A friend of mine recently finished a gig Off-Broadway and now he is up in Boston starting rehearsals for another gig. He lives in NYC but is frequently doing gigs out of the city. His facebook status read...
"Closed a show with wonderful castmates yesterday, and now on a train to Boston where the next one begins rehearsal tomorrow. Love the work, but sad to leave those two beautiful ladies back home in NYC for a bit. Trying to be actor means always saying goodbye."
And it's true. You say goodbye to your people at home and go off and do a gig. You become incredibly close with your cast and then you say goodbye and go home. Craziness. Heck, I'm only gone for a month this time but I've had gigs last up to 18 weeks and I have friends that have done gigs that took them away from home for over a year. Actually, I met the friend that I mentioned above because we were sharing a townhouse together for a summer at a gig. We're still great friends.
The flip of it is, that you get to temporarily live in a lot of places that you never would have visited before, and, if they like you, you may be asked to return. I'm excited to see some people that I have worked with before that I haven't seen in two years. And... Theatre + Free Travel = Awesome.
But, as I pack up to leave for just a month... I get a little sad to leave the family and the house and all that.
ANYWAY...
I wanted to keep this entry rather light today! haha
So I'll be living in a hotel for a month. Always kind of fun. No free breakfasts at this one... but I'll have a limited gym and a pool and HOT TUB... AWESOME. Can't wait to go for runs and then just jump in the pool. hahah
The trick to gigs like this is to pack light but to not half to buy a bunch of stuff when you get there. We all know how expensive it is when you move into a new place... you have to stock the fridge... the bathroom etc. I'll be driving so I can take whatever I want but I don't want to load my car with a ton of stuff.
So... obviously clothes... laptop... toiletries... blah blah blah.... but here are a few things that I think are good to take on gigs like this.
1) Olive oil and other cooking oils and also spices. I have seen more olive oil get thrown out by actors than you could believe. The move to their temporary home, they buy olive oil, they use a quarter of a bottle, and then dump the rest... usually because they are flying home. I don't want to have to drop 10 bucks on olive oil when I have plenty at home. So I'm bringing some.
2) Laundry detergent. How many loads of laundry am I going to do? 5? 6? Not 32! No need to lug around a bunch of detergent. I'll poor some into the marinated artichoke heart glass jar that I just finished tonight and be good to go.
3) Bug spray. A rehearsal essential. Where and when do mosquitos like to hang out? In grassy areas in the evening. Where and when will I be rehearsing? In grassy areas in the evening. When I saw the show in Central Park last week, one of the first questions my friend asked me after the show was... "Did the mosquitos get you?" Not this time.
4) A few trash bags. Sometimes you just need a big trash bag for something and hotels don't always have them handy. And I certainly don't want to buy a box of 20.
5) A pair of crappy shoes. I'll be doing stage combat and stage combat often leads to scuffed shoes. Best to have a crappy pair to put on during combat rehearsals. If they get trashed... I throw them out at the end of rehearsal.
6) The crappiest pot and a pan that I own. A lot of times, you'll move into a place that has some cooking stuff. I'd rather just bring my own pot and pan. Same deal... trash 'em when the gig is over. I never use them at the house anyway so it gets them out of the house for good. haha
7) My own pillow and pillowcase. It's nice having one pillow of my own plus, when it is time to do laundry, I can stuff my clothes in the pillowcase to get to the laundry room.
8) A big backpack. It's nice to have one backpack. Sometimes you have to make up your own gym workouts with what you have around the room a la Rocky. So, I'll fill up a bunch of empty bottles with water. Stuff them all in this backpack.... and then I can do a variety of exercises. I did that in Italy last year and it worked well.
9) A little mini first aid kit.
Finally... these two are just reminders so I don't forget...
All my chargers... phone... laptop... etc... I always forget chargers.
My stage make-up. It's outdoor theatre and I probably won't use much, but... I sure don't want to have to buy more make-up.
Any other favorite tips when living in temp housing for a stint?
No comments:
Post a Comment