I believe I have I mentioned several times on this space that I used to be an actor. For many years, I did all kinds of plays... some good, some really bad... that were performed in little black box spaces in Providence, San Francisco and Berkeley. Well, I revisited that life a bit last night by participating in a developmental reading of Foreign Women by Allston James. There were no rehearsals, and the other actors and I read from scripts, but acting skills were still necessary.
That's how I was reminded of just how very, very rusty my set of said skills are.
But it was pretty fun, nonetheless, and it was just the right amount of participation in the theatre world for me right now. We read the play, and then there was a discussion with the playwright and the audience afterward. The whole point of these kinds of developmental readings is to give the playwright feedback and a chance to hear his or her words out loud. Then, presumably, changes and re-writes will be made. On top of the fun, I got paid a whopping $25 for my time, meaning that, rusty or not, I am still a professional actor. On some level, anyway. Oh, and one of the other actors recognized me from my current job, which was strange but very flattering, especially since she was so complimentary. And I should not fail to mention that the male actor involved in this reading was super hot. I think he was all of 22, but even 22-year olds can be hot, I suppose.
Prior to the reading, I went over to Gretchen and Paul's place to meet baby Isaac. He mostly slept during my visit, but I won't take that personally. We all took a walk over to Tower Records for some discounted cd's, and I got discs by The Shins, Persephone's Bee's and the Two Gallants. Not that I am happy Tower is going out of business. Long before I'd ever heard of Amoeba, Rasputin, Tom's Tracks or In Your Ear, the California-based Tower Records chain was one of the cool music stores (Moby Disc and Canterbury Records in Pasadena were the others). In fact, when I was in high school, my family had a little Christmas tradition involving Tower Records. We'd go to my oldest sister Kathy's place in West Hollywood to visit with her and her kids on Christmas afternoon, and before we went back to Pasadena that night, we'd pay a visit to the open-on-holidays Tower on Sunset where everyone got to pick out a cd... well actually, still a vinyl album back then... as the final gift from Santa. My mother acted as Santa's conduit on that one. Keep in mind, I'm talking about a family full of musicians and music fans, so albums made for great final Santa presents.
But however sad I am that Tower has been driven to liquidation by the changes in retail music purchasing, I still enjoy a bargain. So I'm okay with relieving them of their discounted stock.
That's all from Sassyland for now. I'm going to meet Carolyn and Denise for dinner later, and perhaps we'll be able to catch up with Sheela at Amnesia afterward. I hope the city is ready for our girl-power assault. Oh, one more thing. Why did none of you tell me that Paper Moon would make me cry in the end? You really should warn a girl about that kind of thing.
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