much ado about the u.n.d.e.r.g.r.o.u.n.d s.h.a.k.e.s.p.e.a.r.e company

the u.n.d.e.r.g.r.o.u.n.d s.h.a.k.e.s.p.e.a.r.e company, of which i am a founding member thankyouverymuch, is in the midst of its main fall production, much ado about nothing. i am playing a servant and a watchman, two non-speaking, mostly stage crew roles. it's fun. i get to stand around and watch the show, and (crucially) not carry my cello around, like i have for the previous usc productions.

anyway, opening night was last night, and the show went very well, though the audience was a typical thursday night audience (meaning, they were very subdued and only laughed tentatively at a couple of the *really* funny bits, like when beatrice nearly stabs benedick with a knife when she calls him in to dinner (the stabbing bit isn't in the script, so don't worry if you're sitting there thinking "hey, borogoves, i consider myself to be pretty damn well-read in the genre of late-sixteenth-century english playwrights, but i don't remember that stabbing bit in m.a.a.n." kate, who's playing beatrice, just made that up one day when she happened to be carrying a pint of ben&jerry's on stage while doing that scene, and pointed threateningly at benedick with a spoonful of rocky road). right. so. quiet audience, but good show.

oh, and the room was apPROXimately 34,000 degrees (by which i mean 85) and our brains have all melted. so tonight's shows (2 shows tonight!) are sure to be fun, by which i mean an exercise in stamina.

for the past week, i've had mambo italiano (rosemary clooney version) in my head, because we end the show with that (yay! we get to mambo! at a shakespeare performance!). great song, but i could do with something different now.

..... mambo italiaaaaaaaaaaaanoooooooo. that's nice!