Arthur's Seat

ok. this might be my favorite place EVER. exaggeration? nope. it's Arthur's Seat.

in my last post i showed you some pictures of Edinburgh Castle, which is visible from the kitchen window i am looking out of right now. i have yet to discover the history of that castle's occupation, but once i do, i will let you know. about a mile east of this castle is a Holyrood Park. there are lochs, there are swans, there are thistles, hills, streams, old fort walls, grass greener than anything i have ever seen, and Arthur's Seat.

formed by volcanoes, the peak is nearly 850 feet and consists mostly of rocky crags. surrounding the peak are several more plateaus that are covered with the softest and squishiest grass i have ever encountered. from the top you can see the whole of Edinburgh, the Firth of Forth, the mountains in the far North of Scotland, and the ocean. glorious. many claim that the name 'Arthur' pertains to King Arthur and that this place once housed one of his many castle dwellings. the more likely scenario however, is that it is a corruption of the name 'Archer's Seat' because as you will see in these pictures, this would be a super awesome place to put your bowman in the Middle Ages.

i have already been to the peak twice, once during an epic 2 hour run in which my thighs were left tight and burning and once with 3 of my friends. i've nearly pitched myself off a cliff up there once or twice, but that's half the fun. these pictures are from the second time, the slower, yet no less vigorous hike. here's the blow by blow.

now approaching Arthur's Seat (from the southwest)
at the base of the beast (Atticus, Marissa, Craig)

a third of the way up. looks like Arthur's Foot.

the path was paved with stone steps
carved out centuries ago by former prisoners.
dramatic but true.

nearing the top with a golf course in the background (Marissa, Craig, Atticus)

this guy.

ah, the peak.

Atticus and the great Northeast. the inlet is the tip of the Firth of Forth.

Marissa and Craig checking out the Northwest view.

Edinburgh Castle zoomed in from the peak.
our flat is near the bottom left corner of this shot.

St. Margaret's Loch. those specks are swans.

picture of the day. this mighty dog made it to the top. what a stud.

the way down. near disaster. (Craig, Marissa, Atticus)

EDINBURGH!

ahhhh. we landed. despite losing track of a castmate at the train station and fearing her abduction, flying overnight and losing 6 hours of my life (took off at 10pm, landed at noon the next day), and our lighting designer getting detained in America for 2 days because his passport was too worn down, we have made it. it has been insanely wonderful so far. mid 60's during the day with only a small spot of rain in the first 4 days, everything is a green as Oz, the people are patient and kind, and the haggis...oh how i love haggis!!! i drink English tea in the morning, go for a run down the canal that connects to the Firth of Forth, come back to our city flat, shower up, eat a lot of bran and oats (they are popular in these parts), walk around the base of the castle in awe, go do a wonderful piece of theatre for appreciative audiences, then grab a pint with my castmates and new UK pals. those are my days. i love it here.

unfortunately, this wireless service is a bit spotty so i don't have much time to go into detail, but i finally got some pictures up. the first three are of Edinburgh Castle which is a block away from our flat and surrounded by a fantastic park - we can see it from our kitchen and living room windows. the rest are all taken within a 4 block radius around our neighborhood. i PROMISE there will be a lot more later. but for now...enjoy these:

a hair cut and a passport

long luxurious locks no more. i admit it, my hair was getting out of control - see last post's pictures if you need evidence - but i was digging it. it was sort of a Monkees/young David Beckham look and the ladies...well, the ladies seemed to like it. but since we will be running the show for a month, i agreed to get a trim. you can check out the photos below, taken at our tech rehearsal, to see the damage. its not that i don't like my new haircut, it's just a far-cry from "take a little off the top" and i was getting attached to my 'do. next step: spread molasses on my scalp. i hear that makes your hair grow wicked fast.

but more importantly than one man's head of hair, we are leaving the country on Sunday. i've got my passport, clean underwear, and i am ready to take on the Scots. i don't think i could be more pumped at this point.

last night we concluded our ultra-short 4 show run at a theatre in Manhattan. since the first time we fully ran the show with lights, sound, and full blood was on opening night, we treated this last week as a trial run, a warm-up for the main event in Edinburgh. but even with all that fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants action, we put on a damn good show. the audience seemed to like it and we got an overwhelmingly positive review: http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/T07rev_01.htm

the next time you read this blog there will be gorgeous pictures of Scotland...

as promised...

here are a bunch of new rehearsal pictures taken by a nice fellow named Serge - he was the photographer from our Flash and Trash Beer Prom (see my first post). there were over 200 photos to choose from, but i think i picked out some gems.

if, after you take in these beauties, you need to see more, click on the shalimar link on the left side of this page. (i warn you, though, the shalimar blog has a shot of me with a naked back. scandalous.)

and since this is MY blog and you have come to read about ME, i am purely selfish in picking out the shots that include ME. some of them only ME, some of them ME and some other people. get over it, it's ME time.

ok, so this one is not me

Rehearsals Reschmearsals

it's been a while. let's dive right in...

we are now only one week away from our New York City opening and things are getting crazy. but crazy in a good way. not like Mommy Dearest crazy, more like Robin Williams crazy...only with less arm hair. why so crazy? well, it has to do with the blessing/curse that comes along with doing a new piece of theatre - things are constantly changing. whether it be through some sort of improvisation, a suggestion of a company member, or a recent news item from US Weekly, every day i come to rehearsal i can be guaranteed of one thing: the play has changed. the positive spin on this is that we are able to take potential problem spots in the play and make them better. the downside is that its pretty damn difficult to remember what the last change was. sure yesterday i did a dance move that i'm pretty sure was cut 3 weeks ago. i did it well, though, and with a lot of panache.

speaking of dancing, did you know there is dancing in the play? quite a bit, actually. 4 dance numbers, 5 songs, and a boxing match.

here are some recent rehearsal pictures. i'll try to get some of the dancing and boxing tonight.

Atticus Rowe reading a trashy magazine.
he plays Theseus, my war hero father.

(left to right) Joey, Marissa, and Laura - the paparazzi.
Laura doesn't usually looks so pissed.
in the background you can see the
aforementioned Atticus and Kim, my step-mother.

Shoni, the director.
she is directing. and by directing i mean blindly pointing.

here's a really artsy fartsy picture of Atticus and Kim dancing. or something...

it begins...

here i am, ya'll. this is the inaugural post for what will soon become an awe-inspiring, award-winning, mind-blowing BLOG. this space chronicles the adventure of La Femme Est Morte -or- Why I Should Not F%!# My Son, a tremendously raucous play that will be travelling to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. i am in this play, and thus, will be travelling with it.

from now until the end of July on this, my small strip of electronic real-estate, you can find out about how our rehearsals are going and what we are doing to get ready for our short New York City run. but in August, the real fun begins. we will be in Edinburgh, one of the most beautiful and scenic cities in Europe, and i will have my trusty camera and laptop in tow. i plan on taking about 6 bazillion pictures - the best of the best will make it here. and what is perhaps even cooler that all that, i will be hanging out in Europe about 3-4 weeks after the show closes. so from the end of August into September, you can expect photos and keen observations by me from cities such as Barcelona, Paris, Rome, and Amsterdam (this is a tentative and ever-changing list).

so where are we now? we have had 2 readthroughs of the script and are only a few days away from our first official rehearsal. we've spent the last few months trying to drum up support from family, friends, and businesses and have thrown several excellent fundraising parties. my favorite thus far was our Flash & Trash Beer Prom. held in a dangerously hip part of town, this was a bash where semi-grown-ups could come in their flashiest or trashiest formal attire and get down on some good tunes and cheap beer. oh, and we served fried chicken, pizza, and little weenies. here are some of the highlights...