A wonderful bit of news involving my friend Joe Zettelmaier, who’s a great guy and a great playwright – his play Language Lessons is a nominee for the American Theatre Critics Association Award! This is the second year IN A ROW that a play of Joe’s has been nominated – last year his play All Childish Things also got a nod. Just getting nominated is a great thing – what a wonderful bit of recognition and confirmation of Joe’s talents and hard work.

Also, my friend Mindy Woodhead, who I got the chance to direct in Summer and Smoke at the Performance Network, has done a wonderful thing: She’s joined the Peace Corps, and will be in Morocco for the next 2 years volunteering in a small village to help the people there with long term projects that will upgrade the quality of their lives.

Mindy’s wonderful and it’s an amazing, inspiring thing that she’s doing, and she keeps a great journal of her time there on her website. I encourage you all to go and give it a look! I really think you’ll enjoy it. The pictures alone are terrific!

Aaaaand lastly – Williamston Theatre has a number of great projects coming down the pike, and it’s a busy time around the building, but a pretty great time:

December 7th we have a concert by Grammy Award Winner Barbara Bailey Hutchison! Nearly sold out.

December 13th thru 23rd we’re presenting Every Christmas Story ever Told!!. Sold so well that we added an extra performance!

December 31st we have 2 New Year’s Eve concerts (a 6pm and a 9:30pm) featuring the Patrick Terbrack Jazz Quintet. Our New Year’s Eve concerts last year were a huge hit, and this one is shaping up to be the same. (And the 9:30 concert includes a trip around the corner after the show, where we will ring in the new year at midnight with food and drink at the Red Cedar Grill, a terrific restaurant!)

January 2nd we start rehearsals for Art, the next show I’m directing here, and it’s a great cast that I can’t wait to work with. Pre-production has already begun, and the design team is spectacular!

And on January 21st we start our next session of classes being taught here at WT – the first 8 weeks will be for young adults (aged 12-17), and the second 8-week session will be “Beginning Acting For Adults”.

So – that’s where we are right now. Life is pretty good!