Well, all I had with me was my Treo because I didn’t think to bring a camera. So, here are the handful of pics that were worth posting!

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We’ve been working toward getting more students involved at Williamston Theatre.

Today we had a meeting with some folks from Williamston High School, and we’re on our way toward creating a High School Intern Program that will allow interested and qualified High School students to work 8-10 hours a week at the theatre for a semester or two to earn an “independent study” credit. They’d be involved in some clerical and administrative work, some box office, some custodial, and sit in on some rehearsals and production meetings to get a feeling for how a professional theatre is run.

I ran the Apprentice Program at The Purple Rose Theatre for a long time, and having this type of program is very near to my heart, and useful for the theatre as well as the students involved. I’m very excited about the H.S. Intern program as a first step towards what could be a full-blown Apprentice Program someday.

Also, tonight, we have our first classes being held at Williamston Theatre. Dana Brazil, one of the fine professional actors in the area, and a woman who has been in two shows here at WT, is taking 10 young people through a collection of theatre warmups and theatre games from 6pm to 9pm tonight. I just peeked in a minute ago, and it’s going wonderfully. Over the course of tonight and the next 3 Tuesdays, they’ll be learning the basics of breathing, listening and teamwork as well as having fun and hopefully developing a love for theatre while studying scene study, improv and auditions! It’s only a 4 week process, just the basics…but it’s a beginning, and it’s an exciting step.

In addition to that news, I’m happy to report that Flap, our current world premiere by Annie Martin, has had the best 4 weeks of attendance and box office of any of our shows so far.

So…forward progress. Right now, that’s a beautiful, wonderful thing!

Maybe there will be some pictures to come, but I was asked “Did you see anybody cool at Comic-Con?”, and the answer is YES!

So, a list of people I saw:

From Star Trek The Next Generation:
Marina Sirtis (Troi)
John DeLancie (Q)
Levar Burton (Geordi) (Um…I shook his hand and told him he was great and that Trek and Reading Rainbow were wonderful, and he said “Thank you! I really appreciate that, thanks a lot!” – I was a happy Geek.)

From Stargate (SG1 and Atlantis)
Amanda Tapping (Carter)
Christopher Judge (Teal’c)
Ben Browder (Cam Mitchell)
Teryl Rothery (Janet Fraiser)
Joe Flanagan (John Sheppard)
David Hewlett (McKay)
Jewel Staite (Dr. Keller) (Also Kaylee, on Firefly!)

Also:
Leonard Nimoy (Um…the legendary Mr. Spock!)
Zachary Quinto (Sylar in Heroes, and Young Spock in the upcoming Trek movie)
Jon Favreau (director of upcoming Iron Man movie)
Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk! Looking in awesome shape!!)
JJ Abrams (Creator of LOST, director upcoming Trek movie)
Stan Lee (Comic Book Legend, creator of Marvel Comics, Spider-Man and many others!)
Neil Gaiman (Comic book icon!)

Oh, and there were more, but now I can’t think of them…and there were many more that were on other panels that I didn’t attend!

So…a ton of fun! 🙂

In the airport, 10:15pm San Diego time. So sleepy, hoping I will be able to sleep on the plane! The pace of the last two days, plus the time change from Michigan to here (3 hours), combined with only 4 and a half hours of sleep last night and less than 4 the night before have wiped me out!

What a great, fun adventure this Comics Convention was! Hopefully I will be able to post some pics tomorrow, and share some of the cooler moments in an intelligible, coherent manner. Too sleepy for that tonight!

I will say, though, that sometimes it’s great fun to let your Geek Flag proudly fly!

So I’m at the San Diego Comic’s Convention – it’s the biggest in the world, and the name only covers a little bit of what’s actually there! It’s a Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comic book, video game, adventure movie fan festival and the fans are out in force!

I lovingly dubbed in Nerdvana yesterday, as I was politely ogling the lovely Princess Leia and her stormtrooper friend wander the aisles, followed closely by a couple of Star Trek redshirts and a bunch of fantasy video game characters with swords that I didn’t recoggnize!

There will be more posting, and hopefully some pictures from my Treo over the course of the next 24 hours.

This is my first time here, even though my friend Mike has been hounding me for years to come out, and I’m glad that I finally did. SO much fun!

So my briefcase was stolen.

Well, it’s not really a briefcase, more of a satchel. I use it to carry all of my work stuff – my notebooks, scripts, journal, phone charger, miscellaneous paperwork and books, and in this instance my mail including my bills.

Not only stolen, but stolen from my car. In my driveway. In the middle of the night.

Now, three things:

A) I’m an idiot, and left the window open in my car.

2) We don’t live “in town”. There are no sidewalks to be wandering around on and see an open window from. I have a full acre lot, as do neighbors on both sides, and there’s a corn field across the street from me. You’ve gotta be creeping around right next to my house, through my yard, to get to my car.

III) They left me all my stuff. Yep – it was very nicely emptied of all of my stuff, which was left on the front seat of my car. Even stuff that was in zippered little pockets (like all the receipts from my NYC trip, which I was saving to put in the “Write This Off” taxes file).

So, this is a very annoying development. And despite the odd choice of leaving all my stuff, I still think these people are jerks. It’s not just the bag (that’s a $30 thing, I can replace it), I don’t like the idea of people skulking around my yard, and we’re taking some security steps next week to make the yard a little less inviting to the kind of slime that would do this kinda stuff. Had a nice chat with the Washtenaw County Sheriff who came to take the report, and he had some very good suggestions. Plus, he’s had other incidents in the area recently, so they’re doing a little digging and more surveillance.

Very frustrating and weird to deal with – we live in what most folks would laughingly refer to as a version of Stepford, (from The Stepford Wives? Remember? Aaah, you either get it or not…I’m not linking to Wikipedia, it’s too late in the evening and I’m tired…). Of course, the quietest little villages have their issues, and we’ve had ours…but this is the first time someone’s taken something from my yard.

Okay, the new Harry Potter book is prett darned great! A very nice wrap up to the series, in my opinion. No spoilers here (yet), but I’m looking forward to discussing it here or on other people’s journals!

The Detroit Tigers currently have the best record in all of Major League Baseball.

I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate that!

Part of not updating as much as I’d like to has had to do with how darned busy I’ve been. And it’s not just me, it seems like everyone around me lately has been very “Go! GO! GO!” with their lives.

I mean, I had two days off this weekend, and still don’t feel like I’ve relaxed at all.

I suppose all of our lives get this way once in a while.

I do have a couple of observations that I think are worth recording, though, from my own very busy “Go! GO! GO!” month. Not necessarily questions or answers, here, and not necessarily useful for anyone but me, just observations and musings that I want to remember:

1) It’s interesting how differently people view being “professional”. I, for instance, don’t think that yelling, belittling people, disparaging people, being petulant or being demanding is very professional. Working with people who like to work that way starts off as infuriating, then it moves to entertaining, then it just becomes boring and you’re ready to go back to playing with the grownups.

2) Art is good for you. It’s also not an easy thing to make a living at. Not just the whole “Gosh, sometimes it’s hard to pay my bills” kind of living, but also the “Gosh, sometimes I’d like to spend a day at work and not be second-guessed by every Tom, Dick and Harry who can speak the English Language” kind of living. It’s also funny that one of the good things that happens to you, in that environment, is that you develop a thick skin. However, it’s interesting because that can also be one of the bad things that happens to you – if you’re not careful, you stop paying attention to the people around you in the name of “having a thick skin”, and suddenly you’ve lost your connection to the art, the scene, the work, the world.

3) I’m not a big fan of generalizations, especially when it comes to people, but I’m starting to think that a warning sign of impending doom is when someone I’m supposed to be collaborating with says to me “Well…the way I work is this…”.

4) Keeping things simple is still, far more often than not, the best thing…and also one of the hardest to do.

5) Sometimes a nice catch phrase, that you can just say to yourself quietly in your head, is all you need to help you make decisions during the day. For instance, in Flap, playwright Annie Martin has given me this little gem that I hope to carry with me forever: Less bullshit, more awesomeness.

6) When someone is busting their butt for you, or for a project you’re involved in, remind them often how much you appreciate them and their contribution. Sometimes all any of us need is a nod and a smile of recognition.

7) A good, soft shoe insert, like the Dr. Scholl’s “gel cushions”, can change your life.

8) Once in a while, stop what you’re doing and just play some board games and some tether ball with your kids. Let them win one out of 3 times.

Wow! A week has gone by since I posted last!

It’s been quite a busy week. We’ve had previews for Flap at Williamston Theatre. Tonight is Opening Night. The previews have gone wonderfully! Big houses, which has been marvelous, and they’ve liked the show! (We sold out last Saturday’s show!) The phones are ringing with ticket sales at a nice pace, so we’re hoping word of mouth and reviews will keep that going for the next 5 weeks!

Also, the MLB All-Star Game was this week, the Tigers sent 5 players, plus the managers and a bunch of coaches! And the American League won (again), so if (when!) the Tigers make it to the World Series this season, they’ll have home-field advantage!

I’ve been catching up on my Stargate shows, and Dr. Who, and…I’ll admit it…I’m addicted to Hell’s Kitchen. Yes, I know, I know…but there’s something mesmerizing about it, and I actually LOVE watching them cook!! The Sci-Fi stuff has been great to catch up on; I’m only a couple episodes away from the season finale of Stargate Atlantis, and a couple away from the Series Finale for Stargate, which I’m very excited for. Plus I’ve heard that they’re doing a Stargate movie! I’ve not done much searching to confirm this, so if anyone has any info, I’ll happily take it! (Like, is it a feature film, or a tv movie? When is it coming out? Who’s in it?) And now that Dr. Who is showing in the U.S., I can enjoy that all summer long! 🙂

So – lots more to talk about…I’ll be going to the San Diego Comic-Con this year, our new puppy arrives soon, we’ve got a family of raccoons living under our shed that we have to get rid of, tons of family time lately, and some kid-raising milestones that make my head spin… but right now I’ve got to go downstairs and enjoy Opening Night! 🙂

Have a great weekend!