DAMN IT. I MISSED DAY 4 /

So here's the thing. Usually, in my limited experience, film and TV work involves a lot of sitting around, eating triple chocolate donuts, drinking seventeen cups of coffee, trying not to fall asleep on those cozy trailer sofas so I won't mess up my hair, going back for more donuts, chatting with handsome tanned men and fake-breasted women, avoiding trips to the bathroom JUST IN CASE the sound guy forgot to turn off my microphone, etc. etc...

Not so with The Last New Year! THERE IS NO SITTING AROUND. There is very little waiting. There is not a lot of down time. (I still manage to be consuming my fair share of chocolate treats, though. Let face it: there's always time for sugar. And partially hydrogenated oils.) This is making the experience a fantastic and challenging one, but it is making the blogging difficult! Today is a lighter day for me, so I should be able to put together a proper post. So far today, I've only eaten M&Ms and Advil, so forgive me if I sound high. Or wired. Or both.

Anyway...yesterday (Day 4) was a phenomenal day. Before I go into that, let me first explain the premise of the film: It tells the story of a group of twenty-somethings that get together every year for a New Year's Eve party. But this year, one of them has gone missing. So it's a very interesting movie to shoot, because it all takes place in one night, at one party, in one location (which fortunately comes well-stocked with triple chocolatey goodness.) Yesterday, we shot all the dinner scenes. We sat on the floor all day (on cushions, thank god) and drank "schnapps" (water) and "wine" (apple juice). We got to improvise like crazy, which was loads of fun. I have never had the opportunity to improvise on camera before, and it was a blast. We all laughed and talked and made up new dialogue, but also managed to find our way back to the script whenever necessary. My character is bossy and uptight (I can't think WHY they cast ME) so I got to tell everyone what to do. Fun times.

So day 4 involved some more great work with a stellar cast and director -- they really are amazing -- and the discovery that when I hit thirty, I stopped being able to sit on the floor for long periods of time. I've got the knees and hips of a grandmother.


Day 5 /

Now on to TODAY. It is 1:30pm. So far, I have been on set for three hours and it feels like three minutes. (It's funny how on set, time either flies or crawls, depending on how many scenes you are in.) I shot a scene this morning with Phil (my buddy from Humans Anonymous and the P in PHARK) which went okay, I think. We were both sort of struggling with what the scene was about, but with the help of Garfield (the director extraordinaire) we figured it out.

time time time

la la la

Okay. Now it's 6:45pm! Where does the time go? We did a whole bunch of dancing scenes earlier this afternoon (without music!) and fortunately, I got to be the wallflower. No dancing for me. This evening things might change. Ohhh dear. Is the world ready for me dancing on film? No. No it isn't.

Gotta go!

Hope these updates are somewhat interesting...

K.

Day 3 /

Today was good but LONNNNNNG. (Yes, with six Ns.) It was the first day of shooting for the lovely actor/co-writer Casey Austin and she did a bang-up job. (And apparently I have turned into a 70-year-old, pipe-smoking British man, because who the hell else says "bang-up"? Ohhhh dear.) She (Casey) looks just like a young Susan Sarandon -- it's uncanny!

What else to report...

Mayko did a shooter (of water, but still) without using her hands. That's an image I'll never forget.

For now, that's all I can leave you with. I need to sleep. Twelve-hour days are brutal! Who knew?

Soon,

K.

Day 2 /

Wowsers. There wasn't even time to BREATHE today, let alone blog. (And I'm already having difficulty breathing, since I'm wearing a corset for half of the film!)

To summarize: lots of laughter, too many gummie bears, not enough water, a little bit of partial nudity (ohhh dear), some crazy costumes, a tickle trunk, characters masks, fake beer and a whole lot of whispering.

Curious yet??

I promise a more detailed update tomorrow!

For those of you who were at Pegasus 3 this weekend -- how did it go?? Hope it was a blast...

K.

...and some cast photos! (James Murray, Casey Austin, Mike McPhaden, Margaret Evans)

Day One of Shooting /

Well...we started shooting The Last New Year this morning and I was thrilled to discover that the wireless internet at the loft was hooked up! So I'm blogging. Bloggy blog blog. Maybe I'll even try and write DAILY for a change.

Mayko Nguyen has joined the cast! She is a stunning, funny, wonderful actress who also worked on 11 Cameras (the series that I did in 2006) but we never had any scenes together, so I'm excited to actually act with her this time around. To add to my last post, the remaining cast members (the Neocitran finally wore off and I asked their names) are: Casey Austin, Aaron Webber and James Murray. All fantastic. We rehearsed all day Thursday and laughed our asses off. (Sorry for swearing just then. I meant that we laughed our...um...donkeys off.)

Phil (my ex-roommate and long-time friend, who also acted in Humans Anonymous, both in New York and in Toronto) is shooting a scene upstairs so I am trying to type quietly! It's amazing how difficult that is! Mike (also a long-time friend and also in the movie playing my husband) is taking a picture of me RIGHT NOW to add to this post. He is using his new MacBook Pro. Bastard. I was supposed to get one first. Oh well. My little old iBook G4 will have to do for now.

More updates later!

K.

The First Day of The Last New Year /

Well, DON'T WAKE ME closed last night on a high note: a great audience and one of our best performances. Yaaaahoo! What a phenomenal experience. Acting is fun. (Sometimes I forget that. You know, like when I'm eating Alphaghetti for dinner every night and living off my Visa. Is that how you spell Alphaghetti? Alphagetti? Alfa...forget it. It doesn't matter. The point is, I like being an actor today.) Chris Stanton and John Cleland kicked some serious acting butt in the show and Chris Hanratty is a director extraordinaire! Can't wait to work with them all again some day soon (I hope). It was also a truly remarkable experience writing a play with four other people. Such a great challenge.

But! No rest for the wicked, so...

I began rehearsals today for The Last New Year -- a feature film that I am acting in with my lovely and talented friends Philip Graeme, Andrew Hachey, Margaret Evans, Mike McPhaden and a bunch of other fantastic actors (Casey, James, Aaron, etc.) whose last names I don't know yet because I took a Neocitran before the readthrough and was too spaced out to do basic things like...oh...introduce myself to the cast. One of the actors is in that new show The Tudors! Kris Holden-Reid is his name and he is very talented. And nice. I love it when that happens. So rare. Wow. Now I'm just staring at my computer screen, thinking how odd computers are and how far they've come since the days of the Commodore 64 and the Ghostbusters video game. I think I'm still high. Neocitran should be outlawed. Or free and available at Starbucks. I can't decide.

We (me and the cast -- not me and the Neocitran) rehearse all this week, then begin shooting on the 20th of January. And guess where the film is being shot...

...keep guessing...

...and guessing...

...Neocitran is awesome...

...and lemony...

...ellipses are funny-looking...

...IT'S BEING SHOT AT THE LOFT! YES, THE LOFT! OF LOFT-IN-TRANSLATION FAME! How weird is that?! And three of the actors in it were members of the original "PHARK" if you remember that far back. P for Phil; A for Andrew; and K for...um...me. Garfield Lindsay Miller (who moved into my room when I moved out) is directing the movie, as well as being a co-writer.

Okay. That's all for now. Going to bed now, where I will probably dream about talking lemons and animated kettles or something equally terrifying and drug-induced.

I should sell this stuff on the black market. I'll call it Neoine. Or Citral Meth. Or Neojuana.

Wow. Goodnight.

K.

The Ghost of Bloggers Past /

(Ideally, whatever word I used there would have rhymed with "Christmas", but it's 8am and my brain hasn't started functioning yet. Guh. See?)

Well hello. Remember me? I'm Kate. I used to have a blog. I used to post things on it. Sometimes even pictures. Mostly of cats or my dumb brother. (I'm just angry with him because he stayed out West this Christmas and avoided the Hewlett Plague which hit me, my sister, my nephew, my nieces, my other sister, my dad, my step-mom, etc. etc. It was BRUTAL. No Christmas dinner for us, because we got some kind of evil 28-Days-Later-esque virus that knocked us down like dominoes. Or bowling pins. Whichever simile you prefer.)

So yes. Hello. Welcome back. (You, not me. Assuming you haven't been here for a while since there's been NOTHING TO READ.) I won't even try to fill you in on the last two months, because there is so much to report, but--

Oh what the heck. I'll do my best:

New York was DELICIOUS. (Like delightful. Like I enjoyed it. I didn't lick the ground or anything. Ew.) What a truly phenomenal city: the people, the buildings, the food, the green space, the theatre. Even the cockroaches were impressive. Gross, but almost worthy of respect due to their size. I swear I even saw little muscles on one of them. New York cockroaches clearly think that physical fitness is no laughing matter. The rats were quite impressive too. I wonder if the cockroaches ever use the rats as transportation. You know, like little hairy horses.

Okay. Foooooocus, Kate. Foooooocuuuuuus.

Yes. New York was wonderful. The play ("Humans Anonymous") was well-received and I made some new friends who I will cherish (long-distance, unfortunately) for a long time to come. After New York, I came back to Toronto to begin rehearsals for DON'T WAKE ME, the "killer" new work by UnSpun Theatre which I co-wrote with Chris Hanratty, Christopher Stanton, Mike McPhaden and Brendan Gall (yes, THAT Brendan Gall -- unless you're thinking of the one who got his life sucked out by a Wraith. Not THAT Brendan Gall. The one who plays Kaleb on SGA.) I tried to find a short-term lease here in Toronto but the shortest I could find was six months. For a commitmentphobe like myself, that is a LONG TIME, but it's a great apartment in a vibrant, fun neighbourhood and I'm having a blast so far. I have some silverfish issues (silverfissues?) but I think I've made peace with them and we are living in harmony now. Until Martha (cat number two) eats them. That throws the balance off somewhat.

FOCUS.

The show (DON'T WAKE ME) opened last night to a much larger house than we expected, so that was exciting. It is part of a brand new festival here in Toronto called the "Next Stage Theatre Festival", which showcases eight plays that began at other festivals (eg. SummerWorks, Toronto Fringe, etc.). It kicked off last night and goes until January 13th at the Factory Theatre. Come and see DON'T WAKE ME -- I am so proud of this brand new version. UnSpun Theatre is a great company and this is a really fun, strange, dark, fast-paced show. The cast includes Chris Stanton (amazing), John Cleland (remarkable) and me (commitmentphobe).

If you're interested, all the info can be found here:

http://www.nextstagefestival.com

Hope everyone reading this (and everyone not reading this) is well and happy. There is much more to report but I need a coffee. From Jet Fuel. And I'm not living in Cabbagetown anymore, so it's going to take some time getting there.

K.