A clean little show

                  Last night our producer, John Breglio (yeah, the one who writes our paychecks every week), came to see the show.  Again.  It's his money that is funding our show, so you can only imagine how invested he is in it.  So anyway, we were all very aware of his presence in the audience (center, 4th row, not that any one of us was looking, or anything--but if we had, we would have also noticed that he seemed to be holding a clipboard and taking notes...gulp).  The very nice thing about the show was that we had some sort of dream audience.  I mean, really--they LOVED us.  And I can't help but admit that really makes us love them back (not unlike when you meet someone who just likes you so much and makes a big deal about you; I mean, you start to like them too, right? It's only natural).  

               Well, I will say that we usually do have fun with the show.  There are a couple of different times throughout the evening that the majority of the cast is in some kind of dimly-lit clump on stage.  The focus is somewhere else, leaving us free to fool around just a wee bit.  For instance, my friend Ian usually gives me some kind of maniacal or goofy or sexy (depending on his mood, I can only assume) look when he walks by me while I am in one of those clumps.  Also, another guy, Derek, tends to snort and or blow great puffs of air at the back of my head like a Brahma bull while in that clump.  It's a little maddening because he is directly behind me, making it so that I can do absolutely nothing in retaliation.  I just stand there and take it.  Also, there are some people who will use our clump time to just say anything funny that pops into their head.  And there is a dear member of the cast who will remain nameless who has, on more than one occasion, taken to mooning us while he is offstage and we are still onstage.  And of course we have to keep a straight face while he is jumping up and down offstage with his drawers pulled down.  Yeah, thanks for that.

         But, last night the show was quite tidy and neat.  You could have eaten your dinner off of it, it was that squeaky clean.  There were no goofy looks, no puffs of air, no full-moon shining from the distance.  Now, this may have been because we are truly professional and can turn out a clean show every Wednesday night like it's our job (er, wait--it is our job), or it could have been the presence of John Breglio.  I prefer to think it's a little of both.  Ok, ok--so it's a lot of one.  Fine, it was John Breglio.  But anyway, the show was great and the audience was fantastic and that isn't bad for the middle of the week.  Oh, and our producer was very happy with the show.  So, there's that.

       Also, I got a message on my facebook account this morning with the title of Bravo.  Now, I like the way that sounds no matter who sends it, but in this case the sender's name did sound a little familiar, though I couldn't quite place it.  Anyway, I opened it to find that he had been to the Wednesday evening show and was delighted with the performance.  He said 'Sing' was one of his favorite numbers in the show and that I had been hilarious (his words, not mine).  Then he went on to say it was good to see a member of the Echo Company soaring to such great heights.  He signs his name with Co-Producer of Annapolis right next to it...What a small world.  I had filmed the movie Annapolis a few years back, and of course, he was one of the producers and of course he lives in L.A.  So now we are facebook friends and have written back and forth a few times.  You never know who you are gonna meet, or meet again, for that matter.  

       Oh, and as an addendum--please realize that everyone in my cast truly is professional.  We do have a little fun, but it is generally not at the expense of the show and goes undetected by audience members.  Let me rephrase that: we have TONS of fun, and slyly add our own touch to the show that goes undetected by audience members.  And stage managers.  And er, producers.