So Much Goodness…

Posted on by

So many great things going on in my work life right now, I just have to share my excitement!

Coming up next week, on Friday the 20th (Inauguration Day) is a reading of the hilarious, biting play The Taming by Lauren Gunderson:

THE TAMING
By Lauren Gunderson
A Staged Reading
Friday, January 20, 2017 at 7pm

The Taming, Lauren Gunderson’s raucously funny political comedy, will have both parties laughing in the aisles. In this sharp, witty, all-female “power-play” inspired by Shakespeare’s Shrew, Miss America contestant Katherine has political aspirations to match her beauty pageant ambitions. All she needs to revolutionize the American government is the help of one ultra-conservative senator’s aide and one bleeding-heart liberal blogger who will do anything for her cause. Featuring Alysia Koloscz, Robin Lewis-Bedz, and Melissa Mercieca.

Read more about Lauren Gunderson’s readings of The Taming across the country on Inauguration Day. (This is an article from American Theatre)

This is the website about the play specifically: THE TAMING

Join us for an evening of insight, laughs and optimism as we celebrate Inauguration Day. Call to reserve seats: 517-655-7469. Admission is free, but donations to the Williamston Theatre will be graciously accepted at the door.Screen Shot 2017-01-04 at 4.48.08 PM.png

Also at Williamston Theatre, we are RIGHT NOW in rehearsal for a beautiful, beautiful play called A Painted Window, by Christy Hall.  The writer is in residence, Frannie Shepherd-Bates is leading a terrific team, and I can’t wait to get into previews with this show.  Check out the details here!

We’ve begun the pre-production process for 1984, the show after A Painted Window, and I’m very excited to be directing it.  This is a super-cool adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, by Michael Gene Sullivan, and the team I get to build this production with is just fantastic.

The next show I’m directing AFTER that won’t be until October, but it’s going to be a treat: I’m working with the Penny Seats Theatre Company in Ann Arbor on an October production of the super spooky The Turn Of The Screw!

We’re nearly finished putting together our lineup of plays for the 2017/2018 Season at Williamston Theatre, too!  I’m not allowed to talk about it yet, but I’m just champing at the bit to share it with the world!

So, as I sit at my desk today, answering emails and working on schedules, I’m listening to the construction of the set for A Painted Window downstairs.  Tomorrow I’ll come in and watch a stumble-thru of the show, and chat afterwards with the director, playwright, cast and the design team, make sure everyone has what they need to bring the piece to life.  Next week I’ll head to another state for a reading of a play we’re going to produce soon – a day in Florida will be nice, but a nice discussion with staff from another theatre and a playwright with whom we’ll be collaborating is the real prize.

Oh – also.  This appeared in my office:

I don’t know who where it came from.  It’s awesome, and I’m grateful for surprise gifts!

I hope everyone is having as good a week as I am!

inspiration. quotes about theatre.

Posted on by

I believe that stories well told can accomplish a pretty magical feat: transporting us into the hearts and minds of others. Stories offers us the chance to flex the superpowers of empathy, understanding, connection across experience, and the amplification of often silenced voices. Stories also remind us of the power of joy, hope, and humor in the face of division and conflict. And stories can fire us up for the work of fighting the good fight. Theatre specifically requires us to show up and participate in the story and feel the particular power of congregation as well as catharsis. The communal embrace of theatre was always an ancient way of processing politics, society, and great change. I believe it still is.

—Lauren Gunderson

f848135aacd50e39112d7f365315ad29.png

Make them laugh, make them cry, and hack to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise. I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that.

– Mary Pickford

Monday Morning Thoughts: Be Here

Posted on by

Remember how to breathe, how to live…please!!
–Fuyumi Soryo

 

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?  How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?  What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now? Are you waiting for time to show you some better thoughts?  When you turn around, starting here, lift this new glimpse that you found; carry into evening all that you want from this day.

This interval you spent reading or hearing this, keep it for life – What can anyone give you greater than now, starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

William Stafford


Miracles happen all the time.
We’re here, aren’t we?
-Marilyn Nelson (Abba Jacob and Miracles)

A weekend of thankfulness!

Posted on by

Yesterday we had final preview AND Opening Night for The Nerd at Williamston Theatre!  (Not what we normally do, but Thanksgiving was in the way of having a Thursday preview, so we had a double show on Friday – both shows were packed and it was fun!)  So THANKFUL for the great folks who attended the sold out shows, and the whole team of people who made the show happen!

And I have to share this.  I was lucky enough to see this Musicology concert in Detroit twice, and I’m so thankful!

AND – if you haven’t checked out the Team Tony page here at my website, you should take a second and do it.  There are some pretty amazing people on there, and I’m thankful for each and every one of them.

Celebrate-Life.jpg

A week of being Thankful. Day 4…

Posted on by

… the list of little things. Obviously not complete, but it’s a good start! 😉

The view of the trees outside our front window. Reading the “hot stove” reports in the off-season to see what trades the Detroit Tigers are making.  Reading a good play. Kung Pao Chicken and Shrimp. The smell of the woods in late Autumn. Puzzling through a play with a team of gifted people. The feeling of shaping a moment with actors, designers crew and a playwright and then watching it move an audience to laughter or tears or shock just as we’d hoped. Audience members who hug me in the lobby after seeing a play, just because the piece affected them so much. Sitting and reading a real book, not one on a screened device. Still hearing my Dad’s voice in my head every day. A well-made spinach and feta omelette. Making my mom laugh, or my brother and sister laugh, or my wife and kids laugh.  The dogs curling up on my feet. A fire in our fireplace. Theatre without pretentiousness.  Hugs from my wife and kids. A good bourbon. Playing board games with family and friends. The sound of walking through fallen leaves. The muffled sound of a big snowstorm. Text messages with my kids throughout the day. Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and the family around a table!

A week of being Thankful. Day 2

Posted on by

Continuing spending the week with things to be thankful for… because too many days go by where I forget to look around, and embrace the amazingness of the people around me, the situations and experiences I get to share, and the beauty in front of me. 

This morning, I woke up, and there was 1/2 pot of coffee waiting for me.  My wife is awesome. 

Today I got to chat for 90 minutes about a play I’m directing in a few months, plotting and planning and dissecting and “what-iffing” a piece that I’m incredibly excited to attack.  Talking with smart people about cool topics is one of the best parts of my job!

I also got to spend some quality one-on-one time with the apprentices at Williamston Theatre, and their energy and enthusiasm and talent and heart are inspiring!

This evening, I had a great time chatting online with members of the Central City Underground as the new episode of The Flash aired on TV!  One of my things to be thankful for is that podcast, and the terrific community surrounding it, and all the folks at Golden Spiral Media. I get to Get My Geek On and enjoy some DC Comics Superhero TV, and then talk about it on a podcast with my pal Joe, and then share that with a bunch of other fans of comics and the show!  Pure fun, a shared experience with people from all walks of life with a common love of something that we enjoy.  

My evening is coming to a sleepy close.  Right now, I am lying in my bed – my wife is asleep, breathing gently. On the floor by our bed are the two dogs, Sneakers and FlipFlop. Sneakers is snoring, and it’s adorable. FlipFlop is chewing something, I’m hoping it’s his chew-bone and not more socks.  As I type, I can hear the click and hum of the furnace in the basement firing up to keep us warm. This wonderful nighttime symphony, this is something I am thankful for. 

A week of being thankful. Day 1

Posted on by

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US this week.  The last few years I’ve tried to be very conscious and aware of all the things I have to be thankful for, because the list is big. So, I’m going to spend this week thinking and writing about some of those.  Tonight, I think I’ll start with the big things.

3 years ago today I was home feeling lousy.  We didn’t know it at the time, but I was about two months from going into the hospital with bacterial meningitis.  Fortunately, I got better – with the help of a lot of people.  I’m very thankful to them.  I’m sitting here, right now, at my computer, with 3 subcutaneous needles in my belly, getting an infusion of Hizentra, the medicine that I get weekly that provides me with an immune system.  I am incredibly thankful to be sitting here with these needles, and this medicine, in our house.

On the other side of the house, my wife is sleeping, and my son is in his room, probably pretending to sleep but really watching tv on his iPad.  In the room next to him, our exchange student Tommaso has just turned out his light to go to sleep.  Tonight I got to sit in the family room with Max and Tommaso and laugh with them as they played video games together.  I’m very, very thankful for these 3 people.

Also, tonight, on the other side of the planet, my daughter is sleeping.  In fact, as I type this, she’s only a couple of hours from waking up and starting her day, because Espoo, Finland is 7 hours ahead of us here in Michigan.  One of the things I’m incredibly thankful for is the wonderful host family she is staying with, and her friends there.  I’m grateful for our iPhones, and the internet, and the technology that allows us to stay connected even though she’s so far away – things like the app “Line”.

Today I laughed – a lot – while texting with my brother, sister and mother.  This is nothing new – we text all the time, and they remind me how lucky I am to have a funny, thoughtful family.

This weekend, at Williamston Theatre, we had a very successful weekend of preview performances of The Nerd – the houses were packed and the laughs were plentiful!  Earlier today, I got to attend the first Production Meeting of our next show, A Painted Window, and the designer/director discussions about the piece were fantastic.  Tomorrow, I get to have my first designer discussion about the next show I’m directing, 1984, and I cannot WAIT!  I’m so thankful for my job, the opportunity to do what I do, and the chance to work with some of my closest friends in the world while doing it.

Those are the big things.  They’re also the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things I’m grateful for….. and that’s something else I’m grateful for!thank_you_by_psd_on_flickr.jpg

Now Is When We Work

Posted on by

“If I’ve learned anything in my shaky life as an artist, it’s that you must stop talking and spinning and whining and start making your thing today. Pick up a camera. Pick up an easel. Open your laptop and turn off your Internet connection while you write. Find a starting point. Ignore the voices. Ignore the critics. Reward yourself for having ideas by valuing them enough to believe in them.”-Shane Nickerson

This. No one will do it unless we do.  It’s our job, those of us who chose the arts, or were chosen by them. It’s our calling. So easy to get caught up, wasting time, worrying. Instead, how about we make things? Create – on our own, or in groups.  Long term projects that require lots of planning, and short term spur of the moment things. You want to encourage some kind of social change? Go for it. You want to entertain, make people laugh or cry? Get it done.  Do both. Do something more than that. But stop waiting. This is it – this is all the time we have, use it!  Use it to connect people. We are in the arts to serve people: to make their time here, all our time here, better, deeper, richer. Make LIFE more than just the days on the calendar. Our world is shaped by our actions, and our connections to the people around us: make them count.