Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 394 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

One More Day

October 24, 2021 at 9:19 am by Claudia

This morning, looking out on the Back Forty.

Oh, it will be so hard to leave all of this. I’m such a homebody, such a nester – leaving is always hard, especially when I will be on my own in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Everything in me screams, “Stay home!”

On the other hand, this is a wonderful opportunity and an adventure. A job – the biggest I’ve ever had. And I’m profoundly grateful for it. I know it will be exciting and scary and my first thought is “I have no idea where to go when I get to the first shooting location, or what to do when I get there!” But, I’ll figure it out and as Don says, there will be people there to help me figure it out.

The first few days will be about acclimating myself, figuring out the subway from Brooklyn and where I connect in Manhattan. There’s a Whole Foods two city blocks away from my apartment – I’m pleased about that! We spent some time online yesterday looking at the neighborhood, trying to figure out what is where, etc. Don is in charge of driving directions, which, as you might expect when you’re traveling from upstate NY, through parts of NJ, across the George Washington Bridge, down to lower Manhattan/Battery Park and then through a tunnel to Brooklyn, are very complicated. Then he has to reverse them and drive back home. It will be a long day for him. But he has to go back on the same day as his car is in the shop and he’s expecting a package.

He’ll come back on the weekend, probably on the train.

I’m very fortunate to be renting this apartment from Annie, who is a former student of mine from my Boston University days. She and her husband own and live in the building, which is a brownstone in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. The apartment is on the top floor, but I enter through their house. Annie has already answered a lot of my questions and I’ll have plenty more of them re: mass transit. She often works in Manhattan, so she’ll have all the answers. So, it seems like the best of all possible worlds.

Traveling into Manhattan for filming will take some time and adding the Brooklyn leg to the trip means my commute will be longer than usual, but I expect I’ll have it down soon enough.

Anyway, this post will be it until Tuesday, as I have a LOT to do today and tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Peter

October 23, 2021 at 9:36 am by Claudia

Suddenly, I’m leaving for NYC in two days. I have a lot to do in that time and I lost a few days earlier in the week because I was sick. So, it’s crunch time here at the cottage.

But today, I’d like to take a moment to mourn our friend, Peter Scolari, who passed away from cancer at the age of 66 – much too young. I met him and immediately liked him, but Don was the one who really knew him. In 2002, they were in a production of The Foreigner at the Berkshire Theater Festival. I saw it. It was wildly funny and the lead role of Charlie Baker was absolutely brilliantly done by Peter. Also in the cast was the late, great Betsy Palmer. I met Peter on the green in front of the theater where he was playing with his kids. He was a lovely, funny, and kind man. He was also a gloriously talented actor. Don ran into him in NYC over the years and they always had a great time catching up with each other.

But let me share Don’s Facebook post about Peter:

I was honored to work with Peter Scolari in 2002. We were doing The Foreigner at Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge. I got to play Froggy to his Charlie Baker. Peter was a Buster Keaton fan. As am I. He named a child of his Keaton to honor him. That kind of a fan. Well, we both knew that Buster had played the same old theatre years ago, and there were these very old wooden steps leading up to the stage which we had to use to enter. Peter and I opened the show and in the dark each night, we took a silent pause at the bottom of those old wooden steps, for we knew they were the very same ones HE had walked up. Sounds corny, but we were dead serious. Call it an actor’s prayer. Every show. Peter was the funniest, kindest, most gifted actor I ever worked with. I ran into him in Manhattan years later, and he told me he thought I was like Abraham Lincoln. I’m very sad today, and humbled, and grateful.

Oh, how he’ll be missed. Don and I talked about him often. In fact, we saw him in a very funny episode of King of Queens a couple of weeks ago. As always, Don spoke of what a wonderful actor and human being he was. And that Peter was an amazing juggler, and he always juggled on his rehearsal breaks.

He and Tom Hanks were great friends from the day they started work on Bosom Buddies until his death.

I’m thinking of Peter today.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Friday – Feeling Better

October 22, 2021 at 8:22 am by Claudia

Number 3.

There are so many little buds out there and I checked the weather forecast: no frost for the next two weeks. Unfortunately, I leave on Monday, so Don has orders to take lots of photos for me.

I’m still congested but I feel so much better today. I ended up doing an at-home Covid test yesterday, simply because if, for some reason, I had it, I would have to notify everyone on the film. I was sure I didn’t have it, as I get these things once or twice a year and I always wear a mask when I am out in public – outside and inside. Nevertheless, if I was to be quarantined, better to know before I moved to Brooklyn.

It was negative.

I’ll have to take my first ‘working on the film’ official Covid PCR test next Wednesday, since we have to have them within 48 hours of our first day on the set and my first day is Friday. That is in addition to 3 or 4 quick tests every week. Each new week requires a PCR test as well as the quick tests, so I’ll be a veteran by the end of this shoot.

Today I’m going to run around getting things I need to take with me. Anything I can buy here, I’ll buy, as anything purchased in the city is more expensive.

It’s beautiful out there again today. Don has a zoom audition this afternoon. I’ve been mostly sitting on the living room sofa, blowing my nose, but today is a new day.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

One More Day

Peter

Friday – Feeling Better

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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