GQ goes on as Bosie

At last night's performance of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde for theatre Q at the Dragon Theatre in Palo Alto, George Quick (that's me) went on for the ailing Scott Ludwig who plays Bosie (Lord Alfred Douglas). Poor Scott called around 2 in the afternoon saying he was just too ill to even stand up, let alone perform in a play. I called Dale Albright (Dale IS theatre Q) and we flipped a coin (as he says) and decided that I should go on in the role (knowing the blocking, etc. as I do, it seemed to be the most seamless way to go). Rob and I were at the beach when all of this came down so on the way home from the beach, we stopped at RiteAid and I bought some hair dye (no sense having a gray haired Bosie) and then at home I dyed my hair and ran through the script. Drove down to Palo Alto and got there around 6:15; Dressed my hardback copy of the script to look like the rest of the books in the production (there are many books covered in plain paper in this production); wrote out the one letter prop so that I could use it the right way and still have the words; and, read my lines during the speed through with the cast before the show. I wore my black suit with the vest that Scott wears and had to wear my glasses throughout so I could see the text.

People tell me it went fairly well. The audience was kind, the other actors were kind and I think I was mostly in the right place at the right time. My memory of the entire thing is like a memory of a dream, very surreal and in strange kind of time lapse. "The Show Must Go On" was certainly what we did last night. It was quite a night. Hopefully, Scott will be feeling well enough to go on tonight, but if he doesn't... I'm ready to go through it all again tonight.

The photo here is one of John Aney, who plays Oscar Wilde in the play. The pose looks like it might be when he found out I was going on!

a kqed blog review of the show by Ben Marks who saw a preview before opening

Two New Shows in the Works

So here it is the second half of April 2008 already. The time is flying. Insignificant Others is still playing at Pier 39. The show goes well and audiences are enjoying it. We're getting about 100 people a show and the theatre seats 274, so hopefully business will start to grow some more soon. The show was extended through February of 2009 and group sales are starting to pick up. All of the signs are encouraging. We'll be changing cast members, too. After this initial contract period is up on July 31, we'll be losing most of the cast who opened the show at Theatre 39 (some of these were with the show at Zeum last summer, too, like Sarah Kathleen Farrell - Margaret, Jason Hoover-Jordan, Alex Rodriguez-Luke and Kevin Maldarelli-Andrew). Jenn Graham-Kristen and Omi Fernandez-Jeannine will be leaving, too. Mike Triolo, who was playing Erik had to bow out last month and Scott Gessford has successfully taken over that role. Bobby Bryce is currently starring in Altar Boyz at the Willows Theatre. Joven Calloway took over for Bobby for awhile, but Joven has also moved on and Douglas Buel has joined the company as Barista One and Dance Captain. Mikey Tongko is a stalwart cast member who is really blossoming in the show as a Barista Boy and all around great guy! We're grateful that Mikey is staying with the show in August. New cast members who'll be stepping in come August include Jade Shojaee who played Jo in my recent production of Little Women down at Palo Alto Players. It'll be great to have Jade playing Kristen in the show. Kate Cooper who has been a stellar understudy for K10 and J9 so far will be stepping in to the lead role of Margaret starting in August. Luke Anthony Maresh who has been covering for Jordan and Luke, is now a swing Barista Boy and will take over the role of Jordan in July. A newcomer to us is Megan Barrow who will start in the role of J9 in August. It will be sad to see Sarah, Alex, Jason and Kevin go after all this time (its been well over a year since we started working together on this for Zeum and for Theatre 39) and to say good-bye so soon to Jenn and Omi. We wish them all so much success. A very talented band of performers. We're blessed that we've been able to find such talented people to continue on in the show. We're still looking for men to play Luke and Andrew and Barista Boys and understudy Erik and the other male roles, so if you know of anyone...

I titled this blog "Two New Shows in the Works" and they are Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde at Theatre Q in Palo Alto and Peter and the Pirate at Theatre 39 in San Francisco at Pier 39.


One show is Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde at Theatre Q in Palo Alto. We started rehearsals this past week and it is going very well. We're very fortunate in that we have a terrific cast of nine men for this Moises Kaufman treatment of the cataclysmic events that ended the life and art of one of the greatest writers in the English speaking world. Each of the Actors (Thomas Azar, Kevin Copps, Frederik Goris, Kevin Hsieh, Patrick Hilt, Scott Ludwig, Matthew Lowe and Michael Moerman) gets to play several roles in this one, while John Aney portrays Oscar Wilde himself. It's very exciting! The show starts performances May 29 at the Dragon Theatre in Palo Alto (on Alma across the street from the train station).

The other show, Peter and the Pirate, is a new musical for kids that came out of a discussion Jay Kuo, David Garcia and I had at a morning meeting a few months ago. Since our show is already in Theatre 39 and the set is kind of "there" and the place (Pier 39) is crawling with families during the day, we thought it would make sense if we put together a fun new show for the whole family and Peter and the Pirate was born. It is a little show about a kid (Peter) whose mom works at some restaurant or shop at the Pier and he's got this great imagination and sets off to buy lunch and is waylayed by a fortune teller and a software pirate. A friendly sea lion saves Peter from Alcatraz before it is all over and a good time will be had by all. Seth Anderson (who played Luke in the NCTC production of Insignificant Others will play the pirate and we're still auditioning the other two actors (Peter and his mother). The actors playing the pirate and mom will also play the "yahoo from google" the fortune teller "Charlotte Anne, the Seer at the PIer" and "Saline D. Ion" Peter's sea lion friend who's bark will go on. This show will start performances at the Pier mid June and run daytimes on weekends until it catches fire and the look out! It'll be playing every day for kids and families who visit SF from all over the world!