Jim Posante/Take Me Out
Jim Posante is, at last report, in stable condition, but still sedated in the hospital. I was told that they will begin weaning him off of the medication slowly so that he will wake in the next day or two.

The show that I took over for him, Take Me Out, is in good shape. My first rehearsal with the group went well last night, a good bunch of guys. It’s a complicated show, lots of set changes, video effects, fully functioning showers and the like. The cast seems to be okay with the change in leadership, although of course we all wish it hadn’t been necessary.

Williamston Theatre Project
Some exciting progress toward a building for us! I’ll announce more when I’ve more official news, but a huge step in the right direction for us. Very exciting. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Family
After our New York and 4th of July trips, we’re all happy to be back home. Maggie is taking diving lessons, and yesterday she conquered her fear of the back dive! Max and Maggie set up a restaurant in the basement (with Jeanne’s help), and this morning they treated Jeanne and I to breakfast. It was great, Maggie was hostess/server and Max was “The Money Guy” with the cash register. Of course, they wanted to be in the scene, too, so after the waitress brought our food, she disappeared, and Maggie came running in as Maggie, saying “Hi! Sorry I’m late!” then would excuse herself to go to the bathroom, and the waitress would appear again. It was great fun.

Prayers and good wishes to everyone in London and their families after today’s tragic bombings.

Well, I’m directing a show. Starting tomorrow. Although I always like to work, the circumstances surrounding this gig are a long way from ideal…

Performance Network is producing Take Me Out. They’re two weeks into rehearsals, and Jim Posante has been directing.

Unfortunately, Jim suffered a heart attack a couple of nights ago and is in the hospital.

As of this writing, he’s still sedated and I’ve heard no further updates. Jim’s a great guy – I first worked with him during the first show of my apprenticeship at the Purple Rose Theatre Çompany. Later in life I directed him in Middle-Aged White Guys at the Network. We’ve crossed paths a bunch since then, become friends, and I’m very, very hopeful that he comes thru this smoothly, and soon.

Carla Milarch at the Network called today and filled me in, and asked if I could take over the show. So, I picked up the script and schedule this afternoon and will start rehearsals with the cast tomorrow at 6. First Preview is July 21, opens the 29th.

Hopefully, Jim will be up and about and able to see the show. Prayers and good thoughts toward him are encouraged.

I mean, really stupid.

This woman is suing NASA for something they did a long, long way away.

Well, our first performance in Williamston (that’s not a reading) will be different than I was thinking, but will still be happening!

On July 16th, we’ll be doing a short performance of a few 10 minute plays interspersed with some music – it’s a fun little piece, a little different in format than most of our shows will be, but it’s outside at the Art Fair, and it seemed like the best way to go…people wandering around, we’ll do a few short pieces they can sit thru, or leave in between, and they’re all fun, funny short little pieces.

The biggest change, though, was that we wound up having to go Non-Equity (non-union, for our non-theatrical participants). I was hoping to have our first show be all Equity, but the funding isn’t there yet so we’re going the cheaper route right now. Not a bad thing at this early stage, but in general one of the goals of the company is to be a Union house, and I wanted to do that.

Still, there are a ton of good Non-Equity actors, and I’ll use them for the July show, then when we mount our first full length, we’ll have the funding to mix Equity with Non-Equity, which will be our goal with most shows!

The thing this makes me dwell on is just how far we have to go, still. Plans are being made, relationships are being formed, but it’s frustrating to not be able to do a small 4 person show the way we wanted to. I had to tell a couple of good friends, and professionals, that I didn’t have a job for them after all, and that was very frustrating.

Still, we’re learning, moving forward, and growing, and everyone is very understanding of the fact that starting a professional theatre company is a ridiculously difficult thing to do.

That being said, I want more, bigger, better, now. The trip to NYC was great fun, and a giant motivator. The theatre there is good, but there’s no magic wand being waved there – the only thing being waved is a boatload more money. So, I need to work harder. We all do. And we will.

This is a re-post, but it’s worthy of it:

“It had long since come to my attention
that people of accomplishment rarely sat back
and let things happen to them.
They went out and happened to things.”
-Leonardo Da Vinci

Okay, The World’s Shortest Personality Test has this to say about me:

You are dreamy, peaceful, and young at heart. Optimistic and caring, you tend to see the best in people. You tend to be always smiling – and making others smile. You are shy and intelligent… and a very hard worker. You’re also funny, but many people don’t see your funny side. Your subtle dry humor leaves your close friends in stitches.

I’m thinking it’s about 1/2 right, but how should I know? Anyone care to confirm or refute the thing? AND take it yourself, I wanna know how you score!!

Hey there everyone! We’re back from NYC. Had a great time! Some highlights include:

Seeing our friend Chris Foster in her last week of single-hood, as she prepares for her marriage next week. Chris is a professional costumer/dresser, and right now works on the Broadway musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was great seeing her again, she’s wonderful.

Seeing our friend Erin Dilly – Erin is an actor who some of you may have heard of, she was nominated for the Tony Award this year for Best Actress in a Musical for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We saw the show, and hung out with her for a while afterward. She’s such a sweet, down to earth person! And what a singer!

Saw 3 Big Musicals;
Chitty… which was “Spectacle-tacular”! Wow, some wonderful voices, and the car is, as advertised, amazing; Hovers, flies, spins around and comes out over the first few rows of audience, a really cool thing that cost around 3 Million dollars! An adult show that’s also aimed at kids, the show did have a very effective use of perspective, several times we were treated to miniature versions of the full size things onstage, to give us a sense of distance or speed, and it was fun, funny and effective. Nice.

The Producers was a ton of fun. Although there were some groaner moments where it felt pushed, the show is designed to be big and over the top, so they kind of fit in. Roger Barton and Richard Kind were fun, the story is silly and the music fits! Roger Barton, who plays the creepy pharmacist on Desperate Housewives, was a nice surprise as Leo. Dance numbers were fun, silly, including a number done by “senior citizen widows” with their walkers. Fun.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was hilarious. Really fun, John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz are spectacular, as is Sherie Rene Scott. The musical is quite a bit more enjoyable than the movie it’s based on, the performances were wonderful, the music was enough for me to want the CD. This was my favorite of the trip. I loved that it also occasionally admitted that it was a show – moments/lines dropped in where the actors would say things like “Oh my God the whole thing turns!” as a turntable would spin the set around…that was very fun.

Other hightlights of the trip:
Seeing the Gay Pride parade, which was a treat. Parades are always fun, and seeing the LGBT community of NYC celebrate was quite entertaining!
Having a small little Bed-n-Breakfast right between the Theatre District and Central Park -easy access to everything we wanted!
Eating a ton of good food. Lord, my diet/running regimen needs to be re-activated.
Going to the Mets game. Even though they lost, it was nice to see Shea!
Walking thru the city in a big rainstorm was a ton of fun. (really!)

Annoyingly, Northwest Airlines called at 8:30 Wednesday night to say our 6am flight home had been CANCELLED because of weather, and they had booked us on a flight on Friday. Well, after several phone calls and adjustments, they put us on a flight out at 4:30 Thursday. We had to go to Newark to fly out, and get a connecting flight in Cleveland (ugh), but staying ’til Friday would’ve been difficult because of kids, schedules, money, etc…

SO-that sums up the trip. There’s more, but it’ll wait. We had fun, and now we’re back. I didn’t get to see any of the Off-Broadway, or Off-Off, or straight shows I wanted to see…next time…

Now, into cleaning up the messes from leaving real life for a week!

I’ll be heading off to New York with Jeanne on Sunday, and back on Thursday. There will probably be little to no posting here at tony101 until then – feel free to have a nice dialogue with other folks on here while I’m gone, in the comments section!

The reading in Williamston went very well today, I was happy with the performances, the turnout and the response from people. Another nice step forward for us as a company, and as a presence in the community!

Have a good week! I’ll come back with reports on all of the shows I see, and miscellaneous fun things about the trip!

Allrighty, I am back, very sleepy still, since the drive to Columbus is about 3 hours long, and we got there early to wait in line for good seats, saw the movie at 10pm and then drove back home – got in bed about 4, got up around 9ish with Jeanne and the kids.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. It starts out with a fun message from Joss Whedon, the writer/director, who thanks everyone for coming to the advance screening. Funny guy. He talked about believing in what you’re doing, and it’s interesting in how much that is in the film; belief, faith – not in God, but in something, anything, a worthy cause, yourself, an idea.

The movie looks good. For a fan of the series (Firefly), some great moments, funny, action packed, heartbreaking, moving. The audience was clearly made up of fans of the series, and one of the things that I’m interested to see is how the film does with non-Firefly fans. It’s not quite done, there are still edits/effects being done, but it’s in good shape, moves nicely. As with the series, the acting is really fine. Nobody going over the top, deadpan funny with hysterical moments that drop right into jawdrop-can’t-breathe-type-of-drama moments. Plenty of room for sequels, let’s hope, and some other stuff that I won’t talk about because I don’t want to give away any plot secrets for those of you who will be seeing it! (By the way, anyone who lives nearby, feel free to ask about borrowing my dvd’s to watch the series before September 30th, then we’ll all go see the final version of the film together!).

SO, overall, very cool – completely worth the 6 hours in the car for an advance screening! A nice continuation of the series in big screen form.

And now, on to a reading in Williamston tomorrow! Then packing for NYC!

But first, any other movies out there you’ve seen worth seeing or renting recently? Share with the group!

Allrighty then, today I’m off to Columbus OH to see SERENITY! *Geek alarms goin’ off!!* Hah!

I’ll give a full report (minus spoilers, for those who care) when I get back.

In the meantime, have a great Thursday. While I’m gone, POST SOME COMMENTS! About whatever. Let me know you’re there!

AND – here’s a great story about how to survive a Leopard Attack!

Whooohoooo! Sweet Sci-Fi Movie, here I come!