Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Week 4 begins in the THEATRE~ Carpet Training, Flying in a harness & an Elephant

So Monday was our first day moving into the Theatre. Holy shit, I have never performed in anything that big. I think the stage at Middlesex was close, but the wing space in this theatre is huge as well. It was really exciting to walk into the house and look up at the balcony. It's going to be great to see that house full!

First up was going to be the introduction to the harness that we would be putting on for our effects in the show. So I don't spoil the show for all of you who will no doubt come to see it, let's just say that Aladdin does some flying across the stage that will be a pretty cool part to watch. I was a little nervous at first, because this thing is flinging me across the stage at probably 20ft in the air, but after getting down the technical things, I was just having fun doing it over and over. One part will suck because I have to sit hoisted like 50ft in the air for a few minutes by the lights and I'm sitting in this uncomfortable harness that squashes anything in it's way if ya catch my drift ;)

After that, we headed up to learn the, "Gantry" and fly the carpet through the house above the audience. This by far was one of my fav's of the day, because this was like a freaking ride at the park. It was a bit scary at parts for SURE! First of all it dips down and it looks like you are going to fall, but then it levels out and runs its course dipping and diving, flipping and jiving. It's just like the movie, we do flips and duck under trees and what not LOL...just kidding, but you'll see, it is really fun. There was one part that one of the veteran Aladdin's named Eddie wanted to warn us about and the tech guy was just wanting to discover it on our own LOL It's called the surge, and it is a point through the carpets flight pattern that it shoots up really fast and you feel like you are going to fall off. The first time I was ready for it and it still made me cringe. We ran it again and I was challenging myself to not hold on to anything to see what it would be like during the show and I was chatting with the Jasmin who was up there with me and I almost died. I had forgotten about the surge and it started to climb and it was too late to posture up, I mean we are strapped to the carpet, but I don't care to find out what it would feel like if I were to fall off. I f'n grabbed on to the closest thing and held on for dear life. Well worth price of admission ;) I'm also glad to see that the tech's in the show have a sense of humor to scare us poor newbies. It's also weird for me to call them techs, I'm used to crew.

After lunch it was time to learn how to ride the elephant. Now, in case you forgot or haven't seen the movie, Aladdin rides up to the Princess in an elephant right? Well, this is Disney kids and we are doing it in style here. It was pretty cool to sit in this thing and, it is quite large. His name is Babar. Just kidding, I don't know if it his a name. But he's really nice and he drops me off right at the foot of the stage. Wait till you see it.

Today (Tuesday) we met some more vets and we began to block One Jump on the stage which is a new experience with moving set pieces and scenery. I also have to run down two flights of stairs and sprint right into the beginning of the number, which we staged today. Mark, one of the other Al's showed Carl, Marc Oka and I his method, which was basically grabbing the railings and jumping as we slide down on our hands (if that makes sense.) I've done this a lot before, so it wasn't a big deal, but the other two guys were not having it LOL The last flight, I pretty much have to run down and just hit every third or 4th step. I also managed to scare, "Poison Oka" twice by gabbing his foot as he was looking out of one of the high windows and then another time, by joining in with his singing by staring at him from the window right next to him. One Jump is a blast with everything and I did it 4 times. 2 back to back with a break and then the next two. Surprisingly, I felt pretty good after each. I think I'm starting get used to it. I actually was not breathing hard at all, the sweat was still there, but even that was better.

Earlier in the day all of the Al's and Jas' were called to work on Whole New World with the Vocal Consultant, Todd. This was the first time that all of the Aladdin's were together. We are all so different. It's surprising.

I got to fly in my harness a couple of times today, which was also a lot of fun. A group of us were having a backstage chat and I almost missed my cue for my entrance...ok I did miss it and was like 2 steps behind, but I recovered ;)

We also took our spirit days to a new level and introduced our first theme. Today was 80's rehearsal. Last night I got home and passed out around 9:30 and woke up without my alarm at 7:30 which gave me a half an hour to get everything ready. I was panicking because I didn't know what to wear. After a quick search on google, I came across a suggestion that mimicked Miami Vice. So I grabbed my white blazer, put on a light green tshirt, some khakis, shoes and sunglasses and I was ready. As I looked in the cabinet for the hair dryer to style my hair, I noticed a can of gold spray hair color. I thought of Don Johnson and sprayed that shit on...granted I looked like I had a grey hair and some people thought I was taylor hicks, but on some level, people guessed right away. One of our cast members Matt came up to me and said he had a hard time figuring out my costume but then he finally got it. He then went on to reveal that he thought I was just dressing like an 80 year old and that it was a joke, get it? Like I was supposed to be in my eighties! LOL

At lunch, there were a few hairs Juan's cup of water and we started to joke around to dare someone to drink it and then, I pulled a gross one. I started pour a little bit of everyone's lunch, most of which was left over into the cup of water/hair. I told them I would drink it for some dough. Some of the stuff I poured in: Sour Cream, Honey Butter, Baked Beans, Left over tortilla wrap with something in it, chicken gravy with chunks of chicken and who knows what else, pepper...i forget what else. By this point, some people were beyond grossed out, Juan was telling me that I had to chug the whole thing for his 5 bucks and Will was grossed out and just kept repeating how much of a bad idea this was. LOL He kept reminding me that I was going to be running around all afternoon in One Jump, which I was nervous about, but by this point, there was no turning back. The deal was that I would have to take a big swig, pause to show it to the camera and then swallow. I brought the cup to my mouth to prepare and I heard someone dry heave, I looked over and it was David and this probably grossed me out more. After I saw he was laughing I went back to the cup and as I tilted my head back, I could hear the groans and yells. I paused as the nastiness reached my toungue and opened the mouth to offer another gross moment to everyone and the did the deed. People were standing up and walking away, some of the veteran cast members, who I only knew for 3 hours at this point were just in shock and some random guy on his phone was trying to figure out what everyone was grossed out by. The fear factor concoction I drank at Universal definitely was worse, but this one looked pretty bad. Not sure what I gained from it, I didn't even get my 5 bucks because I didn't drink the whole thing. But oh well..

A fun day once again.

Other random goodness. The cafeteria that we have to eat at now that we are at the Theatre, sucks. We were spoiled before. It's also a bit of a walk it seems. However, there is a food truck that comes by while we are in the middle of rehearsal, but I was lucky to catch it today and it looks to be food truck quality. Parking is easier (knock on wood) so far though. It is always cold in EVERY building in Disneyland! WHY?! We have a nice little green room that has plenty of games, two pianos, free coffee and hot choc, a massage chair and comfortable couches. Don't spray gold/white hair stuff in before sweating in rehearsal...

TiLL NeXt TiMe!

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