#acting stuff

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This was halfways through an eight hour rehearsal, btw. Average sjögren's syndrome experience

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Doing Frozen in Utah really highlights a uniquely Utahn issue: Utahns swallow the 't' in a lot of words. Most of our actors have to think about saying “moun-Tain” instead of “moun-in.”

So when one of our young actors finally hit the ‘t’ after struggling with the line "My Lord! [Anna's dress] was found at the base of the North Mountain!" We all started cheering - completely forgetting that, in the context of the play, we were celebrating the fact that it appeared our Princess had become a naked, frozen corpse

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Ranking Olaf Stunt Doubles

The Olaf and Sven puppets for my production of Frozen are still being made, so our puppeteers have made some creative decisions for their stand-ins while learning blocking.

I'm not taking photos of my fellow actors without permission (and frankly, using images I found online is funnier) so please enjoy my best recreations

HOODIE OLAF - 5/10

Hoodie Olaf is operated by hanging the hood over their fist to form the head - and then using a free hand to operate the "arms." Hoodie Olaf both loses and gains points for being too damn practical.

Hoodie Olaf is actually probably closest to how the actual puppet will be operated. He is also available at your local Old Navy.

SOME KIND OF MUPPET OLAF - 2/10

I did not ask, but I believe Some Kind of a Muppet Olaf came from an old production of Avenue Q. He was only used at one rehearsal before I think he might have been fired for being too different from how eventually Olaf will be operated.

It pains me to give him such a low score, given that I love muppets, but ultimately he just couldn't fulfill the rollaf of Olaf due to his lack of legs (or really any kind of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-bdomen.)

HOBBY LOBBY SCARECROWLAF - 8/10

Scarecrowlaf works a lot better as a stand in - the final Olaf puppet will be operated by a puppeteer standing directly behind him, and 'crowlaf has free hanging arms and legs.

I was actually doing choral rehearsal when crowlaf was introduced, but walked back upstairs to the main stage to run my scenes, caught sight of our youngest Olaf actor maneuvering this thing and laughed so hard I almost fell over

Minus two points for being from Hobby Lobby

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I'm a professional actor and these are my professional blocking notes

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aggravated my chronic illness by going too hard on stage, call that a

✨flair up✨

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Things from today's 5 hour Frozen rehearsal, in no particular order:

- MTI still hasn't sent us the scripts, so we're all using a copy someone uploaded online

- two out of our three Olaf's are puppeteers. However, we do not yet have an Olaf puppet. One of the puppeteers has taken to walking around the stage with a hoodie on her hand to mimic this.

- our third Olaf is a child who has mastered the ability to voice crack on command, and is weaponizing it. I would slay nations for small Olaf

- the MTI track for First Joik gives FIFTY SECONDS for five lines of dialogue and neither my director nor I have any idea what we're going to do about that. Currently in rehearsal I just loom ominously over Anna's unconscious body until I hear the little jangle jangle in the music and then put my whole diaphragm into the KEEEEEE-YAAAAAAAAAAA etc.

- Princess Anna lifts Hans in "Love is an Open Door" and then PROCEEDS TO HOLD HIM ALOFT FOR SEVERAL SECONDS because our Princesses Anna are powerhouses

- Around hour 4.5 I was exhausted, but given the blocking to speak with Elsa in the background during a scene. I proceeded to improvise under my breath that I was a Baron from a largely illiterate and lactose intolerant barony ready to set up a trade deal for approximately 700,000 cows. Several of the children in the cast heard this and for the rest of rehearsal I was begged to talk about the barony of Moolandia.

- We also do not have a puppet for Sven yet, so our Sven puppeteers are just rubbing their heads on people

- "So we're going to learn this waltz... that's on a four count." "So a foxtrot?" "Shut up."

- "and five six seven eight - swallow mom, swallow dad, undress the bishop GO."

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Just, you know. Riding the train. With my bag of swords.

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I'm in a production of FROZEN right now, and the show is double cast. While this is really great because it means I'm not performing 3x a day for a month straight, it's also provided one of the most hilarious double cast dichotomies I've ever seen

Anyway, free doodle to the first person who can guess which role my 5'2 cast mate and I share