Christopher F Reidy
Christopher Reidy
  • Home
  • Blog
  • 83 In the Shade
  • Artwork
  • Videos
  • Writing
  • Contact
  • Product Information

CFR BLOG PAGE

The thoughts & Musings of Christopher F. Reidy*

NOTE: Apparently this webpage has some glitches. It tends to randomly switch out visual material.  Why?  Don't ask me.  So, if a pic doesn't match the text...it doesn't!  Rest assured I am trying to amend this problem.  When I get around to it.

*(may contain misuse of apostrophes, miss spellings, overabundance of semi-colons,  wrong word usage, etc.
Please pardon our appearance while we create a new blog experience for you!)

​ALSO: 
Please find an in-complete (or if you prefer; "ongoing") index of blog posts on the homepage, for your convenience!

AND YET ANOTHER NOTE:
The visual switcheroos on these blogs have reached a point where there's no way I can correct them all, so I'm just going to leave them be.  If they don't match the text, just think of them as whimsical funsies decorating the text.  I will continue to supply pictures; but I cannot guarantee their context: much like my mind.
Thank you for your patience!

A FURTHER NOTE:
I try to keep this website relatively free of anything truly morally reprehensible or obscene.  However, in the pursuit of honesty; I will be quite frank about sexuality; as I feel one should be.  To  wit: this website is not for children.  It is decidedly "adult"; although not necessarily not "childish."  I do not feel it is suitable, in some instances, for anyone below the age of 17.  Or maybe a very mature 16...or 15 even.  
THIS WEBSITE IS RATED: PG-15

Product Information

An Actor's Diary: Part 4

7/6/2022

0 Comments

 
Well, we were supposed to start blocking Act 2 of Rumors today; but Mr. Covid had other ideas.  Several cast members have tested positive, so rehearsals for this week have been cancelled.  Yesterday, I swung by CVS and bought an at- home Covid test, which cost some twenty plus bucks.  Now, I thought these things were supposed to be free.  I was told to keep my receipt, as my insurance carrier may reimburse.
Picture
Don't you just love the picture on the box?  "Gee Grandpa, do you think I'll ever catch a life threatening respiratory disease?....Grandpa?  Grandpa?  Grandpa...why didn't your generation do anything to protect the environment?  Grandpa, you need to trim your nose hair..."
So reassuring!
Anyways...see how it says "EASY" on the box?  Well, it's not really that easy.  I was put in mind of the first at home pregnancy tests that came with beakers and a Bunsen burner.  However, according to Quick Vue's precise directions, my test was clearly negative.  Which is great.  I was almost certain it wouldn't be, 'cuz that's just my luck.  But by this point in my life, I've had so many preventative inoculations and vaccinations and prophylaxes pumped into my body I could probably go wander through the Ebola hot zone and come out relatively unscathed on the other side.
Rumors is not a musical.  However, I have been, at this point, in my fair share.  My first was a little show called The Green Room.  This was about twenty years ago (or more!).  Here's a number, kids!  I'm in the orange shirt:
This is the little show that could.  And I can say I was in the friggin' workshop production.  So here's the skinny...
It was around the turn of the last millennium, '99-2000 and The Off Hollywood Theater Company was having its heyday; although, at the time the company was not aware it was their heyday.  So, one day, the new boyfriend of one of the founders of the company, a young man named Chuck Pelletier, came to some of us and said: "My friend wrote a short story and I want to turn it into a musical.  Do you want to be in it?"  I raised an eyebrow.  Why was he asking me?  I wasn't exactly known for my singing.  Had he heard me sing?  Was he offering the part to me because he felt he had to or did he feel I would be up to the challenge?  I wasn't sure; but I said "yes."  I find you almost never regret saying "yes" but you often regret saying "no." Know what I mean?
So, he goes and finishes the thing and comes back to us with this short musical show about four college friends, all acting majors, on the verge of graduation.  They hang out in the school's drama department "green room." There, they try and finish papers, goof around, fall in love and wonder about their futures.  There's no plot really.  I thought the book needed a little work; but the songs.  The songs!  The songs, I thought, were incredible.  Like just not Broadway good; but Sondheim good.
So Chuck proceeds to put us through our paces.  He brooked no nonsense.  I barely knew him but got to know him pretty quick.  He had a great sense of humor and was a very "nice guy."  But when it came to the music, he was more serious than Beethoven.  Bordering on dictatorial (because perhaps he had to with at least two non-singers in his cast) he dropped us into complicated musical arrangements, that I, for one, wasn't sure we could pull off.  But I think we did.
​Here's another number from the show with the original cast:
So, The Green Room still trods the boards fairly regularly.  I have not seen it's current incarnation but the two songs I've featured here are still in the show with little to no changes.  Apparently, the show is quite popular with small theatrical groups and schools.  The simplicity of the show (one set, four characters) lends itself to this popularity.  But I think it's the amazing songs that are what keep this show alive.  I am certain this show is going have a break-through.  Like a big one.  And it deserves it.  And I'm so glad I said "yes" those twenty odd years ago; because I feel like I had a small part in bringing something--a real piece of ART--to life.
I hope some theatrical producer is out there reading this.  Anyone but Scott "String Cheese Now!!!" R.  Or how about Mr. String Cheese.  If anything, he knows a good thing when he sees it!

​CFR 7/722
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    August 2015

    AUTHOR
    Christopher Reidy is from the Boston area.  He attended Boston University where he studied TV and film which eventually led him to Los Angeles.  There he did the Hollywood thing (which he wasn’t particularly good at) and eventually met his partner Joseph.  He was one of the co-founders of the short lived Off Hollywood Theatre Company which staged several of his original plays.  83 In the Shade is his first novel.  He also dabbles in screenplays, toys with short stories, and flirts with poetry.  Life brought him to bucolic Southwest Virginia where he now resides and is very active in community theatre. It may interest you to know Chris is officially an Irish citizen as well as an American. He also enjoys drawing and painting and looking after a passel of 
    ​
    housecats and two turtles.