And now, a Brain Dump of Random Things To Clear My Head Before I Go To Bed:

Played hooky (hookie?) from work today.
Haven’t had a full day off to be with the family in a while – won’t have the chance again for a couple more weeks. So today was a day spent working around the house, running errands, shopping to get the kids ready for summer camp, grilling, beginning the goal of getting my fat butt in shape by going for a bike ride, and answering a handful of work emails and text messages. I liked it! The family time was much needed!

Best quote of the day? From my son, while on a bike ride: “C’mon Dad, go faster than that! You’ve got a lot of weight to work off there, buddy!!” *sigh* Out of the mouths of babes…

Last night we had callbacks for “It Came From Mars”, the co-production next season between Performance Network and Williamston Theatre. Man, we had a great time. It went a little slower than I would’ve liked, but I love callbacks. Lots of good actors, you get to give a bunch of fun direction to them, you get to mix and match types and see which pairings just feel right for the show – it’s a ton of fun.

We open “A Picasso” at the Performance Network Theatre on Friday – I’ve loved the process on this one – a two person cast, both came into the project at the top of their game and it’s been a blast putting this story onstage. Audiences seem to like it a ton.

Interestingly, one thing I think I’ve learned on this project: if it’s a piece with accents, EVERYONE will have an opinion on how they’re sounding. (Not in a bad way, they just will.) I don’t know why this has surprised me: I’m no stranger to directing, which means I’m no stranger to having every aspect of a show and my work dissected and criticized – it’s part of the deal for anyone who directs. But it’s been fascinating, the diversity and conflicting comments you get on accents: “It’s perfect, and I’ve LIVED in Germany” to “It’s not German enough, it sounds too American” to “It’s too German, I had to work to understand it”. Or “The Spanish sounds too much like French” backed with “The Spanish is perfect! I felt like I was in Barcelona!” to “Well, he didn’t use an accent much, or did I miss it?” The variety and directly conflicting nature of these comments has me thinking a lot! I wonder if it’s an American thing, because we’re so isolated from authentic European accents? Or is it just a subjective thing, like any other part of the show – do accents fit in with “It wasn’t my kind of humor” and “I thought the set was too blue” in the world of spectator observations? When done right, I believe that after a few minutes the accent should basically disappear (not actually, but the audience should become so at ease with it that it should SEEM to disappear.) I think what I’ve decided is that you embrace the accent, make it not SO thick that the audience can’t understand the actor, and then you just work to be consistent with it and tell the story. After that, it’s like any other aspect of the show: do your best to use it to tell the story and keep the audience involved. Anyone who’s made it this far into this entry got any other thoughts on accents in plays?

Holy cow – I just checked the score and the Tigers got hammered 11-2 tonight. Yikes.

Any iPhone users out there reading this? The new OS 3.0 Update comes tomorrow – very excited about that! 🙂

And now, a busy day tomorrow – so I’m off to bed!