and I can’t go burning any bridges.  So guy, again, thanks and ALL my love and by the way, love your use of consonants that is some Grade A work.  Did you learn that in critic school or is that just natural talent?  Either way you’re amazing.  Okay Erin’s given me the okay to stop kissing ass.  End of entry.

/SF/1/13/07/
Tonight was the last show of our first week and the grand “2nd Saturday Series” at Root Division.  Each month, on the 2nd Saturday of the month, Root Division hosts an opening for the gallery’s current show.  It’s a fun affair with sliding scale entry and a cash bar all of which benefits Root Division and ultimately future shows.  I was most excited about the affair because like most of the company and cast members, I was looking forward to meeting a completely new crowd of folks – visual artists.  I’ve often thought visual artists were a very interesting lot; the way they are so solitary in their work, their cadence, how they ooze cool and awkward all in one go, but more specifically how they bare themselves so completely to anyone who happens to see their work.  As performers I feel like we have a shield of protection: as an actor, I’m saying someone else’s words, as a playwright, heck someone else is going to be saying what I’m writing, etc.  But as a visual artist, you bear your soul with every piece you create with no shield, no protection, its just what you’ve singularly produced and your audience.  I’ve just never figured out how they do it. 

From the onset tonight felt different.  Because of the gallery opening, the doors opened much much earlier than usual.  There was lots of mingling and people were moving around in the space; very unlike a theatre space but very similar to what happens at galleries.  Folks were gathering in front of one piece or another and talking, drinking, and talking some more.  The room was filled with some local collectors as well as artists.  And then the lights flashed and folks started making their way to their seats.  We were called to places and the lights went down.  As an actor you can often feel an audience the moment the show starts, sometimes it happens when you go on stage, but most often you can feel it even before then.  You can sense them as the lights dim: some audiences are quite and attentive, some hold their breath, some rustle about, and some like in the case of tonight’s performance just wait.  They wait for you.  They wait to be moved.  I don’t think its different than when I look at a painting or a sculpture.  Not knowing the nuances, I look around at how other people are reacting to it.  I think this audience did the same thing.  Sure they looked at the picture - the lights, the costumes, the montages on stage - but they just weren’t sure what to make of it.  I think they looked at our theatre the same way I look at art - in the only way each of us can understand it best.  I look at art and try to realize it by the interactions it sparks, and I think they looked at our show and watched the images passing on stage.  As they sat, awkwardly watching the show tonight, I couldn’t help but think of myself in a gallery: goofy, self conscious, trying to seem interested, removed, and then suddenly gripped by something perhaps the artists had never intended for me to see but something that I hold on to so that we can bond as artists alike.  Surely we don’t usually speak the same language but we stumble through in good faith.  

/SF/1/12/07/
Ah the glories of second night.  Now this I always forget: after the high of opening night comes the low of second night.  Without the same adrenalin pumping through you, you inevitably fumble.  And fumble we did.  From tech to beats being off, to just a little rough around the edges, tonight was a little hard.  The amazing thing though is that even with the minor glitches the show still holds strong and on the way home it even prompted a critical analysis by some friends who’d come to the show.  Now here is something I find very interesting about elastic future.  Everyone feels comfortable to give us their true opinion.  Friends came in throughout the rehearsal process and gave constructive feedback.  Folks on opening night did the same.  And now that the other pieces have fallen into place, friends are starting to really speak to the content of the play.  On the walk home last night, my friends started talking about the gender theory in the play.  Started talking about Sue’s reasoning for some of the choices: the strength and weaknesses of some of the relationships and how that speaks to sexual identity and the grand choices some of the characters make at the end.  They asked questions: why is the main lesbian interaction on stage a response to the violent hetero interaction between Cassandra and Apollo; why the sexually explicit audience interaction; what does rape mean to men and women; is violence only physical or is it more emotional and do men and women experience it differently.  Interesting stuff, more interesting was that it was at about 6 blocks into it that one of them asked, “Sara, what do you think?”  This I thought was interesting; that our work can spark such a discussion enough for them to forget how close I am to the project and really feel just as entitled to an opinion, made me feel like we’d done something right.  Our goal is to engage the audience and make them feel as much a part of the experience as the actors and crew; it’s the very reason we don’t have a formal curtain call.  If we take too much credit for the experience than it robs the audience of their participation.  Certainly we value the audience and that they’ve decided to join us; this is why we make sure to have an opportunity for actors, tech, and audience to really engage with each other after the show, as part of the show.  Ownership, that’s what is really resonating with me in this experience.  How much ownership our audience is feeling and unfortunately how little ownership we usually feel when we otherwise experience art. 

/SF/1/11/07/part2/
Opening night.  I’m usually not one for opening nights.  I figure its really the last stage of the whole process: first comes rehearsal, then the tech, then dress, and then finally the last element the audience.  Which is why I figure it’s just still too new to be any good and often try to avoid opening nights.  What I forget is the adrenalin rush everyone’s on.  The cast, crew, even the audience, everyone knows, “tonight’s the night!” and everything becomes larger than life and tonight was no exception.  We did awesome and everything fell into place.  We had an audience, which is always a happy surprise.  Having a Thursday opening night for a three week run usually means a small first house, but tonight was a just the right size.  After the last line was said and the lights came on, the music started again and there went that wine again, and people were happy.  Audience members talked with the actors, with the artists who were in the room, and with each other and in general enjoyed the experience.  Happy day.

/SF/1/11/07/
I’m at work, it’s 10AM and because I can’t stop thinking about tonight I’ve decided to do something unconventional – write the “days” before tonight – and more specifically at work! Woa. Of course I might have another “days” entry tomorrow after tonight’s show, about tonight’s show but right now I just thought to let you all know just how amped we all are for tonight – for opening night!

Last night after rehearsal I spoke with a good friend who’s having a “mask making party”. She’s bringing a crew of folks together to next Saturday’s show. They’re all meeting beforehand to make some masks – remember $5 off if you show up with a mask! Good on them. Hope you all do the same and be sure to stick around after the show, remember that’s when the real party happens.

You’ll come to the show. You’ll come into the space, think how cool the whole set up is, find a spot on a cushion (you could choose a chair, but why?). Someone will offer you a free glass of wine, you figure, “why not” and start the first glass of many. You’ll drink, the show will start, you’ll watch. You’ll think, you’ll react, and then the lights come on. You’ll see me, we’ll talk, we’ll talk about the show (if you want), you’ll flirt (with me? that’s so sweet). You’ll notice all the other hot folks around, you’ll look at the art, and then we’ll take it from there. Can’t wait.

/SF/1/10/07/
Last dress rehearsal.  We had a couple of audience members.  Evren had called a couple of the actors before hand to do some specific scene work.  I got so wrapped up in all of that I didn’t start getting ready till about 10 minutes to places!  Eek – but you know what they say if you do it in dress, you bet your ass you’re not going to do it for the show.  So no more of that for me, especially not tomorrow.  We had a good run all things considered.  Evren noted that we were all a little tense but that’s to be expected the first time you put this in front of an audience.  Even still it was a great show.  The notes we received from our kind audience members (close friends of cast and crew) really helped.  In fact we sat down and really quickly reworked some scenes.  For me, it was Scene 1.  That dreaded first scene.  So expository, so disconnected…so unintelligible?    No not that!  We don’t have that many scenes in this show, so its important that each one makes sense and that each one moves the story forward.  As I’ve mentioned before, this one really sets the stage.  We just retooled a little, and man did it come alive for me.  By the way, he’s going to read this so I hope it doesn’t go to his head, but I’ve been so impressed with Evren throughout this process and tonight he really earned his stars.  He’s kind, giving, and patient – a great mix for a great director.  I’m really excited about tomorrow night and am looking forward to a good run. 

/SF/1/9/07/
Show – 1, Cast – 1!  We’re tied!  Second dress and many times better than last night!  Sound cues, lights, actors, even some costume adjustments – we’re going strong!  Looking forward to tomorrow night, our last dress, where some of our close friends and loved ones are coming.  A kind audience to start with before our opening night on Thursday!  Just read something about upcoming media coverage as well, sounds like the wheels are all in motion.  Can’t wait.

/SF/1/8/07/
First dress rehearsal.  First dress is expected to be painful.  It’s the first time all the elements including, actors, costumes, make-up, lights, sound, etc. are coming together and there’s often a mad traffic jam.  We managed to do okay though, considering.  Our notes were kind and generous.  There were fumbles though.  For the most part only Marc and Evren really know the full scope of the fuck-ups and each contributing member – be they actors or tech folks – only really knows about theirs.  For example, I have this one scene where I have to put the full-bodied “Priestess” mask on in one full swoop movement.  It’s hard and tonight I was just eaten alive on stage with that mask.  Evren put it best, “Mask – 1, Sara – 0”.  Think he could have written something similar about this run in general,  “Show – 1, Cast – 0”.  But there is still time yet and at least it wasn’t an ass whooping, more like a quite defeat.  We’ll be back tomorrow though for a rematch.

/SF/1/7/07/
Tech cue to cue.  Most actors don’t like cue to cues because they’re boring as hell.  You stand there deliver one line and then the director yells, “Okay we’re good, move to the next scene.”  Actually sometimes it gets very frustrating because you don’t have a chance to build on your lines and you have to really jump around between emotions etc.  For the most part though because you’re not expected to be acting its just a teaser on your brain to have your scenes all jumbled up and you still have to know just where you are in the play without your script.  That’s how I look at it anyway, as a brain teaser which is why I love cue to cues.  This one went really well and considering we have the most awesome looking light show with clamp lights – that was very impressive.  Josh has managed to create a great light design with very simple lights and a rather simple board but a computerized lighting program.  That’s what I’ve picked up at least, you have to remember, I’m just an actor after all.

/SF/1/6/07/
Tech load-in.  Actors weren’t called in today, but I didn’t have much else to do and as it’s either hanging out with these folks or some other friends I decided to go peak in on the tech side today.  I figured Josh probably couldn’t use an unskilled tech hand like me (that whole semester in scene shop did nothing for me except ruin one too many hungover mornings in college), but I decided to offer my services anyway – besides, I figured I might learn something.  Other than serving as Mike’s human clamp (sitting on this block of wood, or leaning on that one, to make easier to screw in) I didn’t do much else but watch.  I watched Erin and Randy continue to mess with costumes.  I watched Katie hang some of the art and watched Marc help light them.  I watched Evren dress the set, while Tim lit it.  And I watched Josh do everything from set light cues, to hang lights, to create some absolutely ridiculously abstract lamp/light fixtures.  Everyone moved pretty much at their own pace with music blasting, folks coming in and going.  We ate lunch then dinner, and that was that.  Pretty much your average elastic future tech I guess.

/SF/1/5/07
First Friday rehearsal ever, but then again we open in less than a week.  Ran the show, took notes, went home, blah blah.  Then I came home and got to hang out with my neighbors.  I’ve chatted with folks from #3 before, and keep getting #8’s god damn Netflix, and #4’s fed our fish over the holidays, but tonight, tonight was something special.  We all ran into each other outside, as each one was coming in from their night and we just decided to hangout.  Very cool.  I’ve told them about the show, and I think they’re coming.  Which reminds me I’ve got to start telling folks and sending out e-mails.  Less than week to go. 

/SF/1/4/07/
The gods’ wings are here!  Oh my goodness Athena’s wings are amazing!  During the first rehearsal when the actors were getting a summary of all the different elements of the show (costumes, set, lights, masks, etc.), Liz, the wing artist, had mentioned she envisioned Athena’s wings being parts of an owl’s nest, filled with bones, twigs, and pellets.  Well she did it.  It looks awesome.  Both Athena (Jessie) and Apollo (Brian) had a hard time adjusting their blocking with these new extensions to their bodies, but the affect, the image, was awesome.  Once they live in them a little bit longer, they’re going to fly!

/SF/1/3/07/
Root Division folks needed their space tonight for a meeting so we were confined to the back, in their kitchen where we tried on costumes and ran lines.  Erin and Randy have been bringing in costumes on a regular bases for actors to begin better visualizing their characters.  It’s all a collaborative process as the actors are really able to give a lot of feedback on what’s working, what are some things they own that could actually add to the look, etc.  I got a chance to see and try on my mask tonight as well.  It’s absolutely amazing. Alexis, who made the masks, has really done an great job.  The mask covers my whole body, which is perfect given the transformation Agatha goes through to become the Priestess. 

/SF/1/2/07/
Everyone but Democratis (Baruch), who’s not in the last two scenes of the show, was called to rehearsal tonight to go over the end of the show.  The end, where all hell breaks loose.  Where gods and demons have their face-off, their death, and reconciliation.  All of which reads beautifully on the page, but now it’s our job to make sure it comes across just as beautifully (read, not cheesy) on stage.  Hard task.  Just like in earlier fight scenes, here again we choreograph a lot of the action and movement on stage.  So far it feels good and that’s always a first step, we’ll have to wait for later rehearsals to gage just how well it holds together.

/SF/1/1/07/
Happy New Year!  With a little less than 2 weeks to go we’re off today (at least the actors) cause who wants to hear a bumbling fool, with barely a screech to call a voice, reaching for lines they can’t remember, hungover from last nights foolery?  Yeah so the actors had the day off today.

/SF/12/30/06
Zombies rehearsal!  The undead have finally arrived.  Raphael, Kiersten, Rajah, Meghan, and Dan; a mix of actors and elastic future supporters alike to help us out with the zombie sequences.  A good group and we had a great rehearsal too if not for Rajah’s bike being totally stripped to pieces outside on 17th Street.  Root Division is on 17th at South Van Ness and suddenly looking around at the carnage of bike shells it looks like it’s also home to many a bike scavenger.  So bikers, beware; if you’re planning on biking to the show, be sure to lock your bike inside the building.  Oh the prices we pay for art.

/SF/12/21/06
This was the last night before most folks start heading home for the holidays, so most of the cast was around.  We ran through some of the second part of the show (Scenes 7-11).  Randy brought in a mask for me to start playing with for the Priestess.  Mask work is so great, so freeing.  You put this thing on one of your most expressive features as an actor – your face – and then you remember oh yeah, “I have other ways to speak: my voice, my hands, my body” – it’s an awesome feeling every time.   

/SF/12/19/06/
Based on Sunday’s run-through Evren’s decided which scenes are: holding together and are going the right direction; which scenes are doing okay but need some more work; and lastly which scenes fell flat and need immediate attention.  I’m not sure if Scene 1 – Clytemenstra (Randy) and Agatha (me) my first scene – fell totally flat but it certainly needed some immediate attention.  Which is why Marc, Evren, Randy, and I got together tonight to revisit the brief but ever important and stage setting, Scene 1. 

In Scene 1 we meet Clytemnestra for the first time and we witness her descent from a grief stricken mother into a murderous villain.  How do we tackle that?  Well we start by talking some stuff through and then just running scene over and over again.  We ran that damn 5 min long scene for two hours!  By the end of our call time, as the other actors were coming in for their scenes, the four of us were totally sick of hearing the same lines over and over.  But I to be honest that’s just the kind of shit that really works for me.  Running it over and over again till you say one word with just a little different intonation, or you move just slightly different, or you look a certain direction you’ve never looked before…little things that only begin to become real once you’ve lived that moment enough times to really begin to become that person for that moment – that’s the stuff.  You always hear, “artists should be honest.”  I never understood what that meant until I sat there repeating scenes over and over.  Then being honest is easy.  Its like this: if you’ve done it enough times, it begins to become second nature a little, or at least begins to feel a little bit less removed from you, more natural, and that’s when you’re allowing your body to just be a vehicle and not tampering with it by any of your own reservations.  It’s like playing out your morning routine for someone – if you think about it too much, you begin adding things, which make it unreal, dishonest.  But if you just go through the motions, that’s when you tell the truth and that’s what’s interesting because you’ve just let someone into your life.  After that you can add bits to highlight what you want them to take away but you’ve got to start with just some basic, straightforward, this is how I move everyday.  Well that’s what we were doing with Scene 1: this is how we move, this is how we move, this is how we move, this is how we move…and so on.  I think we hit some of it tonight, or at least we tried and that’s good enough for me…for now.

/SF/12/17/06/
Ran scenes 1-7 tonight.  Really choppy of course but it was nice to see what other folks have been working on.  The set is up too.  Very skeletal right now, but we have our essential framework and the actors had a chance to walk around on the many different levels.  There are parts of the small set that I’ll just never set foot on – like the nymphs’ corner – which was why it was especially cool tonight to not only frolic in different parts of the stage, but also to get a chance to see how still new and raw people are.  We also took some promo shots for website and publicity.  Hope it comes out well.

/SF/12/14/06/
First time doing the Priestess and I got to see Erin tonight – haven’t seen her all this while.  Our characters share only a couple of lines in this play but we do have a fight scene.  Worked on that briefly tonight.  Marc says we fight like girls and will be busting out some of his high school wrestling moves to help us out.  We also worked out some of the rape.  This is really interesting material – dark.  It’s important to me to get what we’re trying to do across right.  Sure the audience could easily be offended and I’m not too concerned about that but I’m petrified that they’ll think we didn’t know what we were touching on.  I’ll write more on that later.

/SF/12/12/06/
My first rehearsal at Root Division.  It’s a great open space and just blocks from my place so yipee.  Most of tonight is spent redoing much of what we’d worked on a week ago – but that’s just the way it goes.  We hit on something and then it changes once the space comes into play.  We also spent sometime working out how the dead will move.  So much of this play, for me, is images and how the actors can create moving art.  I’m going to be behind a mask for most of my part and am looking forward to using some of my other tools and not depending on my voice too much.  Which is actually a good thing right now considering this damn sore throat just won’t go away.  No vitamins still though.

/SF/12/5/06/
Randy is playing Clytemnestra and I’m Agatha, so out of the cast, she’s the one I’m going to be working with the most and tonight was our first rehearsal together.  Marc and Evren were there as well.  We did some table work: discussing character, thoughts on motives, the usual, and then we got on our feet.  From the beginning we knew this show was going to be very physical, in fact a good lot of the staging ideas were originally discussed during our physical workshops earlier this year.  So it was pretty cool getting back to some of the stylized work we’d started randomly, and were now fitting it in with this show.  Great rehearsal.  On another note, I’m losing my voice a little.  Well actually its not that I’m losing it, more that I’ve not quite recovered from a cold and my apartment’s freezing, which I don’t think is helping the matter.  Anyway my voice sounds quite strained but I’m not quite concerned enough to take any vitamins just yet.

/SF/12/2/06/
First rehearsal and read through.  First time the entire cast is seeing/meeting each other.  Introductions, rehearsal schedule, updates on costumes, set, etc.  First time actors get to see some of the pieces that have been selected for the art show.  We discuss some of our costumes – there’ll be masks and wings and enough skin that we’re all hitting the gym harder than we have in a long time.  After the logistics we spent some time doing some physical work.  Good times.  I’m not called again till December 5th and as I’m “only” acting in this show, unlike the other company members, I don’t have to worry about costumes (Erin and Randy), the set (Josh), the music (Marc), the venue (Marc, Evren, and Josh), the art (Katie), and of course everything else (Evren).

/SF/10/(I can’t remember)/06/
We finally have our cast!  The cast of Evren’s dreams.  Good times.  Rehearsals start after Thanksgiving.

/SF/10/28/06/
Call backs.  Evren, Randy, and I are reading and reading and reading and reading and reading some more.  It’s not that we don’t have great options, quite the opposite actually.  It’s just that we’re just trying to make sure we’ve got just the right fit!

/SF/10/23/06/
We’re holding auditions.  The plays writ and now we’ve got to cast.  We watch, we read, we think, we order crap pizza, we eat crap pizza, talk some more, and decide on who we’re going to be called back for call backs on Sunday.  Ultimately it’s Evren’s decision though, but we like to put in our two cents.

/SF/10/16/06/
We met to review the budget for The Greek Play and finalized some more stuff.  Stuff like, when the art for the show is going to arrive, when the deadline for submissions is, what Katie Vida (our friend and the show’s curator) has already done and etc.  We’ve been getting submissions and/or requests from far and wide – local artists as well as folks from as far as New York are really excited about what we’re trying to do and want to be involved with the show.  Folks are starting to send slides of their work and it looks amazing!  We’re still working with Sue on rewrites and are beginning to think about casting.

/SF/9/19/06/
Lots started to take shape tonight.  We’ve signed up to be part of the “365 Project: 365 plays in 365 days” along with several other Bay Area Theatre companies.  We have a slot sometime in March.  Erin’s been pretty busy getting a lot of the logistical pieces of the company in order and is now officially our Managing Director.  The location for the next show – The Greek Play – is confirmed.  The show will run in mid January at the Root Division in the Mission, SF.  We’re very excited that for the first time we won’t be striking our set at the end of each show.  Josh is psyched to finally be able to really build a multifaceted set and is starting to design like crazy.  In general we talked a lot about dates, deadlines, and all the parts of the upcoming show.

/SF/8/4/06/
It’s my birthday!  Lots of friends, come over to ring in my 27th.  Good times.  As for elastic future news, Erin’s in a show (which is why she couldn’t stay for the entire day of festivities), Evren’s out of the country, and the rest of us are just kicking back while Sue finishes up work on The Greek Play.   We’ve all been looking at drafts and giving some feedback but its still in the works.

/SF/7/4/06/
Happy Hannukah

/SF/7/15/06/
First official elastic future meeting in a long time.  We’ve received our first grant!  It’s money to restage our first successful show, Beautiful.  For now the working title of the production is “Beautiful Redux”.  Took some time to review the last year as a group and discussed some of our preferred dates for doing shows.  Everyone’s got their own crazy work stuff and other projects but in general we’ve set some tentative dates for our next two projects – “The Greek Play” and “Beautiful Redux”.  Marc, Erin, and Randy will also be working on some video stuff in the interim.  Evern’s going to Turkey for some summer holiday fun, I’m going to Hawaii and all in all we’re all enjoying the summer.  Oh yeah we also decided on a very important company rule (note: add this to an existing list which includes – 1) never do a crap show; 2) always have sex in show; 3) always have hot actors (preferably doing something about the sex) in the show; 4) always have alcohol (so that more folks will be prone to have their own good sex…perhaps even with some of our hot actors…oh now I’m just getting crude…) and now, our newest rule: do a show for at least three weeks with the option to extend!  Our other four rules make it entirely too easy to sell out a show and we want to keep our audiences and our pocket books happy.

/SF/7/12/06/
Just got back from watching Paloma’s friend at the Gay Olympics Synchronized Swimming Meet.  Couldn’t see much except for hands flying up and down, some splashing, and not much else.  There were entirely too many grown men and women in tight swim caps smiling like it was a good thing and though the whole thing didn’t last more than an hour, I couldn’t help but wonder, why.  This entry has nothing to do with elastic future, but I figured an opportunity to write about synchronized swimming shouldn’t be missed.

/SF/June/06
I’m writing this one a long time after it happened and don’t even have a clue what happened in June.  I think Marc and Erin were working on some video stuff for a show with Evren.  Randy was busy promoting her film and Josh was looking up at meteors I think.  And I was…oh yeah I was enjoying PRIDE!  In fact that’s pretty much all I was doing in June.

/SF/May/06
At some point this month I get a chance to get my head out of my work’s ass and meet the crew for a meeting.  Marc and Erin tell the group that the show actually made money!  I guess it’s not much of a surprise considering we had so many sell out nights.  And it’s also not a first for elastic future because Beautiful also did really well.  We figure its something about good actors, good drinks, and a good story that seems to be working really well for our audiences.  Everyone involved in the show is still pretty tired and me, I’m just trying to make sure work doesn’t swallow me whole.

/SF/4/16/06/
Kim Deal Closing Night – Honestly I can’t remember much (yea it was that good).  The show kicked ass (like most nights) and afterwards we went over to EFHQ for the after party.  Everyone gets piss drunk, hashed out some of their best and worst moments of the show, the run, and shit the whole process.  But we’re drunk and vow it was all worth it.  I drank and danced a lot, can’t remember much else.  SOLD OUT NIGHT!

/SF/4/14/06
The actors are sick, the band is tired, but we keep rockin’ on.  The place keeps getting packed every night.  Most folks are really into the music and when the band sings – the place just goes crazy.  Of course some folks walk out saying, “…its not the real Deal story…” but we could give a fuck – we’re the theatre of inaccuracy and we love it!  I can’t remember, but one of these nights someone who’s actually connected to the band and who knows Kim and Kelly shows up to see the show.  They had a good time and we think that’s all that matters – well that and that we’re having a good time putting on a show like nothing else in the city.  SOLD OUT NIGHT!

/SF/4/13/06
Packed house again.  I’ve actually been turning folks away.  Funny how we have the smallest (actually we’re all fairly small folk) company member playing bouncer at the door.  But I’m doing a good job.  Tonight this ol’time tranny walked by and saw all the folks in the bar, wanted a piece of the audience herself.  She’s a local performance artist, and I’ve seen her around, but the show had already started and I needed her to be quite.  I ask her to keep it down a bit and she gets really frustrated and starts talking louder and louder.  I tell her the show’s going on and we’ve got to keep it quite out by the door.  She gets real pissed of and gave me the coolest compliment ever.  She said, “Well fuck you, you little post punk hipster lesbian bitch.”  I couldn’t have asked for anything more.    SOLD OUT NIGHT!

/SF/4/8/06
Last night of the first week.  The show’s going great and we’re getting great reviews.  We’ve got a ton of presales but the walk ups are making the nights!  After every night the actors, band, and audience just chill out at the bar and the place is just packed with energy.  Drinks, music, theatre, a show about sex…shit we’re just having a ball!  Everyone gets a chance to just hang out and that’s really one of my favorite parts of the show – well that and the great music!  SOLD OUT NIGHT!

/SF/4/7/06
Friday night shows are awesome!  I think it was raining.  Either way I’m out there standing, sometimes smiling, sometimes talking, but mainly selling tickets.  The space is small and my voice is big which is probably why Marc had to step out two times to ask me to hawk a little more quietly.  Sold out though so don’t know what he’s on about.  SOLD OUT NIGHT!

/SF/4/6/06
Kim Deal Opening Night – I was designated as ticket hawker for opening night.  Usually Marc handles tickets for our shows but his bodies finally caught up with him.  That is its kicking his ass.  Erin and Marc have both been running ragged having to do a lot for the show.  But tonight, they’ll get to chill out a bit.  They’ve been doing everything from directing, assistant directing, stage managing, house managing, ticket sales, producing…you name it.  So anyway I was out there selling tickets and sell tickets I did.  Folks were walking by on a random rainy night in the Mission, they heard good music, we got to talking, they figured they need a drink anyway and look at that, we’ve got a new audience member.  We didn’t have a sold out house, but we did pack them in.

/SF/3/20/06
Happy Persian New Year!  That’s just a side and has absolutely nothing to do with this entry, but just FYI – its Persian New Year today and all Persians everywhere are celebrating.  Kind of including me, but not really, because it’s 7:30PM and I’m still at work and I’ll be back here at around 8AM tomorrow.  That’s been my life for the past couple of months.  All’s well though, cause well I’ve got to believe that to get through this.  It’s really not that bad at all, I’m just a little out of the loop on a lot of things except for work, which makes me feel, well, out of the loop.  Anyway I’ve managed to find some time here and there though and I went to a rehearsal the other night – the first time the band and the actors met.  Interesting.  Still lots to work out but what I saw I liked.  I was even shaking my foot to a couple of songs.  This whole rock concert thing isn’t my forte but I think this is going to be good.  My eyes are going cross right now and I’ve got to go get some groceries.  It’s amazing how I’m surviving on so little food and sleep but guess that’s the rock style life.  Evren, Minister of Proganda, is doing very well and promoting the show to no end.  Erin, Marc, the band, the actors and all are working very hard.  Randy of course is one of the actors.  From what I understand Josh is busy working on the set and as for me, I’m here hearing weird sounds at coming from the hallway at work – I gotta go.  

/SF/1/30/06
Bureaucracy rules!  Oh we had the most awesome meeting ever – well if you like titles, details, and delegation – all my favorite things.  What fun.  Anyway we’re figuring out our company status which means we’ve got to really clarify our company member roles.  We decided on monetary, artistic, and administrative support and responsibilities each company member must commit to.  You are now speaking with the “Minister of Finance” and below is a list of everyone else’s titles as well.  We’ve figured out an awesome way to best divide and share responsibility and really have ownership of this great enterprise! 

Production Ministry (Production, space, etc.)
Marc

Ministry of Funds (Fundraising)
Randy

Ministry of Propaganda (Marketing)
Evren

Ministry of Materials (Supplies and Materials)
Josh

Arts and Information Ministry (Artistic Director and Database)
Erin

Finance Ministry and Ministry of Ministries (Finance and all things related with writing notes to self, to group, to others, to banks, etc.)
Sara

/SF/1/23/06
No meeting – got to figure some stuff out.  Kim Deal’s coming up pretty soon and we’re figuring our calendars.

/SF/1/18/06
Randy’s out of town – couldn’t get that through my head for some reason. I kept asking where she was. Randy, I miss you. She's off producing some movie likely but anyway that left Josh, Marc, Evren, Erin and me to head over to our new rehearsal space, the Last Planet in the Tenderloin. What an awesome space! And John is great for giving us space to play around in with our gadgets. Last night we had two projectors going (so far we’ve only been working with one), two cameras, a scrim and vynil, plus our usual array of mirrors, bodies, and ideas. What fun. We spent an hour playing about trying to recreate some tricks we’d already learned at previous rehearsals and then sat down to put them to paper. We realize in order to grow we need to really name our tools so for the last hour we established common words we’d use in rehearsal. Our vocabulary tool box will be available shortly – we are all about sharing our goodies. By 10PM we were all beat from a full day’s work and headed home – Evren and Josh East Bay, Marc and Erin Potrero Hill, and me, home to my Wu in the Sunset.

/SF/1/9/06/
First meeting of the new year! We all had assignments over the holiday, one of which was to reread Kim Deal and give feedback in the form of edits and thoughts. I read it and got excited all over again. Generally speaking we all had similar notes about the pace of the piece and what themes really struck out. Our concerns are valid of course. As with all biography pieces we’re worried it may lag – but that we’re worried is a good sign we’ll keep far from such mis-haps, right? One can hope. Erin also went over details regarding production and we’re all in a scurry to get things off the ground namely finding a location to do the show. Location location location! We need a space gosh darn! Here’s one of our many calls out, if you read this, and are excited about what we’re doing, and have a space, send us a line! Heck send us a line anyway, but if you've got a space we'll get really psyched.

/SF/1/2/06/
Happy New Year – no meeting. Getting sober, well not me I’ve got a sick buddy to tend to, but everyone else rang in the year with true elastic future style.

/SF/12/26/05/
Still on holiday – with 3 Jews, 2 Muslims and 1 Christian we’ve got a lot of celebrating to do!

/SF/12/19/05/
Still on vacation from elastic future as all of us preparing for the holidays.

/SF/12/13/05/
So to celebrate the holidays and make sure we’re being good to our selves we make this a Fernuit-drinking-dim-sum-eating-lets-discuss-where-we’re-headed-meeting rather than workshop. With drunken convictions and artistic integrity we decide to commit ourselves to the process of discovery and continue our workshops through January after which depending on our work we’ll decide where to go. Also in the meantime we’re going to revisit the Kim Deal text and give Sue feedback. In other news, after many projects as tech director and all things tech, Josh is officially a company member – that makes our group quite balanced: 3 actors, 2 directors, 1 playwright, 1 tech director, 1 designer, 1 producer and 1 sex symbol.

/SF/12/05/05/
Eek schedules are running wild and on top of that some of us have gotten sick. Full meeting is not called this week but instead Marc, Erin, and Josh heard over to the theatre of Last Planet Theatre (thank you, thank you, thank you John for allowing us to use the space) to play with all the fun gadgets there. They come away with a very happy report. From here we’re in a real space, with a free reign of all sorts of fun delights like full lights, projectors, black box – yippee.

/SF/11/28/05/
This week we came in for more. We came prepared with an agenda, delegated meeting roles, and a clear plan for the evening! – quite efficient! We planned on two exercises. We took notes to note only serve as memory for the group but also to jot down ideas we’d like to explore more. The two exercises went well. For our first exercise we looked to something some of us had seen work in a show, we tried to replicate it with our own tools, and then push further. We spent a lot of time on this exercise and got very excited about the results. The second exercise also got our creative juices flowing as we began to play with the idea of space and the use of projectors. We’re beginning to not only see problems but possible solutions as well – what fun.

/SF/11/21/05/
For this new project's first workshop we brought in some of the tools and toys. The general idea is to see how we can incorporate technology and actors without the usual divide that tends to happen when tech and actor mix – “oh wait, wait, yes there’s my sound cue” or “don’t anticipate the big white projector screen behind you.”

No none of that - well that's the plan at least. The workshop included our usual motley crew sitting in a darkened room, each playing around with the video camera, projector, digital camera, flash lights, sheets, mirrors, walls, our bodies…anything we can get our hands on and throwing in some text and improv for extra measure. Good work and it gave us all something to chew on till next week.

/SF/11/14/05/
Kim Deal’s postponed till April. I can’t say I’m crushed cause we’ve all got a lot going on and from the looks of all of us around the room tonight, I think we could do with a little break. Anyway we had a meeting to go over some workshop project ideas and the possibility of doing a short show between now and Kim Deal. Josh and Erin had an idea which sounds interesting; could work. We set up some workshop dates, divvied some chores, and together will take a stab at this. If it works, great. If not, Plan B.

/SF/11/10/05/
Sara takes over "days" from now on. Enjoy!

/SF/11/05/05/
/bad news/ - due to a problem with the band - we are having to postpone the production. it's VERY sad, but we think we have a great team and want to keep it together. New dates are middle of April - Simon Stinger is still our band.

/SF/10/29/05/
/e/f/ - rehearsals going great. our band rocks. we've already got lindsay and evren making out :)

/SF/10/22/05/
/company/ - first day of rehearsal, the unauthorized autobiography of kim deal...
new cast...

/SF/8/10/05/
/sue/ - The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Deal...
probably our next show...
the response to erin c's musical that doesn't suck...

/erin/marc/randy/sara/evren/ - elastic future workshops every monday...

/SF/7/11/05/
/marc/ - costume video finally here for james at the altar...

/erin/marc/randy/sara/evren/ - first elastic future workshop...
exciting but useless...

/SF/6/18/05/
/sue/ - exciting but useless...the writing continues....

/SF/5/19/05/
/erin/marc/sue/randy/ - "joiners" movie in the works...

/NJ/5/7/05/
/evren/ - getting married...
/erin/ - directing for theatrefirst's making noise quietly...
/marc/ - web pages...

/SAN/RAFAEL/4/30/05/
/erin/marc/randy/sara/meghan/katie v/josh/ - environmental theatre in san rafael...
no cameras allowed; costume shots coming ex post facto...