Lines and more lines

They're coming. Slowly, but they're coming. I'm pretty much off book for the big fight scene, and for my big "kill a wife with kindness" monologue in Act IV. I'm getting there on the entrance scene and on Act IV, scene I, but it's slow going with all the non sequitors in those lines. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm two weeks behind the rest of the cast in rehearsal, so not to beat myself up too much, but I'm at the point where I want the fucking script out of my hand so I can act, and it's frustrating.

But we've got three weeks, which is an eternity in a rehearsal period, so I'm not sweating the overall shape of the show. Some exciting news on the rest of the theatre front as well - we're in negotiations to remount the show later in the summer, and I'll be directing Hamlet in July. Little play, you might have heard of it. I've directed Hamlet before, it was my first show for Off-Tryon when we started that company, so it's fitting that it's my first show for Shakespeare Carolina in the reboot of that company. Not sure what the concept will be, leaning towards a very modern interpretation, but I need to watch the Ethan Hawke movie version to see if what's in my head is too close to what they put on screen. Might be a wholesale change of concept in the offing.

And I actually played poker twice this week! Banner week for me lately. My home game went well, which I wrote about, and last night was the monthly theatre poker tourney. I suck at tournament poker. Actually I thought I played fairly well, just got outdrawn a couple times early and then once I had chips in the middle rounds I couldn't steal enough or get good cards often enough to stay alive, so I went out well out of the money. But I made the final table!

We started with 11, and condensed to one table at 10, so it wasn't much of a stretch.

I cleaned up in the cash game afterwards, taking $90 off the cash game, which made me feel a little better about the $25 I lost in the tourney. Actually it made me feel a lot better about the $25 I lost in the tourney. And further solidified my opinion that I'm not much of a tournament player, but for $25 I can throw cards around with a bunch of people I like for a few hours.

Got the rest of the whole run of Transmetroploitan last week. Does anybody else think that Pauly is Spider Jerusalem, only a less vulgar version? I think Warren Ellis must read Tao of Poker.

End of the post - obligatory subliminal message - click through to the site, donate to Shakespeare Carolina, it'll make your ass look better in those pants and your dick look bigger!