Amphibian Stage Productions

Yes, I am writing another blog, I know that i said Meryl Streep was my last blog, but I am sort of addicted to writing these things and it’s some pretty good memories, that i don’t want to forget! The Kevin Kline nose at last night’s show, Thursday, the 13th of December went for a whopping $3,000. The nose is auctioned in order to raise proceeds for Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids. My what a bidding war that was! The nose is autographed by Mr. Kline and Ms. Garner. Needless to say it was rather exciting.
David Leveaux was being wrangled by the sweet Jennifer Garner to the party he had no idea about. We set up a surprise party for him at the Paramount hotel across the street from the theater. Jennifer brought David to the lounge and we all yelled surprise, and he look on his face was too precious. His reation was pure surprise. In attendance were several David Leveaux alums, Sally Murphy from Fiddler and currently in August Osage County, The exquisite cast of Cyrano of course, Rufus Sewell, now in Rock N Roll, and Harvey Fierstein, who is starring in his own musical he wrote, directed by John Doyle, who directed Sweeney Todd. I spoke with Harvey for a while, and he has this voice you know, that carries, and yet is hard to understand sometimes. He said, ” John wants us to play instruments, or find a way for the actors to play some sort of instrument, but the only instrument I play is the skin flute.” I said, ” I can’t believe you just said that!!!! He laughed jokingly, and I said (like a moron) “You write?” and Jv Mercanti, who cast Cyrano and s an amphibian director, said, “Hello!!!! La Cage Aux Folles!, Torch Song Trilogy!” I was so embarrassed, and Harvey said, “Oh I love young actors!” I said please excuse my lack of knowedge, he was very sweet about the whole thing.

So, from a request from Martha Clutch butt we have a post from Chris Sarandon.  I informed Chris about Ms. Clutchbutt’s request and he is very happy to oblige.  Meaning he is happy to give more fodder for this blog!  One of Kevin Kline’s lines to Montfleury is “I have one wish that is simple to have the stage rid of this…pimple, this carbuncle, this absess….but Kevin always leaves out the word pimple…which is a very funny line, and every single night Chris leans over and says “I want my pimple!, where is my pimple!”  and then I reply Clearisil darling clearisil…  There are many more fun adlibs happening on stage which happen everywhere.

We are walking up the stairs and part of Jennifer’s dress is unbuttoned.  Chris masks this by standing next to her, while Concetta Tomei…Roxanne’s nurse, buttons her up…I say…”why is her dress unbuttoned?” (after it had been buttoned up) Jennifer looks back eyes wide open, and Chris says”easy entry my dear, easy entry!” Hilarious!  Of course he is just kidding around, and jennifer says…”your’re just having a great time today aren’t you?”

Chris is a great actor and a wonderful person.  He is sooo funny and dry with his humor.  He ad libs all the time when we are in the group scenes and says some of the funniest things.  I will try hard to remember all the different ones, what’s great is when someone catches him off guard, and he cracks a smile.

Among other things….

Having a great time in the show.  We will film the play for PBS after the new year so that will be exciting.  Tonight is David Leveaux’s birthday…looking forward to it.  The cast is surprising him with a party at a disclosed location…shhhhh…The fundraising for Cyrano’s nose is shooting through the roof.  I spoke with one of our producer’s today and he said we will break the record for Broadway Cares for a non-musical production.  Very exciting. Max Baker who plays Rageneau has a terrific band called Eelwax Jesus.  His band had a show at the Zipper Theater, a christmas show, and it was soooo much fun.  They are really quirky, edgy and they have a lot of fun.  I’m really lucky and very thankful, this really is a blast.  I’ll have more later. Thanks for reading. 

Well, it’s Saturday night and what’s this Broadway actor gonna do tonight?  I’m gonna blog. 

I’m very excited to be here, though not excited to follow Carman’s star-studded life, nor David’s pithy and profound professions, but I’ll do my best to offer what I may and to keep it lean and high spirited.

I’m in Pygmalion on Broadway right now.  It stars Claire Danes and Jefferson Mays, but the cast has other Broadway notables such as Jay O. Sanders, Boyd Gaines, and Helen Carey.  The show is excellent.  It’s being produced by Roundabout Theatre and was directed by David Grindley.  Now that you’re up to speed it’s important to know that even though we were extended an extra week, though we’ve been sold out for the majority of the run, next week we take our final bows.  The show closes on the 16th and I’m very sad to see it go.  I’ve grown accustomed to this play.

And the people.  I’ve found that the cast seems to consistently “out nice” each other.  Generally speaking I think myself to be a kind fellow but in the company of this cast, I’m a grinch.  One simple example of the selflessness that goes on: Each Sunday we have a brunch in the trap room where the head of wardrobe, Susan Fallon, sets up griddles, toaster ovens, and a cappuchino machine bringing the best of breakfast smells below the theater.  Most everyone arrives early to enjoy the others company and Fallon has single handedly created an unique Broadway event that I’ll always fondly remember.  And so begins my story with me going to sleep that I may hasten my dreams of tomorrow’s blueberry pancakes. 

Jonathan Fielding is Amphibian’s Guest Amphiblogger for December.  He is an Artistic Associate and was in last year’s Below the Belt.

So, my last blog to you is very exciting as I met Meryl Streep last night.  While we were auctioning Cyrano’s nose, I was helping Chris Sarandon spot the people who were bidding, and I noticed that one of the first people to raise there hands was Meryl Streep.  I leaned over to Daniel Sunjata and i said that was Meryl Streep, then my world sort of went numb.  I was too excited that she saw the show.  She lost the bid for the nose, but the nose sold for 1100.00…not too shabby!  We have almost raised 20,000 in just four short days!  Pretty astounding.

I went upstairs to undress, and Elisa Acevedo, who is such a sweetie, and who does hair for the show, came to my dressing room, and said “Carman, you have to hear this, Meryl came in Kevin’s dressing room and one of the first things she said was…First of all, that fight was magnificent!” AAAHHHHHHH!!!!! was my response.  I gathered up my things and said that’s it, I’m going over there.  I don’t care!

I get to Kevin’s dressing room, and I knock, Sue Wright, Kevin’s dresser answers the door and says come on in, and I say, ” Uhmm, hello….I just wanted to come over, I heard you were over here, and excuse me for interrupting, but I just wanted to meet…(Kevin interrupts and says,”Me!…you came all the way over here to say hello to me!”  I said, “No! not you!, and he said “I know…Meryl, this is Carman Lacivita…Lachivita, LAcivita…(he’s singing my name) he was in the fight you were talking about.”  She comes over to me and shakes my hands and says, “you were terrific, what a wondderful job and opportunity.  Congratulations.!”  I say, “thank you so much, that means a lot coming from you.  I am just so excited to be meeting you, holy cow!, I’m gushing I’m sorry, i don’t mean to interrupt, but I’m a huge fan, and very glad to meet you.”  She says thank you and says I need to find Jennifer and say hello to her. 

At that point I’m more numb.  I leave and fly home with my buddy Bryan Stewart who came in town for the weekend to visit.  I come back to the theater, and thank Kevin for letting me interrupt his visit with Meryl, and he says, “Oh please, but you should know that just before you came in, she said, “The fight alone was worth the price of admission!”  I’m on cloud nine, needless to say. I’m usually not that star struck, but every actor wants to meet her, because…well…you know why…Brilliance! Hello!

I’m very greatful for this opportunity and so happy to be a part of it.  Thank you for reading my blog friends and family.  I hope that you enjoyed it.  Cyrano will forever be in my heart, for this experience has been everything and every bit a blessing to my career, my life, and my heart.  Have a great time Jonathan Fielding who will now be blogging for December!  Best wishes to all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Carman 

Apparently…moolah!…So, We had our first auction of Cyrano’s nose, autographed by Mr. Kline himself, and Jennifer threw in one of her false eyelashes, and it sold for 1,400.00.  With proceeds going to Broadway Cares, Equity fights AIDS.  It was hilarious.  That person, will probably get twice as much for it on EBAY.  All in all on our first day we raised about 3500.00.  Not too bad.  We should be able to pull in a great contribution, in what is now a month left in the run.

Speaking of noses…my nose is returning to a normal state.  The right side of the bridge of my nose, feels like the cartilage might be loose in some way.  It sort of makes me nervous…This of course is from the time that I got mugged.  It certainly is not broken, but it might be cracked.  I have a neurology appt. tomorrow, so we will see if my brain is jarred …more than usual that is.   I know it could have been worse.  People keep sharing stories with me from their families and friends who have been attacked, and I am so greatful for the related stories.  All of the talking, praying, and confronting of this event has done wonders for my spirit.  I feel stronger, and I am gaining my power more and more.  God is good and more angels just keep showing up out of every crevis.

So, many of you know my mother…I spent about 15 minutes trying to get her to say Cyrano de Bergerac, and she could not do it.  She would repeat it syllable by syllable perfectly, and then she would say the whole thing, and it sounded like she had peanut butter in her mouth.  Very Funny…for those of you who know my mother.  I don’t think I shared this in my last blog, but she told Jennifer Garner she only recognized her because “my son tol me you wuh een da movie where you swing da knife…you were good in that one!”  (My attempt to write asian dialect.)  Jennifer said “that’s right you don’t like romantic movies, just action ones.”  I was pretty sheepish about it, but I love my mom, and she is so charming about things like that.  She also decided to extend her stay by a week.  She can be a bit nit picky about how I keep things.  I suddenly realize wher I get my control freak from!

The nose for the wed matinee yielded a 1,500.00 dollar fundraiser for Equity Fights AIDS.  The nose has the signature of Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner.   Christmas is around the corner so it is nice to see people being so generous for a good cause.  The theater is also slowly turning into a festive atmosphere as dressing rooms are beginning to look holidayish!

I’ve been singing fun songs into Jennifer Garner’s ear while we have our scene together.  So far, some Atlantic Starr…The Carpenters, and some Spice Girls…all of which didn’t get the reaction I thought.  It didn’t even make her flinch.  She instead stared me down…I got a little worried, so I will stop singing the songs, and just converse.  She’s a good sport about it though.  Maybe my singing is just bad or off key?  Most likely both!

So, the big news of today the 2nd of Dec. is that the show was delayed by 30 minutes due to the infamous curtain getting caught in the middle of the stage during the balcony scene.  We had to pause for the stage hands to  come out and fix the traveler..in the meantime Jennifer Garner, Concetta Tomei, Kevin Kline, Chris Sarandon and Daniel Sunjata, came out on stage and fielded questions from the audience.  It was pretty funny.  Concetta proceeded to thank her friends who came out all the way from Kinosha(spelling) Wisconsin, who were in the orchestra row f…HILARIOUS…Some audience members asked Kevin when he will be doing a Shakespeare again and what is going to be Jennifer’s next play?…she said no one has offered me anything yet, but my chances are diminishing by the minute! It was a good thing they went out there…any longer it would have been a real MUTINY.  Kevin asked, “how many of you bought tickets before the strike?”  most of the audience clapped…”how many of you bought tickets after?”…a few clapped…”how many are regretting you bought tickets at all?”  Another question asked Daniel to take his clothes off like in Take Me Out…Real class..but he indulged the audience with a teasing smile.

My mother came to see the show as well as my brother, sister and High School theater teacher, with her husband.  My mom decided to see the show that afternoon.  I brought her down to meet Kevin in his dressing room, and he was very gracious.  He spoke with her for a while and let her sit in the box that he enters the stage from.  She had a great time meeting him.  She met most of the cast and got the star treatment from all of my great friends in the show.  They treated her so well…she was over the moon! 

That night my a few of my siblings saw the show with my mom again and my HS teacher and her spouse, and they loved it…Afterwards, they met Jennifer Garner and she signed autographs and spoke with my family for a while, She too was very gracious and my sister was fawning over her and hugged her.  My brother who had never been to NYC, and never seen a Broadway show, meets Jennifer all in the same trip…He was in a different world!  Jennifer signed a program to the drama students at my HS as well…made my teacher very happy.  My sister was also overjoyed to meet Mr. Sunjata…no surprise as every girl is very excited to meet him.  He too was very sweet.

I am a very lucky person, and am so happy to be a part of this show.  Since the strike the show has been pretty amazing…minus the fight today…my fight with Kevin that is…didn’t go as well as it normally does…but it happens…The houses have been full, the audiences have been receiving us and the stories with there whole hearts.  We are lucky to be able to do the things that we want to do on a regular basis…