Back In The Saddle

We've been here three weeks and four days. The first week was about moving in and getting settled. The second was about buttoning down the sale of our house in Meadville, PA. The third was about seeing if we can buy a condo/townhouse. Toward the end of last week, I got an email from On Location Casting - I signed up with them in Albuquerque - urging me to pay the fee that activates my account. I went in and updated my profile with my new address and phone number. It was all still Albuquerque. I added the plays I'd done on PA, fleshed out the rest of my profile and then went into the casting notices. Lo and behold, there were casting calls for the TV show "Nashville." They said I could look them up on Facebook to get the latest info. I did. There they were. There was a call for Friday that had people in my age range. I followed instructions: send an email with Friday Booking as the subject line. Include name and valid phone number. I did. In a very short time I got an email back saying that I had not been booked. Next was a Monday booking. I applied, was rejected. Tuesday was shooting on Lebanon, TN, 40 miles away. Not going there. On Tuesday afternoon the notice about Wednesday came up. Extras would be "Coffee Shop Patrons." I applied, and within a few minutes received an email back that I was booked and I'd better show up if I ever wanted to work in this town again. Or words to that effect. Within an hour after that I received a phone call confirming that I had seen that email.

At about 6:30, details about the gig came up on FB. Call time 11:00, at First Church of the Tangerine or something like that, 510 Woodland Avenue. I looked up the address on Googlemaps, printed out a map, and printed out a #5 bus schedule. Then I assembled the three outfits they said we should bring in a fancy garment bag Carmen found for me, made a copy of my driver's license, packed my backpack with everything I might need, and went to bed happy.

Wednesday morning was fairly cool, as Nashville summer days go. I got up, fed the beasts as usual, and we took Grace for an hour walk at Edwin Warner Park. I took a shower, dressed in my favorite of the three outfits, and set out for the bus at 9:02. I caught the 9:10, which got me downtown. I had never been to downtown Nashville, so I was happy to be early so I could figure out where 510 Woodland Avenue might be. I knew from my Google map that it was between 5th and 6th Streets, so I was happy to see that the Music City Center bus station was at 5th and Charlotte. Walking around showed me that Woodland was not nearby. Luckily, I had my Nashville street map with me. Looking at that, I saw that Woodland was on the other side of 4th. Hmmm. Then I noticed that the signs said "5th Street North." That indicates that there is a 5th Street South. I walked past 4th, around some fancy downtown structures, and found myself on Woodland. Luckily there was a nice breeze as I walked along in the Tennessee sunshine. Crossing the bridge over the Cumberland River I was hit up by a man asking for a quarter. I gave him a dollar. He blessed me and asked me what church I belonged to. I told him. Of course, he never heard of Unitarian Universalism, so I explained it to him. (As the wife and research assistant of a UU minister, I'm pretty good at this.) He took up nearly ten minutes of my trip to 510 Woodland. I tore myself away and continued walking past 1st Street South, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and saw, with great rejoicing, the aforemisnamed church.

Having done three TV gigs in Albuquerque, I knew what to look for. None of this was evident at the church. I walked all the way around. Nothing. But across the street I saw a gaggle of trailers and a gaggle of humans standing around. Jackpot! I crossed over, found the food wagon - where one is most apt to find humans - and asked where extras should go. The human I asked got on her smart phone and called someone who knew. Molly came, showed me the air conditioned trailer where I could hang out, told me to eat some food and wait for further instructions. I was the first to arrive, at 10:25. I followed orders, having bacon, eggs, hash browns and a biscuit. When I finished eating in the air conditioned trailer, Dominic gave me my paperwork to fill out. He watched me struggling with my tremors, and filled it out for me. Nice guy.

Other extras began arriving. They were put in the trailer across the way. For most of the time at base camp, I was all alone in my trailer. Soon another person came breezing through. She looked at me, said "That's good." and breezed out. Molly told me that I had just been approved by the wardrobe department. I was glad I had carried that garment bag all over Nashville and never opened it.

About 11:40 we the extras were taken to an old rattletrap school bus and shuttled to the shooting location on Fatherland Avenue. The holding area was in the fellowship hall of the Baptist church across the street from the Coffee Shop. At noon I announced that we had now earned eight bucks! Soon after, Dominic came in and plucked four people from our ranks (there were twelve of us) to go over to the set. at about 12:45 he came back in and plucked me and one other guy. Yay. So he and I were shown our starting places and told what to do. "Action!" Two previously plucked women walked past the shop. When they were halfway across the street, I walked down to the corner and crossed the street in the other direction, past the shop. The other guy then walked by and across the other street. After all of this there was a long pause, then a principal character came out of the shop, stopped and went back in."Cut!" Techs swarmed around for a bit, "Reset" was called, and we all went back to our starting places and waited in the blazing sun for many minutes. "Action!" And we did it again. Wait. "Reset." Wait. "Action!" Walk. Wait. "Reset" go back to start. Wait. "Action!" Walk. Wait. "Reset." This went on for about an hour. I could feel my bald head burning in the sun. Good thing all that dog walking had tanned it some.

When we were told to go back to the holding area, it was because we were done, all of us. I'm pretty certain that at least four extras never did anything but wait.

That's show biz.