Hoo Boy Whadda Week!
This week has been full full FULL for Trish and I!
Monday: We finally get the brochures for Mt. Hood Rep's Readers Theatre season... the day of the first reading. YIKES!
Because the company's financial cupboard is a little bare at the moment, the board decided that instead of paying someone else to do the copying and mailing, we'd fold the brochures and mail them ourselves. Luckily our artistic director Tobias discovered that we have a non-profit bulk mail permit on file with the post office, so we'll be able to save some cash on the mailing (15 as opposed to 37 cents per piece is a pretty good price!). On the other hand... this means that we have to fold all 3500 brochures, label them, put them in zip code order and deliver them to the post office ourselves. No easy task!
Trish took the lead on the project, and worked it out with several board members and volunteers to get the job done. Meanwhile, I had to print the labels, interface with the post office... AND get ready for the first reading of the season (happening that night). Oh, and go visit clients in between. Ya know... just your average day :)
Since we hadn't gotten the brochures out, we were pretty sure the audience for the reading was going to be small. Sure, we'd gotten a listing in the Gresham paper, and we'd sent out the word on our email newsletter (you can subscribe to The Aside, incidentally, on The Rep's home page), but that's not the same as targeted advertising through the mail.
Imagine our joyous surprise, however, when 58 people turned up to see the show! All were delighted with the reading, and several bought puch cards so they could see the rest of the readings in this year's season for a discounted price. As Geoffrey Rush says so often in Shakespeare In Love... "It's a mystery!"
Tuesday: Trish spends the entire day (10am - 10 pm) at the Mt. Hood Rep office folding brochures and putting "dot" stickers on them (to keep them from opening in the mail).
I have an absolutely crazy day at work... one appointment lasts about an hour and a half longer than I'd planned while another client is calling me in a frenzy because her server is offline. Another client is (thankfully) incredibly patient with me, and allows me to reschedule our late-afternoon appointment. I'm still talking clients through things over the phone at 6:00 pm as I'm driving from Lake Oswego to Gresham to join Trish at the office for an evening of brochure folding. Oi!
We finally call it quits around 10:30 and come home.
Wednesday: Trish has two Frankenstein school matinees back-to-back: she's called for the first one at 8:30, and the second one starts at noon. This means that she has to get up at 6 to get up, drink mucho coffee, and fight rush-hour traffic to get into Northwest Portland (ok, ok, I know that a lot of you routinely get up at 6 to go to work. We, on the other hand, usually work late into the evening, so we get up a little later. 6 is early for us).
I got some work done in the morning, then headed out to the appointment I'd rescheduled and got it taken care of. We met back at home in the afternoon. She took a nap while I re-read The Lion In Winter, the play I was auditioning for that night (you may remember that I'd mentioned last week I'd been called back for the show... what a GREAT play it would be to be part of! If you're familiar with the movie, you're familiar with the play. They're close to identical, and there's not a bad part in the show!).
I headed to to my audition and Trish headed out to see Talley's Folly at Profile Theatre. My audition went well... I guess. I wasn't there very long, and I only read two scenes. Still, I left feeling like I'd given the parts a good read, and worked well with my partners (one of whom was the venerable Ted Roisum, something of a legendary local actor. It was great just to have a chance to read with the guy!). Bill Dobson, the director, said that if I didn't hear from him by Friday noon, he'd moved on to other things (that means I don't get a part). So far, I haven't heard from him... no pressure, no pressure...
Afterward I took my arch enemy Garland Lyons out for a drink. I should explain... I've decided that Garland, who's a very nice guy and a wonderful actor, is my arch nemesis. The sole reason for my decision is that we're often at the same auditions, called for the same part. Now, I'm not sure that he's ever actually gotten a part I was going for, or vice versa, but the sheer fact that he's present at so many auditions that don't pan out for me indicates that he must be responsible. After all, it couldn't be that I didn't give a good audition, or that I wasn't right for the part... it's must be that damn Lyons fault!
Besides, I figure it's as good an excuse as any to have an arch-rival. Heck, everyone's gotta have one, and at least mine's not a bald super-genius or a psychopath wearing clown makeup (sorry, Garland... I'm sure you're a nigh-super-genius). Besides, would Batman go see the Joker in a show and know he'd have a good time watching his enemy? I think not... I figure I'm doin' pretty well in the arch-nemesis department, thank you very much.
Thursday: Another two-show day for Trish. She's up and out the door before I get up. Much much MUCH before I get up... since my alarm clock doesn't go off. I hit the ground running and head out to a client appointment in Lake Oswego. Then I run a couple of errands on the west side before a rehearsal of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers out in Gresham.
Teaching stage combat to high schoolers... such a soothing, calming experience. The good news is nobody got hurt, either from missed punches or me throttling them :) Actually, I have to say the cast is pretty good, and there are a couple of the young men who are really good at focusing and paying attention to what I'm telling them when I'm choreographing. I think that if these young actors will commit to them (always a hard thing for high schoolers to do - after all, they're worried about looking cool to their friends, and it's easy to look foolish up on stage acting like you're fighting) the fights will look pretty good. If they don't... well, at least they can say that they've learned some stage combat moves for later on in life.
I headed back to the office to help with the final steps in the brochure mailing project... we put the final stamp on the final brochure at 9:30 PM. Hallelujah! What an all-consuming thing this mailing has been... Trish has really gone above and beyond the call of duty on this one. I think she's probably spent a good 40 hours in the office this week, just working on that.
Now all that's left is to take the flats to the post office, fill out the forms, and pay for the postage. It won't be cheap, but it's cheaper than 37 cent stamps, that's for sure...
Monday: We finally get the brochures for Mt. Hood Rep's Readers Theatre season... the day of the first reading. YIKES!
Because the company's financial cupboard is a little bare at the moment, the board decided that instead of paying someone else to do the copying and mailing, we'd fold the brochures and mail them ourselves. Luckily our artistic director Tobias discovered that we have a non-profit bulk mail permit on file with the post office, so we'll be able to save some cash on the mailing (15 as opposed to 37 cents per piece is a pretty good price!). On the other hand... this means that we have to fold all 3500 brochures, label them, put them in zip code order and deliver them to the post office ourselves. No easy task!
Trish took the lead on the project, and worked it out with several board members and volunteers to get the job done. Meanwhile, I had to print the labels, interface with the post office... AND get ready for the first reading of the season (happening that night). Oh, and go visit clients in between. Ya know... just your average day :)
Since we hadn't gotten the brochures out, we were pretty sure the audience for the reading was going to be small. Sure, we'd gotten a listing in the Gresham paper, and we'd sent out the word on our email newsletter (you can subscribe to The Aside, incidentally, on The Rep's home page), but that's not the same as targeted advertising through the mail.
Imagine our joyous surprise, however, when 58 people turned up to see the show! All were delighted with the reading, and several bought puch cards so they could see the rest of the readings in this year's season for a discounted price. As Geoffrey Rush says so often in Shakespeare In Love... "It's a mystery!"
Tuesday: Trish spends the entire day (10am - 10 pm) at the Mt. Hood Rep office folding brochures and putting "dot" stickers on them (to keep them from opening in the mail).
I have an absolutely crazy day at work... one appointment lasts about an hour and a half longer than I'd planned while another client is calling me in a frenzy because her server is offline. Another client is (thankfully) incredibly patient with me, and allows me to reschedule our late-afternoon appointment. I'm still talking clients through things over the phone at 6:00 pm as I'm driving from Lake Oswego to Gresham to join Trish at the office for an evening of brochure folding. Oi!
We finally call it quits around 10:30 and come home.
Wednesday: Trish has two Frankenstein school matinees back-to-back: she's called for the first one at 8:30, and the second one starts at noon. This means that she has to get up at 6 to get up, drink mucho coffee, and fight rush-hour traffic to get into Northwest Portland (ok, ok, I know that a lot of you routinely get up at 6 to go to work. We, on the other hand, usually work late into the evening, so we get up a little later. 6 is early for us).
I got some work done in the morning, then headed out to the appointment I'd rescheduled and got it taken care of. We met back at home in the afternoon. She took a nap while I re-read The Lion In Winter, the play I was auditioning for that night (you may remember that I'd mentioned last week I'd been called back for the show... what a GREAT play it would be to be part of! If you're familiar with the movie, you're familiar with the play. They're close to identical, and there's not a bad part in the show!).
I headed to to my audition and Trish headed out to see Talley's Folly at Profile Theatre. My audition went well... I guess. I wasn't there very long, and I only read two scenes. Still, I left feeling like I'd given the parts a good read, and worked well with my partners (one of whom was the venerable Ted Roisum, something of a legendary local actor. It was great just to have a chance to read with the guy!). Bill Dobson, the director, said that if I didn't hear from him by Friday noon, he'd moved on to other things (that means I don't get a part). So far, I haven't heard from him... no pressure, no pressure...
Afterward I took my arch enemy Garland Lyons out for a drink. I should explain... I've decided that Garland, who's a very nice guy and a wonderful actor, is my arch nemesis. The sole reason for my decision is that we're often at the same auditions, called for the same part. Now, I'm not sure that he's ever actually gotten a part I was going for, or vice versa, but the sheer fact that he's present at so many auditions that don't pan out for me indicates that he must be responsible. After all, it couldn't be that I didn't give a good audition, or that I wasn't right for the part... it's must be that damn Lyons fault!
Besides, I figure it's as good an excuse as any to have an arch-rival. Heck, everyone's gotta have one, and at least mine's not a bald super-genius or a psychopath wearing clown makeup (sorry, Garland... I'm sure you're a nigh-super-genius). Besides, would Batman go see the Joker in a show and know he'd have a good time watching his enemy? I think not... I figure I'm doin' pretty well in the arch-nemesis department, thank you very much.
Thursday: Another two-show day for Trish. She's up and out the door before I get up. Much much MUCH before I get up... since my alarm clock doesn't go off. I hit the ground running and head out to a client appointment in Lake Oswego. Then I run a couple of errands on the west side before a rehearsal of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers out in Gresham.
Teaching stage combat to high schoolers... such a soothing, calming experience. The good news is nobody got hurt, either from missed punches or me throttling them :) Actually, I have to say the cast is pretty good, and there are a couple of the young men who are really good at focusing and paying attention to what I'm telling them when I'm choreographing. I think that if these young actors will commit to them (always a hard thing for high schoolers to do - after all, they're worried about looking cool to their friends, and it's easy to look foolish up on stage acting like you're fighting) the fights will look pretty good. If they don't... well, at least they can say that they've learned some stage combat moves for later on in life.
I headed back to the office to help with the final steps in the brochure mailing project... we put the final stamp on the final brochure at 9:30 PM. Hallelujah! What an all-consuming thing this mailing has been... Trish has really gone above and beyond the call of duty on this one. I think she's probably spent a good 40 hours in the office this week, just working on that.
Now all that's left is to take the flats to the post office, fill out the forms, and pay for the postage. It won't be cheap, but it's cheaper than 37 cent stamps, that's for sure...
And now I've just spent an hour getting you caught up on how crazy our lives are, instead of going to sleep. God, I really must be crazy! I'm hittin' the sack!
Hope you're all doing well...
Harold
posted by Harold Phillips @ 10/21/2005 12:31:00 AM
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