Without perseverance talent is a barren bed.
Welsh Proverb

Pretty good! From the Detroit Free Press. Although he liked the production more than the script, he said a lot of nice things about the show and Williamston Theatre. Cool.

EDITED TO ADD: We also got a review from the Lansing City Pulse. Positive things to say about the production, didn’t like the script at all. We like the script, obviously, or we wouldn’t have done it – it’s won a couple of awards for playwrighting (the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the Backstage-West Garland Award for Playwrighting), and I’m honestly surprised at the comments about it. Still, a good lesson about peoples expectations.

When I can get time, and get my thoughts together, there’s probably a longer post here about how amazing it is, to me, to see a review for our first show in the paper. It’s just one more step in our progress, but it’s one of those big ones!

Wow. I don’t think I’ve had 4 days between posts in a long time! It’s been quite a weekend, though.

Opening Night went great. Getting to opening night for our first production was a huge, huge event. A giant sense of accomplishment. Still, at the same time, one look at the stuff left on the To Do list and that sense of accomplishment is replaced with a passion to finish the rest of the list! (For more info, see the Williamston Theatre Rehearsal Blog at http://www.williamstontheatre.org)

Saturday I worked in the morning and afternoon, catching up on some things that needed to be done at the theatre. Then we went into my parent’s house and celebrated my Moms birthday and an early Fathers day for Dad all in one big family get together. Sloppy Joes and Hot Dogs, Fruit Salad, Potato Salad and Pineapple Upside-down cake. God, I ate like I hadn’t had food in a week. I, seriously, need to get back onto an exercise regimen. When I was in Otterbein directing I was great about working out. Now, not so much.

Sunday, Fathers Day, was awesome. Spent the morning with my kids and wife, got a great cinnamon-roll breakfast in bed and some beautiful handmade cards! And, for Fathers Day the family cleaned my car! (Well, they did it Saturday, which explains why Jeanne asked me to use her van to go to work!) My little Escort, which I’ve decided I’m driving until it just will no longer move, has over 180,000 miles on it. And, to be honest, I spend so much time in the car that it just gets filthy inside. It’s like a little mini office, snack bar and clothes closet all wrapped up on wheels. So, my amazing family cleaned and emptied it and now it looks and smells squeaky clean! What an awesome Fathers Day Surprise!!

Then, Sunday Night, The Performance Network had their Subscribers Choice Awards Banquet, to which I was invited. A great celebration of their season, company and subscribers/supporters, the event is a very cool thing. Lots of great people were there, and I was honored to win Best Sound Design for Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, which I designed with Alex Rivera while I was directing the show. Also, Take Me Out, which I co-directed, won for Best Play of the Season. It’s nice to have your work recognized, but especially when it’s by the audiences.

Some cool news – Williamston Theatre may be doing a co-production with one of the biggest theatres in the state! There are details to be worked out, but we may be announcing a two week run of a hilarious holiday special for December that will start at our theatre and move to another! Exciting, and potentially lucrative! WhooHoo!

Aaaand, in other cool news, I may be directing a show in another state, at a large, well respected Regional Theatre. The Artistic Director there contacted me and asked if I would be interested, and I of course said “YES!”. We’re working out schedules and the like, I’ll report more when I have it.

SO. A great, busy 4 or 5 days. Now we wait for reviews for the show, and begin work on the next one!

Hope life is great with everyone out there.

Williamston Theatre got a great article in The Detroit Free Press, the biggest paper here in Michigan.

A couple of great photos are in the print edition but, alas, not online. Maybe we’ll try and get them scanned in, just for the archives!

Not only that, but it’s been quite a couple of days. Some very cool developments that I’ll be posting about soon, after a couple of details are ironed out.

And, HEY! Tomorrow is Opening Night!

This robot site is just weird enough to be funny!

Here’s a nice little article about Williamston Theatre!

Also, in my last post I mentioned some of the Michigan Theatre Awards. Well, for years the “biggest” have been the Detroit Free Press Theatre Awards. Unfortunately, due to cutbacks, they’ve decided to not have a big gala awards ceremony anymore. They did, however, publish the awards in their paper this morning.

The fun news is that Take Me Out, the show that I took over directing last summer, won Best Play and Jim Posante and I won Best Director for that show! Williamston Theatre gets a little mention too, which is nice! Read the article here

So here in Michigan we have a few Theatre Awards events that happen yearly.

One of is the Wilde Awards, named after Oscar Wilde. These awards are sponsored and given out by the Between The Lines publication, which is Michigan’s weekly news for gays, bisexuals, transgenders and friends. These awards are neat because they have both awards that the editors choose, and awards that their readers can vote on. They’re also the most fun awards ceremonies ever!

(In fact, rumor has it that the other awards ceremonies are being cancelled from cutbacks, and instead of ceremonies they’ll just be printed in the paper. Booo.)

So, having the Wilde Awards as a time to honor some of the best of theatre in Michigan is a good thing!

And, two of the shows I directed are up for best show awards!

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is up for best Comedy.
Take Me Out is up for best production with LGBT themes.

So, take a minute and go here and vote!

Okay, Wil Wheaton posted this on his blog, and it made me laugh!:

Click this for the Patrick Stewart HILARITY!

In other news – the first preview went very well! Over 1/2 full, they laughed, they gasped, they went “Awwww!” all when they were supposed to! Well, mostly when they were supposed to, which is why we’re going to rehearse some moments today! The theatre looked great, was too hot in Act I (we learned a nice AC lesson, thank you very much), and it was very, very cool to have our first show in the building. 1/2 of the people who came in said “Oh my GOD! Look at this place!”, which was nice!

I’m still anxious to sleep for 14 hours. That should happen sometime soon…I hope…