Tuesday, January 19, 2010

New year, new name, new blog address!

As some of you know, CCT2FT has change our name! We are now Taking Flight Theatre Company (a much easier name, I'm sure you'll agree!), and as such, we have a new blog address!

http://takingflighttheatre.blogspot.com/

Follow us!

We will also be getting a new website here shortly, and I'll update the new blog with that information. The old website will automatically forward to the new one for a while, but I'm not sure how long that will go on, so I'd go ahead and update your bookmarks when you notice teh redirect kick in.

As soon as I figure out how to redirect this blog to the new one, I'll do that. In the meantime, I have set it up so that all of the CCT2FT posts are also on the Taking Flight blog. Not quite as good, but I'm techno-challenged, so the fact that I even figured that out is impressive to me!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Rehearsal Recap #2, and tickets!

We're a month from opening. We're a week from being off-book. Last night was Scott's first night in the theatre. It's been a big week for us!

I think I mentioned before that most of the rehearsing we've been doing has been in a classroom, which is, um, not nearly as big as the stage. So it's a big shift to get onstage and realize that you have to cover 20 feet during one line instead of 2 feet. Scott Pafumi (Nick) was taking a class last semester that met on Wednesday nights, which was our only night in the theatre in December. So last night was his first foray onto the Waddell stage. He did very well, the size of the space didn't seem to phase him.

We did notice last night that Michael likes to stop us to give directing notes when we're in a really awkward position ... like when Nick and Martha are making out and he's half on top of her. This is especially awkward because we're still working with a rehearsal set right now, which means that instead of sofas, we have three plastic chairs lined up next to each other. It's really hard to make out with someone when you're trying to keep the chairs from sliding apart (at least, it looked like it was. I don't make out with anyone in this show, so I don't speak from personal experience. Although I do spend an awful lot of time flopping myself drunkenly/petulantly on the sofa, and it's hard to keep the chairs together doing that, so I can imagine it's just as hard when you're making out).

I think I insinuated last week that the hardest part will be memorizing lines. I'd like to amend that. The hardest part of this show will be remembering when we need our glasses to be empty, and remembering where we put them down (on the rare occasions that we do put them down). There's not only a lot of drinking in the show, there are a lot of references to refilling glasses, so we all have to make sure that when someone offer to refill our glasses, those glasses are empty. I told Wynn on Tuesday that I never thought I'd do another show that was as much of a pain props-wise as Noises Off (which I've done twice, and which is a serious pain in the rear as far as props go), but that this one might top it. There are only a handful of props -- I think I have about 4 throughout the entire show, and one is a purse that I leave on the floor about a minute after walking onstage and don't touch again till my final exit -- but the lines reference the props (mostly the drinks) being just-so, so we have to make sure they're so.

All complaining aside, though, I really am having a great time with this show. Come see it -- tickets are now available on our website!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Rehearsal update: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

So, who's got two thumbs and has been really bad about updating the blog?

This girl.

Sorry, guys. Between work, rehearsal, and the holidays, the blog kind of got away from me. But I'm back, and here is a rehearsal update!

So far, so good. We haven't been able to use the actual theatre much, so we've been doing a lot of our rehearsing in a classroom -- which will get interesting once we're on the stage and have to adapt to having four times the amount of space to work with. I forsee much laughter as we watch ... well, pretty much everyone but me, as I'm the only one who has the luxury of being so drunk taht I don't move for most of the show, tripping over themselves trying to get to where they belong when suddenly the distance from sofa to bar is a lot more than they're used to.

I have to say, this is a delightful cast to work with. Small casts have their pros and cons -- sometimes it's really nice because you all have a chance to get close, and other times it's rough becasue if you don't all click offstage, there's a lot of awkward silence in the dressing rooms while you wait to go on. This isn't one of those casts, though.

We have the luxury of having two Fairfax County Drama teachers on the cast, Chip (George) and Scott (Nick), so they already know one another. They're also both jsut really nice, affable guys who seem to be the type to get along with everyone. Chip and Wynn (Martha) have great chemistry onstage and off, joking and laughing the whole way through rehearsals (which you really have to do with a heavy show like this -- if you're not laughing wheny ou're not acting, it's really easy to get hung up in the darkness of the subject matter and then you just end up depressed and cranky for the whole run).

Our director, Michael Null, is wonderful, and he provides us with lovely rehearsal snacks of Chex mix and some kind of awesome wasabi thing he found at an Asian cafe. Wasabi is amazing. Unless you're not expecting it, in which case it can make you choke on your lines, which is hilarious if you're one of the other people in the room.

Our stage manager Christy has stepped up and filled in whenever we have an actor out for the night, and so far she's rocked out at playing Nick and I'm fairly sure she's had to play Honey, too, since I have a conflict for the first part of Tuesday nights. I'm not sure how she's faring at playing Honey, as I'm not there to see it, but I imagine she's doing well.

This will be the second time I've played drunk onstage, and it's a really different type of drunk. Georgeanne (Five Women Wearing the Same Dress) was just funny; Honey is a manic-depressive drunk. It's definitely turned out to be challenging ... although not as challenging as learning the lines. I'm not sure who has it worse in this show: me, having to learn lines that are mostly non-sequitors, scattered sporadically throughout people yelling and talking over one another; or Chip and Wynn, who have to learn basically a full two and a half hours of non-stop dialogue. Scott has it easy; all he has to do is smile and nod through about 50% of the show. I think probably Chip and Wynn have it harder, though this is easily the most difficult memorization I've ever had to do personally. And we're supposed to be off-book after New Year's (well, we may have another week or so ... I have "off-book" written on at least four days in my calendar, and I'm not entirely sure which one's right, so I'm going to assume it's the earlist one).

Wish us luck, and mark February 12 (opening night) on your calendars!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? Cast List

The official "Welcome to the cast" email has gone out, and the cast stands as follows:

George is Chip Rome
Martha is Wynn Creasy
Honey is Erin Anderson King
Nick is Scott Pafumi

Congrats to all of you, and to everyone who came out to auditions this weekend, thank you as well. We had some strong talent come out and I know this wasn't an easy decision for Michael to make (even if he didn't have to play musical cast members with this particular show).

Rehearsals will be starting up next week, so be on the lookout for cast and crew interviews, rehearsal recaps, and anything else you'd like to see (if there's other stuff you'd like to see here, leave us a comment and let us know!).

Cast List Coming Soon!

Today, we are all sitting around waiting with bated breath to find out who the cast of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will include.

That's about all, but I realized I haven't posted anything since I was here a few weeks ago to post about auditions, so I figured an update would be good. I happen to know that the director (who is a very nice man, I'm happy to say -- I just met him this weekend) has made the decisions, he's just making the calls. So as soon as I get an official "we have a full cast of people who have been called and have accepted the roles", I will be able to let you all know who those people are.

One thing that's interesting about this show -- normally when you go to an audition, you indicate which role(s) you are interested in, and you indicate if you'd be willing to take another role if you're not offered the part you want. That's not how Virginia Woolf works. Because, you see, there are only four characters, and they are all so specific that there's no "Hmm, would this person be better for this character or that one?" Nick and Honey are, as you'd imagine, a man and a woman, and both are in their 20s. George and Martha are, likewise, male and female, respectively, and are in their 40s-50s. So there's no, "Hmm, I really like that woman for Martha, but do you think she could play Honey?" Because, while I'm sure she could (I actually saw a Martha candidate play Honey brilliantly at auditions, because there weren't enough people in that particular group to properly fill all the roles), it just wouldn't make any sense.

My point here being that this had to have been a relatively easy decision for Michael Null, our illustrious director -- at least insofar as any casting decision goes. He didn't have the issue of "Well, I really like Person X, and he could play any of these parts, so where to put him?" Because anyone who auditioned was either a George, a Martha, a Nick, or a Honey, and it's pretty clear the instant they walk through the door who they're there to audition for.

Do you like how I turned a one-sentence "We have a cast but I can't say who it is just yet" post into a stream-of-consciousness ramble about casting decisions and physical type? Honestly, sometimes I wonder if my readers just kind of want to smack me sometimes.

Anyway, when I can say more, I will. But for now, I will leave you all with this gem:

George: Now that's it! You can take over a few classes from the older men, but until you start plowing pertinent wives, you really aren't working. The broad, inviting avenue to man's job is through his wife, and don't you forget it.
Nick: And I'll be your wife has the broadest, most inviting avenue of the whole damn campus. [long pause] Her father president and all.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Auditions for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Auditions for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee will take place on the following dates:

Saturday, November 7th from 2-4 pm
Sunday, November 8th from 2-4 pm
Monday, November 9th from 7-9 (the latter half of this slot will be for callbacks)

Auditions will be held in the theatre in the Waddell Building on the NVCC campus in Sterling. Come prepared with a one-minute monologue, and be ready to perform cold readings from the script.

Click here for more information.

Oh, the times, I am behind them.

I know, the show closed (and it was fabulous, BTW), and I have still not posted all the cast interviews. I apologize. The cast and crew all know I've been a wee bit busy in the past two weeks, so I'm hoping they'll give me a pass *grin*.

Name: Mike Bertone
Role: Doug
Favorite show: The King and I
Role I'd Kill For: "Scar" - The Lion King
Coffee or tea, and how do you take it? Tea. Twinings English Breakfast tea to be specific. I like mine with milk and sugar.
What is your favorite Pop Tart flavor?My favorite Pop-tart flavor is the classic strawberry because I used to eat them on the way to the beach as a kid. So now, whenever I eat one, it makes me think of the beach.
Let's play "Desert Island": If I was stuck on a desert island I'd have these items with me:
3 Books: the last 3 books of the Harry Potter series
5 Movies: The Lion King, Aladdin, Gladiator, 300, and A Knight's Tale
1 Food: peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich (Erin says: A single sandwich? someone's not gonna last long!)
1 Person: the guy from Survivorman or Man vs. Wild (is that cheating?) (Erin says: Probably, but I'll allow it. It's probably the only way you'll survive, is to have someone who knows how to kill his own food, since that sandwich isn't gonna keep you going forever!)
What is your greatest fear? My biggest fear is that I'll die before I do all the things I want to do in my life.
Name: Nicole Jacobs (Erin says: As with the last round of interviews, if the actor didn't send me a headshot, I went looking. I do actually have a headshot for Nicole, but she didn't send it to me. And this is funnier.)
Role: Tess
What was your favorite show: Favorite show to perform, Abigail in The Crucible
What role would you kill for: probably Maureen in Rent

Coffee or tea, and how do you take it? Coffee, iced, lots of half and half
What is your favorite Pop Tart flavor? Chocolate, and I eat it frosting side-down
It's football season -- who do you cheer for? Colts -- I'm born and raised in Indianapolis!! (Erin syas: I knew there was a reason I liked you, Nicole!)
What are you allergic to? Any bee/insect sting/bite
What is your greatest fear? Octopi and squid. I have NO idea why, but I didn't realize how morbidly terrified I was until my friend Patrick came to visit me and I took him to the Natural History Museum. They'd just done some renevating and put in an entire oceanic section. I thought it'd be neat and harmless since, well, who DOESN'T like water? Well, I didn't realize that they had on display the largest captured squid. In a big, scary, nodescript glass case. So naive little me approaches said case, thinking it's some big exhibit with lots of pretty little sea creatures. No. I wouldn't be so lucky. After walking from one end of the case to the other, I finally realized what the pale, mangled, disgusting figure was entombed within the case. I immediatly went pale, my ears started ringing, the room became fuzzy, a sweat broke out on my forehead, and I went rigid. Patrick, who also happens to be a linebacker, immediately scooped my motionless body into his arms, carried me out of the exhibit, and placed me onto a nearby bench. Passersby stopped and asked if we needed help, and eventually a paramedic was called (much to my embarassment). After a brief black-out, some water and oxygen were enough to revive me and I insisted it was simply time to leave the museum. Still haven't gone back ... (Erin says: Wow. I think Nicole wins for best story.)

Name: Colleen Stock
Role: Producer
What was your favorite show: Ever of all time? Secret in the Wings
What role would you kill for: Um ... none

Six Degrees of Separation is all about connections. Do you have a favorite personal connection in Six Degrees or less? (think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon): With this show, I have three...which is kinda cool.
First: 1) I volunteer at the Flying Circus with Joe and Joey Callen. 2) Joe Callen takes piano lessons from Mrs. Piper. 3) Mrs. Piper's son Joel is in Six Degrees of Separation which I am producing.

Second: 1) I volunteer at the Flying Circus with Joe and Joey Callen. 2) Joe Callen is heavily involved with Scouts in Loudoun County where he knows Ian, who was a boy scout with his troop. 3) Ian is working on the set for Six Degrees of Separation.

Third: 1) I went to Virginia Tech, where I met Buck Linton. 2) Buck Linton worked for TheatreVirginia prior to coming to VT, where he was part of the team that also employed Steve Barker. 3) Steve Barker is the Lighting Designer for Six Degrees of Separation. Theatre is such a small world ...
Coffee or tea, and how do you take it? Coffee, cream and sugar.
It's football season -- who do you cheer for? Let's Go HOKIES! (Erin says: Heck yeah!)
What is your greatest fear? Heights and enclosed spaces. I have this insane fear of having to walk to the top of a suspension bridge and then taking an elevator back down....it's giving me the heebie jeebies writing this. However, I go up in small aircraft and even go upside down in them to help overcome my fear.

Name: Joel Piper
Role: Rick
What was your favorite show: West Side Story
What role would you kill for: Roger in Rent

Six Degrees of Separation is all about connections. Do you have a favorite personal connection in Six Degrees or less? I can connect myself to Rex Harrison through a friend. (Erin says: What, that's it? No story about HOW you can connect to him? Lame, Joel. So lame.)
Coffee or tea, and how do you take it? Coffee: black
What is your favorite Pop Tart flavor? Brown Cinnamon Sugar
It's football season -- who do you cheer for? Green Bay or Redskins (Erin says: So, you like bad teams. Okay, I guess Green Bay isn't THAT bad, but they lost to the Bengals. Oh well. at least they didn't lose to the Lions. [I think I probably just offended 4 teams' worth of fans, there, and they'll probably all hunt me down. But that's okay. If they fight liek tehir teams play, I can take 'em. BURN!])
Let's play "Desert Island":
3 books: The Realms of the Unreal (15,000 page novel); A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Erin says: I LOVE THIS BOOK.); The Bible
5 movies (assume you have a solar-powered tv/dvd combo player): Fight Club, Burn After Reading, Young Frankenstein, Clue, and the Led Zeppelin documentary music video
1 food item: steak …
1 person/animal : a parrot, because it’d outlive me and therefore I’d always have some company. (Erin says: This is actually quite a brilliant answer. I approve!)
What are you allergic to? People with drama in their lives
What is your greatest fear? Being alone, so the desert island would really suck for me. And Needles, I hate needles. They are probably the worst thing ever. There isn’t much of a story behind it and they don’t even hurt that much. It’s more of a fear of the needle breaking while in my skin …