Impossible to get a full-on straight photo of these shelves as they’re tucked into a corner with two different side tables in the way. And a lamp.
I have been feeling under the weather since yesterday. That storm was pretty extreme and the change in barometric pressure always does a number on my sinuses. And the wind, which was relentless for over 24 hours. It feels like I have a cold, but I don’t.
Some good news. On Tuesday, I received an email through my professional web site. Now, I have been seriously considering deleting that site because I really don’t get any work from it. Work, for me, comes through word of mouth and colleagues I’ve worked with before. It costs money to maintain that site, and I thought “I’m 70. Time to delete it.” But Don talked me into keeping it, especially since I’d just worked on the film. Back to the email. It was from a staff member at the Paper Mill Playhouse, which is a very well known theater in New Jersey – in fact, it’s the State Theater of New Jersey. The managing director there (Mike) used to work at Hartford Stage and I know him well. He recommended me for dialect coach on their upcoming production of Murder On the Orient Express. Could I contact them? Though I suppose they could have tracked me down via Darko, who is a good friend of Mike, they ended up tracking me down via my web site.
We chatted yesterday and then I talked to the director and now I have a job. I have a feeling there was someone else slotted for this job because they start rehearsals a week from Monday. I have to research 8 different dialects! Gulp.
But it’s work! And I’m grateful. They rehearse in NYC, so I’ll be traveling off and on to the city, as well as to the theater, and perhaps some zoom work, as well.
I always love the opportunity to work at a new-to-me theater. Very grateful. This makes up for the cancellation of the Broadway run of A Man of No Importance. I’m probably earning a bit more on this production than I would have on AMONI, since it wouldn’t have needed much rehearsal and everyone already knew the dialect.
Today, I’m taking it easy, save for reading the script, and then I’ll start my research on the weekend.
Like any actor or freelance designer or director, I’m always afraid my current job might be my last. And someday that will happen. But right now, I need the work and the income, so this is a nice turn of events.
Now we need a job for Don.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
I am so HAPPY for you, I could cry! It is exciting too!
Take Care,
Kaye
Thank you Kaye!
Stay safe.
Oh…that is great news about the job! Congrats! ;)
Thank you, Donnamae.
Stay safe.
Prayers answered. Thrilled for you.
Thank you, Brenda.
Stay safe.
hope you feel better soon! has your snow melted (especially on the driveway)? hopefully there’s no need for you or don to get out there and shovel … especially when not feeling 100%.
congratulations on the job (and it’s an agatha christie work, too)! i am very happy for you.
i will keep praying for you all and “all”, of course, includes don. anyone who wants to work deserves to work. plus, the world just needs more of don’s talents!
nice photo of some of your books. you have an interesting mix! i see some familiar books, including “bayou farewell” by mike tidwell. sad topic about the troubles we humans have brought in re-routing the mississippi river down south, but important and very well written (plus i love louisiana). that book has stayed on my own little “top ten” list for many years and i have no plans to get rid of it (despite having read it several times). also see some louise penny and mary oliver books (she has such a love of nature!), the Bible, … thanks for sharing.
today is my great-niece’s birthday; she is now twelve years old. very smart, loves animals and art and, most importantly but not surprisingly, she is a kind person. :) hope to get to see her and the rest of my family soon, but might not be today … i haven’t checked yet, but i had a temperature yesterday along with other ways of not feeling well. will check on that in a bit, but for now will continue a bit more with my slow start to the day.
hope you all have a good, easy day. stay safe!
kathy
I hope you’re feeling better, Kathy. You gave me that book!
The Bible was my Mom’s copy. It sat on our bookshelves when I was a kid.
Stay safe.
oh, that’s right. haha. i’ve given several copies of that book to people who either care deeply about the environment and/or love louisiana and the gulf coast.
glad you have the Bible.
feeling better. thanks.
:)
kathy
The cover of the Bible is cracking and dried out but when I was visiting my dad (when I got the car), he wanted me to take some things with me and I grabbed the Bible and added it to the pile. We had a small, built-in bookshelf in our living room when I was a child and it lived there.
sweet.
our living room had three shelves built-in next to the fireplace that held a mix of some of our family’s books, including a set of world book encyclopedias. :)
Yes, we had an encyclopedia, too!
dear Claudia/Don — so glad to hear this good news!!! hoping it all works out. you know IMO 70 years old does NOT sound that old HAHA. stay safe/healthy
It does and doesn’t to me. Sometimes, it seems very old. But it isn’t! I refuse to feel old.
Stay safe, Linda.
dear Claudia/Don — have to send a favorite Irish saying/blessing to a very special couple–
“May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you are dead” !! stay safe/healthy
Ah, thank you, my friend.
xo
Congrats on the job! Sounds like a challenge with 8 dialects. Bad things seem to come in 3s…I wonder if good things do too? If so, you’ve escaped the snowstorm, you’ve got a job…now a job for Don would complete the triad.
Take care
It is a challenge. And 8 dialects that I have to pull together in a week’s time!
Thank you.
Stay safe.
Excellent news and it’s Agatha Christie!
Happy Thursday
Yes! Thanks, Dee Dee.
Stay safe.
So very happy for you! Congratulations!
BTW, they say that 70 is the new 50. I don’t know who the “they”are but it does sound correct.
I know that I am busier and happier than I have ever been.
I have a feeling that you will find that also.
Lyn
I’ll go with 50!
Thanks so much, Lyn.
Stay safe.
I’m so happy for you Claudia! Yes, now we need to get something for Don! Such good news.
Thanks, Judy.
Stay safe!
Happy dance! What an adventure–lots of dialects and some travel. Income is always so welcome.
Storms and sinuses are not a good combo. My allergies are in full bloom, even if there is nothing blooming at the moment!
I love bookshelves stuffed with piles of books! I’m currently re-reading my Dick Francis collection. Somehow I never tire of them.
I’m still crushing on that cutest of all possible doll hats! I’ve no time currently for crocheting, but I would love to try re-creating it sometime for the ongoing AG wardrobe. It would be a fun challenge.
Enjoy!
Thanks so much, Roxie!
Stay safe.
Great news about the job opportunity! I’ve enjoyed seeing Murder on the Orient Express on film, the theater performance sounds wonderful. Feel better soon!
Thank you, Barrie!
Stay safe.
Congregations. That is wonderful news. Enjoy!
Oops I really do know how to spell! Congratulations!!!
xo
Thank you, Denise!
Stay safe.
Congratulation! It sounds GREAT to have job these daus, and it is additional plus that is in theatar, and that you will have reason to go to city ;-)
Who knows…maybe you will have oportunity to say some nice words about Don- on the right place, on the right time and to the right person. Good luck
It doesn’t really work that way, Sabina – unfortunately.
Thanks so much!
Stay safe.
That’s wonderful news, Claudia. So exciting! It would be perfect if Don was cast in the play. Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🍀to you both. Hugs, Elaine
It doesn’t work that way, Elaine. And it’s already been cast because it starts in a little over a week.
But thanks for you kind wishes!
Stay safe.
Claudia, congrats! I’m happy for you; and your work is so very interesting; always love to hear about it. It’s great that any new gig like this is something you know you’re good at and can do; and there’s truly gold at the end of the rainbow (very fitting as tomorrow is St Pat’s Day!). I’m sure something will come up for Don soon enough. You’re on a roll right now just like he was back in the days of Escape to Margaritaville; it’s just those cycles of life.
Any day with some good news is a good day! Feel better, btw; no fun feeling like you have a cold.
(Our day today was AWFUL. One of those where it started wrong with EIGHT errands right off the top stacked up; then, it’s the way the whole dang day went [like, why were the post office doors locked with nobody there; was crazy?!!], culminating in my constantly-chronically-forgetful [absent-minded] husband [in a way, it’s nothing new; he’s been like this ever since we got married, so you’d think I’d be used to it by now after thirty-something years] losing his wallet [today it’s the wallet, another day it’s the keys, still another day is his hat or his eyeglasses; it’s always something], the two of us running around, retracing steps in places over two counties, lots of miles on the road, putting in lost & found claims everywhere we went, wasting hours and hours at all this, going online and on the phone to get new Medicare card, driver’s license, bank card cancelled and all the rest [and with me petrified about identity theft]; only to then ultimately find the wallet in a place we thought we’d already looked, so still was totally my husband’s mistake and no fault of anyone else’s; but, what can I say, ‘stuff’ happens. He’s got a lot on his mind with surgery two weeks away, but this comes off a week to where I discovered the front door to the house unlocked at 3am and he just needs to focus because this is ridiculous; he forgot to lock the door after walking the dog before bedtime. I was so exhausted after the mess of today that I curled up in a blanket at 5:30pm and was dead to the world for four hours; was just too much mental fatigue and also the end of the BAD week with the time change where I felt ‘off’ and so PHYSICALLY fatigued all week anyway. Daylight Savings, bah humbug. Didn’t need to lose that hour! We couldn’t even enjoy a beach drive because our beach-access road had some kind of flash flood after Tuesday’s latest storm here in Southern Calif [saw it from another view; what a muddy mess with a downed-uprooted large tree also blocking part of the underpass; mud piled up everywhere], such that we had to go ten miles out of our way and then turn around; sheesh, could we just have a restart to the entire day of Thursday-today!)
So sorry! Don is very forgetful. He’s had to get new glasses because he left them somewhere. Very expensive. As well as a phone. Drives me crazy!
xo
Yes, I’ve been the one on a roll lately. But he really needs something. It’s very hard for him right now.
Stay safe.
I’m so pleased you have new work — and it sounds like a fun play to coach. Eight dialects! You’ve got this! And the weather SHOULD be evening out for your NYC trips — and at least it’s light a bit later. Good news indeed!
Happy weekend. I hope you’re feeling much better by now!
Eight is a lot! But I’ve done it before, though it doesn’t happen often.
Stay safe, Jeanie.