Filed by Lance at 3:35 pm under General, Hatemail, Shameless Plugs, Stuff to Read, The Arts
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Here is every Hatemail we recorded last Sunday, presented in a slightly different format for your visual delight:

Filed by Lance at 2:11 pm under General
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If this doesn’t answer your questions about Hatemail, you’ll just have to come on Sunday to find out:

Filed by Bil at 6:56 pm under The Arts
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Electra rehearsals are going swimmingly. Jeremy left the state to go all the way to Los Angeles, and we’re all a little excited for him to return so we can show him what we’ve been working on. Our main fear is that he will hate the direction we took. Our smaller, less-founded fear is that he will have turned vegetarian during his time out there.

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a director who doesn’t eat meat.

In his absence, we’ve tightened up the chorus’ singing, tackled the relationship dynamic between Pamphilos and Electra, aligned the planes of our acting dimensions, and discussed the merits of being tuned into each other’s Jungian collective subconscious. The way I see it, the fact that we’ve gone this far without him will have one of two possible outcomes:

1) Jeremy is so inspired by our awesomeness that he takes the wheel of what is already a Buick 8 of a show cruising at 70 on the highway and pushes it to 90.
2) Jeremy is so horrified at our cocksure idiocy that he explodes with enough anxious energy to rip the show off its current track and heave it forecfully in the direction it needs to go with enough momentum to bounce us to the heights we need to achieve by opening night.

Either of these outcomes assures us an opening night no audience member will ever forget. Have you gotten your tickets yet? You can pre-order now. If it’s close enough to pre-order, it must be almost opening night. Ohmygod.

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Filed by Bil at 12:10 pm under The Arts
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Last night’s Electra rehearsal was bookended by pints of beer. It’s not a habit or anything - it’s pretty rare that I’ll even have a beer after rehearsal, let alone before. But, it just so happened that the cool kids at my day job got some rooftop reservations at Plymouth, which for me was this bizzarro beacon of I-want-to-go-to-there tavern lust. It also just so happened that I had plans earlier in the week to go to Team Trivia at the Chicago Ale House on Wednesday, but that got scrapped in favor of rehearsal at Dream Theatre, so we had to make it up somehow.

Plymouth, as anyone who commutes to the Loop via the Brown Line probably knows, is that cool-looking bar just off Van Buren with the big open rooftop bar. This turned out to be a disappointment, though, in that the rooftop portion was still closed in by weather-resistant transparent plastic. And it was crowded and noisy. So now I hate that place.

The Chicago Ale House, however, was as reliable as ever.

Anyway - rehearsal, yes, rehearsal. There was an initial music rehearsal for the Chorus, who will be performing a very sweet song for your listening pleasure in multi-part harmony. Of course, this being a Dream Theatre show, sweet harmonies (much like the Chorus themselves) are a harbinger of doom.

“Electra” is one of my absolute favorite of Jeremy Menekseoglu’s plays because it’s not just a tragedy, it’s the best kind of tragedy. It’s ironic tragedy. And this production is littered with delicious little pieces of ironic candy. Like a soft, sweet song being one of the scariest things around. Also, the fact that Giau Truong plays a blonder character than me.

Speaking of Giau: whilst Trevor and the zombie girls (great band name right there) rehearsed their beautiful song, Giau and Jeremy and Anna and I rehearsed Giau’s big scene. Dubious comments were made, innuendos were thrown around, motives were called into question, feelings were hurt, and weapons were drawn, but at the end of it all, it was a fabulous rehearsal. Big improvements all around, and now we have probably the best use I’ve ever seen of our “upstairs” set balcony. You won’t want to miss this scene. Which scene? Well, you’ll just have to come see the show. You’ll have to watch all the scenes, and you’ll know what I’m talking about when we get there. You’ll know because it’s awesome.

Filed by Bil at 11:44 am under The Arts
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Last night’s rehearsal was an exercise in learning to be light on our feet. I was not a participant in the latter half of the rehearsal, but believe you me, I was taking mental notes like a college student the night before biology final exams (minus the energy drinks).

Every actor loves to ask, “What’s my motivation?” and every director wants to punch them in the face when they ask this. It’s an annoying question, and luckily, Jeremy is the kind of director who will ask his actors what their motivation is before we actors ask him.
(Keep reading…)

Filed by Bil at 7:13 pm under The Arts
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Today’s rehearsal for “Electra” down at Dream Theatre was not what I expected – many times over.

I did not expect the complete absence of the Chorus. It turned out to be solely me, Giau, Jeremy, and Anna. If we had a trivia league team, I bet we’d be called “The Saturday Rehearsal Club.”

I did not expect to find myself face-down in the mud. There is no real mud inside the theatre, but now we have a bit (which may or may not stick) involving Pamphilos (me) all the way down on the ground. Face down. Excellent.

I did not expect to have my lines memorized as well as I apparently do. Good job, brain!

I did not expect to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the consistent note from critics in local papers that the company is “like nothing else in Chicago.” Apparently this poses quite the conundrum, but also generates some really good interest in shows. Not good enough, but good…and “good” is a good place to start.

I did not expect to feel as confident walking away from the rehearsal as I do right now. This show is going to raise some eyebrows, that’s for damn sure.

“Electra” is not going to be what you expect, everybody. Put down your expectations right now.

In other news, surprise! We have a new project to announce…Which we plan to announce for everybody in the whole wide world early next week. Hold your breath!

Hint: it’s Hatemail-related. But you probably could have guessed that.

Filed by Bil at 9:43 am under Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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I know it comes late, but we at Tip Your Waiter would like to thank everyone who made it out to our Hatemail recording session last weekend. There’s some very good stuff that came out of it, and we’re very keen to start taking the next steps.

We had one actor who also plays guitar bring his instrument and actually wound up recording some music for us while he was here. This was pretty darn cool, so next month I think we’ll be trying harder to reach out to musicians to come along, as well.

So don’t forget, actors and musicians: last Sunday of this month, April 25, is the next open session. We recommend coming early, because while you get to choose what you want to read, it’s first-come-first-serve and only one actor can read each letter! Thanks to Beth Richards, Kat Daniels, Chris Dunn-Rankin, and Zach Livingston for the most recent set.

Now then, on to the topic of me…
(Keep reading…)