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 14, 2001
An okay show last night. One thing I forgot to mention about Thursday's performance was that Gail scratched her eyeball and had to have it treated. Shannon Hatley had to go on in her place Friday. She did well, considering the last-minute nature of her understudy call, but she could have been a bit louder.
I got a little scare myself last night, though. As we came out for curtain call, I noticed Darrell was limping. Turns out he twisted his knee while making a cross. He assured me he'll be fine, though. That would be all I needed, for him to get sick or injured while I was boning up on the Dr. Stuart role. Speaking of, my parents say it's "highly unlikely" they'll be there to see me in the role. :P Kathy's birthday was yesterday. I got a card and some flowers for her. After the show (and after Nightmare rehearsal for me and my cast), there was a party at Kathy's mom's house. We sat in the hot tub 'til 4am playing Truth or Dare. The less said, the better. lol Finally, we had our SIXTH standing O of the season. Friday, July 13, 2001
Just woke up a little while ago, and I feel like I'm hung over. We blocked Midsummer last night after the show, and we were there until 2am. So tired; so very, very tired.
I had to go out on the town last night because David Pruitt's parents were coming to see him. An odd (but typical, for me) thing happened while we were out. David C. was driving us around, and we had stopped at Dan'l Boone Inn. Jenny Cole had gotten out of the front seat, and I was pulling myself out of the back seat. I had grabbed the post that separates the front door from the back when Jenny closed her door. Needless to say, my hand was caught between door and car body. Fortunately, it stopped stinging after a few minutes. The show was okay, although the audience was as quiet as a Quaker meeting during a funeral. It was like pulling eye teeth to get a reaction out of them. Finally, as the lights went down on us before curtain call, someone in the audience began whoopin' and hollerin'. All I could think was "why couldn't he have been doing that through the whole show?" RAIN UPDATE: Through July 12: Rainouts: 2 Rain Delays: 1 Rain Pace calls: 5 Thursday, July 12, 2001
Good God almight, Thursday already? Where does the time go? Well, if you're me, it seemingly going straight down the drain.
We had our first improv show tonight, after Horn. It went well; most of the audience was cast members, and we got some pretty good suggestions to work with. All in all a good time. We blocked Nightmare this morning, but it was not without difficulties. I had set my alarm to go off at 8:00 this morning, but I forgot to turn the alarm on. I woke up at 9:10, and the rehearsal was set to begin at 9:30. Therefore I hauled ass to Boone to get there 30 minutes late. Then, while explaining some blocking to my actors, I crouched down, and the crotch in my jeans fell out. Yes. Fortunately one of my actresses works in the costume shop, and she whip-stitched a patch in, so I could walk around without too much embarrassment. Horn continues to go well. We had our FIFTH standing O of the night, and after the show I was greeted by a distant cousin, Sam Pinkerton. He's the grandson of my Aunt Fern. I'll have to tell my dad about that tomorrow. For now, though, I'm going to bed. Night-night. Tuesday, July 10, 2001
Well today (yesterday? Monday??) was a dark day, so nothing really Horn-worthy happened except that Lexi, Jenny Cole and I went to Sagebrush to collect on the free dinner that their manager promised us. And boy, did I collect! Nice juicy steak, loaded baked potato, Caesar salad, Mozz sticks, and big ol' glasses of sweet tea! If I'd had a date it would have been perfect.
I suppose I should go into a little more detail about some of the people I've mentioned in the blog. Jenny Cole is the leader of the "town" quartet. She's been with Horn for over 25 years, and she's playing Widder Howard in the show. She grew up in the mountains, but lives in Palm Beach now with her husband and two kids (one of whom is in the show). She's a cool lady to hang around with, and really inspires me to just have fun with the show and not be so "dammit, I'm here to WORK!" Lexi Walker is originally from Sarasota, FL, and goes to school for voice at ASU. She's about 22 (I think), and is a large woman. She's Jenny's understudy for the Widder role. She has a nice voice, but tends to drink and smoke more than I think a wannabe opera singer should. That's just my opinion, though. David Courreges (pronounced "Kor-ezh", almost like the wacko from Waco) is the choral director for the show, and my immediate supervisor. He's from this area, also goes to ASU, and is about 6 years older than me. He's an okay guy, though I think sometimes he's looking down his nose at me for being an actor first and a vocalist second. He's also married to the show PSM. David Pruitt is the other bass in our chorus. He's about 18, from North Wilkesboro, and a pretty cool guy. He has what may be the funniest line in the show, and makes the most of it every night. David P. reminds me a lot of my fellow alumnus Casey Johnson, another good ol' boy from the country who had a great voice and tons of talent. Several of us are trying to convince David to go to college. Becky Bartlett is another ASU student, and the "house" alto for the quartets (because of Jenny Cole's status as a principal, the director doesn't want her to be seen by the house prior to the show). She also works at Tweetsie Railroad, a small theme park about 10 minutes from Horn. She's got a great personality, nice smile, and good theatrical presence. She's also in my one-act play. Mike Tuten is a dancer from the NC School for the Arts, and is 17 years old. He's also studied piano, and is interested in becoming a pro dancer. Unfortunately, he doesn't show much interest in doing quartet work with the rest of us; I think he mostly auditioned for the quartets for the pay raise (not that that wasn't a reason for my auditioning, but it wasn't the main reason!). We'll just have to see how it goes the next couple of weeks, but methinks he may be cut from the quartets before the season is over. And then there's Kathy. Katherine Truett, to be exact. She's also a voice major (grad level) at ASU. She's originally from San Antonio, a former punk rocker, she loves foreign films, has written translations of opera libretti, is allergic to dairy products, loves Red Dwarf, has a dog and a cat, and sings like an angel. Did I mention that she's an older woman? Okay, so she turns 35 on Friday, and I do the same 25 days later, but still... Well, that's enough verbal diahrrea from me for one night. It's another night of performing tomorrow. Until tomorrow, people. Monday, July 09, 2001
Total rainout last night. Which is fine, 'cause we only had 10 reservations after the rain began to fall. I'm not sure if we get paid or not for the non-show but I do know this... if I was fool enough to run around in my car and tear my throat up to sing for the show, I'd BETTER get something out of it.
It wasn't a totally wasted evening, though. I had auditions for The Actor's Nightmare that afternoon, and met with my cast afterwards for a read-through. It should be a good show, especially if Wes brings the lighting equipment from Wilkesboro. We also found out yesterday that Midsummer has been moved from Friday to Saturday afternoon, so it looks like we're gonna have a full day ahead of us. RAIN UPDATE: Through July 8: Rainouts: 2 Rain Delays: 1 Rain Pace calls: 5 Sunday, July 08, 2001
At the moment, my throat is sore, and I'm kinda struggling for words. I'm hoping that I'll be better in time for tonight's show. We'll see what happens between now and 6pm.
In any case, an interesting day, to say the least. We marched in the Blowing Rock July the Seventh... I mean Fourth parade yesterday. We had a pretty good time. The plan was to have the Redcoats and the Regulator men engage in a fistfight every time the parade stopped. I'll say this much; we put the WWF to shame as far as pure cheese go. :) I even made Lee sell a brochure shot to the chest. lol The show itself was a mixed bag. I was pretty much drained by the time the show came around, and I thought we were pretty lethargic in general, but the audience gave us our FOURTH standing O of the season. We had a guest in the cast tonight (some weatherman, from Winston-Salem, I think) and her milked the bear lift for all it was worth. Good God, he did everything but stand stock still and announce that you could see him on tomorrow's weather forecast. Alex was a little worried after Indian Country, because he went into his jumps for the Fire Dance early, then went back into his routine until the jumps cue came up. I reassured him that he covered it well (which he did). I swear, I'm damn near hypnotized when the Fire Dance comes up in the show. I just wish I weren't holding a torch, so I could dance and chant with everyone else. Elizabeth went home early from the show tonight. The official story is that she developed a stomach virus. However, I have heard that she had been messing with soneone (I think it was Lee), and he told her to knock it off. Minutes later, she got sick. I've tried to be understanding of her; after all she's 12, and she's been in this show since she was an infant, IIRC. However, as a first-timer who hasn't seen her grow up (physically) onstage, I can say that she has gotten the attitude that she is bigger than the show, and if she doesn't stop the constant directing of others onstage and trying to throw people off their game backstage, I'm going to bring her attitude to the attention of our PSM. In happier news, after the show last night, Michael Brogdon (Dr. Stuart) came up to me and told me that he's going out of town on the 17th. That means that I, his understudy, will be going on in his place. I was so happy when I found out!!! There's even a possibility that my substitution will be for two days. We'll just see what happens. The thing I need to do, aside from learning the lines and blocking to a fault, is to not let this affect my ego. I will do the best job I can, but I'm determined not to walk around the site with my head full of crap. RAIN UPDATE: Through July 7: Rainouts: 1 Rain Delays: 1 Rain Pace calls: 5 |