Double Day: As You Like It & Epicene

It's so late. I should be sleeping, but I'm wired from ice cream and pouring over Austin Kleon's new book Show Your Work. Austin has been an artist/writer/creative/inspiration for the past couple years. I remember stumbling across a list of tips he wish he'd learned in college. Those tips later became the book "Steal Like An Artist."

He got his start with Newspaper Blackout poetry.

Anyway, I've been following his work ever since (on Twitter and his blog and whatnot). He lives his life as if it were one long DVD special feature. That's partially why I thought blogging about the Renaissance Season would be fun to do. I'm a fan. If you're at all interested in embracing a creative life, follow him. I'm going to be exploring more of his advice in the future.

With that commercial over, I'll get back to more Ren Season updates.

The wigs of the men's dressing room.

Yesterday we had a two-show day: As You Like It matinee and then an evening performance of Epicene.

The matinee had more than 300 students. It took them a bit to warm up to the pre-show music, but once we busted out the Doobie Brothers, they were grooving. Yesterday's show also marked the most kids singing along to "Royals." Typically, there's at least three people mouthing along or moving to the song. But yesterday, there were many groups scattered throughout the playhouse singing along. I love when that happens.

In between shows, I did some cooking and reviewed some Epicene lines. I also did a great hatha yoga routine. It had been far too long.

Then: performance I'd been a little concerned about. My voice has been slowly getting back to where it was before the great cold/opening of Epicene last week. I knew I couldn't push it, but I also knew that I was able to give the audience and my castmates a show they deserved.

I guzzled as much water/tea as I could. I did my best to keep a calm headspace going before the show. I knew I had to groove but I absolutely could not push things. And on the flipside, I couldn't be overly worried or nervous about this. It's hard. Truewit is a ringleader, a trapeze artist, and a clown in this show. I believe this character thrives on verbal pyrotechnics, which requires using the extremes of the voice.

The greatest blessing from last night's show was the most generous, giggly audience of 30 I've ever witnessed. The intimate energy of that show was just what I needed for working on the delicate balance of being kind to myself and driving the show. Especially with comedies, you cannot force an audience to laugh. I do what I can to keep the cues tight and listening intently. With this small house, I think we found a good pocket of energy. I think it went well for me (from what I can tell). If nothing else, my voice felt great afterwards.

I'll leave you with that for now. We're doing As You Like It and Epicene again on Saturday in the same order. I'm hoping I'm back to 100% for those shows but that I can still maintain the delicacy with the theatrics for the rest of the run.