And Here....We....Go!

Day one of rehearsal is done and in the record books!

After starting this snowball rolling back in December, it felt great to finally be in the rehearsal room and get these characters on their feet. The show is going to be nothing but intense, high-stakes energy, so I found it pretty fitting that the very first thing we covered was stage combat. Beau laid the foundation for all the crazy conflicts he is planning for the show, plus the cast had a great time beating each other up.

Bryan is about to let Derek have it. Ashley is in awe.

Carla gave Eli a piece of her mind, Ashley's thinking about doing the same to Danelle.

Thanks to some quick camera skills, I was able to capture the most epic moment of the night on video. I believe Josh's description of it was "magical":

And Josh's reaction.

After Beau slogged through his teaching with a killer toothache but a great attitude, scripts were distributed along with highlighters and we began our first read-through of the script since the beginning of February. Instead of the standard table read, Josh had the cast do a standing read. There were lots of great ideas and moments that came out of it and I'm thrilled to see the characters I've been staring at on paper come to life.

Stay tuned for tonight's rehearsal blog!

Oh, oh! Wait! Before you go...since you're on the internet anyway, our lovely webmistress Breahan has updated the Hobo Junction website and you should check it out!

The Calm Between The Storms

Patty McHobo's has come and gone, and rehearsals are imminent!

Wednesday evening kicked off with something I personally have never done before - having headshots taken. Official Sister of the Junction, Sarahflo obliged me in snapping some photos so I could have a pretty one for the new Hobo Junction website design. You will soon be able to find the entire creative team's photos and bios on the site, courtesy of Ms. Breahan Pautsch, the lovely webmistress of HJ.

After our mini-photo shoot, it was off to pick up the lovely Vallery Dolls and her fancy keyboard to transport to The Spot. Val did a fantastic job opening the show and was soon joined by the one and only Chad from "CRASH PAD" (see YouTube link in the sidebar). Chad and Vallery were our MCs for the evening's talent show, which was filled with everything from dollars inside of lemons to Storytime with Beau to dances with pillows. Needless to say, a good time was had by all, and many of us stayed for some karaoke. (Val - thanks for pulling me up onstage for dancing!)

With the FUNdraiser done, we now look forward to the meat of the process....rehearsals! Spent a good chunk of time at Office Max this evening copying Draft 6 of the script, which will be our working version, and re-stocking my supply of pencils, highlighters, etc. I am truly a nerd, because a trip to Office Max for me is like a trip to Toys R Us for a three year old. I was able to contain myself for the most part. I couldn't resist the scented highlighters.

Look for more to come, as well as more frequent posts, after Sunday! On the agenda is Stage Combat Sunday with Beau Forbes. He gave me some more insights into his ideas when we chatted on Wednesday at the benefit and I am excited to see these visions become reality. This Sunday will be laying the basic skills/ground rules/techniques so in the following weeks things can get crazy! Once Beau has worked his magic for the week, we will have our first cast reading since February 11 and the first reading of this version of the script. Stay tuned!

Slainte!

It's tomorrow!

Are you ready?

I am!

...and so is Z-Bot!

Tickets!

Like me, I'm sure many of you receive emails from concert promoters and ticket services on a weekly basis. I have to say I'm generally guilty of just deleting the email after I take a quick browse at some of the headliners. However, I received my weekly TicketMaster email today, and decided just for fun to see what was coming up. Lo and behold, HOBO JUNCTION: THE REGULARS was on the front page! Tickets go on sale tomorrow through TicketMaster for the run of the show, which is May 7-June 13. They're priced at $15. My advice? Give the Apollo box office a call. They're good folk and very chatty. Their number is (773)935-6100. Get 'em before your friends! Then you can say you were in from the start! Of course, for those of us who prefer clicking a button to dialing a phone, TicketMaster is always an option!

So, just to recap...

Tickets for THE REGULARS

On Sale March 12, 2010!

$15

(773)935-6100

or through TicketMaster

'Cause We Find Ourselves In The Same Old Mess...

ONE WEEK UNTIL PATTY McHOBO's TALENT McSHOWBO!

Have you submitted your talent to hobojunction@sbcglobal.net yet? No?! What are you waiting for? It will be the place to be on St. Patrick's Day in Chicago!

Come join the Hobo Junction crew and cast of The Regulars!

"It's a collaboration between handsome gifted people and sickly little mole people."

To me it seems to be the calm before the storm right now...Patty O'Hobo's is in a week, rehearsals begin in two, we open in seven. Hmmm...seeing those numbers laid out damages my calm a bit, but things are well under control. The revision of Act 3 should be coming across my Gmail from Mr. Zagoren within a few hours, the rehearsal schedule will likewise trickle out to the actors once I have that in my possession. I did mention a calm right now, but that's not completely true. We've all been working like crazy (because we are). Josh has been writing music and revising the script, C-Rex has been coming up with new and exciting ways to market the show, the actors were out promoting this weekend while on their various social appointments, and Beau Forbes is amping up for some fight choreography that I can only hope will rival every Zelda boss I have ever come up against on my Nintendo.

Spent the day in the city yesterday, with mostly a social agenda but because of how I operate, I managed to get some work slipped in alongside. Had a lovely brunch with a couple of the cast members and their significant others, went book shopping at Borders (always a danger for me), then met up with Josh and Andrew. Andrew designed the set and was the Tech Director for Horrible, and I wanted to show him my concepts for the set and have him give me his thoughts. As Andrew whipped up some delicious jambalaya, we talked about the conceptual ideas as well as the construction realities of the set and space of the Apollo Studio. Andrew had some great advice and I feel much more confident moving forward with the plan now.

After the work was finished, a whole bunch of people crammed into Andrew's apartment to watch the Oscars. And by watch, I mean rip to shreds. It was quite easily the Windy City's version of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 goes to the Oscars. We were all pulling for Kathryn Bigelow to win, as she brought us that fabulous masterpiece POINT BREAK! Glad there was some NPH action and was thrilled with Tom Hanks's presentation of the Best Picture Oscar. Open the envelope and just read it! And although all the Dude wanted was his rug back, I hope the Oscar is a pretty decent consolation prize.

Has anyone figured out who the crazy woman in purple was?

Finding the Corner Pieces

Well, Pre-Production as "officially" begun! We've had our designer meeting, much excitement came from that. And yesterday, the cast received Act 1 as well as all the songs for the show. It feels like I've been working on things for this show for quite a while now and still have a ways to go. That was until I sat down and started working on the rehearsal schedule today. Not so much time left now! We begin rehearsals March 21. Yes, there was a long break between casting and rehearsals, but never fear there is still much work being done! Josh is plugging away having amazing character meetings with each actor. So far (correct me if I'm wrong folks), he's met with Bryan about "Simon", Maddy about "Autumn", Danelle about "Molly", and Ashley about "Sunny." Everyone else should be meeting with Herr Director in the next week or so. Also heard from Beau Forbes, our esteemed Fight Choreographer today and he's got some amazingness in the works for this production. But then again, what fight using restaurant equipment isn't amazing?

So I have begun work on the rehearsal schedule now that everyone has submitted their conflicts to me and we have a working draft of the script. It's like one big jigsaw puzzle, fitting in people when they're available, using up all the time we have (and sometimes more).

Again, off-topic of The Regulars, I attended The Chicago Fringe Fest's Lottery on Sunday night. It was pretty amazing, you should feel bad about missing it. I took Bryan and Maddy along with me to see what we could see. Met some great folks, drank some delicious hot cocoa with homemade blue marshmallows (sorry they weren't pink, Bry), and was entertained by the one and only VALLERY DOLLZ who we all know and love. Luke, you organized a fabulous event. Wish the three of us could have made it to the after-lottery events, but IHOP late night pancakes were just too darn tempting, as was a warm and cozy bed. Once I returned home to my cozy bed in Joliet on Monday morning (thank you, Casimir Pulaski), I didn't do much to move out of it. I think I'm finally on the downhill end of this cold, and will once again be able to use my full brainpower, un-addled by Day-Quil and other such cold medicines. Until then, this is Hopper-Chopper signing off.