Q: That's everything you did yesterday? A: No, at night, I slept

That little nugget above from 1949's City Across the Riviera really could not better encapsulate how I (and I'm sure the rest of our cast and crew) feel after the marathon 17-hour rehearsal weekend we had...except most of us didn't sleep too well either!

So, as we all look forward to a day off (from Stolen Chair, not "work") tomorrow, I wanted to jot down a few things that will make me happy as I (hopefully) drift off into the first 8hrs of sleep I'll have the chance to get in nearly as many days:

• Cameron, Emily, Kiran, and I sat down to watch clips from some noirs last night...it's never too late to keep making discoveries and we even made a few in those short hours between the end of Saturday's mammoth rehearsal and the beginning of Sunday's. Combing the noirs again helped us find some great little moments to work in, but we were also pleased to discover that we had emulated the world of 1940s noir (or at least what that term means to us) very faithfully, even with all of the absurdist components we've injected into Kill Me's style. So: good for us. We can enjoy patting ourselves on the back for a few days until other doubts and worries take over...
• As the sets/lights/costumes/props/music were progressively unveiled over the course of the weekend, I feel we can safely say that the show looks and sounds fantastic. At this point in the process, though, I always get so excited by the purdiness of our production values that Kiran really takes over in the "notes" department. My notes, of late, have tended to be along the lines of: "Your hat/shadow/gun/chair made you look so great in that scene." Real useful stuff. That said, besides making me giddier than Dick Powell's Philip Marlowe, the design elements really do give the actors such a wonderful gift and it's so thrilling to see them discover new ways of frolicking in the jazzy red, white, and black playground that May Elbaz, David Bengali, Jon Campbell, and Emily Otto have created for them....and the show just keeps getting better and better (or "bettu and bettu" for you, Emily)
  
• Do What Now Media's (The Sinister Urge) Frank Cwiklik has signed on board to be #8 in our interview series. He's been doing an ongoing series of homages/parodies to/of the oeuvre of Ed Wood, Jr. and has directed stage noirs quite a few times, working both Trav SD and Ian W. Hill while he was creating under the umbrella of DM (Danse Macabre) Theatrics.
• Kiran recorded a NYtheatrecast today and I envy her the duo she got to discuss theatre with: John Clancy and Rob Reese. That podcast will be out sometime in early January.