Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Stress Reliever

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Life has been very busy lately. And it’s only going to ramp up once filming starts. Yes, everyone is worried about a strike, but I’m choosing to put that out of my mind as much as possible. In the meantime, I’m coaching Ben every day lately, there’s a read-through on Saturday, I’ve had to invoice the parent company for my coaching so far and had a great chat with one of the accountants who is wildly funny, I’ve had COVID protocol information sent to me from NBC/Universal, I had to schedule a PCR test for 2 days before I have to be on the set…lots of communications coming my way. Ben said the same thing yesterday.

In times of stress, what do I do?

Play dolls.

Mid-morning yesterday found me dressing the girls in dresses from Rose and Cacao. The woman behind these imaginative clothes lives in England. I just love her style. The red shoes came from England as well; from a seller who sent a pair to me a couple of months back that never arrived. She was so responsive when I said that I never got them and immediately dispatched a replacement, which arrived the other day.

As soon as they were dressed, I ran to the stairway, posed them, took a picture or two, then ran upstairs to coach Ben. There’s this one place on the lower landing that gets some light from the skylight. Really helps on a cloudy day.

When I take a moment to play with ‘the girls’ my stress level goes down. As soon as I try a new outfit on one or both of them, I show Don, who – God bless him – gets it and responds appropriately.

I have to take a minute to say how supportive he has been through this very busy time, how often he stops to tell me how proud of me he is, how willing he is to listen to me when I need to talk, and what a great sounding board he is. I lucked out with this guy.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

Surprise Bloom

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Well, look what I saw from the bedroom window yesterday morning! I thought I was seeing things so I went outside to investigate. One lone beautiful bloom – about two months after they normally bloom. The same thing happened last year. I did see another bud but I don’t think I’m going to see a lot of flowers at this time of the year. It’s been fairly warm for October so far, but we can get snow and hard frosts and have.

A nice little anniversary present!

Speaking of our anniversary, thank you for all the lovely comments. We had planned to go to a restaurant in Woodstock that has a beautiful outdoor dining area, but I ended up having to work. So,  Don got Chinese food take-out from a place in a neighboring town which we just learned about. This little area we live in suffers from a lack of good Chinese restaurants, so it’s been ages since we’ve had any – in fact, I think it was several years ago in NYC. Oh, it was good! And we have leftovers, which is always nice.

It was a busy day but we kicked back in the evening with good food and a Nordic Noir series.

Today, tomorrow, and Friday, I coach Ben. The director called me the other day with some things he wanted adjusted – all good ideas – so we’re doing that. I’m in a different world now and I’m aware that in this world, people can get fired at the drop of a hat – unlike theater. There are a lot of people with input; production companies, money people, directors. It’s a bit overwhelming, honestly. And we’ve basically been working in a vacuum up until now, so it’s good to have feedback.

And then there’s the possibility of a strike.

I have to fight the urge to just toss it all and  stay here in my little nest.

New things can be hard.

So, I coach, then I help Don self-tape an audition. That’s our day today.

By the way, yesterday and the day before, there was a sweet Carolina wren singing on our porch, flitting from chair to chair. Right next to the picture window! Maybe one of our wrens was visiting the old home site? It made me very happy.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Misty Morning

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More misty mornings.

Spider webs everywhere, leaves turning color, an altogether magical-almost-otherworldly landscape. That is one of the joys of autumn.

I am coaching Ben both today and tomorrow, so this has turned out to be a satisfying week of working almost every day. That  hasn’t happened in a long time! It’s wonderful to feel productive and valued and to have the opportunity to do what I do best. Though I am prone to the same doubts as everyone, I am good at what I do and I know it.

One of my former students wrote me the other day. One of the things I taught my students at both Boston University and the University of San Diego, was the International Phonetic Alphabet and its use in transcribing sounds and sound changes. Each symbol represents a sound (and there are far more out there than I had to teach my actors) and they are invaluable for transcribing sound changes for dialect work. Elisa, who I taught at USD, said this:

I was thinking of and channeling you today. After many years of not doing any IPA, I dusted it off today to transcribe Chinese. My son just started taking classes and I am working with him at home. Without IPA, I would not be able to capture the sounds that we need to have to refer to. At any rate, it’s not the original application, but I thought you might like to know that your teaching in phonetics helped me greatly in teaching my dyslexic son to read, and now I am passing my transcription skills to the next generation. 😊

Isn’t that the best? I can’t tell you how much this kind of thing means to me. To see it being used in a new and fresh way that adapts to Elisa’s particular situation is wonderful. I will hold this close to my heart.

I also had a former student reach out to ask me if I could send her the phonetic changes for a German dialect, which I somehow managed to find in my files. I sent them off to her, with the proviso that they were general and if she needed more specific regional sound changes, she’d need to research them.

The coaching and the interaction with former students all happened within the past four days, so I’m beginning to recognize my professional self again.

We stayed up late watching the Red Sox vs Yankees the other night. The Red Sox won, thank goodness (sorry, Yankees fans – I was perfectly willing to accept a Yankees win, if it happened) and tonight they start their 3 game series with the Tampa Bay Rays (my sister’s team.) The Rays are really, really good, so this will be interesting. We don’t often get to watch the Red Sox because we’re not in their broadcast area, so this will be fun.

Okay. Have to get going and put makeup on to zoom coach! After a year and half of no makeup, I’ve been wearing it quite a bit lately.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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