Fri 9/24/2004 4:52 AM

BECKETTFEST DAY 6 - ADVENTURES IN RENTING / FINDING A CAR IN CALIFORNIA AND BECKETT IN A "FILM CITY"

Well, most of my morning today was spent renting a car to get around, with the help of Chris, Karyl Lynn's Assistant, so I did not get to the Brown Bag Beckett Discussion this morning.

We got to the theatre a little before 1PM, and thus began a long day. I House Managed 2 shows today: "Happy Days" at 2PM and the combination "Rockaby" and "Footfalls" at 4:30. We managed to get a house of 21 some for "Happy Days" and about 35 for "Rockaby" and "Footfalls" - amazing, since both shows had a presale of 7 tickets. WHEW!

No Teddie sightings for me today before Godot - which was the 8PM show. ***SIGH*** - well, you can't have everything.

There was a dinner with a discussion named: "Unbound: "Making and Producing Beckett"" at 7:15 tonight at the Marriott. The big donors were there - but it was casual. I couldn't go, because of Godot. No one from the dinner would have made curtain.

Godot went well, though last night's audience got it better and laughed more. Both last night and tonight were almost totally full houses - which is great, considering that this is a film city and Beckett is not really for everybody. Tonight in Act II I moved down to the second row down front. Two people fell asleep in the front row during Act II - one of which, a woman, was snoring. The lady next to her woke her up. After the show, Teddie said he saw both of them. When the guy fell asleep, he said he thought that maybe he could put the basket under the guy's chin to wake him up! (LOL!). I was fighting sleepiness a little myself, because I get sleepy when I get cold, and RTC is an IGLOO! But I can say that I never totally passed out in Act II. I spent Act I in the first row balcony. It's actually a very nice seat - but I wanted to see faces so I moved down after intermission (one perk of being an usher).

Wanda and I talked to Ted briefly after the show backstage, then when we came out we talked to Stephanie Zimbalist, who was at the show with some friends tonight. Stephanie and her Father Efrem (who she says is 83!) will be appearing in Night of the Iguana, along with Joseph, which opens a week after BeckettFest is over. Efrem did not come to the show tonight. Stephanie says he's usually in bed by 10 these days (that ought to make "Iguana" quite a challenge, no?). Stephanie is very nice. I told her I saw her in The Philadelphia Story at the Cleveland Play House, and told her that I hoped to find a little time to sit in unobtrusively on an "Iguana" rehearsal while I'm still here for the Festival. She thought that was a great idea. Well - we'll see what time I can find, I guess.

While Wanda and I were backstage with Ted, I asked him if we might corral him for dinner after the shows either on Sunday or Monday. Both the evening shows on those days are very short. "Rockaby" is 15 minutes, "Footfalls" is 40 minutes, and "A Piece of Monologue" is 12 minutes long. The latest we would be finished is about 8PM. Ted said he had to go to LA on Rasputin business on Monday and Tuesday (2 days without a daily Ted sighting? I'll get the DDT's! LOL!), but if that fell through either day would be fine, and if not, Sunday sounded good. So, knock on wood, it looks like Wanda and I may actually be able to take Ted out for a couple of hours and see that he eats something!

He told me he'd know tomorrow about his schedule most likely. Ted told me he would be at the Brown Bag tomorrow at 1:30PM when we walked to our cars. He teased me about my rental, since he knew I had had to go back and get Karyl Lynn to find out what we'd driven to City Hall in yesterday. He said: "Are you sure you know what you came in? What it looks like, and where you parked it?" I said: "Yep - because this time I was there when we rented it. It's a silver Mustang!" and we laughed. Then he gave me my 2nd Tedhug of the day (the first was backstage after Godot), and said thank you. He was pretty tired tonight after the show. I considered asking him to come along with Wanda and me to grab a bite, but then I thought - well we're hopefully doing that Sunday - so there's no dire urgency - and he's just done a 2-1/2 hour show bent over! He said he was tired today, and that he's usually not. Said he needed to get some sleep, and hadn't been able to get any. I said: "You worrying too much about something?" He said: "No, I haven't done that since I saw my Mother worrying herself to death." I said good. So we got in our cars and he waited until I started mine (I said - "You knew I had trouble with that too? - When Chris and I rented the car, I couldn't figure out the ignition - because it was hard to turn.").- So it started, and Wanda by then had driven over to me. She and I went to Denny's for a late dinner (I was going on 2 Campbell's Soup at Hands, 2 pieces of string cheese, a bottle of juice and an apple - between lunch AND dinner - and I was HUNGRY!). We had a good chat about a lot of things - everything from the list and Ted and "Murder", Gunnar and Matthew Nelson, Rick Springfield - as well as JCS, and RTC. She's a really good lady, guys, so if you haven't met her yet, when you come to RTC, do say hello.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. I will be at the Brown Bag tomorrow and then we have a 3PM Trilogy (the 3-hour marathon monologue) and an 8PM Godot. Wanda will be in Sacramento tomorrow - and I was considering going up to LA to spend Yom Kippur night with my cousins, but I doubt the time frame will allow for it. We'll see.

More tomorrow from Ventura! This is just going by WAY TOO FAST!!!!!

Love,

Cindi :)

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