My First Bad Review

Well, folks, it's happened-- I got my first bad review. Up until this point in my theatrical career, I've prided myself on the fact that I've gotten consistently great reviews or special shout-outs in local papers for my performances in Rochester. However, that streak has ended with Leah Stacy's recent review of "It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play"for the Democrat & Chronicle. In otherwise glowing review of both the show and the individual performances of my peers, Miss Stacy dedicated an entire paragraph on my performance. Here's what she had to say about yours truly:

"Tiballi (Sally Applewhite/Mary Hatch Bailey) — who’s known locally for her strong musical performances, most recently in JCC CenterStage’s Working —seemed to struggle with her character development. The role of a 1940s radio starlet eclipsed the well-loved nature of Mary Hatch Bailey until the seductive looks, eye rolls thrown (too often) to the audience and coquettish tones completely marred the emotional gravity Tiballi could’ve grasped with such an iconic role."

<Rise above... rise above...>

I just have a few things to say (big surprise there- of course I do).

1) I am not Donna Reed. If you are coming to this show expecting to see people mimic the movie, you will be sorely disappointed.

2) Emotional gravity in the Mary Hatch Bailey role? As I see it, Mary is one of the least emotional characters in the piece. She is the rock that keeps George steady- it's HIS story, it's HIS struggle, it's HIS journey. She is there as the counterpoint, the one that quietly steps in throughout his arc, doing what she can to smooth the bumps along the way (offering the money from their wedding to bail out the Building & Loan, finding a place for them to live and making it a home, collecting money when Uncle Billy loses the $8,000). Was she expecting me to burst into tears? Mary isn't extreme like that- she can't be- that's not who that character is and none of her lines support that kind of emotional swing. Mary Bailey is playful and sassy ("He's making violent love to me, Mother", "Oooh why don't you just go home??" and her "to keep from being an old maid" response when George asks why she married him). I played the playfulness and sass where I felt it was appropriate for Mary Bailey while trying to make sure she was still a character that was lovable and good.

3) There are at least three stretches in"It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" where I don't do anything for at least 10 pages. No lines. But I have to be onstage the entire time. And in a play of this format, it would be very easy to just do your thing at the microphone when you've got lines and then just go sit down on one of the cane-backed chairs and zone out until it's time for you to have some more lines. How boring! No thank you!

Sit like an effing lady

4) This is a radio play and our characters are actors who are playing these "iconic roles". How uninteresting would it be if Sally Applewhite (my "1940s actress" character) was the exact same thing as Mary Hatch Bailey (the character Sally is playing in the radio show)? So I made the decision (you know, back in the first rehearsals when I was working on said character development... that I supposedly struggled with) that Mary Bailey would be playful and sweet and lovable and good, but Sally Applewhite would be something else entirely. Using the clues given to me in the script (because that's what actors do when they develop their characters- I learned that when I was  majoring in theatre at college), I decided that Sally Applewhite, as a former beauty queen, would be very aware of the audience, and would therefore be very presentational in front of them. This would affect her posture (rules of ettiquette of the era were researched for this role-- straight back when sitting, chin up, hands clasped in your lap, legs never crossed but rather ankles crossed and tucked to one side), her appearance (heavy on the makeup- which was also researched for the time period), and her gestures (right down to the positioning of the pinky finger or the point of a toe- usually in a beveled position- while standing flirtaciously). Sally, as a young actress from Ohio who is now riding the wave of fame that came with her recent Hollywood feature "Dottie Goes Bananas", would have figured out that flirtation gets you everywhere in this business. She's the next hot young thing and she knows it (which perhaps explains a little bit of the tension and competition she feels toward Linda's character, an older and more established female star). Maybe she's eager to demonstrate this newfound tactic for getting attention, so she flirts with the audience-- why wouldn't she? She already knows that they're watching her- why not toss them a little something? She's no dummy- even though she's lending her voice to the radio, she's keenly aware that there's a studio audience to play with at the same time. In theatre, we talk about making strong choices. I thought it was more interesting and actually important for Sally and Mary to be completely different characters- it's more exciting for the audience, it's more fun for me as an actor (especially since I am one of the actors who doesn't get to play a bunch of different characters within the play). So I made that strong choice to provide a contrast between the character that I am (Sally) and the character that Sally was playing (Mary). Apparently, Leah didn't like that choice on how to play Sally (I think Leah wanted me to be Mary Hatch Bailey the entire time). Well, sorry but that's who Sally is- she's a seductive coquette, just like I wanted her to be. There's a part of me that's smugly satisfied that Leah used those specific words to criticize her because that's EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GOING FOR. Miss Stacy may not have agreed with my choice, but I succeeded in realizing that choice. You don't "struggle with character development" when you make strong choices- you struggle with it when you don't.

The most shocking part of all of this is that Miss Stacy is a fellow redhead. Shame on you, Miss Stacy- you know we have to stick together. You have betrayed the Sisterhood. I shun you for this, the most personal betrayal of all, for surely you should know better.

To read the entire review, click here. To purchase your tickets to the show so you can see what I'm talking about, click here.

Let's face it, I'm pooped!

Blazing Saddles quote for the win!

I felt the need to post again, friends, for I am still attempting to atone for my recent 6-month absence on Adorakle Gal. But as I sat at my desk, toiling to come up with a clever subject to rant/expound upon, I found that my mind-grapes seem to have shriveled into dried-up raisins. Such is the level of my current state of exhaustion...

...exhaustion...

...hmmm... perhaps I could write about my current state of exhaustion, indeed...

I proceeded to type "exhausted" into my browser's Bing image search, just to see if I could find a solitary image that spoke to my ass-dragginess today. What I saw was horrifying.

Here are some of the familiar faces of exhaustion, according to the interwebs:



Why do these feet have faces???



A sleepy skin suit?




I put this picture in this list for the sole reason that I hate squirrels. So very much.



Horrifying watermelon.



Questionable amputee toddler takes a weary break from swimming.



...excuse me?



Rodent jazz bands.



I think this (wo)man? ate Linda Carter.

It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play

Vintage kid pile tableau.

Confession 1: Up until three weeks ago, I had never seen as much as 1 minute of the film "It's A Wonderful Life". This is what I knew-- 1940s tall-man Jimmy Stewart plays a dude with a lot of kids who is generally disgrunted with everything and needs the help of an angel named Clarence, who obviously does a good job because in the end our vertically-ample hero is standing in his swarm of offspring, the tiniest of whom chirps the famous lines about bells and wings and Jimmy gargles out "Atta boy, Clarence!" and the thing ends in a charming tableau. That was the extent of my "It's A Wonderful Life" knowledge.

Until three weeks ago, when I got an email from Jack at Blackfriars, asking me if I would accept the role of Mary Bailey in their holiday production of "It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play". My initial reaction was "oh man I just finished performance of 'Working' at the JCC and Jeff just finished marching band season and it's literally the first week I've had since August when I don't have to be in rehearsals every single night do I really want to commit to another month of rehearsals followed by another month of performances on top of the 8 work-related events that I have to run at Geva this holiday season I feel like I completely missed Autumn 2012 and what if I miss Holidays 2012 because I'm just jumping from show to show gaaaaaahhhhd I just wanna sleep and sit on my couch but I love theatre and opportunities what should I dooooooooo????". That was literally the run-on sentence that played on loop in my head. Fortunately, Jack assured me that the time-commitment would be minimal and said the following magic words: "Jake Purcell is playing George Bailey".

This is Jake Purcell.

Meow. I met Jake last year when he was acting in "The Mystery of Irma Vep" and I was hanging around the theatre to teach a drag queen a rap I had written about Hamlet for the show (I realize how odd that statement sounds, but it is completely true). Our paths crossed again when he was cast as "Joe Kennedy" in Grey Gardens last May, which I worked backstage on. Finally, this was our chance to share the staaaahge! So I said "yes" and jumped onboard the "It's A Wonderful Life" train. The day before the read-through, I made Jeff go to Record Archive with me so I could purchase a VHS copy of the movie, so I wouldn't completely embarrass myself in the first rehearsal when everyone else knew who they were playing and what was going on and I didn't. Due to my crazy schedule, I managed to watch the first half and felt pretty okay about how I was going to do "Mary Bailey"- at least for the first rehearsal!

We started rehearsals with a read-through on November 14th and determined our rehearsal schedule-- I would only be needed at 10 short rehearsals before we opened on December 7th! AND, the rest of the cast is amazing-- Jake "I am very tall" Purcell, Peter Doyle (who I got to work with in Sunday in the Park last summer), Brian Doran (who I met when he was in Grey Gardens), and Linda Gallagher Loy (who I had never met, but who is a hilarious peach of a woman)- so much hysterical laughter which this bunch! AND, because it's supposed to be a live radio play, we would be reading our lines on loose pages in our hands during performances! So no memorization needed! AND, because it's a live radio play with a set consisting of some chairs on either side of two old-fashioned microphones, there would be no blocking to learn! Ummmm.... talk about a BREEZE! Add in that I am one of the two people in the cast who just play one character (poor Brian, Peter and Linda each play around 5-10 characters), and you've got the easiest theatre process I could possibly imagine! Hopefully it stays easy at tonight's rehearsal, the first and final dress rehearsal-- one never knows what can happen when you add gloves, heels and a wig (red, of course) to the mix...


Confession 2: I STILL haven't seen the whole movie.


Also, this is what Jake looks like when he's not smoldering at cameras:

Now you understand my eagerness to act opposite this man.

Mind Your Damn Manners!

For my 28th birthday this past August, Jeff gave me a subscription to Rochester Broadway Theatre League's 2012-2013 season! That's 5 lovely theatre-related date nights over the course of the year! Jeff scored many points with this gift. In October, we enjoyed a national touring production of "Mary Poppins". Jeff had never seen the movie (this is shocking), so it was a fun experience for both of us! So last night, I was very excited to return for the second show of the season, Memphis, which I had seen already on Netflix (yes, there's a recording of the actual Broadway production on Netflix... awesomeness, Netflix!). I walked away from the theatre last night at 10:30pm with extremely strong feelings. Unfortunately, these strong feelings were not about the show, but rather about the blatant lack of theatre etiquette that I witnessed all around me throughout the course of the evening.

I distinctly remember being taught the rules of good theatre etiquette way back when I was in elementary school. We were going to the high school auditorium to see a children's theatre production (I can't remember the specific production, just that the actors all sang a song called "Chicken Noodle Soup with Rice"), and I remember our teachers very deliberately going over the rules of "how to be a good audience members" on the bus.

So I was shocked to see that so many of my fellow patrons had either completely forgotten how to behave or had never been taught in the first place! Allow me to illustrate the no-no's that I witnessed last night:

"leave the Doritos at home, my child"

1) Woman sitting to my left decided that she was hungry 10 minutes into Act I and took the first scene of dialogue as an opportunity to fish through her purse, retrieve a paper bag filled with treats, and sit there crumbling paper and crunch-crunch-crunching on her snack. You are a grown-ass woman at an 8pm show- you don't need an effing snack. Eat dinner before you get to the theatre, not smack in the middle of the first scene.

2) Woman-next-to-me's husband, obviously a musical genius, just CANNOT help himself and must drum his fingers and tap the beat on his playbill (balanced on his thigh) during every single musical number. I understand that you are really feelin' the beat, sir, but there's really no need to prove to the entire row that you are the reincarnation of Gene Krupa. I paid money to hear the pit band play, not you.

3) This dude and his date decided midway through the first act that they needed to move back a row, so they stood up, collected their things and moved. Not 10 minutes later, the guy's legs were thrown over the seats in front of him, his shoes making contact with the upholstery. First of all, if you need to move seats, wait until an appropriate time- intermission. And, you know, no matter how comfortable the atmosphere, I never mistake a theatre with my living room. Theatre seats don't come with ottomans. It's 2.5 hours of your life with a 15-minute stretch break in between-- I think you will survive sitting like an appropriate adult for the duration, sir. And unless you are willing to pay to have 2,500 upholstered theatre seats professionally cleaned, keep your damn boots off of the fabric.

4) Several patrons (including one person that Jeff and I know in real life) kept their hats on for the entirety of the performance. Now, 50 years ago, hats were a staple in men's fashion- they wore them everywhere! EXCEPT indoors. And ESPECIALLY not while attending the theatre. Even growing up in snowy Oswego, a city known for its beastly winters, we were all taught to remove our snow hats once we arrived for a performance. So why is it that, as I sat there in a darkened theatre, I saw numerous men with ski caps, those stupid mini-fedoras, and baseball hats on? Remove your goddamn hat- it's a sign of respect (not to mention the fact that it's an annoying view-blocker for the unfortunate person who is stuck sitting behind you).

Bastards.

5) People who fall asleep. Unfortunately, the person sitting on the other side of me fell prey to this one (but I guess I will forgive him). I see only two scenarios, neither of which have excuses-- 1) you have been up for an obscenely long amount of time and, now that you are sitting still in a dark room, absolutely can't fight the sleepiness, or 2) you are not interested in what's happening on stage. The 3 acceptable solutions to #1 are to take a nap before you leave for the theatre, grab a coffee before the show, or switch your tickets to a night when you'll be well-rested. My solution for #2 is to find something to be interested in- examine the playbill (how many songs are left in the show? what does it say in the lead's bio? etc), really study the design elements of the show (what do you think of the costumes? whose costume do you like best? how are the lights working with the set? how do you think they did that special effect with the scenery? how are the actors using the props?), play "are they hot or not" with each member of the cast onstage, do some people-watching of the patrons sitting in the rows in front of you. I don't care WHAT you do, but find something to occupy yourself. There's always a cure for boredom, and when you are in a theatre at a live performance, sleep is never an appropriate answer. People can see you- the performance and your fellow audience members- and it's very distracting for both (and yes, as a performer, I have been very aware of those audience members who are taking a nap while I'm working my ass off onstage). If you are attending the theatre with someone who starts nodding off, I implore you to poke them in the ribs until they perk the hell up. Then when you get them home, you can send them straight to bed (without any supper!).

6) You know how they tell you to turn off your cell phones before the show even starts? Yeah... that means actually turn them off and forget you have them until the show is over, or until intermission if you can't possibly go off the grid for 2.5 hours uninterrupted (and unless you are an emergency medical professional or your wife is 40 weeks pregnant- in which case what the hell are you doing at the theatre?- you can). They don't tell you to turn them off just to keep you from taking or placing a call- this directive is meant to deter you from using your phone to text, play Words With Friends in the event that you get bored (if you get bored, see #5), or use the glaringly bright display of your iPhone as a flashlight to help you read the program mid-show (as the woman in front of me decided to do during Act II). It's not just the sound of cell phones that is distracting to performers and patrons alike, it's the light that they produce in an otherwise dark venue. Talk about an incredible distraction. Maybe I have superpower eyesight, but I've never needed to whip out my cell phone and wave it around my lap in order to see what song's next-- the stage is pretty well-lit, madam, and you might try simple tilting your program in such a way that the light from the stage illuminates the words on the page. That way, you don't distract your neighbors with the blindingly bright photo of you making duck-lips at yourself in the bathroom mirror at your local Wendy's (nice choice for a display photo, by the way).

7) Sometimes theatre people need to be reminded of the importance of manners. Case in point- we were in the upper balcony, around 10 rows from the light booth. And throughout the entire show, we could hear the technicians and crew talking in full-voice from the booth. And not always about the show. This was particularly evident during the quieter scenes with spoken lines- you know, the ones that are usually really emotional and important to the advancement of the plot. By the end of the performance, I was irritated and decided that it was my duty to alert the House Manager of this distraction from the booth. I politely explained to her where we were sitting (making sure to add that we were subscribers- aka: we'll be coming back and we'll be listening for this problem next time) and the frequency of this issue throughout the evening. She was not at all surprised-- apparently they have had complaints about it all week long from patrons sitting in our section and have had numerous conversations about it with the people in the booth. Now, as a theatre person, I understand the camaraderie that occurs backstage during performances- it's a big part of what makes doing theatre so fun. BUT, when you are in an old (read: not sound-proofed) facility, and all that separates you from your paying audience is a very thin wall with a window, you need to... I don't know... maybe not constantly shoot-the-shit in your outside voice while the show is happening. Especially when said paying customers have been complaining to the management about it after every performance. Manners aren't just expected of people in the audience- they should also be expected of the people involved in the production.