Joshua Zamrycki's Weblog

If you’re not confused by the title of this entry, then L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu!

Here’s wishing peace, prosperity, and good health to you and your loved ones.

Gut Yuntiff

The silence is deafening.

Emily and Jan just went out to the park. They went with Emily’s friends Tom, Luca, Daniel, and the aforementioned kid’s mums. They are all gone. But only after spending the past two hours here in the apartment screaming and and hollering and screeching and shouting and and yelling. Yes, like Eskimos with their 12 words for snow, we can distinguish between varying levels of shouts out of necessity. Why oh why did I decide to work from home today?

The silence is deafening.

I love theatre auditions. Especially when I get to run them!

Today we held auditions for Jocular Theatre’s Fall ’08 production of David Lindsay-Abair’s high-pitched farce, Fuddy Meers. Funny stuff!

I try to make my auditions as fun as possible. I just imagine the type of audition in which I’d like to participate. Getting-to-know-you stuff, some improv games, and a little cold reading. No preparation necessary. Just quick wits and lots of laughs.

I pillaged Improv Encyclopedia for some games that would help me determine which actors would best fit the insane roles that I needed to cast. In each audition group, we started with brief introductions and a quick 2 Truths And A Lie, then I took their pictures and segued into some Family Photos. While they were on their feet, we played some Group Order and then warmed up our voices with a Sound Circle. Since they were already in a circle, we moved on to Word At A Time Story (everyone chose Little Red Riding Hood!), and then I had them individually retell Little Red in a game of Switch Gibberish – that was my favorite part of the day. Finally, I broke them up into pairs and I saw how they took direction by playing a few rounds of Actor’s Nightmare, changing the relationships each time. Very insightful.

I would have liked more people to have attended the auditions but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality. I want to start rehearsing next week if possible. We open on November 22 so I’m counting on getting about 12-14 rehearsals in – not very many. Now I just have to decide who to cast.

Here are a couple of the Family photos that I took today:

Family of cavemen

Family of orange

And what a great party it was! Rehashing the same idea from last year, Emily celebrated her second birthday on Barceloneta beach (next to the gay beach, not far from the nude beach). We billed it as not only a birthday party for the munchkin but as an excuse to catch up with loads of friends whom we hadn’t seen over the long summer.

Large patch of sand. A plethora of blankets. String of balloons stretched from a lampost to a strategically placed pushchair. Chilled music pumping from the nearby chiringuito. Homemade birthday cake. Juice for the kids, wine and beer for the big kids. Lots of snacks. Lots of chats. Lots of kids. Lots of running around. Lots of presents. Lots of messes. Good times. I’d say there must have been at least 40 people there. Who knew Emily had so many friends?

Let Them Eat Cake

Would you feel cheated if I didn’t go into detail about our trip to England this past July? I’ll still post some photos and video. This proposed brevity isn’t motivated by any reason other than the fact that I’m tired. OK, fine. I’ll give you a little something.

Staying with family is always nice and this was no exception. 24-hour catering and live-in babysitters. Who could ask for more?

Highlights of the trip included Emily’s barrage of attention towards Chelsea the cat, amazing summer weather, frolicking in the garden, making the most of cheap yet cheerful paddling pool, our walk through the forest with Jan’s mum, meeting up with Garry (and not just to take advantage of his broadband), and my romantic day alone with Emily at a local petting zoo.

Photos were taken.
Browse through them here
Or sit back and enjoy a slideshow here

And here’s one of the many videos I took (I’ll spare you the petting zoo videos).

After 10 years (next month) of writing, and more than 500 blog entries later, please join me in congratulating Phil for leaving the 1000th comment on this blog! Hurray!!!

Thank you Phil. And than you to everyone else who reads my ramblings, follows my adventures, enjoys my photos, watches my videos, and leaves thoughtful (or sarcastic) comments to let me know that there’s still a connection being made, even if we’re sometimes thousands of miles away. Thank you.