The Wilde Awards, awards given out to the Michigan Theatre industry by Encore Michigan and Between The Lines Publications, announced their nominations today.

I’m very pleased to report that the Williamston Theatre received 10 nominations! Congratulations to everyone at WT: nominated or not, everyone who worked there this year made it a wonderful season (and it’s not even over yet!)

With nominations for Best Comedy, Best Drama , Best New Script and more, I’m really proud of all the folks who helped to make this a great year at the Williamston Theatre and incredibly grateful, as well.

Click HERE to see the complete list of nominees.

Click HERE to read the accompanying article, which is also a wonderful summary of how the Michigan Theatre industry navigated through a very tough economic season.

The Lansing City Pulse came out with their review of FLYOVER, USA, which just opened at the Williamston Theatre! It’s a great review!

Money Quote:
“This is sequential story telling at its best, performed by three actors at the peak of their craft. ”

Click Here to see the whole article!

Also, Michigan Entertainment came out with their review, by Jim Fordyce. Another very positive review, it can be found here!

Encore Michigan has published the first review of FLYOVER, USA, which we opened last night at the Williamston Theatre.

D.A. Blackburn had some wonderful things to say about the show in his review, including his opening paragraph:

It’s been a year since Williamston Theatre unveiled the first installment of its Voices From The Midwest series, but the second work of this trilogy, Flyover USA: Voices from Men of the Midwest, is clear evidence that it’s been a fruitful interval.

He praises the actors, their poise and their clear enjoment of the work. He also heaps praise on the script and writers:

Moreover, writers Dennis E. North and Joseph Zettelmaier have taken a cue from Maidens in giving Flyover an honest, conversational tone, with an economy of language that amounts to simple eloquence.

And he wraps it up with a very nice summation:

…as the play reminds us, men of the Midwest might not like to admit it, but there were more than a few watery eyes at Williamston Theatre Friday. Thankfully, there were plenty of laughs, too.

To see the whole wonderful review, go here!!

Congrats to the cast, crew and production team for this show – I’m really proud of all their work!

The Williamston Theatre has been nominated for some awards!

The “Pulsars”, which are the theatre awards given out by the Lansing City Pulse, announced their nominations today, and I’m pleased to say that the Williamston Theatre got some!

We received 13 nominations spread out over 4 productions, including Best Play, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Featured Actor in a Play, Featured Actress in a Play, Lighting Design, Props and Set Design.

It’s always nice to have hard work recognized – congrats to all the nominees, and thanks to the City Pulse for supporting theatre in Michigan!

So I’m sitting here, after trying to go to sleep and failing.
Thinking about a ton of stuff – you know those nights. Nothing complicated, but a bunch of simple thoughts running around in your head.
It’s raining outside – I love that sound: another simple thing, but one of my favorites.

Yesterday was a great day off. I spent the whole day with my wife and kids: a relaxing morning, a trip to Lowe’s to get some stuff for the yard. A little yard work, a little game of catch, followed by a wonderful afternoon of fishing where we landed a ton of keeper-sized bluegill and sunfish. Then a nice evening of cleaning, cooking and eating the fish (along with a bunch of yummy grilled food) and enjoying the weather in the backyard with our neighbors. It was wonderful. At the end of the night though, as I thought about going back to work in the morning, I had one of those Ugh – back to The Grind moments and dreaded going to work when I woke up.

Today, however, I had a great conversation with a friend, about work, life, people.
We were discussing different work situations that we’d both found ourselves in over the years, and I was reminded how really lucky I am. I have the opportunity to go to work with people that I like and create plays – something I love doing – with people I like being in a room with… people who are quality human beings. Sometimes it’s easy to lose track of that – sometimes the hectic pace of our lives can make us zip right past the most basic truths of our lives. I was lucky enough to get a reminder of that today, and it’s had me thinking all day long: “Next time those Back to The Grind moments happen… I need to shut up and count my blessings.”

Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.

So, I just got a few headshot options – the one I’ll probably go with is below, along with the older version that I’ve been using.

Man, 10 years makes a difference! 🙂

Great kid quote of the day:
My daughter looks at a hunting shack in the woods and says ” Cool! Look at that! That’s ancient! That must’ve been built in, like, 1980!” *laughing*

Got a new keyboard for the computer, nice. Now we get full access to the whole alphabet again! 🙂

Previews for Flyover, USA are going very well – good audience response, and the actors/crew are really getting into a groove with the show now. Some tweaking to do over the next couple of days; a handful of trims and additiions to the script and a little rearranging of some small scenes. Very happy with the piece.

Monday = Quality Family Time. Thank goodness.

This past week of rehearsals for A Picasso, at the Performance Network, went really well. The cast, John and Emily, are really digging into the piece and we’re having a great time exploring it. This is a production I’m really excited about – it’s thoughtful, smart, witty, meaningful and really engrossing. It’s also a fun “format”, because it’s a Full Length One Act, so it’s about 75 long with no intermission, and the story just drags you along.

The Detroit Tigers are in FIRST PLACE in the American League Central by 3 games! It’s too early in the season to start really counting that as an indicator, because there’s a LOT of baseball left to be played, but it’s a great start!

Tonight is First Preview for Flyover, USA: Voices From Men Of The Midwest at the Williamston Theatre.

This series of plays is fun to create, fun to work on. They’re also incredibly stressful and nerve-wracking! That’s fine, though, I guess when you’re doing anything from scratch it’s got that duality of “This is great/Will this work?” to it.

I’m really looking forward to the preview tonight because I’m very excited to see how audiences respond to this show. I’d talk more about that now, but I’ve got director, playwrights and designers in my office to chat with and only 25 minutes until the show!

The wonderful renniekins has a great recent post where she lists some of the books she’s been enjoying. I fell in love with one of the excerpts she posted because, as a baseball fan I’ve always been curious about the game of Cricket – it’s always been a little bit of a mystery to me.

Well, I found my answer in her recent post!

This description of Cricket comes fromIn a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson:

“Imagine a form of baseball in which the pitcher, after each delivery, collects the ball from the catcher and walks slowly with it to center field; and that there, after a minute’s pause to collect himself, he turns and runs full tilt toward the pitcher’s mound before hurling the ball at the ankles of a man who stands before him wearing a riding hat, heavy gloves of the sort used to to handle radio-active isotopes, and a mattress strapped to each leg. Imagine moreover that if this batsman fails to hit the ball in a way that heartens him sufficiently to try to waddle forty feet with mattress’s strapped to his legs, he is under no formal compunction to run; he may stand there all day, and, as a rule, does. If by some miracle he is coaxed into making a misstroke that leads to his being put out, all the fielders throw up their arms in triumph and have a hug. Then tea is called and every one retires happily to a distant pavilion to fortify for the next siege. Now imagine all this going on for so long that by the time the match concludes autumn has crept in and all your library books are overdue. There you have cricket.”

I really want to read this book now! 🙂