Love Hate War Peace

LOVE HATE 

WAR PEACE

If you have ever been backstage at Big Idea, this has been etched on the wall....when working on KJ, the director (Scott Divine) pounded a version of this  into our psyche from day 1.....


love - hate - live - die


these are the choices that the Smiths and Joe Cooper had ....no more no less....


It seems surreal that we left the majority of the Smiths laying dead and dying and Dottie giving her final declaration last night after wanting to do this show for 3 years....for as a semi-sensitive guy that I am...I made it through the closing night pretty well.... 

Shannon Mahoney (Sharla) and I had a few final moments as our characters...feeding me parts of our back story every night to get Ansel fired up to confront his son....she was masterful at it...taunting Ansel - pestering him - warning him....every night she was a champ..

Dear sweet, Kat Wolinski.... one of the scenes I had internal struggles with was with Kat...throttling and subjecting his daughter so that a stranger may use her for his wants.....every night when Ansel exited - I would make sure she was ok....

it was clear...her and Shannon have the biggest fucking balls in this cast or of any cast in any show Sacramento has seen...hands down...wanna challenge me on it?? Bring it...the hell that those 2 women/characters go through is like none other has had to endure ...and every night they gave 120% and were ready for more!

Rick Eldridge - our Will Farrell - Joe Cooper....fucking intimidation in a 6'5" package...and backstage...every much the gentleman that Joe was (without the sadistic fuck-ness in him)

Justin Munoz - holy shit...want a fight to look the most real ever? want someone to throw themselves into the abyss of darkness? Justin's your man...68% anyway.....

our director....Mr. Divine and I had many MANY emails and face to face conversations as to who Ansel is and would be .... a few times I thought he was out of his ever lovin' mind.....but he pulled shit outta me that I didn't know what deep down in there...for such an alpha male as I like to think I am...pulling out the cowardice, emasculated, dullard that Ansel is was more of a chore than one would think.....(side note - big thanks to David Fox for dealing with all this like a pro and champ....friggin RTE boy....lol)

I digress...I began by telling you about closing.....I was fine...great...felt good about the performance.....but at curtain call...we normally bow, then exit....as I began to exit, I looked at Justin and he said 'let's do one more'.....and then my tear started to fall....the whole sold out crowd rose to its feet and with that....it was over....

I am sure I will have some after thoughts in the next week or so...but I wanted to write this while fresh in my mind....I loved seeing this on the wall every night...it truly is that simple most times.....


Thanks to everyone who came out to see this production and support the theater. Thanks to those of you who lived, loved, related to and had their stomach turned....we loved all of you (well, maybe except the one patron with cell phone that lit up at the suckiest of times.....)


and for those who didn't.........

Opening Weekend of Killer Joe!

We are up and running....the crowds have been amazing! The feed back is electric!! If you have seen it - please feel free to send me your feedback....The picture enclosed is what Ansel sees. The director gave me a great note that still resonates with me. "Ansel is not Wade, Wade is not Ansel"....it moved me so much I have it posted on my cube at work. I will post a picture of that too some time.... you really have to take yourself out of who you are and into who these people in this story are...you can't do it as you. It just won't work. In finding these characters, it has charged this show to the 'N'th degree. W

We are almost done blocking the show! The intensity of our characters combined with the madness of the show is mind blowing! One of my highlights so far has been when the actor that plays Killer Joe, wrote and shared with us what he feels is his character’s biography; an extensive and in-depth 3-4 page biopic that really made that character THAT much more real. This show will take a physical and mental toll on the cast – and perhaps even you the audience member. Buckle up – there's a storm coming this Spring!!

There was an electrified bit of irony as I pulled into the parking lot at Big Idea Theatre and ‘Feels Like The First Time’ by Foreigner came on the radio. It was feeling like the first time. I finished my last show around November of 2011. It was a welcome end. I had been doing shows solid since May or June or so. The break was definitely needed. I needed to reboot my system. It was a great run of shows and I made some great friendships and rebuilt old ones ‘…it feels like the first time…’ I took out the script and began looking and breathing in my lines. I had read it countless times before. With each reading, the wave of reactions always felt fresh. There was a sense of calm before the storm when reading the lines ‘…I have waited a lifetime, spent my time so foolishly …’ The sense of opening the door on a character like Ansel…allowing him to come to life and interact with the others, feels like everything I have done to this point was in preparation for this one character. It is sure to be a wild ride... W

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Killer Joe 2/15/12

KILLER JOE 

BY TRACY LETTS

DIRECTED BY SCOTT DIVINE*

OPENING FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012

The Smith family gets more than it bargained for when it hires full-time cop, part-time killer, Joe Cooper, to knock off a not-so-beloved family member for her insurance money. Alluringly offensive and uncompromisingly violent, this slice of white-trash Texas noir hits the funny bone as it goes for the jugular!

...and so it begins...script in hand, I am fully immersing myself into the role of Ansel.
I have created a playlist to have going while running lines or just thinking of this incredible show coming up...I am going to post frequently (*i.e. as much as I can) on the process this show takes from table read to final curtain.....