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BigRedEO
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Name: Eric
Country: United States
State: Ohio
Metro: Cleveland
Birthday: 9/14/1963
Gender: Male
Interests: Rollercoasters ; theater ; travel ; Disneyland/Disneyworld ; songwriting ; movies ; Ugly Betty ; Men In Trees ; Desperate Housewives ; Brothers & Sisters ; Amazing Race ; One LifeTo Live ; Lost ; Will & Grace ; Dead Like Me ; Wonderfalls ; Annie Lennox ; Linda Eder ; Anastacia ; Manhattan Transfer ; HEROES!!
Tuc Watkins!
Hugh Jackman!
Jason Statham!
Josh Turner!
Emma Kennedy and Suburban Shootout!!
Watching Britney implode!! YAY!!
Expertise: DEBATING RIGHT-WINGERS, ULTRA-CONSERVATIVES AND BIBLE-THUMPERS!!
Occupation: Computer related
Industry: Business
Message: message me
Member Since:
10/2/2004
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| Favorite Links |
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Please visit my Facebook page as well!
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Please visit my friend Adrea's webpage! Peruse her catalog! Buy something!
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Also visit my cousin Suzie's page - buy something - cool accessories made from "reclaimed" materials!
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My sister and her husband do a lot of painting in their spare time. Here is a link to photographer's page where she has posted some of my brother-in-law's paintings, available as prints:
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PLEASE CLICK HERE TO PROVIDE FOOD FOR ANIMALS IN SHELTERS! YOU CAN CLICK ONCE PER DAY!
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Following are my friend Nikki Hornsby's various pages. She was my landlady when I last lived in California. She is a fairly well known country singer and member of the Academy of Country Music. She's had #1 hits in Europe! Her music is country gospel style. First is her link page:
Next is Nikki's MySpace page. You can listen to her music here:
And finally, here's her Cafepress page where you can buy related Nikki merchandise!
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This is actress and author Emma Kennedy.
Following is the link to her website. She is a British actress whose website I discovered accidentally and she is very good about keeping in touch with her fans and keeping them up to date. She is also a writer and her blog entries are very funny!
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This is the website for the UK TV Show "Suburban Shootout", which is where I discovered Emma. Great show! But the site hasn't been updated since Series 2 was released. There has not been a Series 3.
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Pink Martini is a wonderful orchestra/big band. They are a bit hard to describe, so please visit their site and discover them like I did!
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One of my all time favorite TV shows. Only 4 episodes aired of the 13 episodes made. The whole series is available on DVD and definitely worth the rental or purchase!
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My new car!! She's mine now!! She looks just like the one in the stock photo below - gold with roof rails and sunroof! Click on the photo to see the models available. I got the LT2 with all the options I've ever wanted in a car - factory-ordered brand new - and I got her for $1,800 below invoice!!
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This is my favorite real estate company. They specialize in unique home and condo conversions, with things like churches, fire stations, and old warehouses that have been converted into homes:
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| So tired, but it's my own fault - I really wanted to sing karaoke last night!
There is this larger group that always arrives there later. Not the best singers in the world and a lot of the guys are in suits. One guy that I talk to, I asked him once about the suits and if they were coming for work. He claimed to own his own company that helps organize sporting events, so that's why he usually comes dressed up. And the karaoke DJ even commented once when this guy showed up in just a jeans and a regular shirt that he "wasn't dressed in his appropriate attire." So last night, when all the guys arrived in suits again, I jokingly teased the guy about the suits and he claimed it's because they are all Jehovah's Witnesses. Alllllrighty then. Whether it was true or he was making it up, I have no clue. But it would also explain all the suits. I didn't bat an eyelash and just said, "Oh, from the one in Bainbridge?" because I knew that was a Kingdom Hall there and he said, "No, from Twinsburg." I'll have to pay attention the next time we go there whether they are drinking alcohol or not. Don't JWs abstain?
But that is why I'm so dang tired this morning.
This weekend is shaping up very well for the show. We are 22 seats shy of a sellout for Saturday night!! This is very exciting to me because we REALLY want to sellout before the lobby even opens. I have been in a couple of sellouts for some shows, but not any that were sold out before the lobby even opened. It was, "We have about 30 seats left and we'll see how many walk-ups we get." That's why we as a cast have really been pushing this Saturday night. I put Post-It notes on all my posters for the show that I have up at work that read, "Almost sold out for this Saturday! Get your tickets now!" and it's gotten a couple of people to stop and ask me about it.
Fingers crossed!!
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| Dear Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook: I hate you for being so damned addictive. So much so that I can play for 2 to 3 hours without realizing that 2 to 3 hours have passed and therefore I have missed my goal of being in bed by 10pm.
And now I am paying for it by not only being dead tired, but I think it gives me arthritis in my right hand from using the mouse so much AND it makes my right shoulder muscle completely knot up, which I know is a migraine trigger.
I must stop. I must resist it. I must not CARE that everyone else is still playing it.
I must give Bejeweled Blitz a break!
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| Two more weeks.
Just two more weeks of "Rumors" and two more weeks until a "stay-cation." I will have all of Thanksgiving week off from work and all I can think is "sleep, sleep and more sleep." I'm glad our show has opened because now I can try and make myself get into bed before 10pm on weeknights, preferably 9pm, so I can get a full 7-8 hours sleep. I'm tired of the always tired stuff. People have been asking "What show are you doing next?" and I really don't want to do one for little while. I could audition for "Monky Business", which is a musical just like "Nunsense" but with monks, at Hudson Players, but #1 - I'm taking a full two and a half weeks off to go home to California for Christmas and New Years which might be too much of a conflict for the director to want to cast me, and #2 - I don't know that I want to be driving to Hudson and back 4 or 5 nights a week in the winter. That might be a little too much stress for me - especially when I could be in warm fleece jammies at home watching the snow fall outside without having to be driving in it!
Another reason I might not want to do a show yet - I'd like to schedule myself for a sinuplasty. I've thought about it for a while and the procedure is supposed to be very easy and you're only out for a couple days. I would like to know what it's like to be able to truly breathe through both nostrils. What a concept that would be. I'd like to be thinking only of that and not any shows if I'm going to have that done, so that might be another good reason to not do a show right now. Besides "Monky Business", there really aren't any shows being done anywhere that are interesting me in any way. The next show I have planned is in May, so rehearsals would begin March/April. That would mean being at home most of winter and not freaking out trying to drive when it's blizzard time. I only wish the RTA Rapid Trains went even further out into the suburbs than they do.
One more reason I'm looking forward to having Thanksgiving week off - "Wicked" will be in town again!! I know, I've seen it 5 times, but it's my favorite musical next to "Ragtime" and I saw "Ragtime" 5 times and would see it more if I could. In fact, the revival opens again on Broadway this month and I hope I get a chance to see it again!
So for now, off I drag myself to work, having only gotten 5 hours sleep again - my fault for trying to catch up on all the shows I have on my DVR that have been waiting all this time during rehearsal. Tonight, as tempted as I might be to watch "Castle" while it's on, that would mean staying up to 11pm, so it will have to wait until tomorrow night. Instead, I will try and get ready for bed right after "Heroes"! If I can't fall asleep right away, I have discovered melatonin, something Chris White recommended to me. It's natural, non-addictive and I find that I only need half a tablet to do the trick.
*yawn*
Oh, favorite moment during Saturday night's performance? When an actor accidentally said, "They're driving in the talkway" instead of "They're talking in the driveway." I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing - not that I haven't had my own word-twisting moments onstage!
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| Back to busy with the show again. As well as trying to see other shows. The one hard thing about theatre is that you won't always be doing shows with your friends, they are off doing shows of their own. And you want to try and see all of their shows, but if you're in one yourself, that sometimes just isn't possible. Thank God for previews. Yes, it would be nice to financially support all theatre, but the reason I say "Thank God for previews" is not because they're free, but sometimes it's the only way you can see a show. A lot of theatres in this area tend to schedule shows on identical runs. It would be great if they were a little more staggered. I understand that shows in one part of Greater Cleveland are going to be running at the same time as others, but you would think that shows in theatres which are much closer in proximity would not do that. Not to name "names", but Aurora Community Theatre, for which I've done their Fall Show the past three years, is very close to Hudson Community Theatre. They are only about 9 miles apart. Yet Hudson has always scheduled their Fall/Winter show during the last three weekends of Aurora's Fall show, which runs for four weekends. Which means almost no chance to see each other's shows. You'd think they'd stagger them a bit more.
That led to a bit of a strange thing on Thursday night. Thursday was our first brush-up rehearsal for "Rumors." We were hoping for a speed-through of our lines. I was planning on meeting friends afterward. Expected to be done within an hour. But two people from Hudson showed up. They couldn't be at our opening night because of an emergency, but that meant they couldn't come to any of our other performances because they were involved with the Hudson show. So they came to a brush-up. I don't mind that - but if someone had told us in advance? Instead of a speed through, we did the whole thing with blocking, no costumes, some of the props. But it meant making it go almost an entire two hours. And by the end we were just rushing to get out of there. I did not like that. And I did not like being an hour late to meet friends.
But that brings me back to trying to see everyone's shows. It just doesn't always happen. And occasionally, you get stuck in a clunker of a show. We've told each other from time to time, "Oh, you REALLY DON'T want to come see this one!" We try and respect that, but there's also something about seeing a train wreck of a show that pulls us in as well. Plus, if your friends are really good, you get to watch them shine.
Wednesday night, we did get to go to a preview of "Vital Signs" at CVLT (bad segue - I'm NOT saying it was a clunker by any means!). The show is many 30 second to one minute monologues, all performed by women. It was written by a woman trying to convey the many aspects of contemporary women and women's viewpoints. Some of them worked. But some of them really didn't have to with a woman's perspective. They were funny bits but as another friend put it, there really wasn't an "overarching" feel to the script. But the actresses were all great and it was good to see some friends getting a chance to make up 3 or 4 completely different personas in one performance. It's running our last three weekends as well, so that was our only chance to see it.
Last night's performance for "Rumors" went really well. We didn't have a huge house, but we did sell about 112 (the house holds 243). Luckily, we had Denise there. Denise is a BIG laugher and once she gets going, there's no stopping her. That usually gets the rest of the audience going, but sometimes it annoys other audience members. Not her fault if they have sticks up their butts! She made a huge difference, but then again, we had a couple of other laughers who started before even Denise did, so that really worked. There was one thing that distracted me at one point, earlier in the show. This theatre is a thrust stage with amphitheatre style seating on three sides. It is a GREAT space to do a show! But it also means blocking is a little strange because there is no proscenium - and your back is going to be to part of the audience at many different times. Also hard about this show is that a lot of it is played to people up on a balcony along a second story landing - here's a couple photos of the set to give you an idea (click on the picture to see a larger version). You can see railings on three sides - that's where the front rows of each section of the audience are located. By the way, this is probably one of the best looking sets I've ever had the pleasure of performing on!:
At many points of the show, you're sitting right next to an audience member, or you're sitting right in front of an audience member with your back to them. During this scene, I'm sitting on the couch and looking at Chris, who is sitting in a chair right in front of the audience on one side. And just above Chris' head, I see someone who looks really familiar - and it became distracting. His eyes were just above her head and I thought at first, "Why do I know this person?" Turned out to be someone I see at our company fitness center almost every weekday. I'm usually leaving as he's coming in, so we see each other in the locker room all the time. But we've never really talked - don't even know his name - and seeing him out of context threw me and I hate being distracted when on stage. I want to be IN the moment and focused on the performance. It wasn't until the show was over and the lights went up that I realized that it was him, but he left with his wife and friends and what do you say? "Um, hi! Wasn't sure if that was you since we see each other naked in the locker room every day! Didn't recognize you with your clothes on!"?? Of course not, but I'm just hoping he liked the show and I'll probably see him this week and tell him to "PLEASE tell your friends to see the show!"
I like playing to full houses. It doesn't happen that much with community theatre like it used to and when it does, it's a good feeling. Your energy shoots up and I think there's more of an "air" in the audience because they're thinking, "This must be a good show if it's sold out!" Our next weekend is selling really well. I've heard from a lot of friends that they "usually try to see the third weekend of a show because that's when they're hitting their stride and if it's a good show, we don't risk getting sold out at the last weekend if we wait too long." That might be why next week is doing so well. And at least last night I didn't say like I did Opening Night, "I'll get you some towels, I've got to heat up some bandages first!!" The line is supposed to be "I'll get you a towel, I've got to get some bandages first!" and then I'm supposed to walk down the upstairs landing and go in the far door. When I said it wrong Opening Night, it wasn't until about 4 seconds later when I got to the door, that in my mind I thought, "What the f*ck did I just say?" and got inside the door to bust a gut laughing with the other people waiting behind the set! Luckily, it fit really well with the flustered nature of most of the characters in the show.
Someone last night asked me if I'd done more shows with Adam, another actor in the show, than anyone else. And I did not know. I thought I'd done more shows with Mike, but I told them I would have to look at my resume to really figure that out. I just looked at it. This is the 6th show I've done with Adam and I've done 5 with Mike - BUT Mike directed me in two more. So I've done more shows with Mike, but acted in more shows with Adam!
And finally, last night I got one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. We all headed out for drinks afterward, and FINALLY Great Lakes Christmas Ale is out and available. For those of you not familiar with the Great Lakes Brewing Company here in downtown Cleveland and their amazing Christmas Ale, 'tis a pity!!! Enjoyed about half of my first one when the waitress came out with another one and said, "It's from a Secret Santa." Allrighty!! Who am I to turn down a free Christmas Ale? It wasn't until later in the evening that I learned it was one of my fellow performers in the show. Really nice guy - don't know how old, I'll just say "older than me". He was just married last year and he and his wife still act like newlyweds. He is also someone I very much admire - GREAT speaking voice and I'd seen him onstage twice before and he is very good! This is someone who has been in over 100 productions and whom I believe used to be a member of Actors Equity. He came over and was talking to Denise, Deb and myself for a while, then asked if I was enjoying the Ale and I said, "Of course! Are YOU my 'Secret Santa'?" To which he confessed "yes" and said he just wanted to let me know that "of all the shows and actors I have worked with over the years, I have to say that you are EASILY one of the top 10 actors I've ever seen!"
Coulda knocked me over with a feather!!
"Really?? Geez, thank you, I'm almost embarrassed here!"
"Don't be! I'm telling you right now that if I can, I am going to see you in every show you do from here on out because I LOVE what you're doing up there! I'm really enjoying working with you and now that we're comfortable with the lines, I am catching the subtle things you do to progress yourself from one moment to the next!"
Color me VERY flattered!
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| I know, I've been very lax in this lately. Now that the show has finally opened, that might change! Especially since I don't really have any other shows in mind until May. But since I only really have mornings and just a few nights a week to try and update this, there's not much time for it.
I'm even making myself late typing this right now.
Know that you can see a lot more of me on Facebook - or Twitter. Anything I type on Twitter that isn't typed directly to a Twitter user ends up automatically as my "status" on Facebook as well. But you can follow all my Twitter feed right here on this page down on the left-hand side. It updates here, too, as I post there and should show ALL of my "tweets."
The show's Opening Weekend went very well. Opening Night especially, we had to wait for LONG laughter to subside. More than we expected. I managed to get through my big monologue both nights and only on Opening Night did I drop just one line from the monologue, but that was it. My friends Kevin, Amy and Tara were there Halloween night, and Kevin told Amy to time my monologue from when I started talking. Came out to be 6 minutes long, but let me tell you, it feels a LOT longer than that when I am up there!
I have what I call "hump moments" in every show I do. Some shows only have one, some have more. They are moments in the play that are always tough for me, moments that once we are past them, the rest of the play or musical is smooth sailing for me. Unfortunately, my one hump moment in this show is the big monologue and it comes at the very end of the play!! I try NOT to think about it because I have a LOT of time upstairs to change from one costume to another before I come back on and deliver the monologue, so I take my time changing. That way I'm concentrating on changing costumes quietly so the audience isn't hearing me banging around upstairs on the set, but also so that my mind is distracted to not worrying about the monologue. Works out well for me.
I did get one interesting compliment about it, too. Someone said they'd seen numerous productions of this show and every time, the character of Lenny seems to go through his monologue lickety-split, as if the actor thinks it will be funnier if they go really fast and the audience will be more impressed that the actor can do it that fast. This person said it never really worked, because you missed half of what the actor was saying. I felt right from the beginning that this character is making the story up as he goes along, so there's going to be hesitations, he's going to say a lot of things more deliberately because the gears in his head are turning, trying to think of what's next and that's what this person said REALLY worked. They could just imagine me trying to decide what's the next thing I should tell and they could see the wheels turning and see me look at people or objects and using them to propel me to my next thought and they could finally hear the whole story.
I very much appreciated the compliment!
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