Summer of Horn |
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An electronic journal of my summer as a member of the 50th anniversary cast of ''Horn in the West''. HOME Archives: 
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Saturday, July 07, 2001
A full day yesterday. First I went out to the site at 11 to be filmed by Channel 11 news for a story on Horn. Then, David C., Lexi, Jenny Cole and I headed out to Ashe County to sing the National Anthem at their Christmas in July festival. We almost didn't get to sing, because no one had confirmed that we were coming. However, when their soloist didn't show up, we did what we were supposed to do, and turned right around and headed back to Boone.
The show itself ran quite nicely. Good sized crowd, no major screw ups, I finally got a SMALL remote controller to use with the battle cannon, AND we got our third standing O of the season. Afterwards, I went to improv rehearsal. It went well, I think, although there was one (personally) uncomfortable point for me. We were playing "Party Quirks", and I was supposed to be a person who fell in love with everyone he saw. Aside from the fact that I played it more as a nympho, I was a little shaken when I had to go up to Cynthia (who was apparently affected with some kind of crabs or something) and "work my mojo" on her. It might not have been as bad if her husband was in the room. I just had to keep telling myself "I'm just doing my job". Friday, July 06, 2001
Good crowd last night. As in 500+ in attendance "good". It was nice to look and see almost the entire bottom half of the house filled with people. The show went pretty well, even though Kathy seems to have developed this problem attracting spiders.
Auditions for the improv group were yesterday as well. I made the cut, for which I am quite thankful. After the show, Kathy told me that women in the dressing room were talking about me, and my improv audition. She said they said I was "funny". And she assured me it was the good kind of funny. In fact, several people complimented me on the John Wayne impression I did for one skit. Gosh, folks, I'm speechless. :) Thursday, July 05, 2001
Yesterday was the Fourth. It wasn't bad for the 225th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but I could have done with a bit more celebration in my celebration, y'know?
First up was the Banner Elk Fourth of July parade. Three blocks of fun for the whole family! :) We had a small contingent of Horn people to drum up publicity for the show. I saw one person that I knew in the crowd; Nan, who I used to work with at Mike's. Went out on the town for PR call again. We hit DBI (Daniel Boone Inn) twice; once at the start of our run, and once at the end. We sounded okay, although our attempt at the "America the Beautiful" arrangement fell a little flat, IMHO. We were offered dinner at Sagebrush by the assistant manager, however. I think those of us in the quartet will be making a Sagebrush run Monday. :) The show itself went alright. Isabel couldn't find the keys for the cannon, and I almost panicked until she found a spare for me to use. She was all the more upset because she had lost her SM keys, her car keys, AND her house keys in one fell swoop. The audience was small (>50 people) but appreciative. We even got a shouted "Bravo!" and "Do it again!" at our curtain call. And of course, as we performed, we could hear echoing through the mountains a steady barrage of fireworks, both legal and less so. We had another burger-and-dog affair after the show, in honor of the holiday. At one point, Kathy, Tom, Kristin, and I all decided to go out to the stage and see the fireworks the ATs were shooting off. As we emerged from the backstage area, though, a firework came shooting towards us, and Tom and Kristin almost got hit. I decided that was about the right time to leave. Improv auditions later today. Wish me luck! Tuesday, July 03, 2001
Today was the first day in a very busy week for me. Tomorrow I march in the Banner Elk Fourth of July parade, Friday I go to Ashe County to sing the National Anthem, and Saturday I'm marching in the Blowing Rock parade. In addition, I'm rehearsing Midsummer this week, auditioning Nightmare Saturday, and thinking about auditioning for the improv group Thursday. Add a dollop of TV appearance at 11 Friday, and I have a FULL plate to look forward to.
Tonight's show was not bad, but the timing felt weird. However, we did get our second standing O of the season after the show. I think it was due to the combined fog and battle smoke, which I admit left the stage looking seven different kinds of cool. I'm part of the "town quartet" this week, and it should be interesting. We almost didn't make it out of some restaurants, because of people recognizing Jenny Cole-Reed from her appearance in the Watauga Democrat. I really need to talk to somebody about my reverse gear in my car. Monday, July 02, 2001
Another night, another rain pace call. Only this time it came at the end of the show (thank God), and the skies opened up just as we reached the curtain call. Homer Ratcliffe (who I worked/roomed with at Snow Camp) came with a small contingent from Sword of Peace tonight to see the show. I gotta say it was good to see him.
Nothing particularly unusual happened during the show. I wore my blood bandage over my eye for the opening scene, and almost made Kathy lose it when I adlibbed the line "An eye for an eye, that's what I say". The fire dance was excellent tonight, as none of the hoops went out onstage. It looked beautiful. We had our first readthrough for Midsummer tonight after Horn. Michael S. has cut the show down to the bare bones, and we finished the readthrough in 1:15. That included a 5-minute break, and a couple of minutes when we discovered that a few pages near the end were out of sequence. Gail told me that I can audition Nightmare ASAP, which I will probably do Thursday afternoon. Sunday, July 01, 2001
Well, wouldn't you know it? The night after I post my first rain total, Horn experiences its first rainout of the season. And the thing is, it didn't have to happen.
We were in the middle of the house raising scene during Act I, and had been at rain pace for a few minutes when the rain finally started falling. It came down harder and harder, and finally the announcement came over the PA system: Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing a brief mountain shower. We will continue with tonight's performance shortly. At that point, we retreated into the backstage area to wait out the rain. It kept coming down harder and harder, until after about 10 minutes, the prerecorded announcement played saying the show had been cancelled. Some of the younger actors cheered, only to be silenced by our TD, Shawn Harmon, who was NOT in a good mood. It turns out that Shawn had told his assistant Kenny to shut down the power to the stage (in order to save the circuits, I suppose), but Kenny thought he meant to shut down the show. So, our first rainout was an accidental one. :P It was probably for the best anyway. Many people were kinda strung out and not really anxious to do the show last night anyway. Even Isabelle, our stage manager, who normally loves coming to work, was "not looking forward to the show" that night. As a bit of consolation, Kathy and I went back to her place and watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on DVD. We also started to watch Black Orpheus, but I got tired and had to go home. I'll have to go back and watch the rest with her sometime. RAIN UPDATE: Through June 29: Rainouts: 1 Rain Delays: 1 Rain Pace calls: 3 |