This picture…I can’t…I don’t even have the words…I mean… Click here

Feeling much better today, thanks to those who asked!

Michigan Theatre Festival finished up strongly. A nice first year for the festival, I thought. We learned some good lessons, but laid down a nice foundation for years to come. It’s a big event, and one that I hope to be involved in for a long time. Had some very good conversations with a bunch of other folks who produce/create theatre in this state and a couple of others, which were both heartening and useful.

The thing about the Theatre Festival is this: It made me really impatient for The Williamston Theatre Project to be doing more than readings. Much more. Much faster. Like, right now. Our reading of ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS by Ed Simpson was very well received, and I’m ready to put it and a few other shows up and do them. With what $$ and where are the questions – how much/little do we do on production values to get the show up quickly, and run the risk of looking like a community theatre -vs- a professional theatre company? (And before anybody gets up in arms about the ‘community theatre’ reference, don’t bother. I love community theatre, it’s where I got my start in acting, stage managing AND directing and I’m not knocking it in any way – however there is a difference in expectations between something being done as a hobby and something being done as a professional career – that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact – and it’s important that from the beginnning the WTP is understood to be a professional company that pays people and is worth the ticket cost.) So, I have to find a nice balance between my impatience/rush to DO, and the practical side of “Let’s examine this first!”. Right now, after the weekend, my impatience is very much ruling the roost…

Enough ranting about that. Sorry.

Okay, now for something completely different: A Mood Analyzer. I think you can only use it if you sign up for a LiveJournal account. (Which you should do anyway, I soon may be turning off “anonymous” posting, so I can tell WHO’S posting comments back to me!! 🙂 (any thoughts on that?)

Hmmm…apparently I’m happy. And apparently I like fuchsia. (ick)

Go ahead, try it. Let me know what YOU got!!

Gentlemen, why don’t you laugh? With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh, I should die.
– Abraham Lincoln

Not much time. Loads to do today.

Michigan Theatre Festival: Going well, smaller attendance than I would’ve liked. Still, both of the Williamston Theatre Project readings that we did were very well received, so that was nice.

Woke up with a bit of a fever, feeling yucky as hell. Unsure what/why. Hoping some food and water will fix it.

Car went kablooeey Thursday night. Took it to shop. Fixed, must pick it up and pay exorbitant amounts of money today.

Kids are outside, right now, running through the sprinkler with their friend Olivia. Jeanne is reading and watching them on the back porch. Sunny, hot day, just the right kind for running through sprinklers in bathing suits! If only I felt better, I’d be out there with ’em jumping around, too…

Oh, my aching bones…

So far so good!
Decent attendance for the Wed and Thu readings so far, good audience response.
Lots of people asking about The Williamston Theatre Project, taking brochures, signing up for email newsletters.
Some fun readings so far, Planet Ant did a great short one-act called Two Men In A Box that they staged fully, and it was a ton of fun, and thought provoking.
I’ll let you know how the WTP readings go once they’re done, but if you’re in the Ann Arbor area, come on out: Friday at 5pm or 8pm, at Performance Network.

Hey! Some good news today! I just got a ticket to see the sneak preview screening of Serenity! Of course, it’s in Ohio, but I don’t mind the drive. Thanks to Kelly for thinking of me when she saw the tickets on sale!

Serenity, you might recall, is the big screen Reincarnation of the spectacular but short lived Joss Whedon series Firefly. If you get a chance to rent/borrow/buy the DVD’s, I encourage you to do so!

The movie is slated to come out in September, but they’re doing a series of screenings/preview things thru the summer, and I get to go on June 23rd! WhoooHooo!

(For more info on Firefly, check out Rotten Tomatoes and this SciFi Channel announcement!

Yes, the sci-fi geek alarms are sounding loudly today, my livejournal companions, and we are CELEBRATING!!! ESPRESSO FOR ALL MY COMPATRIOTS!

A friend has announced that she has cancer. Lymphoma.

Treatment still TBA.

Positive energy is a healer; that and prayers are welcome!

My Brother-in-law Bill and his wife Joy have a new baby! They live in Taiwan, so it’s going to be a while before I can meet him, sadly. 😦

See a picture of the still unnamed little cutie behind the cut.
Continue reading →

Okay, recovering from the weirdly scheduled long day…mmm, Corona….and now, some Odds and Ends:

REHEARSAL
Rehearsed both shows for Michigan Theatre Festival today. Gonna be a fun week.

WILLIAMSTON THEATRE PROJECT
Got another nice donation today, hooray. Enough to pay for the whole involvement with the Michigan Theatre Festival, and a little bit more.
We’re scheduling and planning a bunch of readings and a couple of low-tech productions. June 18th join us at the Elizabeth Williams Dance Studio in Williamston for a reading of ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS. There will be more info on that and other readings on the website soon – check it out at our webpage!

JOBS
I will be directing, as announced a while back, at the Performance Network in late Fall of ’05. It will NOT be Little Shop Of Horrors, unfortunately, as the rights to that show are unavailable because of the tour. SO, right now the Network is debating which show to put there. More to come in the next few weeks.

AWARDS
The Performance Network Subscribers Choice Awards were held Sunday, a nice event. The Season Ticket Holders (1700 of them, if I’m remembering…) voted me Best Director for SUMMER AND SMOKE, which was nice, and voted Mindy Woodhead Best Actor for the same show. A nice award, since it comes from the people we do the things for!

The Oakland Press Awards (The Opies) were held Monday night, also a nice event. I was nominated for the same category, did not win – no bother, it was nice to be recognized! Mindy also won again, in Best Actress in a Drama category.

Finally, the Wilde awards are being voted on online this year. GO HERE to vote for your favorite. (Especially in the Favorite Local Professional Production – COMEDY category!) 😉

KIDS
So Max says to me “You know, Dad…in Safety Town they told us if a stranger offers us candy, to not go near them, but to run away and yell for a grown up that we know.”

I sagely responded “Sounds like good advice, buddy.”

And Max looks at me, and I could see the little gerbil running a million miles an hour behind his eyes, and he says “But I was thinkin’…if a stranger offers me candy, I would say to the stranger; ‘You THROW me the candy!!'”

As I tried not to hurt myself stifling a laugh, I said “I love that you’re thinking about it buddy, but I think you’d better do what your teachers say…okay?”

He’s got his priorities, I’ll give him that. 🙂 And Hey! Not bad problem solving skills…

MISCELLANEOUS:
Okay, 12 of you have had your brains eaten. Only 3 of you have responded?! There is a LEAVE A COMMENT HERE link, people!! 🙂
(If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about here, go down a couple of posts and click the ‘click here’ link!)

So, what Odds and Ends are going on in your life today?

Sometimes, with our bizarro schedules, some days get weird. Tuesday looks like this:

5:30am Jeanne gets up, goes to work.
6:55am Tony up
7am Parker comes over for the Tue/Thu morning day-care, Maggie and Max up, preparing for school, breakfast for all.
8am – Drop Maggie off at school
8:30am – Drop Max off at Safety Town (a pre-kindergarten “Safety” class, 2 weeks in June, mornings.)
10am – take Parker to Ear Appointment for his mom, it’s the only slot they had for 2 weeks, poor kids ear hurts NOW!
11am – Pick up Max from Safety Town
NOON – Parker picked up by his mom.
12:30 – Drop Max off at Margarets for babysitting for the afternoon.
1:00 – Tony prep for rehearsals in Ann Arbor.
2:00 – Tony start tech rehearsal for IN VIEW OF, 10 minute play for Michigan Theatre Festival.
3:30 – Maggie rides bus to Jeanne’s school.
3:45 – Jeanne and Maggie pick up Max
4:00 – End tech rehearsal, Tony eat something.
4:00 – Jeanne, Maggie and Max hopefully go home, Jeanne spend some time with kids before dinner, (bath?).
4:15 – Tony call, talk to Jeanne and kids, catch up on how work/school/daycare was for everyone.
5:00 – Tony rehearsal for ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS, the WPT Staged Reading for Mich Theatre Fest.
7:30ish – Kids going to bed, both will be up early on Wednesday.
8:00 – Jeanne probably doing end-of-school paperwork catch up at home while kids sleep, Tony end rehearsal, hopefully head home.
9:00 – Tony & Jeanne eat ice cream, talk about how they shouldn’t be eating it that late at night.
9:30 – Tony working on WPT budget stuff to get to John and Chris and Emily for fundraising needs, planning of summers activities.
11-ish – Jeanne hopfully sleeping.
1am-ish – Tony hopefully sleeping.

I’m not complaining, mind you. Just sometimes amazed at how things work out.