OH YEAH! And come see our show tonight.  It’s your last chance EVER!  9:00 at the Marigny Theatre.  See you there!

-Evan

We had a fantastic opening night last night.  Everyone was so on point and we had an amazing audience — packed and vocal, just the way we like ‘em.  And as we went around to other Fringe shows today, we heard great responses.  I can’t wait for the shows this weekend.

New Orleans is fab.  I love it.  Glad to know they love us too.

Sleepy time…

julia

7pm.  Marigny Theater. New Orleans.

I am beaucoup (“BOO-KOO”) excited.

–Julia

This is her on the streetcar.  Look how jubilant she is!  Her joy is infectious!  Jean Ann and I, who have ridden the streetcar plenty, got pretty excited along with her.  Then, I got overzealous and just pointed out where all of my friends used to live.  (Claire, its like when we would drive down Magazine St, and I would turn into an old man remembering my youth, despite the fact that the “youth” in question was only 2 years prior, and you were there for most of it.  Ahh, i’m fun…)

Later that day, Jean Ann and I had to chastise Julia for calling it a “Trolley.”  We just can’t abide that down here.  Julia very astutely observed that its like when people call “Houston Street” “hew-ston.”  Its not wrong, per se, its just not how things are done in New York.

We’re in New Orleans.  It’s a streetcar.

So yeah, Julia Frey is a rad lady, and I highly recommend her.

Yesterday Evan, Jean Ann, and I hopped onto the St.Charles streetcar, heading to Uptown and our rehearsal space.  There we were reunited with Cecile!  We had a very successful dust-off/run-through, and then headed to Tulane and the WTUL studio for our radio interview!  It was a fun and entertaining conversation with DJ Jerry (and his silent partner in crime DJ Chase) of the show “Careers in Science”.  (It’s a music show with nothing to do with science.  Well, occasionally it does, when Jerry geeks out a bit.  He’s a physics major.)

After a very looooooooong streetcar trip back, we walked back to the Marigny via Bourbon Street.  I don’t know why I thought Bourbon Street was just known for Hurricanes and jazz bands, but there are also dozens and dozens of strip clubs and sex shows.  Sometimes (okay, often) there is common knowledge that I am not aware of.  But now I know.  (Side note: the scantily clad ladies in the doorways of these establishments all looked genuinely happy and excited to be there. Has Hollywood made me assume that all strippers are miserable, down-trodden sad-sacks?  If these girls were blue, they were extremely good at manufacturing sunshine.)

We then teched the show!  The Marigny Theater can be aptly described as “charmingly seedy”.  After lights and some video, we called it a night (we have to go back today), and joined a party of other Fringe artists to drink rum and sweet tea and exchange show flyers.  It was a classic “it’s a small world” party: I ran into a friend from improv, three guys who know a friend of mine from Bard, and a dude who grew up five blocks from my house who then moved to the burbs and became friends with my BFF from kindergarten.  Oh, fringe festivals!

There was late night revelry at the bar in our theater.  Yes.  The BAR in our THEATER.

I love New Orleans.

Beign-YAY!
Julia

Now time for food, drink, and card-playing.  And probably more goofing around on our computers.  (‘Cause that’s what we do — in the show and real life.)  Leave a comment!  We’ll be checking!

Love and kisses,

Julia

Also here in NOLA,
Julia

Last night we all spent the night at Kevin and Liam’s place.  I know on this site we mostly just talk about the cast and Jean Ann, but get ready for that to change!  So Kevin’s our producer, and Liam is our lighting designer (Do you know people who say “LD”?  Aren’t the lame?)  They live in Astoria, really close to the airport, so it was convenient.  To kick off our week of NOFringe Fun we drank heavily and all snuggled in Kevin’s bed.  Jared (Projection designer) showed up really late, we were already asleep, and he passed out on the stairs to the apartment for a few minutes.  He didn’t know which apartment it was, so he texted everybody to listen to where the sound was coming from.  Jared is one smart cookie.

So we woke up real early and called a car.  Then a short bus showed up out side, and we were walkin’ toward it when a six year old climbed in and the bus pulled away.  Oops.  Then the SUV cab pulled up, and we went to the airport.  As soon as we got on the plane, Jared passed out again.  Baby needs his sleep.  (I can call him baby, he’s the youngest one on the SEASTM team)  (And he’s the baby-face-iest) (Here, i’ll show you)

And then we were in NOLA.  And all was well with the world.  Jean Ann and I really feel like we’re back home.  Liam comes down tomorrow (he has class tonight), and Nick (Composer) comes Wednesday.  We’re staying in an awesome suite at the Olde Town Inn, and Hurricane Ida is a’brewin’.  We start rehearsing in 20 minutes.  Cecile is in Gonzales, LA with her parents, and the winds are too high for her to safely drive into town, so we’re skyping her in.  We’re real tech savvy like that.  Deal with it.

More soon!  I got drinking to do!

oh hey, and you see our show, know you want to see overhead projector puppetry.

Rehearsal is now happening virtually, with Cecile at her parents house in Gonzales, Louisiana, and the rest of us at the Olde Town Inn in the Marigny. There’s a tropical storm! So we’re hunkered down and not leaving to rehearse.

We’re loving our suite at the Olde Town Inn, and Ginger, the lovely proprietor. We had lunch at Mona’s, bought some provisions for the storm on Esplanade (drinks, we didn’t think to buy food for some reason), and card games have commenced.

See you at the show this weekend.

xo,

Jean Ann