Transcript of 10:16AM GTalk Conversation, in reference to the Shakespeare bust affectionately entitled Willy:

Rob: I have some possibly bad news, though not totally irreparable... I may have lost our Willy on the way home last night

Ethan: ok, let's order another stat

Rob: ... is that like... when your dog dies... and then you buy another dog that looks just like it?

No Jacket Required recently acquired footage from the earliest known performance of Shakespeare's "Macbeth", and they have restored it to it's original quality for "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged" fans.

We started today (technically yesterday cause lightening struck my house last night) by talking about how the park went and brainstorming ideas to bring in more crowds.  Ideas included a boom box with our pre-show music. 

I am also proud to say that we are fully blocked up until the last two pages!
And give Ethan points for pushing through his sickness.  He did great but was clearly tired.

We decided that the boys are going to wear pants to work on Friday and then put tights on underneath when they leave for the park.  That way they can just slip into their costume without breaking any decency laws.

-Lisa (Stage Manager)

NJR is now registered for the NY Innovative Theatre Awards!  After watching one of our performances, please make sure to go to their website and cast your vote! 

To cast a vote for "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged" please click here, or paste this text into your URL Bar: http://www.nyitawards.com/vote/

Ethan and Rob spent the day trying to find costumes for the show.  You'd think this would be easy living in New York.

Ethan, Darren, and Tim become extremely excited over the prospect of un-bruised knees during rehearsal, only to find that the kneepads are too small.

Today we had our first performance in Central Park on the lawn in front of the Dairy Visitor Center, and it went really well!  At the risk of the cast loosing their voices we capped the number of performances at two.

We decided to move the performance area a little more into the field and to face up the rocks so that the group of people aready there would be our audience.  A lot of people stayed to watch.  The guys hung in there throughout the ridiculous 95 degree heat.  The $5 donation for a poster was a brilliant idea since we only have one left.  Kids seemed to really love the show (which says a lot about our humor).  I'm slightly concerned that everyone watching the show today was tourist so it wasn't a lot of good exposure.  But it was good rehearsal.

There was a lot of enthusiasm and a great crowd.  We learned a lot, including:
-Canadian tourists have trouble following directions BUT they like to give donations.
-Subtlety is hard to pull off outside and is swallowed because of sound issues.
-Tim may have fractured Ethan's jaw.
-Tights are insanely hot.

Thank you to anyone who came out to see the show and especially those of you who donated!!

-Ethan and Lisa

We imported two extras from Long Island to help choreograph the fight scene in Romeo and Juliet.  The guys then came up with the fight with the foils in Hamlet by themselves  Then we managed to do a run through of the park performance.

-Lisa
(Stage Manager)

Today we came up with a scheme for the park and ran it a couple of times. Everyone seems really excited about it.

I think it would be great if everyone would bring their own sweat rag on Saturday for the park performance.

-Lisa
(Stage Manager)

Today we spent the first hour figuring out the run sheet for the show, which was greatly helpful.  After, we worked on Hamlet up until the death of Hamlet.

Ethan added a line which looks likely to stay when he comes out at the end of the To Be or Not To Be speech telling "Bob" (to which I do not respond) to give some houselights

Set/Prop Notes:
Hamlet's book broke.  I'm going to pick up some super glue and try to take care of it.

-Lisa (Stage Manager)