June, 5th 2010
By: toto_too514
Edited by: Marcy

I managed to survive the heat and humidity, stay dry during the downpours of rain and avoided the tornadoes and got myself to the Reading of Notes on a Scandal taking place at the Performance Space 122 in NYC this evening. "The Performance Space - Downstairs" is actually in the basement of a Public School. The theater holds about 80 people w/ two rows of seats on the floor and  the rest on small risers. There was no real stage... 

ETA: Since Randy's haircut seems to be a large topic of interest, I thought I would add a picture that I originally thought was no good b/c he turned his head as I snapped the shot!

While waiting on line, I had the chance  to chat w/ Stephen DeRosa, who many of you remember as Estragon from Waiting for Godot. I had met Stephen at a reading of You Can’t Take It With You at The Acting Company earlier this year. I told him I was looking forward to seeing him in The Guardsman at Stockbridge this year.

Doors finally opened about five minutes before show time, much to the delight of the hot and sweaty crowd. As we walked in all the actors were on stage sitting in chairs w/ their backs to the audience. As the crowd filed in, the actors were exaggerating stretching and clearing their throats, etc....  to "warm up" before the show.  They had a full house, or close to it.

My friend and I sat in the second row directly in front of Randy. It was a shame that there were no photos allowed at this show, b/c this was actually the closest I have been to Randy for any event, AND  there were bright stage lights. Ah, well!

Randy must have had a very recent haircut... it was very short, basically buzzed on the sides - I think the left side was shorter and higher than the right. The top was longer and fell forward toward his face and it was very blond. The short hair and the fact he was clean shaven, made him look so young! He wore the same light blue button down cotton shirt from The Singing Forest opening party. He had a grey button down cardigan sweater, cut-off shorts (Which looked like they were grey dress slacks!) and black suede moccasins.

The Reading itself was just pee-in-your-pants funny! It seemed better to me than the first Reading, which could be b/c this was the third time this group was performing it, OR it could be that I was closer to the action this time. But everyone seemed just a bit more enthusiastic w/ everything they did... (If anyone saw the first show, you might have trouble believing that!) All kisses - including the two b/ "Sheba and Steven" and the one b/ "Richard and Sheba" were longer and more, shall we say... intense? The "sex" scene b/ Sheba and Steven were longer and much louder!

Randy's rant as the husband Richard was done w/ a gusto that's hard to describe! His face got bright red; the veins in his neck bulged and there was spit flying everywhere as he blustered out his lines, barely containing himself in his seat!  Funny, funny stuff!

Of course w/ all the extra enthusiasm, the actors were having a much more difficult time keeping themselves from laughing during the show! Randy was having particular trouble controlling himself when he watched Sheba. At one point near the end, Sheba and Richard are supposed to "knowingly" look each other in the eye as they reconcile, but neither Randy nor Jack Ferver could keep a straight face. So Jack just says, "Oh, never mind!" Which just made Randy laugh harder! But then Jenn Harris pipes up, "Hey, people paid to see this. They wanna see the whole thing!" The two managed to suppress the giggles long enough to get a few seconds of the scene done.

Another thing more obvious tonight was how Randy gets himself ready for his lines. Besides Richard, he plays two other small roles... a school ruffian and nerdy teacher w/ the hots for Sheba. You can watch him as he gets his body and his attitude in to whatever role he was doing. I think I mentioned it after the Caligula Reading as well. It's really a fascinating thing to watch!

There were also a few lines that I must have missed first time around - probably b/c I was laughing too much! One involved Sheba leaving Richard and going to stay w/ Barbara. Barbara narrates, and I'm paraphrasing here... "And Sheba leaves Dick behind." To which Randy responds very dryly, "It's RICHARD."

After the show the cast took their bows and received a long and loud round of applause, which continued after they left the stage. The woman in charge of the Festival went backstage and had the entire cast come back for more bows and more applause.

When I saw Randy after the show he had taken off the sweater and it looked like he had a black-wife-beater under the blue shirt. He carried a tote bag which had white stick figures on a blue background and the words Bar-B-Queer! He also carried what looked like an old black bicycle helmet. He was talking rather intently w/ Stephen DeRosa and his friend - who Stephen had introduced me to, but I forgot his name! There were quite a few other people chatting in the group. At one point, a worker from The Festival, who was walking through the crowds having people sign up for their mailing list, approached Randy w/ her clipboard... which he dutifully signed!

I took some pictures while waiting as he talked w/ his friends.... at that point, Jack Ferver had come out, and I was able to chat for a moment, letting him know - in reference to a line in the play - that I did indeed know who Mary Kaye LaTorneau is. He was very nice and very appreciative of the congratulations we offered. He then stepped up to an older couple standing directly behind us, opened his arms and said, "Hi, Mom and Dad!" It was pretty funny. Randy was still deeply entrenched in his conversation w/ friends... By this time, there was another line gathering for an 8:00 show in The Performance Space... so we just decided to head out. All in all a fun night!

OK, now how serious is my OCD, when I even noticed that Randy had large band-aids on the back of his feet!




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Edited by Marcy