Pretty Little Picture

Come see Forum... this weekend at Dogwood Dell. It's at 8:30 PM. And it's FREE!

Delicious! Refreshing! Invigorating! Exhilarating!

Always Coca-Cola!

FYI- We went to the Wikipedia page for Coca-Cola slogans because we all found it funny that the "COKE" is basically the centerpiece of this family portrait. Go here if you want to look at Coke slogans from 1886. The one we used is from 1887. 

Wow, don't Charles Wissinger, Terri Moore, and Sean Williams make an adorable family? All three of you win for best awkward family photo face! Congratulations. 

Forum's Boots 'n' Bits

Since we’re not going to be able to review Forum ourselves, we’re instead going to give you some additions to Jason’s 5 reasons to see the show, things you wouldn’t normally notice that we want you to look out for. Let's just think of this as insider tips from two of the stars. And by stars we mean people who appear onstage for less than ten minutes. But oh, what a ten minutes it is! Tragedy tomorrow, bullets tonight:

•  This show is nothing like the horrible movie. Our mom didn’t believe us when we said that the show was actually funny because all she could think about was the somewhat sci-fi/pornographic Zero Mostel version. This show is a hilarious mix of Mel Brooks, Judd Apatow, Family Guy, and Aristophanes – and we all know what a hoot he was!
• Joe Pabst, our director, Blanton Bradley, the musical director, and Amy Farley, our choreographer, are a dream team- smart, hard-working, and so much fun! And we’re slowly but surely convincing them to work together on Dreamgirls. But this time as the lead performers.
• "The House of Marcus Lycus” is an awesome number that you’re sure to enjoy, if only for Robert Redford/Blonde Pierce Brosnan, who we’ve brought in to play Marcus Lycus. Just kidding, his name is Kerry Keenan, and we all love him. He’s totally that guy in high school who not only was quarterback of the football team, but could sing, too (Anyone remember Walker Williams?). Plus, all the girls in the number are great performers. We both realized that every courtesan in the number is supposed to be cute, flirty, and sexy. Whereas what do you think our two characters are supposed to be? We're either a) spastic, b) frightening, c) angry, or d) all of the above. The answer is f) all of the above and also sweating.
• Who here has rehearsed at the Carillon before? Here are our thoughts about this historical monument, also known as a Super Mario World Ghost House. We think there are special bug species that are only populating the Carillon. And we’re pretty sure a hunchback is manning the bells. However, we also think it’s gorgeous and want to stand on the very top balcony and perform “A New Argentina.”
• Charles Wissinger taught Steven Ralph how to authentically draw a sword.

 Go here for the dates and times, and maybe we’ll see you on the way to the Dogwood Dellum!

A Lot of Funny Things Happened on the Way to Writing this Blog

...Which is why it took us so long to post a new blog. Whoops. We've been really busy with Forum rehearsals - which opens this week! We hope to see all of y'all there with cold cuts and deviled eggs. Michael Hawke, don't forget your 2-liter grape Big K. Anyway, the rehearsals have been a ton of fun, if not very entertaining. Elyse has just learned to crack a bull whip without taking off her ear, and Annie is working on perfecting her cat screams... without sounding like a pirate.

Jason Marks made a video of the top five reasons you should see the show. Find it on our Facebook profiles because we have absolutely no idea how to link to it here. It's a great video- bravo, Jason, can you do EVERYTHING?- but we have one qualm. The two of us together are not one of the reasons you should see the show. You know honestly, we're not even in the video, except Elyse standing there diagonally and a shot of Annie's stomach next to her. Jason. Seriously? 

Hope you all know that we're kidding and we couldn't be prouder of the amazing team that has come together to put on this show. We literally were saying last night that we feel like proud Jewish grandparents at a Bat Mitzvah who kvell the whole time, not even looking at their granddaughter who is performing, but instead turning around in their pew (is there a word for a Jewish pew?) and smiling at everyone who's there as if to say, "Isn't she a gem?" Well, Forum cast, you are our gem. And by the way, wonderful job on your Haftorah portion. 

Tune in later in the day for our favorite moments for the show, and also to hear about the things we've been doing for the past year since the last time we posted. It feels good to be back! We'd be writing more now but Annie has to go practice with the marvelous Sherri Matthews for a concert that you'll be hearing about here when you check back later. 

... Everybody ought to have a blog.

We'll Make it a Triple, Not a Curtain Call

This might be impossible for you readers to believe, but the two of us really aren't all that great at sports. And by not all that great we mean terrible. Our favorite part of playing sports when we were kids was eating the snack that the parents brought every week after the game. So naturally when we heard there was a Richmond theatre softball game we decided to go and make fools of ourselves, with the knowledge that no matter how horrible we do, we can always go to Westhampton Bakery afterwards. And we had really cute July 4th-inspired outfits. That was enough impetus to go.

Unfortunately, we had to be on two different teams. Which was terrifying! We're never split up. But it made it much easier when we were actually playing because for the first half of the game Elyse's teammates were calling her Annie, so there was no confusion over who they were actually talking to. Speaking of which, Matt Hackman (who is apparently a major league baseball player) couldn't stop calling Annie "Ally," which made things a bit difficult when he was trying to get her attention because a ball was flying at her head.

Lisa Kotula's whole family was there which was so much fun and she was ridiculously good at softball! For some reason we feel like every mom who has a fifth grade kid in little league HAS to be good at softball because we have this mental image in our head of our mom in overalls coaching little league and being amazing.

Eddie Tavares, the most athletic person ever, was there and this one guy kept calling him "Big Stick" every time he was up to bat. Okay. We totally didn't know that was a baseball term for a good batter. So... you can imagine our confusion. Every player was so good, we wondered why we were even trying to play on the same field as them. I guess it was for their entertainment. We played for two and a half hours and Annie was at bat for about one of those hours total. We didn't play outs, so in total, Annie swung about 64 times. And made contact about 4 times.

When we got home from the game we were so excited that we decided to stop at Toys 'R' Us and buy mitts and a softball. We got home and were playing catch in the front yard with our new equipment and next thing we knew, Annie missed a pop fly and it landed in the sewer. Hopefully that isn't a sign that we shouldn't go back next week. Because we plan on giving it another shot. We might wear name tags next time...

Together at Last!

Annie and Elyse are in a show together! This hasn’t happened since the Broadway Kids came into town in 1998 and put on “Kids for Kids” and the locals got to participate. And by participate we mean stand behind all the Broadway Kids while they sang “I Go to Rio.”  So now we finally have the opportunity to be in a show together again. We’re playing two of the courtesans in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Dogwood Dell. Good thing it’s at the Dell because with our crazy-proud parents so happy that their two kids are onstage together, there's going to need to be a large house. Only an outdoor ampitheatre would accommodate.

Rehearsals started the other night and we learned our dance, choreographed by the incomparable Amy Farley. Elyse walks around in elevator shoes and a whip. And Annie is thrown around by Jason Marks. They do a crazy animal-inspired swing dance that is incredible. Jason is such a good dancer! He’s doing steps that no one in our family could get down back when all four of us took swing dance together. Seriously. Mom, Dad, and the two of us all took swing dance classes. Why doesn’t our family have a reality show?

It’s really interesting seeing how we act at rehearsals because everyone has a “rehearsal personality”. And generally it’s different from how the personalities are in everyday life. So here’s what we learned about each other. Elyse is surprisingly really loud and makes jokes as often as possible, but every time she says a joke she has to keep eye contact with Annie for security. Like she knows that Annie will always laugh at her joke. Annie is the most attention-grabbing person at rehearsal. The two of us were sitting with our backs to the mirror while some other people were working stuff with Amy. Elyse was sitting there calmly, and Annie promptly turns so she’s facing the mirror, puts her hair in a crazy hairdo and watches herself bop around with her hairdo.

Stick around for more stories about the rehearsal process that will probably include eunuchs stacking on top of each other, a local re-enactor, Robert Redford’s twin brother playing a pimp, and Blanton Bradley standing there with his hands on top of the piano and a note mysteriously being played... 

Also stick around for our thoughts on Summer of '42 and our attempts at being athletic.