This week we start rehearsals for the final production of our 5th Season at the Williamston Theatre!  Our 30th production!  That’s amazing.  As we get deep into planning next season we are, as all professional not-for-profit theatres are, working to keep the doors open – this is nothing new, but I’m constantly being reminded how lucky I am to work with the fine people that I do, in a job that I love doing. 

Speaking of our 30th production, And The Creek Don’t Rise by Joseph Zettelmaier, we had the first reading last night, and it’s going to be a LOT of fun.  Our invited audience of donors really enjoyed themselves – this is a fun, touching piece and I can’t wait for our audiences to get in here!

In other good news, the Detroit Tigers have moved into First Place in the Central Division!  Baseball fans, you know what I’m talking about!!  And the games against Cleveland this week are fun, because it’s Cleveland that they just knocked OUT of First Place!  🙂  Sure, it’s only June, and there’s a LOT of baseball left to play… but it’s things like this that make the regular season so fun.  

The Pulsar Awards were given out this week, and the Williamston Theatre was honored to walk away with 5 nice awards for the season:

Lighting Design: Dana White for Oedipus
Featured Actor in a Play: Edward O’Ryan (Stickpin) in While We Were Bowling
Director of a Play: John Lepard for While We Were Bowling
Lead Actress in a Play: Suzi Regan (Frances) in While We Were Bowling
Best Play: While We Were Bowling

And for those who like this sort of thing, the Green Lantern movie comes out on Friday!  As a comic fan, a fan of the Justice League, and a big Green Lantern fan, I can’t wait!  The 12-year old boy in me can’t WAIT to see this movie!  🙂

APACHE LESSON

An elder Apache was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. "One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, paranoia, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.

"The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Grandpa simply replied, "The one you feed."

•We’ve been waiting on confirmation for the rights to one show for next season, and we finally procured them today.  I’m very excited about the lineup of shows next season, I’ll do a full post about it later.  Thrilled to have it all locked up.

•Speaking of the theatre, we’ve gotten a bunch of award nominations over the couple weeks, which is really nice.  The Wilde Award nominations were announced, and Williamston Theatre received 6 nominations.  We also received 20 nominations from the Pulsar Awards.  And I’m pleased to say that the show I directed in Detroit, ERNIE, also received two nominations from the Wilde Awards!

•A great weekend at home, spent a bunch of time with the family.  Birthday party for my son found Jeanne and I wrangling 8 11-year old boys for a sleepover.  (Note to self: limit sleepover invitations to tiny numbers from now on…)

•Now that I’m all caught up on Eureka (and looking forward to the season premiere in July), I’ve been watching Fringe.  I’m watching it from the beginning, and have fallen in love with it – so all you folks who kept telling me to watch it because you just KNEW that I’d love it… you’re right.  Thanks! 

•Callbacks tonight, for one of the shows next season:  Our World Premiere Musical!  

•The Detroit Tigers are playing well lately, and are only 2 and 1/2 games behind Cleveland.  This bodes well for the future because, as any Tigers fan will tell you, Cleveland sucks and we will catch them and beat them.  🙂