Today’s LiveJournal entry: Me spewing stuff out of my head onto my keyboard so I can, hopefully, turn my brain off tonight when I try to sleep, because that has NOT happened the last couple of nights!

My son is 9 now. Jeez, when did THAT happen?! Watching him and his friends have SO MUCH FUN at his sleepover birthday party was a blast, and also a big reminder that he’s at that age now where he has a WHOLE OTHER LIFE outside of home. Oy, time is flying.

Started rehearsals for A Picasso at the Performance Network. I think it’s going to be wonderful, I really like the script and the cast, I just have to not do anything to screw it up now! 🙂 We’re also starting previews at Williamston Theatre for Flyover, USA on Thursday, and that’s going well. It’s an adventure and a half, making plays the way we’re making our Voices From The Midwest series, and although it’s draining it’s also exciting!

Our computer at home had a cup of tea poured over the keyboard… so as soon as I get to the mall to drop $49, we’ll be able to use our iMac again! It’s easy to forget how many times you jump on the internet to check something until you don’t have that option anymore!

The Detroit Tigers are currently in 1st place in their division. It’s by a tiny percentage point, but they’re there! 🙂

One of the lines in A Picasso has had me thinking about theatre, directing, choosing plays, how I choose the work I do… The line is “You paint about politics, the painting is no longer about the painting.” Picasso says it when he’s asked about painting a piece for political reasons, and he’s denying that he would ever do that, and saying that his art is always about the ART. Interesting topic and idea.

In completely non-Art news, I caught a bit of the Celebrity Apprentice finale, and Joan Rivers is, for lack of a better word, gross. I was appalled at the way she behaved. Ick.

Okay, no more time for spewing. Maybe later tonight after dress rehearsal, at home… from my iPhone!

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
-Anais Nin

“Keep your fears to yourself; share your courage with others.”
–Robert Louis Stevenson

“Courage is the foundation of determination. Determination and courage
are the cornerstones of success.”
— M.K. Soni

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.
If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go
out and get busy.”
— Dale Carnegie

Today, as I was driving home, I killed two birds.

They were zipping about in a little mid-air dogfight, I’m assuming a mating ritual… and they slammed right into the grill of my car as I was going 55mph down M-52.

So, I tell my family this story: “Two birds, in a mating dance, flew into my car and died!”

My son, who turns 9 on Friday, says “Well! THAT was a marriage gone wrong!”

THE MISCELLANEOUS
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged continues to pack the house at Tipping Point theatre – that’s a good thing! Word of mouth on the show is great, so I’m hoping that continues when we move it to Williamston for the summer!

At the Williamston Theatre, we’re starting previews next week for our production of Flyover, USA: Voices From Men Of The Midwest. This process has been a crazy one, but director John Seibert and the cast, writers and staff are doing some really great work. I’m really excited in the quality of the material, and that this production, while having a similar feel to the first show in the series, will have it’s own very unique feel and style as well.

I’m happy that we’re getting a lot of good feedback about our next season at the Williamston Theatre. I’m very excited about it.

For those of you that read this journal entry, you’ll understand when I say that I took my Dad to see the new Star Trek movie yesterday, and had a great time.

To any Powers That Be out there, if I win the Lotto tonight, that would be helpful. Thanks.

LOST Season Finale is tomorrow! Very excited about that, but NOT about waiting 6 months for more LOST!

THE QUESTION
I go into rehearsals next week for A Picasso at Performance Network, so I’ve been doing a bunch of very cool research on Picasso and World War II. As I’ve learned more and more about Picasso, it got me to wondering:
When someone says “PICASSO”, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Leave your answers in the comments, below! I really think the answers will be helpful. Thanks!!

Okay, my friend Will posted this challenge and tagged me. He chose Prince, knowing I would also choose Prince! SO – Will’s answers were great, but just for fun I’m choosing to not use any of the songs Will chose! Feel free to fill out this challenge on your own, but I’m not gonna “tag” anyone. 🙂

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title.

Pick Your Artist: Prince

Are you male or female: Good Man

Describe yourself: Better With Time

Describe where you currently live: The Future

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Space

Best friend you ever had: The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

Your favorite color is: Gold

You know that: I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man.

What’s the weather like: Sometimes It Snows In April

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called? : Strange But True

What is life to you: The Dream Factory

What is the best advice you have to give: Life Can Be So Nice

If you could change your name, what would it be: The Pope

Your favorite food is: Dinner With Delores

Your philosophy of love: Joy In Repetition

What gift would you like to give your best friend?: Pink Cashmere

What do you hope to be doing twenty years from now?: The Dance

Infinite Ache
by David Schulner
A fresh and heartfelt play about love, time and the infinite directions in which two lives can travel. As a pair of lonely twenty-somethings are about to end a supremely uninteresting first date, the myriad possibilities of their futures and a life shared together come rushing to meet them. From first date to first child, from tragedy to new beginnings, this is a love story filled with humor, warmth, dazzling theatrical magic and a hope that second dates are worth the effort!

This Wonderful Life
by Steve Murray
The beloved American film classic It’s A Wonderful Life comes to the stage. Williamston Theatre’s own John Lepard will play more than 30 roles in this one-man tour de force that delivers a witty and moving story that is sure to capture your heart and captivate your spirit. This Wonderful Life reminds us of the power of perspective, friendship and family.

The Smell Of The Kill
by Michele Lowe
Three women, their husbands, and a deep freezer. With social commentary both hilarious and biting, this dark comedy about men, women, marriage and malice explores the dangerous desire to keep up appearances… at any cost. A co-production with Tipping Point Theatre.

It Came From Mars
by Joseph Zettelmaier
Halloween, 1938. Six actors are in rehearsal when they hear an alarming announcement come over the radio – Martians have landed! Honesty and hilarity ensue when the dramatic dramatists are faced with true drama. Limited Engagement World Premiere! A co-production with Performance Network.

Home: Voices From Families of The Midwest
The Williamston Theatre presents the final installment of our groundbreaking Voices From the Midwest trilogy. Using the voices of both young and old, the creative team behind last season’s smash-hit Maidens, Mothers and Crones explores the concept of family and its many definitions. Through song, scenes, and monologues we’ll examine how family both includes and transcends bloodlines, defining our worlds in very personal ways. World Premiere

Five Course Love
Music, Lyrics and Book by Gregg Coffin
One night .. .Three actors … Five restaurants … Fifteen characters … Welcome to Five Course Love! The endearing and often elusive search for love has never been played out more colorfully than in this high-energy screwball Musical Comedy! With a breathtaking range of musical styles, Five Course Love is a delicious look at the chance for romance.

Today, I got to go to the Star Trek Exhibition at the Detroit Science Center!

It was pretty damned great. For a lot of reasons.

For those of you who may be new to this journal, I’m an unabashed nerd. Yep, every now and then I’ll fly my geek flag proudly, and this was one of those days! In fact, this whole week will be one of those weeks, because the new Star Trek movie comes out on Friday, and I can’t wait!!

The Exhibition today was wonderful. I went with my pal Joe, another self-proclaimed geek, and we had a blast. There were a ton of props and costumes, and a whole lot of fun stuff to look at. Big set pieces, you got to walk through a Star Trek The Next Generation hallway and transporter room with a peek into Captain Picard’s quarters. It was ridiculously fun.

The highlight for me, though, was the recreation of the bridge of the original Enterprise. It was just so… cool. I mean, to step through the doors where the turbolift (elevator, for those of you not of the One) would be, and to be on the bridge… it was, simply, magical.

Magical, because…here’s the thing: Not only was I on the bridge, with Kirk, Spock and the whole crew, but…

I was on the floor of our living room with my Dad – watching re-runs of Star Trek as a kid. I remember so vividly sitting on the floor, with my Dad, watching this show, eating bowls of popcorn. (Always on the floor – my Dad loved to sit on the floor in FRONT of the couch, leaning back against it… and I find myself doing that all the time now also!) That’s where my love of science fiction started.

I was with my Dad, on one of our first hunting trips up North, when we stopped at a gas station and he bought me a comic book to pass the drive time – my first Star Trek comic… oh boy, was I hooked.

I was in my college dorm room, the night Star Trek The Next Generation premiered, with about 20 other people watching the premiere, and being amazed at a whole new Enterprise, and shouting with joy when DeForest Kelley appeared as an aged and wizened Dr. McCoy to ‘pass the torch’ from one crew to the next. Those Star Trek watching parties became a tradition that lasted several more years.

I was in an advanced acting class at college, doing a 2 person scene: Spock’s death from The Wrath of Khan, with my friend Mike. (We killed ’em, by the way. Nailed it. “I have been, and always shall be, your friend.” People wept.)

I was standing in line, with some guys who would go on to be some of my best friends in the world, to see more than one midnight premiere of a new Star Trek movie.

I was at a Star Trek convention watching Patrick Stewart do a Shakespeare monologue so brilliantly that you could’ve heard a pin drop. I think of that whenever I do monologue work.

I was opening a birthday present from a girlfriend… a Star Trek uniform that she’d sewn herself. That girlfriend went on to become my wife… and she still rocks!

I was in Las Vegas with Duncan and Mike, just last Fall, so we could see the “Star Trek Experience” before it closed down. The “Experience” is gone now, but that trip will stay with me.

So the thing is, for me, today was about having fun, being silly, and letting my geek flag fly – no question. But it was more than that. It was a re-connection with something that’s been there, literally, as long as I can remember. We all have that something in our lives – a tv show, a sports franchise, a song, a band, a book, a movie, a car, a place… that something that seems to be there helping to string together the moments of our lives as we work to build them.

if you’ve bothered to read this far, you know what your something is… and I hope that you take the time to re-connect with it.

In fact, I urge you to make the time to re-connect with it.

I got to do that today… I stepped onto a silly replica of a television set from 40 years ago, and I was – I’m gonna say it – transported…

…and it was pretty damned great.

Click to see me and Joe enjoying a geek’s dream!