Cats And Cars

If only Lauren Cochran could see me now.

In my big return to the small stage I find myself in a new role that I’ve never done before- Assistant Stage Manager, or ASM.

I spent much of last week working rehearsals for the Arlington Players production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I jumped into tasks I’ve never done before such as calling lines and attempting to copy down blocking. Thank goodness I didn’t have to give line notes.

Maybe it’s Amy Hindle who needs to see me now- she has been my stage manager for pretty much my entire theatrical career back in Massachusetts.

This group is probably one of the most professional I’ve worked with ever. A couple of the actors are professionals and almost everyone has an impressive background in the arts. The staff is composed of various front office staff from The Arena Stage and the National Opera. TAP maybe a community theatre but they are certainly heavy hitters in my eyes compared to the rag tag teams I’ve worked with before.

It’s also different working with this group since I’m new and there isn’t the sense of camaraderie  that I had when I did it in high school, it was there in college and MVP but to a lesser extent. Will that ever return? I don’t know- I feel that there will never be days quite like the good ol’ Theatre Guild at CHS. But for now it’s a new hobby that’ll keep me busy and it’s still fun. Let’s hope this is the start to something down here in DC.

Besides working on the show I’ve also been getting some travel in early this year. This past weekend I had to fly out to Detroit to work on the North American International Auto Show. Now I’ve done the DC Auto Show for a number of years but this show was something else. Even though the show was more subdued this year I was still impressed with the floor, cars, and exhibits- however I was more impressed about the faces I saw.

As a person that is regularly analyzing auto news and reviews it was quite a feeling to walk around a floor and see every reporter, anchor, and writer I’ve heard of just milling about. It is kind of a geeky moment but I’ll be shooting footage  next to Natalie Neff of AutoWeek; getting interrupted by CNBC’s Phil LeBeau; or having a drink with Fox Business’ Jeff Flock. I guess it’s kind of a journalistic geek out, but I find it fascinating to watch them at work before they hit the camera.

It’s always nice to stay at the Renaissance Center as well, I had a great view of Canada and the ghetto that is Detroit. It was pretty snowy and cold out but I was able to stay indoors thanks to The Detroit People Mover. It’s a monorail that only goes in one direction and is sparsely used, however I love how the riders that do use it had glowing things to say. I overheard a couple of ladies using it as a verb, “Oh it’s so cold out- thank god we can people move over to Cobo…”

Look People Mover, your cars are driverless and you only in one direction. Wait til you blow up your scene a little bit more before you start dropping the verb around. I have no problem saying I’m going to Metro somewhere but the people mover is just as ghetto as the city it serves.

Well the day is almost through and that means the start of my Inaugural weekend of destruction- and I’m ready to bring it.

Related posts:

1. Catching Up Slowly But Surely
2. How I Decided To Become A Theatre Techie
3. Coffee Talk
4. Off The Tin Roof, Into The Rabbit Hole
5. What Does It Mean To Be A Professional