OPEN

(PHOTO OF AMY AND STEVE McWILLIAMS)
Well, we all made it through yesterday's marathon Open House at Signature Theatre. What a day! First of all, I woke up with several spider bites (!) YUCK! And I found the offending critter crushed and entagled in my chest hair (all 7 of them). GROSS!!!
Then my poor Buddha tried to keep me from going to the Open House by dragging his butt on the cement out in the back yard until it bled everywhere. GROSS!!!!
So I cleaned him up and put some cream on his bum. GROSS!!! Then I gathered some of my stuff up to meet Amy and Steve for the first performance of the day, Little River Turnpike's 12:30 set. I wasn't even thinking about my cabaret outfit or props at that point- I thought that I would get that stuff when I went home after the first Little River Set...
right.










Getting out of the car with my backpack and hands full, I locked the door and shut it. I instantly froze. The key was still in the ignition, and the car was running. F*ck.

(keys in car-photo taken as I was waiting)
What now? No time to think, I raced in, got situated, and we started our first set (in the thick heat of noon thirty).
It went well, and a call was made to Triple A from my mom (who was en route with my dad to see the cabaret at 4PM). AAA was supposed to make it there by 2.
Well...They got there at 3:15. Sound check for my cabaret was at 3:30. so there was no going home. No props that I didn't already have with me. I had been standing in the exhaust filled oven of the garage for a couple of hours, and then I was running in to do a cabaret. If you saw a dazed looking man muttering songs to himself in the garage yesterday, yeah- that was me.
The cabaret went very well (although I missed my lawnchairs and pink flamingo from the first one). The house was standing room only. The house was very warm and responsive, and made it easy to perform the show.
Then I raced upstairs to Matt Conner's Master Class in Composing and sang a few of his gorgeous new songs for his new show. Then I left the class early at 6 for Sound Check for Little River's 6:30 set, which went even better than the first one.

(AMY AND STEVE McWILLIAMS)
Then it was time for a quick pizzetta from Bear Rock, a quick chat with Mom and Dad, and a change of outfit for the concert at 8:30.
The concert was great, and had many highlights...I do wanna clear a little something up, though...my partner, Matt played his own song, "Silence" from Nevermore as Jaqui Piro Donovan and Dan Cooney sang it, and as you all know, I ADORED it, now I was next, and went up on stage, and it took a second or two for Jenny Cartney to get back to the piano and find her place in her book for my song. At this point I was SO exhausted from the events of the day, and as Jenny was finding her place, seconds passed, and I was staring at an audience with blank faces as crickets chirped in the distance. Were it 3 hours earlier, I would have come up with some witty banter to fill the void...I had nothing left by this point. I had literally "USED WHAT I GOT" all day...I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was how I personally was feeling...
"Are Y'all still awake?", I asked.
Apparently, this was laughed about in the "bullpen" of performers. I meant nothing ill by it, and I know that they were all laughing abot it, but truly, I meant no disdain to any of the other performers or the event itself...I just said the first thing that came to my mind. Not always the best thing to do.
Anyways, I was SO happy when it was finally over, as I was exhausted, by the all day marathon and my personal struggles throughout the day.
JOEL MARKOWITZ wrote a nice piece on the day, and thanks to him for writing the positive feedback. I am happy that so many people had a great time, and that the community of Arlington and bayond came out to support us in droves. Thanks to Signature and all of the lovely people who came to see us!
Talk to you more tomorrow.
G'night,
SGS