This is a neat article compiling some letters to Santa – some sweet, some heartbreaking…

Tomorrow is The Day Of The Ninja. Read about it, then go be stealthy!

Tomorrow is also the 75th Anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition in America. See what the Magic Hat Brewery has to say about this! I will be celebrating by enjoying beer.

Also tomorrow the play that my kids are in, A Boy, A Girl, The Beatles opens! I can’t wait to see it! (Interestingly, December 5th is also the the anniversary of the the opening of “Apple”, the Beatle’s clothing store in London. It opened December 5, 1967.)

On December 5, 1957, William Inge’s play Dark At The Top Of The Stairs premiered in New York.

And on December 5, 1955, the Rosa Parks trial sparked the beginning of a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

Jeanne and I were with the kids at the mall, doing some shopping.

My daughter Maggie is 10, and understands that Santa can’t be everywhere all the time, so he has helpers who sometimes take his place at events, to spread Christmas cheer.

We’re walking through the mall and there, seated upon a great big chair greeting children and chatting with them about their Christmas lists, is Santa.

Maggie stops, gasps, stares.

She squeezes my hand and hugs tight to my arm – “Dad! Look!” she says, eyes wide.
“Yeah” I say, “Wow!”
We watch in silence for a moment, and she never takes her eyes off him – “Dad, I don’t think that’s one of his helpers, I think that’s really him…” she says breathlessly, almost whispering, “…you can feel the magic.”

We didn’t talk for a minute after that… we just watched Santa. And, as I fought to swallow the lump in my throat, I realized that I COULD feel magic in the air. I’m pretty sure, though, that it came NOT from the man in the chair, but from the little girl holding my hand.

What a week!
Opened a show. (Great audience response, I’m grateful for that.)
Wonderful Thanksgiving (Boy, was that family time and nap time needed!)
Prepped for starting rehearsals for my guest directing gig at Michigan State University… that starts next week. (Jinkies – who made my schedule?!) (Yes, I said Jinkies!)
Took steps toward recovering from a miserable sinus infection. (Man, I’m STILL only at about 80% – unbelievable! Somebody make these aches and coughs go away!)
Today was great: (behind the cut, since it’s probably only interesting to me!

Every Christmas Story Ever Told!! at Williamston Theatre got a wonderful review from D.A. Blackburn of Encore Michigan! Click Here To Read It!

I’m really pleased to see the actors get a lot of praise – they work their tails off in this production, and it shows.

8am.
I’m not gonna lie – I like sleeping later than 8am.

But on a day when the kids are off school, I’ve got to be to work around Noon, and it’s the first big morning snowstorm… 8am is perfect for some QFT.

Snowmen: One skiing, one riding on a sled, one tiny snow reindeer… ALL covered in dirty wet leaves, but all were fun to make.

Snowball fight. How could we not. Needless to say, I got ganged up on by the kids… but I was victorious in the end! (Well, victorious in the sense that I pushed them laughing into the snow and ran away!)

*Quality Family Time

The story – from Rumplestiltskin to War and Peace – is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind, for the purpose of gaining understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.
-Ursula K. LeGuin

I LOVE this story about a piano being left mysteriously sitting in the woods! (I’ve come up with all sorts of stories about how it got there already – and I hope it’s just the first of a whole series of mysteriously appearing art and music all over the country!)

And speaking of stories, I’ve recently fallen in love with this quote:

Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, the retelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern to another: a potential translation in which narrative becomes parable and the once upon a time comes to stand for some renascent truth. This approach applies to all the incidents of everyday life: the phrase in the newspaper, the endearing or infuriating game of a toddler, the misunderstanding at the office. Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.
-Mary Catherine Bateson

Currently on dinner break from Tech Rehearsal for Every Christmas Story Ever Told at Williamston Theatre. It’s a ton of fun, and although it’s a long day (11am to 11pm) everyone’s having a good time. (Well, it seems like that anyway!)

The fun part of tech rehearsal is being able to see things come together for the first time – the lights and sound working with the actors, solving all the timings and cues is a wonderful challenge, and no matter how much you plan ahead there’s always a big pile of “OH! What if we did…” kinda moments! A lot of those are great discovery moments that totally improve the play, and a lot of them wind up being “Nahhh… nevermind!” moments.

We’ve done this show before, twice. Part of the fun and part of the challenge is keeping it fresh, for both us and our audiences. The script has some fun updates, and we’ve gotten permission to tweak it and target some moments toward our audience, so we’re having a good time doing that.

Now, my Stage Manager is hovering over my shoulder… I’m pretty sure this is her telling me that it’s time to go back to rehearsal!