Shall I speak for thee? Shall I say 'tis so?

Martyr'd Signs opened and closed last weekend.

So, the show went from being in incredibly rough shape, to really being fairly clean in the two weeks where we rehearsed nearly everyday. It was a LOT of work, rework, and commuting to unknown and far away locations on very little sleep, but ultimately it did come together. And I had 3 whole friends come and see it (more than my last show).

To be honest, I didn't love it. Both the process and the final product felt a little community theater-y (and a little cult-y) to me. I mean, I get it, we were strong women fighting to put on this play, but the hand-holding and back-patting and I-just-love-you-all-and-this-show-and-this-process crap was unnecessarily masturbatory for me. On our final dress rehearsal, we took pictures of the show, so we got no notes... That is the best way I can describe what this whole thing felt like. More worried about how it looked, than what it contained. That's not the way I work. And I think that they could tell I just wasn't really in on the lovefest, no offense, but I've moved past that. I did that in college. I won't work for free again. Ever.

My biggest issue came from the travel. We had a tech rehearsal at one of the girl's mom's dance studios in Connecticut last Sunday, and, since the drivers all lived very far away from me, I had to wake up at 5am in order to be in Jersey by 7am, so that we could get to Connecticut by 9am. Needless to say, I took the Metro North train home (and sucked up the $12.50 ticket. It was worth it to have that time to memorize and be alone). There was never any talk of someone meeting me somewhere that was easier for me to get to, and, since the 4 train wasn't running in Brooklyn, I physically could not get to Grand Central to take the Metro North train out there. The compromise from my director was, "Well, if you're worried about the trip, you don't need to come." to which, my response was, "Um, yes I do. It's the last time we'll have to run the show before tech. It's sorta important that I'm there." Ugh.

#TeamRome at our photo shoot in Connecticut

Then, on Thursday morning, we had a school show in North Jersey at noon, meaning I had to get all the way up to 181st street to take the jitney across the GW Bridge to perform for some random kids. It was fine, but extraordinarily confusing. Thank god I ran into two of the other actors, who had a guy tell them how to get there... Yesh.

So, Wednesday was our preview, and it went fine. We had a two-show day on Thursday, and both were fine. Friday, the show was definitely the best it's been. And then on Saturday, we had to move to the upstairs location because a baby shower had rented the downstairs area and wanted to extend their party (and I do mean PARTY) from 2-6 to 2-11. A baby shower. That had the bass thumping and people yelling until 11pm.

The new location was a completely different set-up, so we had to restage the whole show and that show was just horrendous. Like, I've never been so glad to be done with a performance. And I constantly apologized to my friend who came to see it that night. Ugh. No good. And it's too bad, too, because I feel like if we'd either closed on Friday, OR been able to perform on Saturday in our original space, we could have gone out with a bang and I would have felt better about the whole experience, but that Saturday night show pretty much just summed up how I felt this whole process: great idea, pretty set-up, entirely flat and disappointing finish.

Again, never working for free. Not worth it to spend that much time on something I don't feel proud of, only to leave with less money in my pocket than I would have had if I hadn't done the show. Blech.

Rehearsal pictures