The “Infuriating Person of the Day” Award goes to my drama director, who shall remain nameless should he ever attempt to google himself and find this blog! I honestly don’t know what to do other that sigh in resignation and just get over myself, because he’s absolutely convinced that his ideas are the only valid solution and my helpful, well thought out suggestions are worthless and not worth his time to listen to:
Me: But if I wore this costume in this scene, there would be more elements of the costume for the other actors to put on me, and I’d have the accessories to make another actor’s lines make sense, as opposed to wearing that black dress for the FOURTH TIME in the first act, which you can only fiddle with for a few seconds before it looks fake and ridiculous. And otherwise, I wouldn’t get to wear this costume, which looks great and is perfect for the period.
David: I want you in the black dress in that scene.
Me: …?
And that’s only the beginning. He told me today that he didn’t like the way I was playing Barbara, one of the two roles I play in Liza’s Childhood Dream. My lines themselves and the way other characters talk about Barbara seem to indicate that Barbara should be rather airheaded and bratty. Now he wants “mature and confident”. What the HELL? After futilely trying to convince him to change his mind, I spent at least 15 minutes in the bathrooms, running my lines over and over, trying to figure out how on earth they could be read in a manner to suit his new concept of the character. Oh, and we open on THURSDAY.
Also, a significant part of the story surrounds Liza’s indecision regarding which magazine cover to go with for the next issue: a circus-themed cover or the more traditional Easter-themed cover. I volunteered my Photoshop savviness weeks ago, and the director told me he’d get back to me. Saturday, our Stage Manager presented his designs for the covers, which were nothing more than Microsoft Word Clip Art. They look like rubbish, and the entire cast agrees. I approached the director on Sunday, asking if that was indeed the final artwork and if he would let me make up some new designs that looked more professional. I suggested for the circus cover an image our dramaturg put on the wall of a model posing with two elephants. The director immediately dismissed me, saying that the image was a famous photograph from the early 50s and therefore was anachronistic for a musical taking place in the early 40s. WELL YOU KNOW WHAT? SO IS MICROSOFT WORD CLIP ART. ARRRRGH.
I might also mention that I spent 12 hours in rehearsal Saturday and 10 hours on Sunday. Gahkg.
Oh, but wait. This day was so long and emotionally rollercoaster-like that I forgot that the stuff that happened this morning happened this morning. The “Runner Up To The Infuriating Person of the Day” is my Animation professor! I don’t know if I’m just not communicating my ideas effectively through my animatic or if he just isn’t getting my concept, but his suggestions are completely undermining my entire concept. “But that’s the joke!” I argue. He seems to be under the impression that an animation with a text-based punchline is inferior to an action-based punchline. And to that, I saw “teh quoi?” In the end, we agreed to disagree, and he told me that he rarely stayed 100% faithful to his original animatic, so I should just keep working and wait to decide on anything, in a tone of voice that said “Keep working under the delusion that your idea will work. You’ll see I’m right eventually.” Rrrgh, so irritating.
Also frustrating today was my doctor’s refusal to refill a perscription until I’d had my blood pressure measured, which meant I had to go all the way to the CVS at 43rd street in the rain (I didn’t bring an umbrella, because it was barely even hinting at drizzling when I left), and I was in a major time crunch, as I had to pick up the perscription before class at 4:30, because I wouldn’t have time to walk back to the CVS on 39th after Virtual World Design class, because I would need to have dinner, then go to the theatre at 6:30 to meet with my director to talk about the things I detailled earlier in this post. Not enough time. And this is a daily perscription that I was completely out of that seriously messes up my body chemistry when I don’t take it. I missed a day once, and spent the next THREE WEEKS in my period. (Oh yeah, those three weeks ended yesterday. That explains some of my recent angst!)
Meanwhile, the Awesome Person of the Day award goes to Warren and my Virtual World Design professors! They paired me with Ari for my final project, who is an excellent coder and a close friend. And the third person in our group is apparently quite good with Physics engines, so huzzah! I’ve got the art, Ari’s got the code, and David’s got the physics! *mamboes* And they’re both utter geeks, which will make this project so much more fun. We’re considering doing something inspired by HomestarRunner.com, most likely featuring Trogdor (with cameos from the Teen Girl Squad).
And co-winner of Awesome Person of the Day goes to Ko, who cheered me up in my fit of depression this morning with merriment and her Easter Monkey. The Easter Monkey makes everything better. Even more effective that brownies with ice cream, because Easter Monkeys don’t make you fat! *roommate loff* Afterwards, she volundeered to ninja attack either of these professors with our broken toaster, which I agreed sounded delightful. Yay for toaster attacks!
And that’s all I have to say about that.
