“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”
Ronald Reagan

So,

Tomorrow the papers get signed, we make our first payment, and we can say we officially have the building.

I’m very, very excited. But I put the rest of my excitement under this cut, to spare anyone not interested!

A giant step forward, and a most excellent Christmas present:
Agreements have been reached. Deals have been made. Smiles and handshakes all around, and in the next couple of days the final paperwork will be signed!

The Williamston Theatre Project has a home!

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Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah!
Happy Kwanzaa!
Joyous Festivus!

I hope you all have a marvelous few days, full of family, friends, food and love!

“Not in his goals but in his transitions is man great.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jung Explorer Test
Actualized type: ENTJ
(who you are)

…featuring an interview with John Lepard, one of my partners and Executive Director of The Williamston Theatre Project.

Not a bad article – check it out here, if you like!

Swiped from dianora2, Chewbacca wants to wish you a Merry Christmas. Make sure your sound is on!

If you have high-speed internet, Go see this great little piece of work written by and starring my friend Mike McCafferty. It’s very funny.

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol will be closing this Saturday, on Christmas Eve. So, naturally, The Oakland Press just posted their review. The reviewer, Judith Cookis-Rubens, is great and usually does insightful, well written work. But it’s funny, for any show outside of Oakland county, they wait until the show’s almost over to print their review. So odd. Anyway, here it is, and it says I have a “Sharp vision”. Isn’t that a brand of TV?

This article about Scenic Designer David Korins has a couple of amazing set designs done in small theatres. (Click on the “Design Virtuosos” link, then the “David Korins” link! In fact, all of the designers there have some really cool stuff to look at, so browse around!)

Lastly, the whole family had a a great time this morning cleaning both kids bedrooms. Max, at 5, just wants his toys accessible, and doesn’t ever want to put clothes in the laundry, so his room was what you would expect. Maggie, on the other hand, is a 7 year old pack-rat, collector of knick-knacks, craft fanatic, voracious reader and budding diary writer/journalist. Therefore, every surface of her room is overflowing with STUFF. Rock collections, stuffed animals, books, more little figurines and collectible thingies than anyone should have, boxes of markers, crayons, colored pencils, and a wide, wide variety of things upon which to write, color or sketch. Sadly, about 1/3 of the ‘cleaning’ of her room meant just moving stuff to her “workshop” area in the basement, where she does some of her best creating. So, now THAT area is in need of a day-long cleaning!

A nice night.

It snowed all day here. Hard. About 5:45, after dark, Jeanne and I cleared the driveway and sidewalk, taking turns with the snowblower while the kids sledded on a big pile of snow Jeanne built up for them in the front yard. We had fun being in the snowy yard, just in the yard lights, everything looking so nice under 6 new inches of snow, the kids laughing and sledding, everything sounding muffled the way it does with a new snowfall. Jeanne and Maggie made 2 big snowmen in the yard. Very relaxing and fun.

Then after that I went and met John, Chris and Emily and we had a brainstorming session for WTP while stuffing envelopes with our end-of-year mailings. Our first ever mass-mailing to a few hundred people. Raising awareness, and hopefully some funds! And we got to eat cheese and crackers, hummus and veggies and wine. Lots of planning, laughing, some really bad singing, and a nice sense of accomplishment, and anticipation.

Now, off to bed. Tomorrow is my last day being an EMU faculty for…well, some time I think. I’m not teaching next semester, (too much on my schedule already), and then by the time next semester ends I’m hoping WTP will be up and running full-time so that I’ll just be too busy to teach much. Not that I wouldn’t like to go back, because I did have a good time. It’s something I could see myself doing later, down the road.

First, though, I need to run a theatre. I need to tell the stories. It’s funny, the more I do it, the more I really fall in love with being a storyteller. That’s the main goal of any director – tell the story. (There are many, many related goals, and – like most jobs – many many other things you need to manage, master and juggle to reach your goal, but that’s the main thing; telling the story. Moving the audience with a well-told story.)

I enjoyed working with the students, and even if I never try and teach full time, I hope that every now and then I’ll be able to go and teach a theatre class or two at some university.

Now, however, it’s time to move.
Time to build.
We’re getting a building very soon.
3 friends and I are going to gather more friends, and create an entity.
A company.
A family.
A theatre.

I realized recently that one of the things I missed most about not having my old job was that, despite good intentions from most folks, I wasn’t really a part of that family anymore.
Not a close part, anyway. An extended relative, a second cousin who would drop in for visits.

But now I’m creating this…this opportunity, out of nothing, with some people who want it as much as I do.
We’ve got a lot to do. But it’s getting done. We’ve got a lot to learn, but we’re learning it.
And there’s something great about doing it together, with these people.

So tonight, I got to have a good time with both of my families.

Like I said, a nice night.