Monday Morning Pic Post

Posted on by

Random pictures from the life of a random guy who is also a dad, husband, director and nerd.

20131110-094600.jpg
This is the glass blowers studio across the street from Williamston Theatre. Folks who came to an evening performance of The Woman In Black had a little surprise waiting for them after the show. It was so much fun to see who would spot it, and what their reaction would be!

20131110-094621.jpg
Sometimes you put stuff in a desk drawer, and it slips behind the drawer, and maybe under it, and just gets lost in the desk. Then after a while, sometimes after years, you open the drawer and that something that you’d forgotten all about falls out from under the drawer. Sometimes that something is a few pictures that your kids made for you when they were little… Like this collection of all my favorite superheroes that my son, who was probably in first grade at the time, made for me because he knew I liked them…

20131110-094633.jpg

20131110-094653.jpg
…or this picture and note that my daughter made for me. I won’t lie, working on the play that I’m directing now (which is all about family, and parents/kids/grandparents and growth and change), finding these pictures from years ago was a little bit of an emotional moment. Now the kids are teenagers, busy all the time, and the days of wanting to write notes to mom and dad is gone. And I guess the bittersweet thing about that is that I don’t remember exactly when it happened. *sigh*! Still, their are more parenting adventures on the way!

20131110-094717.jpg
My Klingon Piggy Bank went as a leprechaun for Halloween.

20131110-094731.jpg
This creepy doll is from The Woman In Black. Spooky.

20131110-094749.jpg

20131110-094759.jpg
Maggie planted an apple tree several years ago – this year she got to collect her first crop of apples from it!

20131110-094830.jpg
Aaaaaaand I’m just sharing this because it makes me laugh every time I see it!

Three Things Thursday

Posted on by

It’s Three Things Thursday!

Three things related to Halloween:

Favorite Halloween Candy As A Kid

1) Reeses Peanut Butter Cups  (I mean, this is a given, right?!)
reeses

 

 

 

 

2) Sour Apple Blow Pops – SO GOOD!  Plus, GUM!
sour-apple-blowpop-127395-im

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Those weird sugar water filled Wax Bottles!
(Yes!  I loved those things!  Pure sugar, plus weird flavorless-almost-gum!? Who could resist?!)

wax bottles

Halloween Candy I HATED as a kid!  (And…still now…)

1) Candy Corn.  And those awful pumpkins pretending like they’re NOT candy corn.  Gross.
gross

2) These things.  I mean, come on.  If you’re giving these out, you hate children.  And happiness.  And probably puppies.
gross2

 

3) Almond Joy/Mounds Bars.   The only thing worse than coconut in a candy are numbers 1 and 2 on this list.
gross3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Random Things About Halloween

1) Now that my kids are in their teens, walking around with them Trick-Or-Treating is coming to an end.  This makes the old-man-romantic-Dad in me sad.

2) My awesome wife, when we were dating back many years ago, made me a first-season Star Trek The Next Generation uniform as the coolest costume I’ve ever had.  I still have it, even though it’s been about 15 years since I could fit in it.  Since my diagnosis with Diabetes, I’ve been eating better and exercising and I’m almost back to being able to wear it!  Maybe next Halloween?  GEEKOWEEN!

3) This is the pumpkin I carved this year.  PacMan Ghost.  Yep, combining Halloween and Video Games: GEEKOWEEN!  🙂
IMG_4631

Monday Quotes: Perspective

Posted on by

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.
– Christopher Morley

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
– Abraham Maslow

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
– Douglas Adams

Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses. 
– Alphonse Karr

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore. 
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Would it be possible for me to see something from up there?” asked Milo politely.

“You could,” said Alec, “but only if you try very hard to look at things as an adult does.”

Milo tried as hard as he could, and, as he did, his feet floated slowly off the ground until he was standing in the air next to Alex Bings. He looked around very quickly and, an instant later, crashed back down to the earth again.

“Interesting, wasn’t it?” asked Alex.

“Yes, it was,” agreed Milo, rubbing his head and dusting himself off, “but I think I’ll continue to see things as a child. It’s not so far to fall.”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

 

There’s a lot to love about my job…

Posted on by

One of the many things I love about being Artistic Director of a Regional Theatre is the job of putting together teams of people and letting them create things.  Our latest production is a great example of why I enjoy this so much.  The Woman In Black  is a gorgeous, spooky, atmospheric thriller that benefits from the contributions of everyone in the entire production company.

I’m thrilled to say that audiences and critics are both enjoying it!  Here are a few quotes from the reviews:

“A haunting ghost story… this season opener is strong melodrama with a great cast in a polished production.” – Encore Michigan

“Williamston knocks ‘em dead again with the exceptional quality of the production.” – Lansing City Pulse

“Williamston Theatre’s Woman in Black is a lesson in how to tell a ghost story.” – Greater Lansing Ubiquitous Theatre

“All elements combine, “The Woman in Black” is a Halloween treat, a gothic ghost story told by a fine team of artists who know just how to make spooky work on stage.” – Lansing State Journal

Congrats and Thanks to everyone who worked on the show!

EM_2142_BlackRev

Thursday Pic Post of Good Things

Posted on by

So, good news: this is a picture of my lungs, which are “looking good!”, according to the doctor. So, in The Continuing Adventures of Wheezy McCoughCough, the Bronchiospasm Kid we’ve have had a good week, eliminating some possibilities. Now, if we could eliminate more and solve the whole recurring wheezing/coughing thing, that’d be great. Slowly but surely!

20131010-184432.jpg

Other awesome things: this was my view during the ct scan. 🙂

20131010-184531.jpg.

This is the lit up mural thing on the ceiling for people to look at during their ct scan.

20131010-184735.jpg

I got lucky, and got a ticket to the Tigers versus the A’s playoff game on Tuesday!

20131010-184838.jpg

20131010-184848.jpg

Um…sometimes you’re the guy who forgets when his plates expire…

20131010-185028.jpg

We open The Woman In Black tomorrow night, and it’s a beautiful, spooky show! Here’s a photo from my phone that’s not nearly as good looking as the actual show!

20131010-185339.jpg

This is the newest video from Williamston Theatre, check it out!

The Last Rose Of Summer? Maybe… Or maybe it’s just a really tall rose that held on in our front yard longer than the rest of them did!

20131010-190128.jpg

And lastly… How I hope to spend Saturday morning with my family:

20131010-190335.jpg

Happy Thursday everybody!

A Nice Week – And A Moment Of Thanks

Posted on by
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” -Phillip Pullman

This Thursday, we had our first preview performance for The Woman In Black at Williamston Theatre.

I got up onstage just before the show to make the pre-show announcements, (“Hi! I’m Tony, turn off your cell phones, thanks for being here, turn off your cell phones, we have some folks to thank for their support, and if you have a cell phone please turn it off.”)

As I was talking, I said “Welcome to the first performance of our 8th Season!” and the packed house erupted into applause, cutting me off.  I smiled and looked out into the crowd, making eye contact with a lot of people who I’ve come to know over the life of Williamston Theatre.  (We have a lot of patrons who LOVE coming to the first couple of previews, they love the talk-back after the show: knowing that we’re still in rehearsals they’re participating in what is still a work-in-progress, and they enjoy the fact that they may contribute to what the piece ultimately becomes.  We love them!)

So, I’m standing, seeing all of these people applaud and cheer, and had a moment.  Just a quick “Wow” moment, but it was there.  One of those lump-in-the-throat,  I had better talk now because if I don’t I may not be able to in a minute kinda moments, because I was again reminded of how lucky we’ve been.

Starting our 8th Season.  Wow.  42 productions – well, 43 now!  Lessons learned.  Friends made.  Families made.  Hundreds of jobs provided to artists.  Many awards won.  And – most importantly – lots of stories told that have moved people.

“People don’t want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith–faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.” -Annette Simmons

So many people to thank for making all of that happen – board members, actors, volunteers, my 3 co-founders John and Chris and Emily, our families, donors, our apprentices, our stage managers, designers, directors, the MSU theatre department, Williamston business owners, the list goes on and on.

We’re not done growing, I hope – and in fact as the applause faded and I spoke, I laughed and said “Thank you – we’re as amazed as you are that we’re still here!” because in many ways, we are!

So, this post is a Thank You.  And an acknowledgement of the huge amount of hard work and faith and dedication that so many people have given to help keep a dream going.  It’s also a reminder, too : Sometimes, in the middle of all of the day-to-day running and grinding and putting-out-metaphorical-fires, take a minute… take a minute to look around and appreciate where you are, who helped get you there, because it’s important.  Remembering why you do what you do, why all the hard work is worth it – no matter what it is you do – that not only makes life worth living… it keeps it beautiful.

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” -Joan Didion

Friday Fun Things

Posted on by

We are in Tech Week for The Woman In Black at Williamston Theatre, man it’s going to be a terrific show.  Set, costumes, everything is just coming along beautifully.  The actors are fabulous, and it’s a nice spooky piece!

Other fun things: I love this picture of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan… and Elmo.ianpatrickelmo

Sometimes…when you get a package in the mail that has a lot of bubble wrap… you need to just roll around on it. So this happened at my house…
bubblewrapmax

Aaaaand this is share-worthy just because it’s fabulous:
spockrock

Also, I’m excited about the new freelance gig I’m doing with TV Talk! I’m hosting a show discussing the new CBS drama Hostages! My friend Joe Zettelmaier and I are co-hosting, it’s a ton of fun. The pilot ep of the show was quite good, I’m looking forward to watching and discussing/dissecting it more over the season. You should check it out – you can get the TV Talk App at tvtalk.com, or you can also just listen to the show there, too! It’s fun – the app has an option for listeners to join in on the discussion. And while you’re there check out the other shows available. TV Talk: Hostages is one of over 60 shows you can listen to, so if you’ve got a favorite tv show, grab the TV Talk app and join in with a community of folks chatting about it!
8LBt-wyJ0ge9V37QduwO3kloYNlSPkytaFmfgGD8kek

Happy Friday, y’all!