Hello fellow theatre lovers,

Happy 2011! We here at Jocular Theatre, after collaborating on Jo Marvel’s zany The Snapping Turtle’s Lament this past season, are eagerly planning our next show. And we’d love for you to be involved.

You are cordially invited to the casting for our Spring ’11 production of Larry Shue’s wildly funny comedy, The Foreigner. Auditions will be held the weekend of February 5th. If you are interested in auditioning and would like to reserve a time, or if you have any questions, please give me a call – I’d love to see you there! And please forward this invitation to anyone you know who may be interested in auditioning or getting involved behind the scenes in any way.

See you in the theatre!

Joshua Zamrycki
Director, Jocular Theatre
www.joculartheatre.com
656 982 623

What has two thumbs and will be appearing in the next Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver film? This guy!!

Yes, following up from my audition for the film Red Lights, I got a call yesterday offering me the role of Man In Bathroom #2. It’s only one day of shooting, I don’t share the scene with any of the stars, and my character’s name is Man In Bathroom #2, but it’s Robert Frickin’ De Niro and Sigourney Flippin’ Weaver! And I even have a line!! Plus, four of my friends also got walk-on roles in the film, including Man In Bathroom #1. So I’m stoked. I film at the end of March. This is going to do wonders for my IMDb page.

We were home in Barcelona for just one day between our trips to Florida and England in December. And it was on that single Barcelona day that I received a call from a casting agency here in town, inviting me to audition for a walk-on part in Red Lights, the upcoming film by Buried director Rodrigo Cortés and starring Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. I was very happy that they called me. I was also leaving for England the next day. So I summoned up the strength to inform them that I would not be available for the audition but to please get in touch after the New Year if they were still looking for actors. They agreed and I went to England for Christmas, not expecting to hear from them again. Well, I heard from them again. They called me soon after we came back to Barcelona and invited me back to audition. Very cool.

I read for the role of Reporter #2. It was a very quick audition. I think I was in there for all of about three minutes. This was because they were casting a very wide net, auditioning everyone they could get their hands on to slot into all the supporting roles in the film. They thanked me kindly for coming and said they’d let me know if there was any good news. They also told me that similar auditions were currently being held in London, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Having done unfortunately well in my college semester of Probability and Statistics, I bid them farewell and made my way home, ready to put the whole thing out of my mind. But damn it if they didn’t call me again a few days later.

Someone must have really liked my Reporter #2. Well, maybe not all that much because they now wanted me to read for the role of Man in Bathroom #2. And there were only four people reading for the part. And the other three were British! Again, it was an in-and-out operation but I got a good feeling from the casting agent. But keep in mind that my math skills are far better than my intuition. They said they’d let me know if there was any good news. That was five days ago.

I should admit that I do not believe there to be a surplus of American actors here in Barcelona. So I have that going for me. Sure, they could cast someone from an English-speaking country, but if the film is to be shot here in Spain, they stand to save quite a bit of money for every actor they cast locally, avoiding airfare, hotel, and per diems. Hurray for math! I guess we just wait and see now. I’ll let you know if anything comes from this.

So, according to my calculations, Sebastian should be two years old in just one month’s time!

I imagine there will be a fairly comprehensive entry next month so I will leave you with the news that Sebastian, in addition to labeling things “big” as he has been doing for about a month (big car, big dog, etc.), now labels other smaller things “baby” (baby star, baby circle, etc.).

I will also leave you with this video.

Emily, in her sweet little pink pajamas and nearly ready for bed, just came running into my office crying her eyes out and holding her head in her hands.

Me: Emily! What happened? Come here. Why are you crying?

Emily: I hit my head!

Me: Oh my goodness. Your head? How did you do that?

Emily: I bumped it on the floor!!

Me: The floor? How did that happen?

Emily: Well, I was gonna be like a snail…

Me: OK, ’nuff said.

Hey, wanna see the lovely photos I took at Barcelona’s Jardins de Joan Brossa last May?

Swamp Thing

It was a beautiful spring day – the kind that Barcelona is famous for – so we got together with a couple of other families and spent a few hours chilling and hiking up on the always-scenic Montjuïc. We started off in a playground with lots of things to do for the kids and lots of mud for Sebastian. Then we proceeded to march up the hill, past squeaky jumping pads, the circle of friends, and countless look-out points affording a breathtaking view of the city. Of course we had to stop for ice cream at the top. And a super bonus was finding some wicked-long slides behind the snack hut! Then down past some sweet fountains before we took the train home. A very nice day.

And now, before I send you off to look at these photos, I’d like to introduce you to my shiny new slideshow button! I really am prouder of this button than I probably should be, but I’ve been meaning to make one for the longest time. Yes, it’s a bit gaudier and much bigger than necessary, but that was kinda the point. I know that some people don’t notice the text-only links I sometimes put in these entries leading to my gorgeous slideshows (hi, GG!), so this should pretty much avoid that ever happening again. OK, enough talk, just click on the shiny button below to see these photos already (but don’t forget to marvel at the rollover first):

It’s Christmas at Grandma and Granddad’s house. Emily receives a games of Connect-4. Sebastian swipes all the coins. The resulting action is my life.

Poor little 2011. You kinda gotta feel bad for the guy.

2010 was such a landmark year! First of all, it was divisible by 10, which is always pretty awesome. Then there was that sci-fi film (from 1984) named after it. Yes, and the novel. There were Winter Olympics and a FIFA World Cup. Everyone was looking forward to 2010.

And don’t get me started on 2012! There is another sci-fi film named after this year. Everyone is looking forward to see if London screws up the Summer Olympics. And then there’s the whole apocalypse thing that’s slated to happen, which could be pretty memorable.

But 2011? No sci-fi films. No Olympics. No Armageddons planned. Nobody has really been looking forward to 2011. It’s like a filler year. That’s kinda sad. But all the more reason for us to take it under our wing and care for it. It’s the runt of the litter. And everybody loves an underdog, right?

I love 2011 already and can’t wait to see what surprises it has in store for us. Welcome, 2011 – whom I will dutifully name twenty-eleven (and not two thousand eleven) – this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Happy New Year to you all!

from Emily, Josh, Jan, and Sebastian

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,
and let each New Year find you a better man.
– Benjamin Franklin

We felt like kings! Like we had finally been allowed to enter a private club that, for years, had refused us entry. And the air inside the little café that Jan, the kids, and I went to this afternoon smelled particularly sweet as we ordered some tortilla and peach juice. You see, as of this week, the Spanish parliament has toughened the country’s anti-smoking legislation (one of the most lax on the continent), finally putting Spain in line with the strictest anti-smoking countries in Europe. And it’s about f*cking time.

What many aren’t talking about is how this should have happened years ago! Half a decade ago, everyone else in the world (not stuck in medieval times) made smoking illegal in restaurants and bars. Ireland did it. France did it. Heck, even Italy and Greece did it! But not Spain. Oh no. Here in España, angry owners of bars and cafés cried to the government, complaining that the laws would hurt their businesses. Boo hoo! Never wanting to follow the flock, the Spanish government magnanimously decided to allow these poor owners to decide whether or not to allow smoking in their places. I’ll let you guess how that all worked out.

True, the 2006 law had effectively banned smoking at workplaces and in public buildings such as hospitals and schools. That’s right, Spaniards were allowed to smoke in hospitals and schools until just four years ago. But the government balked at banning cancer sticks in bars, restaurants, discotheques, or hospital entrances. Until now.

I can’t tell you how great it feels to be able to go into any establishment I want (or bring my kids) and be able to breathe. There was a mile-long list of restaurants and bars that I just refused to go to – even if all my friends were going – because the smoke was just too damn thick. And call me insensitive, but I don’t feel bad one iota for those who feel they are being persecuted or having one of their virtual rights taken away. Suck it.

Now let’s see what we can do about all the dog sh*t on the streets.

———-
30% of Spaniards smoke. Smoking kills more than 50,000 people in Spain annually, with 1,200 of those being nonsmokers who inhaled secondhand smoke.