Okay, tonight is final dress rehearsal. Last night (Tuesday, the 19th) went VERY well. I was thrilled with the steps the show and the cast are taking. Scott Mancha, the light designer, revamped the whole system for lighting the cyc (cyclorama, for you non-theatre types – it’s the big white backdrop that we put pretty colors on…) – it looks great. Monika and Suzanne (set and costume designers) have turned in some wonderful work. We’ve got until a week from Friday before official opening, but test audience tonight and then previews start tomorrow – we’ll learn a lot, and keep polishing the show until Opening, but I’m very happy with where we are.

After winning 3 games in a row, the Tigers lost to Baltimore last night, 8-4. Now we start a series at home against the division leading White Sox. We MUST win 2 out of 3 of these games. We’re already 4 games behind them. If we lose 2 or 3 to the Sox, it’s gonna be an ugly haul to get back up there in our division.

THE WILLIAMSTON THEATRE PROJECT has an underwriter for it’s first event! Hooray! John Lepard has worked his negotiating magic and landed us a major donor. More info on it later. Before long, this thing will be up and running and drawing audiences and artists from all over the freakin’ state!!

Until then, 2 employment events happening:

In a very cool turn of events, Dennis Rohmer at Otterbein University in Ohio called and asked if I’d like to direct LEAVING IOWA down there in April of 2006. Should be a lot of fun – Dana White was the connection there, thanks Dana! (Hopefully he’ll be able to design lights for the show while I’m there!) Otterbein has a great theatre program, it’ll be nice to work with students again, and meet some new folks in that department.

AND, possible announcement about a Fall ’05 directing gig. Once all of the t’s are crossed I’ll post more.

Finally, today, can I just say that I LOVE The Amazing Race. It has quickly surpassed SURVIVOR as my favorite “immersive game show being mistakenly called ‘reality tv’ series”. Admittedly, it’s not as fun as a good episode of WEST WING (remember those?), or Buffy, or Farscape when it rocked, or Battlestar Galactica or Stargate, and certainly not as good as Arrested Development (great, great season finale. Please tell me they’re not going to cancel that show). However, T.A.R. is just unbeatable when it comes to actually pulling for someone, sitting there and getting caught up and tense and anxious and frustrated and…well..amazed! That’s all. Now I have to hope Season 2 of Arrested Development comes out on DVD sooner rather than later.

Now, off to prepare for tonights rehearsal. Notes to contemplate, scene work to prepare for. To the test audience tonight, I say “BEWARE! I’M FEELIN’ FEISTY!”