Break a Leg

Happy Jenday, folks!

  So, I've been watching the season finale with increasing excitement and anticipation as I know all of you have.  And I must say that I cannot WAIT for what comes next.  We've alredy seen some pretty cool special effects, i.e. Yuri talking to himself, the baby disappearing as the car drives by, etc.  Well, let me tell you, my friends: this is only the begining.  I won't, of course, give any details because that would just ruin the surprise, but I'm as giddy as a little school girl. 

  There's something else I'm giddy about: Shakespeare.  As I've mentioned once or twice I will be doing a pirate-themed version of Taming of the Shrew this summer with a local community theater.  This is great for me because, as you know, I'm a pirate.  Ok, I don't actually work on a ship or steal government treasure, but there is a lot of drinking and debauchery. 

  The part I'm playing is Grumio, which is not a large part as far as lines are concerned, but he is the sidelick to the main character, which means I spend quite a lot of time on stage without much to say.  Which means me doing what I do best: chewing up scenery and generally upstaging the hell out of everybody.  There is a tenant in acting that many directors have, which is this: "During the rehearsal process, it is better to give too much and have to be brought down a peg or two than to never give enough."  There are many times where it is difficult to push yourself so far that you need to be wrangled in.  However, in this case, I can almost guarantee that the director will have to virtually anchor me to the stage and bind my hands and legs, and STILL have to put me behind a wall to stop me from stealing scenes.  There is a reason they are called "plays" and I intend to illustrate that point with every trick, every whacky notion, every comedic fiber of my being.

  This propensity to induce more physical comedy is, if I were to take artistic license in my writing and I don't see why I shouldn't, the bane of Yuri's existence.  Since we started working on Break A Leg about two years ago, Yuri has had to consantly admonish me with the fact that "we're not acting for stage here, it's tv: less is more."  Which I find terribly boring, but he assures me is funnier.  It's his show, so I'll let him go ahead and think that.  Then, there are rare moments when he will say "Ok, Chad, go ahead and act naturally."  He means to act in what I consider to be a "natural" way, not what other people would consider "natural".  This means hamming it up, being overly dramatic, and mostly idiotic.  Hooray for type casting.

   Anyway, the upshot of all this is that the director of Taming of the Shrew has asked me if I would like to come talk about Break A Leg to her Professional Acting Class, which she teaches at local college.  I find this slightly ironic because while we here at Break A Leg act as professionals and produce a product of professional quality; and while I have, in my career, acted for various professional theater/film/tv companies, I don't consider myself to actually be a professional.  According to dictionary.com, profession is defined in one way as "following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain".  And while I do occasionally get paid for the work I do, often in snacks, I am in no way able to make any kind of extended livelihood from my work in that area.  Furthermore, I have taken roughly four acting classes.  Take into consideration that the average Bachelor of Fine Arts program requires somewhere around thirty.  So, for me to stand in front of a bunch of people that probably have more technical knowledge of acting than I do and talk to them about acting seems a bit...silly.  But, I do have one thing going for me they don't: I knew Yuri first and I was just the idiot he was looking for.

  The point is that because of the professional appearance of Break A Leg, we are getting these kinds of offers and because of our professionalism, we are getting a lot of attention, which is great even if (heaven forbid) Break a Leg doesn't continue in the future.

And don't forget to "Ask Jennifer" something today!

Chad "Jennifer is not gay" Yarish