7 February 2023 - Tuesday

[scenicdesign71]

I never watch SNL live, but occasionally I'll catch highlights later on YouTube.  In a slowish season with many new cast members, this week's episode, hosted by Pedro Pascal, was pretty good.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Well, that escalated quickly.  This type of humor presumably can't be quite as easy as it looks (push an innocuous premise past absurd hyperbole into some other territory entirely -- gross-out horror will do nicely -- without quite relinquishing the original breezy tone).  But every so often, it hits the spot.

Starting to think about finding some other TV work during my show's upcoming hiatus (starting about a month from now and lasting until at least midsummer), SNL might be a possibility for a month or two.  It's only two or three days a week, but pays quite well because the hours are insane (overnight shifts, sometimes running well beyond 12 hours into double-time).  On the other hand... well, the hours are insane... and the work is highly stressful, according to literally everyone I know (at least a dozen colleagues from past and present jobs) who's ever worked on it.  Not sure if it's worth it to be able to say I've done it.  On the other hand, I'm no stranger to insane hours and stressful work; who knows, the adrenaline might even jolt me out of the slump that's been building ever so gradually over the past several years.

[scenicdesign71]

Speaking of Saturday Night Live -- just now, as fate would have it, my Facebook is suddenly awash in the sad news of Eugene Lee's passing (though I've yet to see an official obituary anywhere).  Mr. Lee was SNL's supervising production designer for almost fifty years (since the show's inception), as well as Resident Designer at Trinity Rep since 1967 and a regular presence on and off Broadway for decades, designing Hal Prince's revivals of Candide (1973) and Show Boat (1994), and the iconic original sets for Sweeney Todd (1979), The Normal Heart (1985), Ragtime (1997), and Wicked (2003), among many others.

https://www.livedesignonline.com/theatre/by-design-chatting-eugene-lee