One Midnight Down…!

And we hit the one month mark before the opening of “The Tempest.”  I have a hard deadline of being off-book by this Wednesday, and I’m getting scared.  It’s not that I don’t have the general idea of what it is that I’m saying, or that I don’t know most of the words in the right order.  But it’s Shakespeare.  You need to be word perfect (as opposed to WordPerfect, which would make you an aging and obsolete, though superior, word processing suite).  There’s a reason he put those words in that order.  And with The Tempest, you see Shakespeare near the end of his career, writing in a more developed style and not sticking to the strict iambic pentameter of his earlier works.  And I’ve been a cotton headed ninny muggins lately. and have not been able to concentrate.  This tends to make it difficult with memorizing your lines and getting the whole thing to a point where you can really start to act.

The diet is a total bust right now.  I’m not even trying.  I’ve just been too stressed.  And no, knowing that stressed spelled backwards is desserts does NOT help!  It’s something that I just need to get my resolve back to tackle.  I can feel it building, but it hasn’t burst forth yet.  My gut has, but not my resolve.  It’s summer and I should be excited to get outside, but I don’t have decent shoes or any exercise clothes.  I have one pair of jeans that are about to fall apart on me.  Clothes shopping sucks when you’re a fat pig.  Pretty much everything sucks when you’re fat.  I don’t understand these people that fight for “fat rights.”  I mean I don’t think anyone should be mocked for any reason, but to say that being fat is like being black or gay is just plain stupid.  I don’t need a law passed to feel better about myself.  I need to put down the damn fork and get my ass off the sofa!

The biggest problem I have right now to really exercising is pride.  Any time I start any kind of physical activity, I spout sweat like a rain bird!  If I can do this in the privacy of my own home, it’s not such a big deal.  Out on the streets, it’s more of a concern.  In a rehearsal, it’s down-right tragic.  I know I would be so much happier in so many way if I just kicked myself into gear and exercised.  But I am a huge (no pun intended) creature of habit.  And my habit has been to lounge around.  Well, it’s got to stop.  Or start, rather.  Whichever it is, this tub o’ lard has got to get moving.

Quote of the day:

“I don't answer the phone.  I get the feeling whenever I do that there will be someone on the other end.  ~Fred Couples”

Shaky with Shakespeare

The opera is over and now it is on to The Tempest.  We have seven weeks before we open and two weeks for me to be off book.  Prospero is not the biggest Shakespeare part (not really close) but it still has over three times the lines of the next wordy character.  In case you don’t get that, it’s a lot of lines.  572, to be exact.  I have two weeks to get that all down.  Not a lot of time.  I did learn the 20 line Epilogue while I was driving into work today.  (To be honest, I had to a lot of time to do that.  I forgot I had the keys to one of our cars, and had to run back home to drop them off, so it was a three time trip to work.)  I decided that I would try to get the three big speeches down first, then work on the dialogue interactions last.  Hope that’s a good strategy.

The weight loss battle is continuing about the same as always: no progress.  My stress levels have been crazy and so I haven’t been as committed to portion control and exercise as I need to be. (I know, same old story.)  I think the worst part of being fat right now is that fact that I can work up a sweat standing still.  That really sucks.  I have to act with people while I’m dripping.  Ever since one fateful summer opera when I had about the most humiliating experience of my life, that has been a huge deal.  I was doing a staged fight with someone and dripped sweat on their face.  They stopped rehearsal and asked the director if we could be staged differently because he didn’t want to dripped on.  While he didn’t handled that in the best way my feelings, I can’t fault him for his disgust.  But ever since that time it has been a real concern of mine when acting with others.  I’m not sure that much can be done between now and July 15th, but I need to try.

Quote of the day:

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and out little life is rounded with a sleep.” – Prospero –Act. IV, scene 1, “The Tempest”

It’s a brave new world…

Last night we also had the first music read-through for the opera with the conductor and principals for Falstaff.  And I was so thrilled that we have 7 of the 10 principals who have been here before.  And the best of all news was that Melissa Parks was one of them!!  She is a wonderfully talented mezzo who is also a very lovely person, and who has, over the last several years, become a good friend.  This is a great cast and promises to be one of the best operas this season.

I seem entirely unable to post anything on a regular schedule.  And I don’t seem to be able to motivate myself to do anything resembling exercise.  Although I think that I may have come to some resolution on that front.  We had our first read-through for  The Tempest on Saturday, and I am in the company of some serious talents and some fairly buff individuals.  And unless I just want to sit around all the time hating them all for their talent and good looks, I’m going to need to do something about it.  This would involve some sort of walking, cycling or other physical activity program to start immediately.  I have 12 weeks to make some sort of progress toward my overall goal.  I’m establishing a public goal of losing 15 lbs. by July 15th!!!  It’s easily achievable and it’s also a great start on getting back to my svelte and Adonis-like former self.  I just have to keep myself from collapsing from the stress of trying to learn my lines and act up to the level of the rest of the cast.

This also means that I will need to go back to actively watching my calorie intake.  This is no fun, let me tell you.  I found a great website that helps you track daily calories.  The problem is, it is no fun actually seeing the calories you are taking in.   Especially when you know that you’ve been at this level for a long time.  I have created a fairly workable wright maintenance diet.  I am maintaining and have maintained this weight for some time with only very minor fluctuations.  The real solution that I need to take is to reduce the calories, increase the exercise and get steady and consistent with both.  And I know that when I first started the blog, a lot of people got frustrated with me for talking about it but never doing anything about it.  This is now where the rubber meets the pavement.  I’ve reached a point where I have to do this or I will bury myself in a depressive funk so deep that I’ll never come out.  So, if you see me out and about, or just think about it, drop me a line with a word of encouragement.

Quote of the day:

“The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.  ~G.K. Chesterton”