Second Weekend in September

Yes, yes, we know we haven't updated the blog in almost a month. But come on, not THAT much has been going on. Spring Fling was definitely a big deal, but I can't really talk about it, seeing as I wasn't there. Shame on Marty and Gilly for not going into that more. But other than that, it's just been the usual between show doldrums; not too much to break apart the days, and therefore nothing really worth blogging about. Oh, sure, last week we were all busy stuffing envelopes and copying down addresses for the subscriber confirmation mail-out, but you don't want to hear about that. The only notable thing that happened was that the three of us misunderstood and put the order forms along with the receipts into the envelopes, and had to take them all out again, which took another 20 minutes or so to do. Anne felt sorry for us and let us get a piece of tasty from concessions for the extra work, which I think was very benevolent of her.

Marty hasn't been in for a bit, as he's been sick, but I will make him post something on here when he has a minute. And Gilly wasn't in yesterday either because she had a flat tire. They'll both be in later this week, don't you worry your pretty heads.

NEWS:
This weekend is the opening of Second Weekend in September, which is pretty exciting. Small cast of 3 people, very intimate, pretty intense from what I understand. Oh, and this is important, NOT FOR CHILDREN. We're talking full frontal nudity, plus simulated dude-on-dude sexy times. I'm sure several people will be very uncomfortable, but damn it what's theater supposed to do if not make someone uncomfortable?
Also opening at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills is The Crucible, that wacky farce full of quirky coincidences and crazy hijinks! ...Just kidding. Classic American drama by Arthur Miller, it details the events of the Salem witch trials of 1692, and stands as an allegory for the House Un-American Activities Committee and the McCarthy trials of the 1950's. Yeah, pretty spiffy. Martin and I are both in it, along with past City Lights interns Kim Johnson and Tim Goble. Definitely worth a look-see. Here's the link: http://www.foothill.edu/theatre/crucible/

Thanks guys, I hope you can check them out!

Ain't it Lovely?

Spring is officially upon us, folks. And what, I hear you asking, are my plans for the first week of spring? Never you fear, I'll tell you. I have finals. And work. AWESOME. True, I only have one final left (Statistics at 7:30 in the morning, boo hiss), and I work at an awesome place with awesome people (in an office that has awesome heat retention) so, really, I have little to complain about. And on Friday I'm leaving for spring break, which will be all fun, but also means I'm working an extra day this week, in addition to the extra day I worked last week, to make up for it. So worth it.

You know what else is worth it? A kickin' segue?! No!... well yes, but also! The price of admission to see "Frank Langella's Cyrano"! Now, I don't usually go to the gala performances here (for shame!), but oh man I'm glad I went to this one. To be fair, I'm biased, because this is one of my favorite stories EVER IN THE WORLD. Romantic, sad, exciting, all that jazz. I saw a production of "Cyrano" at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland about 3 or so years ago, and it changed my life, but I gotta say, I liked ours better. If nothing else then for the portrayal of the title character, who here is seen not only as a romantic swashbuckler, but as a human being with emotions and faults and layers. Beautifully done. Closes April 18th, this Sunday the 28th is talk-back. Fun times!

On the less exciting side, the office here needs, well, maintenance. Less clutter and a vacuum cleaner are called for. I can't keep my own room clean, let's see if I can help keep a desk clean.

On the bright side, there's a spiffy new logo painted on the wall in the lobby, looks pretty great!

Thanks to everyone who made this a great opening weekend, and tell your friends! If you haven't seen it yet, then what the heck are you waiting for?!

Oh yeah, one more thing. Our non-profit partner for this show is KidPower. To give you an idea of what they're all about, here's their mission statement: "To teach people of all ages and abilities how to use their own power to stay safe, act wisely, and believe in themselves." All these are themes in the show, especially that last one, so, ya know, it fits. Anyway, mention "KidPower" when you're ordering your tickets over the phone, or type it in as a promotion code if you're ordering online, and $5 from each ticket go straight to them. Pretty nifty, huh? Thanks again for the support!

Signing out,
Beth

Panda Express

Okay okay. Marty sent me a text on Tuesday telling me--no, COMMANDING me to write a blog post. He's got a fair point. As he said earlier this week, though, we've been pretty busy. I, too, am quite excited about the upcoming season, even though we're just about halfway through the one we're in now.

On Thursdays (such as today) I come to work pretty much straight from Foothill, picking up lunch on the way. Today I decided to relish the empty office where I get to play music loud before anyone gets here and we have to do real work. (Currently playing now: "High With a Little Help from my Friends" by the Beatles.) So things are chill for the time being.

I saw Dead Man Walking on the 7th of this month, so that would be a week and a half ago, and it's still settling in. It's awesome when a show resonates like that, and I think one reason this one does so much is simply the nature in which the story is told. The play takes a very personal approach into one woman's relationship with, let's face it, a pretty awful person, and how that plays into her understanding of the legal system and morals and even God. It's uncomfortable and eye-opening, something more theater needs to be in an age when all people want to do is to escape from their day to day routine rather than put it in perspective. (Damn, that sounded good. By the way, moving from "The Jeep Song" by the Dresden Dolls to "Sittin' on Top of the World" as performed by Jack White.)

Anyway, coming in on the last 4 performances, so get a move on, already!

Alright, going to finish lunch--oh, just for fun, this is what my fortune cookie says: "Today is a good day for being with a companion." Hmm... I'll leave it to you to decide what that means.

Peace!

NEVER FEAR - Gilly is here!

Greetings, lovely people.

I come to you from my nice warm bed, where I am currently curled up listening to BBC radio online. This has no real relevance to this post, but I thought it best to give some context. Mmm. Warm.

So, I house managed yesterday, Sunday, for our first matinee. It was a little hectic setting up, but we had a full house who completely adored the show. We had quite a few people who took pictures with our resident Santa and reformed Scroogette. :)

Another Night Before Christmas is going into its last week! It has been a great run, and the audiences have been loving the show. Most of the reviews are posted in the posts below, if you'd like to take a look. Personally, having seen the show at regular intervals, that it is only getting better as the run goes on. If you haven't seen the show (or even if you have!) I highly encourage you to do so! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Beth has already mentioned the lovely people who came to help us begin the long process of reorganizing the prop loft. In fact, we're going to be having a volunteer work weekend in January (the 9th and 10th) for anyone who loves City Lights, and wants to come spend some time with a fun group. There will be pizza and fun times! I'm excited.

I will update again this week, I promise! Tomorrow it shall be ticket order time. Yay!

I hope you have happy holidays -- I shall be going home for Christmas, and I have spent today staring at my suitcase in the hopes it will disappear if I stare at it long enough. May your Christmas, New Year, and Holiday season be magical!

Also, I am four episodes into Glee. It is so good.

:)

Kinda Spooked

Right off the bat, I want to say that I am just a little envious of Martin's blogging skillz. I just read the last two he wrote, and lol'd, which means I gotta get cracking!

Faithful readers, you may be asking me as you read, "Hey, Beth, what are you doing posting a blog so early in the work day? Don't you have stuff to do?" And I have two answers for that. Firstly, yes, I do have stuff to do, but it won't take long, so get off my back already. Secondly, there's no one else here today and I fear I may have made a grave mistake coming in at all. I even remembered to bring lunch (oatmeal, cheese, and crackers are yummy)! Poop... The one explanation I have is this--okay, I have two explanations, but one of them is a little more fun. One: Anne is just late today. But she's usually here by now, being the responsible and made-of-awesome boss lady that she is, so that leads me to place more weight on Two: Since Wednesday was Veteran's Day (and let me tell you, veterans are amazing, because if they weren't doing it, I would have to, and I really don't like guns) a lot of businesses are taking today off. Perhaps I didn't get the memo. But I'm not entirely sure. I could just call Anne and ask her if I should stay or just go home. but what if the phone rings, like it JUST DID? Well, that was a telemarketer person, but still?! Telemarketers see theater too... they just see it in India...

So I'm in a little bit of a pickle. Yipes!

Illness Prevails

It is official. All three interns have taken ill with the recent cold-season cruddiness. Gilly normally works on Tuesdays, but she called in to say that she was not able to grace us with her diligent presense due to the face that she may cough up a lung. I'm doing conciderably better: I only have a sore throat and a stuffy nose. It was worse this morning. Marty can no longer smell things and is quite sneezy. Last week Gilly moved the hand sanitizer from the lobby to the the intern desk in the office, but it seems our efforts were too little, too late. If we had Purell I'm sure none of this would have happened, plus this other stuff just smells weird.
Doing some odd jobs here and there today. Checked out The Who's Tommy music books to make sure we have all of them before we send them back. I got stuck looking through them for pencil marks in the margins, and now have Pinball Wizard running through my head. Fantastic.
On the show front, I'm in My Sister, Eileen over at Foothill College. It's a fun show about two "plucky" sisters who move to New York City to make their way. They end up in a terrible basement apartment with some very interesting neighbors. I've enjoyed working on it quite a lot. It opens this weekend and runs until November 22, I hope y'all can come out to see it. Plus it's family friendly! Woo!

Have a good one!

Woohoo!

See, this is why I work in theater. Because it is amazing.

1) The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, an awesome funny show currently playing (which I am finally seeing tonight!) that has been getting great reviews. Yay for South Bay premieres!

2) The Laramie Project, the 8pm show oversold by a few seats, so that will be fun and exciting getting everyone in, and I have no doubt the 5pm showing willing also sell out (I made sure to get my ticket while I was in yesterday). Huzzah for worldwide commemorative efforts! (For more info check out Gilly's post on Tuesday.)

As you may noticed, I am posting on Saturday, even though I work on Fridays, because I literally had NO TIME to post a blog yesterday. The phone was ringing almost off the hook (which was cool, but for the first 20 minutes it was only me and we have two lines and I can only do so much at once, sorry!). Anne had to tell me to stop selling 8pm tickets for Laramie because there were more on the online orders she had just closed. We're a smidge oversold, so if you have tickets for that showing, ARRIVE EARLY!!!

Fun times: on Thursday I stopped by City Lights for a little less than an hour and the 3 of us interns plus 2 Notre Dame students got the tour from the lovely Kit Wilder from the point of view of a stage manager opening up the theater for a show. I had only been in the booth once before, and I've never needed to be for a show. Needless to say I took notes, because I am bound to forget something. He gave us his cell number in case we screw up, but hopefully I'll never have to use it.

Okie doke, I have to get ready for rehearsal, but I'll be at Judas tonight! Have a good one!

When Things Go Wrong

Today it's just me and Ana Marie in the office, and by that I mean she's in the office and I'm on the lobby computer, because we both need access. So it's a little lonely, I must admit. Not to mention quiet. I'd sing show tunes to myself if I didn't have to concentrate on stuff. And it's just enough concentration to have to pay attention, but not necessarily be engaged.

There is at least one thing to say about mishaps and inconveniences: they keep you on your toes. First the key to the fence behind which the dumpster resides wouldn't turn, so I left a note for when the guys get in. I'm pretty sure I mentioned the right key... After that the online ticket service City Lights uses wouldn't let us log on in the lobby, but then it works fine in the office. And there's no guiding light of upper management to help us out! Yikes! Oh well, time to hitch up our big-kid trousers and get it over with.

Kicking off the 3rd weekend of Judas! If you haven't seen it yet, come on down! :D

Jumpin' on the Band Wagon

Okay, okay I'll do an introduction! Jeez, ya don't have to be so pushy about it.
But seriously, hello, all. Beth here, and it's about time our dear readers know a little more about me, since you already know the life stories of both Marty and Gilly. I feel a little left out, I must admit, at not having a convenient nickname ending in -y. Anywho, here is my life story. I went to Notre Dame High School (and now it's funny that I'm working right across the street) and then straight into the Theatre Conservatory at Foothill College. Aside from theater, I enjoy writing (having filled to date 17.5 composition books), doodling (as the margins in my high school notebooks will attest to), singing, walking, artsy-crafty things, drinking tea and coffee, and meeting new people. That's all I can think of at the moment.
Pretty chill work day. Messages to answer, you get the drill. Not much going on, hence the blog update. On Friday I get to go into the ticketing system and check out our sales statistics for data to be put to use sometime in the future. This is how I make a difference. Thrilling.
Interviews are being conducted in the lobby for a new publicist since the lovely Vera Sloan is leaving us at the end of the month (insert Gilly sadface), and so far I've only seen men in suits. Well, it's nice to be taken seriously. It's her birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY VERA!!!) so perhaps it's good that she took the day off so she doesn't have to see her potential replacements. But well all know that Vera can never be replaced in our hearts.
And now back to putting addresses on envelopes, et cetera. Woo!
Bye, guys!
Beth

Beth's First Day

Hello Blogsphere!
Okay, I guess if I was being picky I would say this is my second day. I was running around doing errands when Gilly and Martin were setting up this lovely blog, but now I'm here, so you can stop wondering "Who is this mysterious Beth person?" That would be me! And my "first" day has so far comprised of cleaning behind the box office and concessions area in the lobby (including a gnarly vase), making some copies, and filling out some scary official-looking forms. At the moment I'm taking a quick break from making a list of our lovely board members (yay!). Woops and it looks like I gotta continue with that--Lisa (nice boss lady :]) is gonna help me out with some files. Back to work with me!
Signing off,
Beth

Martin and Gilly - Creators of Greatness!

Hello, City Lights Fans!
We here at City Lights have created a blog, in the hopes that the masses (that's you!) will finally know what exactly all of those people at the theatre do all day.
There are three interns for the 2009-2010 season. Our names are (in alphabetical order so as to show no preference... Gilly is the best) Beth (the short one) , Gilly (the shorter one) , and Martin (the absurdly tall one). Each of us will be updating several times a week (whenever we work or hear something exciting) so you can find here interesting tidbits and even maybe information that hasn't been released yet! How cool is that? (The answer is very cool). As if that was not fantastic enough, we may occasionally feature guest blogs from other (more important) people at City Lights - Directors, managers... we're going to try and keep it mixed up. Excited yet? We are.
Alright. That's all for now. We're looking forward to this to becoming a place of great intern interaction and expression. Finally, you will hear the real story of what happens at one of the most innovative and respected theatre companies in the Bay Area.
Blog to you soon!
- Gilly and Martin (but mostly Gilly, although Martin did contribute some good words. Sometimes.)