A great review! Go team!

Amidst all the good things in the review, she does point out one of the flaws with the script: Because it’s one man playing 37 people, some of the characters are written a little stereotypically. I think we worked hard, on the stage, to make those people as real as possible. I don’t, however, think her point is unwarranted. Still, when you’ve only got a small handful of scenes to work with for many of the characters, and when they’re DESIGNED to be stereotypical representations of a person or people, you do the best you can and move on to other, solvable, challenges.

Despite the flaw in the script, she praises the production, acting, directing, sound crew and set. Not bad! 🙂 She does, in particular, heap praise upon Aral Gribble – and quite deservedly. He’s wonderful in the show and I’d love to see him get the credit he deserves.

Read More: Lansing City Pulse Review

No question about it, I can’t WAIT to see how the Tigers do this year!!

They’ve added a tremendous bat to the lineup in Gary Sheffield, although at 38 there is concern about his age…he’s still one of the most feared hitters in the American League, though, and I think he’s got a few more years in him! His presence in the lineup automatically makes the hitters around him a little better, because they’ll get more pitches to hit. Now if everyone can stay healthy (and I’m thinking particularly of Kenny Rogers, pictured above), and contribute like they did last year, this team has an excellent chance of getting back to the playoffs.

It’s true: there’s only one team in the last 10 years that has made it to back-to-back World Series appearances. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means it’s hard! But, if they can make it to the playoffs…anything’s possible in the post-season!!

The world is made up of stories, not atoms.
– Muriel Rukeyser

So, I’m a big William Shatner fan. Star Trek, Boston Legal, he’s who I wanna be when I grow up, only as a director instead of an actor. I like how much he respects what he does, but at the same time can totally laugh at himself. (I do think that in some of the later Trek movies he became a little bit of a charicature of himself, but that’s a whole different topic…!)

He did a quick “10 Questions With William Shatner” interview in Time Magazine. Very funny – and interesting.

One of my favorite bits:

TIME: Babylon 5 actress Claudia Christian recently gave an interview in which she accused you of once making advances on the set of T.J. Hooker.

WS: Well, who am I to tell a lady that she’s a liar. I have no recollection. I’m sure it was memorable for her, though.

Here’s the whole interview! Thanks to Emily, for pointing this out!

Okay, try this:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions, AND post it as a comment here.
5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

“The solution is to clarify the action of the sequence.”
–Stage Directions by Stephen Peithman and Neil Offen

There were actually 3 books, in a stack, all close. I picked the top one. The other two were Building The Successful Theatre Company by Lisa Mulcahy and Invitation To The Party: building bridges to the arts, culture and community by Donna Walker Kuhne.

What sentence and book did YOU find?

-Previews went well. We learned a couple of nice lessons about the show, and our Official Opening is tonight! It’s been a fun process, Aral is doing great onstage, and Erica is kicking butt on the sound board! Think good thoughts! Here’s a great interview with Aral, our star!

– Um…a theatre in Florida got a complaint about the title of the play The Vagina Monologues on their marquee…so they changed it to The HooHaa Monologues. WHAT?! There are so many things wrong with that, it would take me an hour to type them out…fortunately it looks like they’ve gotten enough backlash that they changed it back. (Not to mention the fact that Dramatists Play Service, who holds the producing rights, probably smacked them on the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper and said “No! Bad Theatre! Bad!”)

– Prince ROCKED on the SuperBowl halftime show. SO GOOD! Of course, despite it being the cleanest halftime show in the last few years, some whiny idiots who have nothing better to do than actively search for things to complain about have found reason to be offended: For a part of a song, when playing his guitar, he was silhoutted in a very cool effect with a giant screen and a big light behind him. Well, the aforementioned idiots have decided that his silhouette had too much of a phallic look to it, and they’re offended. WHAT?! Um…it’s a guitar…that’s where it hangs when you play it. If it’s tiny and up around your chest, it’s called a ukelele, and no one wants to watch Prince play a ukelele. Shut up and dance.

– Oh, we are SO CLOSE to Spring Training that I can almost hear the batting practice balls being hit outta the park. Man, am I ready for some baseball!!

– Great phone call from my son: Dad, can we have a Daddy/Son night where we watch Justice League just you and me? You better believe we’re gonna have that night, oh yes!

– LOST and Survivor started this week. Yay! Also, did anyone else notice on Heroes this week when Hiro’s father, played by George Takei (Mr. Sulu) got in his car to drive away, the license plate was NCC-1701? Yep…the registration number of the U.S.S. Enterprise! Nice touch.

– I’m in dire need of 18 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sadly, that will not happen until sometime mid-April, I think!

I’ve been directing a show for 3 weeks, and have barely seen my wife, 8 year old daughter and 6 year old son. Saturday was my wife’s birthday, and I knew I was going to have two preview performances and barely see her at all. I got the dreaded call from my son early last week: Hi Daddy. I was just wondering if you were coming home tonight. I miss you. God, those are just heartbreaking. *sigh* Sometimes our schedules can be absolutely brutal on a family.

So, late last week I asked Jeanne to take Monday off school, plan on keeping the kids home from school Monday, and keep Sunday and Monday clear on the calendar. Then I asked her to pack for an overnight stay.

Sunday, after the preview performance, I drove home, picked them up, and drove 1/2 hour to Ann Arbor, where I had booked a room at Weber’s Inn. Of course, I didn’t tell them where we were going, so they were guessing the whole time. When Maggie asked how far it was, I told her “Under a hundred miles.” So they all decided it was between a one and two hour drive. Boy were they excited and surprised when I got off the highway twenty minutes later!

Weber’s was wonderful. It’s a great big fancy restaurant/hotel, with a gorgeous indoor swimming pool, hottub, sauna, game room…the works. Have I mentioned that my wife and kids LOVE to swim?

We got there at 6pm on Sunday, and swam for a long while, then had a great dinner. (For fun, we got an escargot appetizer, and YES we waited until the kids had tried them to spill the beans about what they were. Yes, it was just as funny as you’re thinking it would be! They kinda liked them, though, which was nice!) Then we went back to our room and, after the kids had a fun bathtime in the whirlpool tub, we fell asleep watching cartoons, all snuggled together on the big bed. In the morning, we swam a bunch, played games and had a blast. It was a ton of fun, our room had a patio thing that opened up right into the pool area.

Then, for her birthday, I had booked jeanne an hourlong massage at the Spa around the corner from the hotel. She had no idea, so we took her there (“Why are we here?”…”Just go give them your name and tell them you have a 10:30 appointment! We’ll pick you up in an hour!”) Then the kids and I did a little snacking and shopping (bought a fun card game for the family) before picking Jeanne up to go back to the hotel. Next, room service lunch on the patio, and a couple more hours of splashing around in the pool and hottub! Then, late Monday afternoon (I managed to get us a later checkout time than normal) we packed up and headed home because I had to hold auditions Monday night. On the way home, the kids were almost falling asleep in the car! A great little 22-hour adventure…wonderful to have the 4 of us do something different together, and just play for a day!

The bad news: I’ve not done that much swimming in years – I have muscles that are hurting that I’d forgotten even existed.

The good news: Because of the cold, they cancelled school on Monday! No lost day for Jeanne, no missed day for the kids!

Oh, the fun! Hopefully we made a few memories in there, for the kids. I know we did for Jeanne and me!

Sometimes you just need to take charge of your life. If you don’t, who the hell will?!

I just had a nice exchange with my friend Kate about the nitty-gritty details of “What is an Artistic Director?”. She’s considering applying for the position at a couple of theatres near her (and she’d be great!).

I had such a good time just rambling off the answer that I thought I’d reprint it here. It’s funny: it actually got me thinking about my job a little bit more than I have recently…which is a good thing because, honestly, I’ve been feeling a little burned out. Having a reminder of what I do, what I should be doing, and why, is a nice little inspiration.

So, for anyone interested, here’s what, off the top of my head, an Artistic Director does.

Send all your positive thoughts toward Williamston, will ya? While you’re at it, send all your friends to buy tickets! 🙂

I’m really excited for the previews for this show. I’ve never directed a one-man show before, we’ve had a great time doing it, and I can’t wait to see how audiences react. I’ve been so happy with the work my actor is doing; creating 37 real people with real wants and lives is not an easy task, especially when some of those people we only meet for 3 or 4 lines! And on top of it all, he’s funny!

So – we’ll learn a lot over the weekend, as we always do with previews, and we’ll have fun doing it.

I love my job!

Spring Training starts in just TWO WEEKS!!

Man, am I ready for some baseball to come back!