S.M. Stevens's Blog, page 36
November 23, 2012
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Happy Shopping!
Whether or not you choose to get caught up in the craziness of Black Friday holiday shopping, here’s wishing you a sane, relaxed and fulfilling shopping season — you know the kind, when you find the perfect gift that transcends the materialism of the holidays and speaks to what really matters during the holidays, and year-round: good friends and family, and showing/telling them you care.
Please don’t forget to order a copy of Bit Players, Has-Been Actors and Other Posers for your teen or 20-something theatre-loving friends and relatives. The sequel should also be available for the holidays. So look beyond A Christmas Carol and find other ways to inject the wonderful world of theatre into your holiday season.
November 19, 2012
Post-Show Letdown
Sadie Perkins on that desperate feeling when the final curtain falls: “I always cry when a show ends. After weeks or months of rehearsing together – boom! You’re suddenly cut off from your show life and friends, just like that. Who cares that you eyed the other actors suspiciously the first day of rehearsal, wondering who was a better singer or dancer than you? Since then, we’ve all bonded to the point where we want the others to succeed – for the most part, anyway.
No more membership in the secret club of cast members — a club where we share private jokes, have special access to backstage areas, and treasure intangible connections built over the past month. Staying in touch on Facebook isn’t the same. In normal life, we’re just normal kids doing normal things. When we’re creating a show, we’re doing something special.”
November 16, 2012
The Ultimate Mash-Up
Where can you find Katy Perry, Three Days Grace, Lady Gaga, Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton mixed in with the likes of Journey, Tom Petty, Janis Ian and Lynyrd Skynyrd, not to mention classic show tunes from Wicked and Annie Get Your Gun, TV and movie theme songs, and even a nursery rhyme? In the first Bit Players book, of course! Access all the videos for the songs in one place here. And get ready for another round of great songs in Bit Players 2. Thanks for reading/watching/listening/singing.
November 11, 2012
23
Not Nine or 13… 23 is the number of shows referenced in Bit Players, Has-Been Actors and Other Posers: Oklahoma!, High School Musical, Fiddler on the Roof, Wicked, Anything Goes, Carousel, Chicago, The Music Man, Mary Poppins, Seussical, Anything Goes!, Anne of Green Gables, Bye Bye Birdie, My Fair Lady, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Hairspray, The Wizard of Oz, Grease, High School Musical 2, Cats, Annie Get Your Gun, West Side Story, and A Chorus Line. Pfshew. At least that was the number last time I checked, but if I looked again, I think I might find more. I think the show references breed when I’m not looking, like Barbie dolls, and bunnies.
November 10, 2012
Good Fortune
I talked to a Newbery Medal-winning author today – how cool is that? And a one-time instructor of mine, NYT-bestselling author CJ Lyons, has two books — Snake Skin and Blood Stained — on the Amazon 2012 Top 100 list. I had the good fortune to take a class with CJ a few years ago, and she teaches as well as she writes, which is to say she’s amazing at both!
Speaking of good fortune, maybe some of their success will rub off on me. After all, I got to rub elbows with CJ, and I guess virtual elbows with the Newbery winner. I wonder if rubbing elbows with best-selling and critically acclaimed authors brings good luck like rubbing a Buddha’s belly is supposed to?
