The Ice-Fishing Musical!

This show is so funny, and so heart-warmingly sweet, that I just love it. One minute there’s a beautiful, melancholy ballad by an aging fisherman about growing up a boy, and spending time fishing in the ice-fishing shanty with his Dad and Granddad, and how those were the best times they had together…

…then we’re singing “Ode To A Snowmobile Suit” which includes – I kid you not – a spectacular percussion interlude made up of only the velcro and zipper sounds from the snowmobile suits!

Sooooo, I’m playing with a website design.

Anyone who might be interested, I’d love some feedback on www.tonycaselli.com if you have the time!

It’s early, but I’d be interested in hearing what you like, what you don’t like, what you’d like to see on there…that sort of thing. I’m going to continue adding to it, but am looking for ideas, as well! So throw those ideas and thoughts at me! 🙂

EDITED TO ADD: The resume is messed up, I have my header/phone number twice by mistake (oops), but the big problem with it is this: When I cut and paste from MS Word, the spacing/tabs between the SHOWS and the THEATRES goes away, which is why they’re all run together. What the heck? Anybody got any Website Guru Wisdom on how/why this happens and how to fix it?

You scored as Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would be best for you Deep Space Nine 65% Movies 55% Original 50% The Next Generation 50% Voyager 35% Enterprise 25% Which Star Trek Series is best for you? created with QuizFarm.com

This is pretty accurate, I guess, although I probably would move the movies down a couple of notches! 🙂

Three Word Survey
You have to use three words to answer each question. No more, no less.

1. Where is your cell phone?
On the counter.

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend?
Wife is sleeping.

3. Your hair?
Is cut short.

4. Where is your father?
At his house.

5. Cheesecake?
I like it.

6. Your favorite thing to do?
Is very fun.

8. Your favorite drink?:
Currently, Iced Tea.

9. Your dream car?:
A New One.

10. The room you’re in?:
Very Messy Basement.

11. George W. Bush:
I voted Democrat.

12. Your fears?
Make me scared.

13. Nipple rings?
Not today, thanks!

14. Who did you hang out with tonight?
My awesome family.

15. What you’re not good at?
Being very tall.

17. One of your wish list items?:
Wildly Successful Season.

18. Where did you grow up?
In New Boston.

19. The last thing you did?
Answered Question Eighteen.

20. What are you wearing?
My clothes, duh.

21. Tattoo on the small of a back?
Nope, my arm!

22. Ketchup?
Is usually red.

23. Your computer?
I love it.

24. Your life?
Love it, too.

25. Your mood?
Tonight, optimistically relaxed.

26. Missing?
Nope, I’m here.

27. What are you thinking about right now?
Typing this answer.

28. Your car is?
In my driveway.

29. Your work?
Makes me happy.

30. Your summer?:
Nice family time!

31. Your relationship status?
Super Awesome Wife.

32. Your favorite color(s)?
Warm earth tones.

33. When is the last time you laughed?
10 minutes ago.

34. Last time you cried?
Tears of joy.

35. High school?
I definitely graduated.

Williamston Theatre is getting a facelift!

Here’s a shot of the building with a new paint job:

(Click to see it embiggened!)

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be getting a marquee/awning over the front door, a new sign for the second story, new lights over the windows and the window on the left will be turned into a display case.

Neat!

Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco set a new Major League record for consecutive error-less games at the position.

A pretty amazing feat, Polanco has gone 144 games error-free. (and still counting!)

When you think of how long baseball has been around, how many games and players there have been…this is a pretty special accomplishment.

We closed Flap at Williamston Theatre this afternoon – it was a packed house, which was very exciting! Flap did very well for us, I’m pleased to say. We got a ton of good feedback on it, and it had great word of mouth. It was our biggest seller to date, despite having two weeks less of a run! Lots of folks to thank for that, including the writer, director, cast, crew, the designers and volunteers and donors who helped to make it happen.

Up next – Guys On Ice, the ridiculously fun ice-fishing-musical!

In other news, once I got home we had a relaxing couple of hours with the kids, topped off by a spur-of-the-moment trip into town for a little ice-cream! (Holy mackerel – “Old English Classic” is an ice-cream I’d never had: It tasted just like apple pie a-la-mode! YUM!)

I’ve been lucky enough to see some very fun theatre over the past few days. Today I watched the closing of Flap, and earlier in the week I got to see a very silly production of a new play called Sea Of Fools at the Purple Rose Theatre Company (fun to watch lots of friends in the show having a great time), and a fun outdoor production of Barefoot in the Park at Waterworks theatre in the park. It was really great to sit outside, beautiful evening, in a nice wooded park, and hang out with 140 other people watching some nice theatre! And I also got the chance to see a fantastic production of Dirty Blonde at Performance Network, which just rocked up one side and down the other. If Jim Posante doesn’t get some award nominations from his direction of that, then someone’s not paying attention!

Word from New York City is that the production of The Mystery Of Irma Vep that I directed may be moving to Off-Broadway in the Fall. That, depending on scheduling and a few other details, has potential to be an exciting directing opportunity for me! Still a bit too much in the “Sounds great, but can all the details that have to fall into place really do that?” stage for me to worry about right now, though!

They opened an Apple store in Ann Arbor, just about 20 minutes away from me. I’m a big Mac user, and would like to now win the lotto so I can just go into the store and fill my cart.

And I’m also happy to report that the Tigers, despite having been mired in a miserable slump the last few weeks, are back in first place of the division! They’re only ahead of Cleveland by 1/2 game, though, and the next month is going to be a tight, tight race to get into the playoffs! It’s such a great, wonderful thing to be in August and talking about baseball with some actual, serious stakes for my favorite team! 🙂

We’re getting a nice amount of press from the announcement of our 2007-2008 season (click the link, and click each show title to see more about the play!)

One of the recent articles we got was from Playbill.com, which is a nice big website that is very popular in the business. The article is about our new three-season series, Voices From The Midwest, which we launch in the Spring of 2008. It’s exciting to get the word out, and to have the name Williamston Theatre getting in front of a national audience! (To scroll through the “Latest News” section and see an article about us mixed in with the articles about exciting, national, big name theatre projects gave me quite a thrill!)

Click here to see the article!

Sometimes I like to go online, to any of a variety of “quotation” websites, and just search a particular topic to see what kind of quotes I find.

Today was Breakfast.

I found this handful of quotes to be particularly fun:

“My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.”
Winston Churchill (British Orator, Author and Prime Minister during World War II. 1874-1965)

“When I was a graduate student at Harvard, I learned about showers and central heating. Ten years later, I learned about breakfast meetings. These are America’s three great contributions to civilization.”
Mervyn A. King, Governor of the Bank of England

“Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.”
Alfred A. Montapert (American motivational Author)

“The difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like a ham-and-eggs breakfast: the chicken was ‘involved’ – the pig was ‘committed’.”
-unattributed, old joke/lesson

And my favorite of the day…

“There is no use trying,” said Alice, “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice.” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Lewis Carroll (English Logician, Mathematician, Photographer and Novelist, especially remembered for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1832-1898)

From a recent news article…

Look, this isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say ‘We’re claiming this territory.’
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, dismissing any threat to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic after Russia planted a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole.

The whole article is here!