irish raul

So last night I saw my first Irish play. Well, it was a cast of Irish actors, but the play was American. I enjoyed it and it left me with a lot to think about. The actor that I met earlier with the blisters on him apparently has a name. His name is Bush (which is kind of funny with my Texas/American connection) Bush and the lead female were very strong. The other two characters had weak entrances, but improved the longer they were on stage. Bush's American accent was some kind of New Yorky accent, I think. I'm not sure where the play was set but the action took place in a farm house and Bush's character was named Raul--- clearly intended to be hispanic. Of course, it would be ridiculous for them to play him as an American Hispanic so I went along with it-- whatever 'it' was. I actually didn't even remember that the character was supposed to be hispanic until he said a few hispanic curse words (which sounded very different from any time I've ever heard them-- like in LHS hallways or on the soccer field...). The play would be very different if performed at Texas A&M or anywhere in the states really. It was an interesting cultural experience. It just seems strange to know that I was the only American in the theater and to see how Irish actors portrayed Americans.

Before the play I helped Stephen with tickets, which was easy- for the most part. I was good at the part that was like will-call, but the whole process of printing out tickets is complicated. If that's all I was doing I would definitely have it down by now, but I really have used the system very much.

Oh, i had some fajitas yesterday. They were weird, but still very tasty. The chicken was cooked like a sweet chinese dish--- the sauce was kind of like the brown sauce that comes with sesame seed chicken without the sesame seeds. So I put the chicken in the tortillas and added some sour cream and cheese--- not exactly a tex-mex dish, but at least i got to have some tortillas.

I'm close to getting the surveys I wrote up sent out, but the data base with all of the patron information is very difficult to work with. Aoife and I spent yesterday morning just trying to get a list of 300 people to send the surveys to. We finally got a list of 241 people. Upon further inspection two were duplicates and eight did not live in Dublin. Still--- it's close enough!

I met Tom Hickey today. He has a wikipedia account. That's right. Haha, he's doing some lunch performances here next week and is a well-known Irish stage actor. He's done some television, but is probably better known for his theatre work. I've never heard of him, but he was nice and had a great voice.

This is my lunch hour right now, but I brought my peanut butter and jelly (apricot) sandwich so it took me all of seven minutes to eat. I slept an hour later today since I stayed and 'worked' last night. I really didn't do much and I got to see the play for free. This is why I love theatre.

Another random fact-- this theatre charges a euro for their programs which are pretty much just a few facts and picture run off on printer paper. I'm pretty sure that I made a face when Stephen told me that and said, 'What? Do you not do that at your theatre?' I didn't exactly know how to say there would be revolts in the street if we asked a dollar for programs... and that our programs were printed off on really nice paper, etc etc. I managed to say something to that affect and he replied with, 'Well, you know we don't have any money.' Which is true.

Becky, I don't know if you're reading this, but I'm sure Shanna can pass it along. They don't have a budget for marketing. Everything Lizz does to promote the shows are things that can be done at no cost. YEAH. I am so impressed by everything they manage to accomplish. There were four critics last night, so hopefully there will be some good reviews to encourage ticket sales. At least it's the same story in all theatres.

Okay, that's all I've got. Until the future.