Back to One: Hirosaki Theater Players

Got booked on the "Hirosaki Theater Players". I got this booking through Amy Gossels casting which proves even casting agencies that normally specialize in

Principal roles are hurting in this crestfallen economy. The pay rate was something that is not appealing to announce, though I am doing it for comparison sake. Our rate was $35 dollars USD, not Japanese Yen.

Too bad it wasn't in Euros, it would be worth a lot more. Doing the

judge shows back in the days, we would get $50.00, Dunkin Donuts coffee for breakfast, and pizza for lunch. Plus great entertainment factor especially how more twisted and "Ghetto" the plaintiffs/defendants were.

Though for the "love of art", or more like "love of money in my wallet", you make sacrifices and surrender your pride for culture and some "yen" to get through the next day.

Our location was at the Harry De Jur Playhouse at the Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand

Street @ Pitt Street. The closest subway stop is the F train (Essex/Delancey stop). Getting to the location was a huge trek from the Essex/Delancey St. considering I was coming from Astoria Queens. Not a bad location if you live in the Lower East side.

After about an hour and a half commute, I got to the lobby of the building and was told to sit down where there were only two chairs. Actually I was "gestured" to sit down as they all spoke Japanese and the only guy who knew any English , or "broken English" , had a thick Russian accent and we needed an interpreter just to understand him.

I was the only one there at the time, or so I thought. I saw the craft table which had two urns, one with coffee, the other tea. On the table beside they had three paper

plates. One had crappy butter popcorn, the other were filled with pretzels and restaurant tortilla chips, plain and without the dip. I was thinking "great, they did say there would be a meal, I guess this constitutes as a meal for a rat!"

When I was directed to the actual holding area, there were already a few friendly faces sitting at tables:

There was a spread of spaghetti and meatball dishes on the side that smelled real good, though we were not aloud to touch it until it got cold and all the crew members had their fill.

Of course we were directed to sit in the theater and drag all our stuff with us where they were to perform so the crew and cast could eat without our presence. Later on as the day into evening progressed, they did give us some "Asian sandwiches" with Surprise meat.

By the time the sandwiches came, I was SO hungry and didn't care if it was made with "Dog" meat. I didn't care if it was an Asian , I was so hungry at that point. LOL. It was pretty good considering their budget. We spent most of our time indoors

The play itself is some kind of a Japanese theme play with lots of monologues. It wasn't that bad, long though. I think it’s about a troupe of Japanese actors who come to this country. What I found out later was that the director’s father is in the troupe, or something like of that nature. I didn’t get the whole story but that’s what I heard.

We finally got to see the act and it was interesting, especially if you knew Japanese, as there were no subtitles. The stage was very simple set with a wooden cabinet

with wooden bowls where a beautiful Japanese Woman dressed in a fancy white dress, could have been her wedding dress, was fixing the dishes. On the side there was a Japanese school girl what appeared to

be making or cleaning a bowl.

A Japanese nurse stood by the entrance/doorway to what was believed to be the home of these people.

The two main characters, another beautiful Japanese Woman though more despondent and serious in demeanour, gave a monologue. You did not have to be Japanese to understand that she was in despair and you got the impression that she was woman with purpose and fought to keep her family together through the war or something like that.

Cut to...the old man doing the monologue. As she finished, he continues with another monologue of hope for mankind. We really did not get it at this point.

Though the old man did remind us of the actor Pat Morito playing Mr. Miyaggi as the mentor to the actor Ralph Macchio in the movie "The Karate Kid", as the character, Daniel Larusso. "Wax on; Wax off".

Then we were hearing the soundtrack to Karate Kid, "The Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera in our heads. Thankfully after the initial rehearsal, they did only a couple of takes.

After that we were sent back to the holding area to literally hold ourselves up from boredom. There was word that there was a "second location" which we were not informed of, and did sit well with some people because it was NOT indicated in the e-mail that we would all be in another location.

This meant that if you lived in the LES area, you got a raw deal. The second location was in Chelsea over by 23rd and 8th ave. The word was "they" would not go back to the first location.

In the "second" location is where the only exterior was shot and that was 20 minutes of being outside and over 4 hours of waiting inside for something to happen.

This was the exterior scene depicting us coming in to the theater and barely getting in to the sold-out "Hirosaki players theater" show.

I got home around 2 am taking the "E" train back to Queens, which really reeks at that time with the designated homeless marking their territory for the night.

All in all, it was a fun night. Probably would have been better if we were paid more, though still better than sitting at home watching the time go by.