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Day 1 -- Wednesday, October 7 |
KATIE JOPLIN |
Comfortable? Well I never really feel comfortable my first day at work. I'm shy. I'll admit that. Put me in a group of people I don't know and I'll say just about nothing. But to say that I said just about nothing would be overestimating the personal connections I made on the set of Katie Joplin today.
After the audition this morning, I moved my car to the other side of the lot and walked into Stage 6 ready to start my day. The first four hours of that day was mostly me sitting in my dressing room making phone calls and doing a crossword puzzle. As I could sense my one scene drawing closer, I walked out to the set and watched them run a couple of scenes. From what I could see, the biggest mistake made on this show was ever changing the name from "The Park Overall Project." She had something to say about just about every line she had, her most delicate comment being, "I don't have a single f---ing laugh line." She certainly has no doubts about her own ability to create laugh lines, though. In another scene, she felt the dialogue wasn't descriptive enough and could be helped only by her, proclaiming, "This part of the scene really needs to live, and I'm probably gonna have to give it to the writers since they can come up with it themselves."
Finally, my scene was up next. Before we could get to it, though, Park seemed to be having some issues with the previous scene. Actually, as it turned out, her issues had to do with the last three scenes of the show. So the director called me over and we read through the next scene (my scene) to see how Park would like it. She didn't. Her concern was that my character was too mean and made the closing scene inappropriately sad. (original scene) As she put it, "This was a sitcom last I checked."
Did this mean that my character was in trouble? Was Mr. Wolfe causing too much angst and agony for a sitcom? Here's a clue: the director, at one point in this conversation, said to me, "Nothing against your performance, but why do we need Mr. Wolfe to come in at all?" Yes, I'd say my character was in trouble.
We then blocked and rehearsed it a couple of times. We still had to show it to the writers and producers, and to top it off, today was the network run-through as well. And when it finally rolled around, and I prepared to enter the office for my first official performance as the powerful Mr. Wolfe, I felt like a clunky, poorly-conceived musical getting ready to open and close on Broadway all in one night. Still I sang my little heart out. Some people laughed. They seemed fine with it. I'm sure somewhere on the sound stage, Park Overall was cringing at me and my meanness. And honestly it could've been the last time I ever do it. We'll find out tonight if they make the call and tell me I'm on vacation tomorrow and Friday and not to bother coming in.
So, go on to Day 2? We'll see.
Go on to Day 2