TUrn the World Off....

I can't believe it that the day has come. We are getting ready to performa our last show of High Fidelity. I had no idea that when I agreed to do this show, that I would actually have gotten this hooked on the show, and I feel like I will actually miss it. I am sure I have written about feeling like I have come full circle with New Line, starting with Attempting the Absurd and original unproduced show, and now being the first group outside of NYC to do High Fidelity. Granted it wasn't an un produced piece, but we made it our own, and it is good. Thank GOd I didn't have to get a mohawk. Thank you Scott for getting me out of that one. I am getting used to the green hair, although when I take the greaan out each night I feel like there is more white underneath.

I love how this cast has made the show their own. It is a majority Jeff's show, but we are all there to support him, and Todd as Bruce Springsteen, and Aaron and Zack as Dick and Barry, Margeau as Marie, Nikki as Liz, Kimi as Laura, and Robb making a wacky Ian. And the rest of us that support each of those characters somehow.

I guess I will put out there my top moments that I love to watch during the show. In no particular order.

1) Todd as Bruce, man he really got it down.....even though we can't watch it we can feel the energy. Kudos

2) Number 5 with a bullet.....again kudos to Kimi and the girls and Robb, as with Todd us guys can't see it but it is fun to feel the energy.

3) My favorite part personally is when the guys, during 9% Chance sing "Isn't Dead" and slide up to the new chord. I feel like we hit that every night and we nail it. LOVE IT!

4) The looks between Margeau and Lori during Ready to Settle....

and 5) Jeff you rock on Laura, Laura...I love that song, and you are so into it everynight.

Scott I love watching you direct, and you are amazing at what you do, I hope I can do more shows with you guys, and learn even more. Trish, you ROCK! I have never met a stage manager that cared so much for her cast, and you made my hair what it is today......The BAND! You guys rock the crap out of this score. Even fill in people, damn you guys are good. I may write more, but tonight after the show will be late, and then tomorrow I will be working, and trying to stay awake. Thank you if you came to see this amazing show, and Klepto boy signing out!

It is hard to believe......

Wow it is hard to believe that this is the last weekend of High Fidelity. Not like I knew it was going to stop soon, but soon turned into this weekend. I am so glad that I was considered for this part. It was sort of a coming home party for the last couple of months. I found my programs and reviews the other day for the first show that I did with New Line, Attempting the Absurd. Man did I have fun with that one too. It sort of felt the same way as High Fidelity felt. Scott wrote Attempting the Absurd, and how I love to help mold a piece from the beginning. I can still remember Scott not liking how the scene in the courtroom was working in Absurd, and changed the lines a couple of days before we opened, I was petrified, but sort of excted to be challenged like that. I felt the same way of being challenged with High Fidelity. Being in this show is not like being in your typical musical. This is a type of music that I don't listen to anymore. I do, but not constantly, and know every lyric, and guitar riff. I know musicals, I have been doing them forever, and they are always in my car, because either I am listening to a song to block it while I am driving or I am learning music and dialogue. JUst to look back on this experience and just think wow, we were the first ones to bring this piece to life after it got canned on Broadway. Every night Scott ends his pep talk with "truth" make the characters true, and I am taking that with me now even more than when I would do shows before. The truer you make your character the more believable it will be. Hell I don't even know when I will be back on stage. It took me two and a half years for me to get to do this show. And what an experience it was to have the lyricist at our show, and give the leads such great compliments. Kudos to all the leads in this show, and what a great chorus we have too. Always jumping in to help whenever they can.
Well if you haven't come to see the show you may be out of luck, tonight and Saturday are pretty much sold out, and there are still tickets to tomorrows performance. And if you bring in the postcard you can get in with two for one. Hope you make it if you haven't all ready.

Klepto boy signing out!

"Oi, Oi, Oi!"

Well we started our third week of performances, and the show was great. Of course we had friends in the audience that helped with the laughter, but our cast just gels. The second time coming back from four days off, and we nailed it. Kimi and Jeff are remarkable, as is the whole cast. After having a birthday on Wednesday, number 41, and it being such a downer day doing the show again woke me up, and I had fun. We sold out last night and supposidly Saturday night is completely sold out too. Wow, granted that space is a small space and doesn't take a lot to fill it up, but to be totally full three times now, and four on Saturday it is an awsome feeling. I have a feeling that tonight will be a sell out too. Next week, unfortunately doesn't look as promising. Especially the 4th of July there is only like 30 seats sold, if that many. You don't do too many shows where you sell out this many times in a run.

Well this old grey haired fart better get back to work. Don't lift anything I wouldn't lift.

Klepto-boy, Joel

And so it goes!

Ok so we have finished our second weekend of performances for High Fidelity. I am sad to see that it is half way over. I may have been to myself during rehearsals, but now that the show has opened I have made a lot of friends that I will cherrish for a long time. I have really only been involved with two other productions that have made me feel this way. One was Big River with Spotlight Productions, and the other was Into the Woods with Kirkwood Theatre Guild. Both shows had casts that were amazing and gelled together. Well the productions may not have been the best, but there was energy, and feeling put into those performances, there was a "truth" to the acting, something that Scott tells us every night before High Fidelity, that stays with me through the entire performance. Keep the story truthful, and the caharacters will be believable.

I felt bad last night that I couldn't go out and bond with the cast after the show, but I had to travel home to Wentzville, and then this morning had to be at work at 8:00 (12 minutes ago). I am sure everyone had a blast. This cast just gets along so well, and has fun with each other. You can see that onstage and offstage. God how did I get so lucky. I hope everyone else in the cast is resting peacefully this morning while I get ready to do exercise with my residents at the nursing Home. Yes I work in a nursing home, and I love it. I can't see myself working anywhere right now.

This weekend gave us two more nights of pretty much sold out houses, and what a great feeling that is to perform for a crowd, how ever small your house is. We continue to get nothing but praise. One of our friends who does theatre around St. Louis, and loves to go see shows here and on Broadway, who always has something that bothers him about the show, he LOVED it, except for my hair. That was his one thing with this show. If you come to see it, you will see my beautiful hair. Well I better get to work. I hope this finds everyone well. Klepto boy will return shortly, until then he will be lowly Activity Coordinator by day, and rocking Klepto boy with the bad hairdo by night.

ROck on!

Klepto-boy, Joel

Here we go again

SO it has been a while since the last post, but I have sort of been unwinding, and going through realtor hell! I put a bid on a condo, got accepted, and then my dad is going in on the loan with me to help me out, I have to say I have my problems with my parents, but they are some of the most supportive parents you could ever have. Well yesterday after a decent day at work, I get home, and they say they have bad news, the loan didn't go through. I was devistated, so I sat downstairs feeling sorry for myself, and just sulking. Well After coming home tonight my dad went to a different bank, and they are going to give us the loan, so hopefully the paperwork will go through on this one. I know I am not getting my hopes up, until I have those keys in my hand.

Last weekend was such a rush. What a great opening weekend. I am so proud of this show, and so happy that my good friend Robin, mentioned me to Scott to be a part of this show. Everyone says there are no small actors, I am the largest actor onstage, but with one of the smaller parts, and I can tell you I feel like I am working just as hard to give a great performance just like our leads are.

I have been reading the reviews and they have been great. Of course there has to be that one, that mentions something negative, and really there hasn't been much negative said about this show. I have to disagree with the review about Nikki. It is one persons opinion. I remember getting a review once that said my singing didn't impress, and I pride myself on my voice. That review knocked me down for a long time. You know what that review pushed me even harder to be better, even if I wasn't bad to begin with. Pleas Nikki don't take these reviews too seriously. I don't know who the reviewer was, but sometimes these people think they know everything about music, but don't know squat! You are fabulous onstage, and we are happy that we got you in our show....Miss Liz 3.0! You are amazing, and just keep doing what you are doing!

God I love this cast! Thank you guys for making an old fart like me have so much fun onstage. And again thank you Scott for giving this fat, grey-haired Klpto-boy a chance to be onstage again.

See everyone tomorrow, to get pumped up to do the show!

Love you all!
Klepto-boy

OPENING NIGHT!

I can't believe it is finally here. It really seems like this rehearsal process has flown by. It has! I think with such a talented group of people we took Scotts blocking and went with it, and fine tuned the things that he wanted tuned along the way. Last night we had a decent crowd, about 45, not too bad, but it gave us a feel for when the audience might laugh. There were a few chuckles, and a few "Ahhs" but the wierdest thing was standing right in front of people and singing right to their face, when al this time you have gotten used to singing to the empty chairs. I guess the people sort of pumped up the adrenaline, and I felt like I was bouncing all over the place, I may have not been, but hey at least it felt like I was.

After the show last night a majority of the cast went to Joanie's Pizza down in Soulard. DUmb mistake on my part, but I am glad I did it. It was a time to talk to the rerst of the cast, you know something that I haven't really done throughout this whole rehearsal process, because I had to drive to Wentzville every night. Well I did last night too, and it was a long, scary ride that I don't remember parts of, but I am glad I got to know some of the other cast members. Talking to Scott I realized that I was the one that had done the earliest New Line show besides himself. Granted it has been 15 years since I did my last New Line show, but Attempting the Absurdwas I think the second season. It was that and a Sondheim Revue, and and auction fundraiser that wwe put together a cabaret type thing that was a blast.

I do have to say that I am struggling to stay awake at work today, but I think that I will have plenty of energy tonight. Two more hours and I will be done with work and then I'll go to Break Co. or something and just chill until I have to be at the theatre.

Well I hope to see some of you over the next four weeks of this show. And maybe you'll have to come again, because you liked it so much that you want to pick up on new things.

Klepto boy has left the buiding.

Joel (Klepto-Boy)

"Turn the world off....."

Ok time to start the run of the show with preview night tonight, and we open tomorrow night, and just let the rest of the world float on by, and just conentrate on the show. We had our laast dress rehearsal last night, and what a blast. Scott was thoroughly please, with only a few nit-picky notes, and a majority of positive notes. I have got to hand it to the leads Kimi, Zack, Aaron, Nikki, Katie, Margeau, Rob, and wow Jeff, who knew you had all this inside of you. I watch all of these performances each night and I am still amazed, and keep wondering how I got put with such a great group of performers. I still feel like I am the high school kid amongst all of the professional actors. Everyone sounds so natural when they deliver their lines, and I feel, even though it may not come accross that way, that I am just reciting lines, and reading them off of the page. Then there is my hair style for the performances, you'll just have to come and see. My clothes, and hair and everything is just not me, and I mean REALLY NOT me!

HUge thanks needs to go out to Scott who fought to do this show, and got the rights, and went through all the stuff with the writers. He has really bout the emotion to the show, and it isn't just another musical comedy, where everything is played for the laughs. I have learned a lot. I think that is what I need to do, is do more shows, and watch different directors, and soak up everyting that I can. I love the way scott delves himself into each show, I mean thinking of all the hidden things, hidden meanings in dialogue, relationships, and what those relationships mean, and all that stuff. Yeah I am babbling, but I am at work and working on five hours of sleep, and usually I don't function with that little sleep, and to top it all off my air conditioning went out in my car, I still have the blower going but the cool air isn't coming through.

I have also put a bid on a condo here in Kirkwood, which is exciting and scary, but I am totally pumped.

So we will see you at the record store, and don't steal any thing....that is my job.

Klepto-boy.