To quote a funny movie, Drop Dead Gorgeous, “I’m like, due or something.”  That’s the response that’s been popping into my head whenever my husband wants to make plans for our family.  I am 38 weeks pregnant, and I don’t feel like doing anything.  I just want to lay in bed, get up to eat, then lay in bed some more.  And I do sleep when I’m laying down, so I must be tired and needing the sleep.  But this is weird for me.  I haven’t been bored in years, and now I feel bored, not because I have nothing to do but because I don’t feel like doing anything.  It’s so annoying!  There is so much to do around the house to get ready for the baby, and I don’t feel like doing any of it.  On top of that, I feel badly not having the desire to entertain my 4 kids, but luckily they’re very good at self-entertaining and their oldest sister has been amazing with spending fun time with them every day while I rest.  But I don’t remember feeling like this with my other pregnancies.  I do feel tired, but this lack-of-motivation-to-do-anything thing is getting old!  Then again, this is the first pregnancy I’ve had being in my 30’s.  Maybe that has something to do with it?

We saw the Oscar nominated film Doubt the other night.  Normally, I like to see as many of the major Academy Award contenders before the awards show airs as it did a few weeks ago, but it’s usually not possible to see every single one in time.  Even though it didn’t win any of the 5 Oscars for which it was nominated, the buzz that surrounded Doubt was so intriguing that we decided to check it out.

For a movie being based primarily on dialogue, it is very fast-paced.  I was never bored, which is something I can’t say about a Good Will Hunting, an Oscar winning movie we watched last week.  Good Will Hunting a long movie, so it took us two nights to watch it, and I fell asleep both nights during the movie.  Not that it was a horrible movie; I don’t know much about it – I  was sleeping!

Ok, back from the Oscar tangent, back to Doubt.  This movie is based on a stage play, and the author of the play also wrote the screenplay and directed the film version; which I think is very important so nothing was lost in the translation between stage and screen.  The story is compelling; it’s about a Catholic school in 1964 where the principal, a nun brilliantly portrayed by Meryl Streep, suspects the priest is having an inappropriate relationship with the school’s only African-American student.  Amy Adams portrays Sister James, a naive freshman nun who is caught in the middle of the conflict.  Amy Adams is one of the actors from this movie who was nominated for an Oscar, and it’s understandable when you see what a far cry Sister James is from Adams’ purse-selling ex-cheerleader Katy on The Office or the character Leslie Miller from her first film, the teen beauty pageant spoof Drop Dead Gorgeous from 1999.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman was excellent in Doubt also; hardly recognizable from the 1990’s roles where I saw him previously in the movies Twister and Leap of Faith.  It’s easy to see how Viola Davis received her Oscar nomination for Doubt as well – she had lines in just one scene in the entire movie, but her performance was excellent, however short on screen time.  You win some and you lose some, which explains how those 3 actors walked away without their Academy Awards.  Inexplicable, however, is how Meryl Streep did not win an Oscar for Doubt.  True, I haven’t seen The Reader with Kate Winslet, the actress who won the Leading Actress Oscar instead of Meryl Streep.  I did see Changeling with Angelina Jolie who was also nominated, and judging by the phenomenal performances of Streep and Jolie and the fact that Winslet was the winner, I might just have to see The Reader.  I loved Angelina Jolie in Changeling, and I’m not usually a fan of hers, so that says something.  I  loved Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, but honestly, I used to think Hollywood had a strange habit of sucking up to Meryl Streep.  How can she be THAT good, I would wonder…  until I saw Doubt.  She IS “that good”.

I can see where this movie would make an excellent stage play.  But after seeing 4 of the most talented actors out there portraying the lead roles on the big screen, who would even want to be compared to that by  staging a live theatrical production of Doubt?

Well, Tuesday and Thursday nights were auditions for the next WCCT production.  Don’t Hug Me tells the story of a travelling karaoke machine (“LIFESTYLE SYSTEM”) salesman who travels to the local tavern of a northern Minnesotan village on the coldest night of the year.  I have not had the opportunity to read the entire script but what I read cold at the auditions was hilarious.  We did not get the chance to sing any of the songs from the show but (judging by the titles) they will be great fun.  “Don’t Let The Door Hit You In The Butt” caught my attention as it was a song we skipped over during our readings.

Before the readings, we were encouraged to try a Minnesotan accent.  I vaguely knew something, enough to make an attempt.  Ya, you know.  Watch Fargo and you will see (or Drop Dead Gorgeous which I have never seen) and you will know.  I really like the part of Gunner.  He is the owner of the tavern and is an outspoken, northwoods version of Archie Bunker.  The fast-talking salesman Aarvid (Head of the Class?) could be fun as well as he is slightly reminiscent of a Harold Hill.  We really did not get to learn much of the role of Kanute who seems to be a rather clueless character who is engaged to one of the two female characters.

Now… for the singing part of the audition.  There was a keyboard on stage with a book of Broadway tunes open to “Getting to Know You” from The King and I. Ok… it is a female piece but it was there so why not.  Following my short off the cuff a capella excerpt, the director told me that “That was too good.”  AWriiighty then, I will do worse on Thursday… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Unfortunately, the only person who got to sing was the one person who did not show up Tuesday night.  In total there were 6 people who tried out.  4 men and two women.  The cast calls for 5 (3 men and two women).  I feel sorry for the one guy who does not get a part.  If that turns out to be me… OH, WELL.  However, I have all the confidence in the world that it will not be me.

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