Reflections on Being Home

1. I've been living on a bus which has independent thermostats for three different rooms. I've been in hotels, where I had to first figure out if the heat was controlled by a little knob under the window unit, or a panel on the wall. So I get home to my apartment and think, "I'm cold." And then I realize that I pay $1200/mo. so that my landlord gets to decide when the heat should be on.

PHOTO: The corner of 45th/9th from the Acting Company offices, 8AM on the morning of our return.

2. 2/28 Today I was running late so I grabbed some breakfast at Pax: a Vitamin Water and a small rice krispy treat. It cost me $7. And I think something's wrong with that. Am I becoming a suburbanite?

3. 3/1 Of the two shows, I find Henry especially not-interesting to call. Being able to hear some of the sound cues for the first time since tech, I am discovering a few new cues that I like. But overall the idea of a play, a 3-hour play, and one in which many of the light cues take anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes to complete, is just not that exciting. Being on the road has been nice because the challenge comes not from the show, but from the venue. Making sure the show looks right in every cue, and executed correctly by every crew, is a process that takes up enough of my attention to distract from the fact that there's otherwise not that much for me to do. Sitting now at the New Vic, there's not much to worry about. After the first few shows, things were settled in. The ventilation is a little odd so the haze is the only thing that I expect to have to keep an eye on -- sometimes I ask for a haze cue to be skipped, but even then, I think we've programmed them now in such a way that it usually doesn't need to be messed with, weather permitting. So as a result of all this, combined with being in New York, where you can't deceive yourself that Henry V is the only show in the universe, I am going a little bit crazy. Nick constantly has to take toys away from me. Lately I've decided I'm going to procure scraps of gel to experiment with different colored filters for my LittleLite.

I had long planned to find time for a performance or two of Phantom during these weeks, but I was concerned about either giving myself a 10-show week, or waiting until the little half-week before we fly to Baton Rouge. This afternoon's matinee has convinced me that my brain may explode before the end of our NY run if I don't call a big flashy musical with automation and pyro and 13 cue lights RIGHT NOW. So I'm aiming for Tuesday. I was even thinking about Monday, but it's our day off and I hoped to keep it that way. Plus, I decided later in today's show, I will be able to work through my tiredness at Tuesday morning's matinee if I have something to look forward to.