The Plan

Well, not really ‘live’, but you know what I mean.

THE DOPLER EFFECT

More to come….

I’ve once again been wrestling with cigarettes, cloves this time. It’s the loneliness that does it. They’re like little friends.

Unfortunately, all this really does is once again throw into relief the fact that these things, these crutches, don’t fix the problem, they mask it. I do not want to be a smoker again.

—___—___—___—___—

I need to start making some money. I’m not yet through with the experiment; I won’t be until I’m on a journey of my choosing. Well, I guess I already am, but one with leather seats would be nice. The debts worry me, but only so much. After all, if I can’t pay, I can’t pay. But it wears.

—___—___—___—___—

This weekend we shot Don’t Gag Me!, and I can’t WAIT to see how it came out. It felt good; Carla brought together a hell of a crew, wrote a fun script and gave a great performance. It’s inspiring to work with someone like that, someone who makes things happen, through sheer force of will if necessary. Today I shot another episode of The Dopler Effect, which I really feel is going to be a cut above most of what’s floating around the net these days.

I have another audition for a short tomorrow, and a few other things which could - should they come to pass - help ease some of my other troubles. Which is, of course, the fucking goal.

That, and an oscar.

—___—___—___—___—

There are now ten more performances of Westward Expansion through next Saturday. Starting Monday, it will run in conjunction with the Alliance’s week of Susan-Lori Parks’ 365. This should be fun.

—___—___—___—___—

Hmmm, this is kind of a downer post. Oh well, at least nobody died in this one.

I told you I was going to steal it.

—___—___—___—

From the L.A. Weekly:

WESTWARD EXPANSION Cecil Castellucci’s one-act emerges as a lighthearted potpourri about railroad travel, combining two fragmentary plots with documentary footage of trains, dialogue from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and Strangers on a Train, a brief rendition of “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” and a chatty conductor (Rashelle Stocker) who rhapsodizes about railroads. (She points out that long, cross-country train journeys foster personal encounters as shorter air trips never can.) Two women from different eras are traveling across the country in opposite directions. The Woman From 1881 (Darcy Martin), going from Boston to Tucson to take up a teaching job, meets a reckless young man (Ransom Boynton) who’s seeking a new life in the West. The Woman From 2006 (Royana Black) is traveling from L.A. to Boston to hook up with a guy she met on the Internet, but she has a potentially life-changing encounter with a shy, erudite young historian (Jeremy Sean), who’s addicted to quotations. The piece is pleasant but slight: long on charm but short on narrative heft. Of the quartet, Black and Sean have the more richly developed characters to play, which they exploit by skillfully sketching their comic tics and idiosyncrasies. ALLIANCE REPERTORY COMPANY, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Dec. 16 (no perfs Nov. 23-25). NOTE: Performances nightly Dec. 11-17, in tandem with plays from Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays. (800) 595-4849. (Neal Weaver)

This makes me happy. Quite happy. Even the criticisms really aren’t - the thing runs under an hour, after all. Come see it.

L.A. Weekly

—___—___—___—

The Dopler Effect: I don’t know when it’s coming, but I can’t wait. I keep hearing ever cooler things about it. It’ll be fun.

Don’t Gag Me!: Getting together with the entire crew soon. I don’t want to say too much because Carla hasn’t given me permission, and I think she likes hurting me.

—___—___—___—

WESTWARD EXPANSION

Opens November 10th, runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until December 19th

With special wackiness as 365 Plays runs. Closed Thanksgiving.

—___—___—___—

This is Tech Week for Westward Expansion. If you don’t do theatre, tech week is supposed to be the time when the acting work is done and the lighting, sound and prop people take over. In reality, it’s usually that plus unfettered panic from just about everybody.

This always happens. That’s theatre.

This should be an interesting show; it has a lot going on, it melds experimental and conventional elements and it’s short - which should serve to enhance the aforementioned melding. The final week is going to run concurrently with the Susan-Lori Parks ‘365′ week for the Alliance, which means we run every night that week. I’m strangely excited about that. It makes me feel nostalgic for a time that I’m fairly sure never actually happened in my life.

—___—___—___—

Don’t Gag Me!

We’ll shoot Carla’s movie December 3rd & 4th. It should be a ton of fun. The script is snappy and funny, and Carla’s hot as hell. The acting will, of course, be outstanding.

—___—___—___—

Last night, whilst attending Brendan’s birthday celebration at the Whaler on Washington, an extremely drunk woman either fell or bent over a table at me. Lacking any other means of support, she latched onto my neck with fingernails that must have been eight inches long and made of adamantium. I’m not saying she hit my brain stem, but I can still smell colors. She said something that might have been angry and might have been erotic, but I was too busy not feeling anything to know for sure.

—___—___—___—

NOTE: As I write this, I can hear a co-worker singing “Red, Red Wine” in the bathroom. Badly.

—___—___—__—

I filmed my first scene last night - my first scene for the Dopler Effect, and my first non-pornographic scene ever, I think. I don’t want to say too much about it, but it was a fantastic experience. Well, it was for me; I can’t really speak for Aberto, who spent several hours tied up on the floor. Man, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve had to type THAT out….

It took around seven hours, but it wasn’t wasted time. We really got a lot done. I completely forgot to eat, surviving mainly on excitement and verve. I’m actually feeling pretty beat up today, but I can’t necessarily figure out why. The throat makes sense (there was a lot of screaming) but I’m not sure why my legs are so destroyed. Christ, maybe it was pornographic.

I have a lot of faith in what those guys are doing. I expect the series to be a lot of fun. Now I just have to fight that comedown you get after something like this. Luckily, Carla’s gearing up her film and Westward Expansion is right around the corner. It’s an important reminder, however, that a big chunk of life as an actor is the search for the next project, the Next Thing.
—___—___—___—

I have some fun photos to toss up, including my favorite-thus-far juxtaposition of flyers taped to a phone booth, but I need to find my camera. I don’t think it’s really lost, I think I just need to do a little house-cleaning.

—___—___—___—