Previews for Five Course Love this weekend went well! We were thrilled to have packed houses, and the responses to the show have been great. It’s turning out to be a silly, sweet, fun toe-tapper! So, in that regard, it’s been a great week!

Of course, there’s a flip side to that – in the “Well, this sucks” category is the issue of the roof on the building! The roof over the back of our building (where the back lobby, art gallery, restrooms and scene shop are) has leaked for a while, and the same roofing company has been working on it. We all thought they had it fixed a few months ago, and it’s been great… until last week. Suddenly it was leaking like a sieve! Well, it turns out that something went wrong with the material, or the application, or the intense heat of last week’s heatwave caused an unexpected reaction in the material they used… something. SO: they came back to discover that they had to redo it. Today they did it with a spray-on sealant. We’ll see how THAT works!

More in the good news department, though; we’re in the midst of casting for next season, and I’m really excited about it. The more we work prepping for next season, the more excited I get about it – the production teams are wonderful, and I love the plays.

And it looks like I’ll be teaching a couple of classes for the MSU Department of Theatre next season. Should be a lot of fun. The collaborative relationship between the Williamston Theatre and the MSU Department of Theatre has been a wonderful thing, and I’m looking forward to continuing it. It’s always a treat to have the students and faculty into the building working on shows with us.

In fact, the next thing that I’m working on is the show that I’m directing at MSU, The American Clock by Arthur Miller. This is a huge show, with 27 actors, but I’m really looking forward to it because even though it looks like a huge show on paper, I think it’ll translate nicely to the stage as exactly what it is: a series of small, intimate stories woven into a big epic tale about the Great Depression. I think it’s going to be a great challenge, but also really rewarding.

Now, I think it’s time to sleep. After a good day at work I came home and played with the kids, including jumping on the trampoline for 15 minutes with them before spending 20 minutes on the treadmill as part of my “Get Back In Shape” exercise regimen. This fat Artistic Director is sore and tired, but for all good reasons! 🙂

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.
-Dorothy Day (1897 – 1980)

You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters.
-Plato (427 BC – 347 BC)

Sin bravely…We will never have all the facts to make a perfect judgement, but with the aid of basic experience we must leap bravely into the future.
-Russell R. McIntyre

I never trust people’s assertions, I always judge of them by their actions.
-Ann Radcliffe

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.
-Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

Today we met with the budget committee. They’re the portion of the Board of Directors that pour over the budget that we (the staff) submit to them for approval. We’ve submitted next season’s budget, and today we answered their questions about the numbers, planning, philosophy and strategy behind it. We’ve still got one show to go this season (and it’s going to be a fun one!), but this afternoon we had big discussions about what comes next.

It’s always a little worrisome, but also an exciting day because it’s another step forward – we now have the approval of the committee, and they will recommend to the whole board that the budget be approved and adopted. I’m excited because they’re supportive, cautious, but enthusiastic. They asked good questions, and had us explain WHY we were doing some of the things we were doing. And they agreed when, as we were discussing doing Oedipus in the middle of a recession, I quoted Christopher Ashley and said “Unless you commit to the whole range of what theatre can be, you haven’t created an interesting theatre.”

We’re blessed that our board and donors believe, as we do, that what we do is important. That it makes a difference.

So, with a lot of work, a lot of luck, and a lot of support from a lot of wonderful people, we will continue to pursue our goals for a fifth season… Making good theatre. Building a home, a place where people gather. Shepherding stories from the ether to the here, because it’s one way to make the world a better place.

I think it’s going to be a good year.

Ahh, I love that kid. 

Sometimes, all you need is a good list of good stuff to make a night better.

Closing weekend of Home at the Williamston Theatre, and it’s been loved by audiences and critics.

Our refrigerator kicked the bucket last night at home, which was not a good thing, but today we ordered the new one, and it’ll be great, and THAT’S a good thing!

Production staffs are coming together nicely for next season at the WT. I’m very excited about the teams, this is going to be a fantastic season of shows.

Hell’s Kitchen is back for the season. I have a love/hate relationship with this show, but I’m watching it again this season anyway! I love watching them cook!

Speaking of TV, they announced a new season of Torchwood, and that’s another exciting TV thing!

Maggie had her orchestra concert this week – I’m so proud of her – she plays the bass well, and the concert was great. I’m even prouder of how she’s tackled the guitar; she just loves it, and practices all the time. It’s funny, too – the concert was not just an evening to say “Hey, look at my kid do stuff”, but sitting there we got to listen to the Chelsea House Orchestra too, which is fabulous, and it was a really great reminder of how good and powerful classical music can be – a very “filling the well” event for me.

Apple announced the iPhone 4 – it looks awfully cool!

We start rehearsal for the final show of our 2010/2011 season – Five Course Love – next week, and I can’t wait for this silly, lighthearted musical to fill our space!

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it.  Establish your priorities and go to work.
-H.L. Hunt

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time.  
Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
-E.B. White

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
-Gail Sheehy

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
-Andy Warhol

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along.  This applies to play as well as work.  A day merely survived is no cause for celebration.  You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine.  No more busy work.  No more hiding from success.  Leave time, leave space, to grow.  Now.  Now!  Not tomorrow!
-Og Mandino

Sitting outside, on the deck, while the kids jump on the trampoline. It’s a beautiful evening. A little buggy, but this is Michigan. Mosquitoes are a part of the deal.

I am rewriting this journal entry. It can’t decide what it wants to be. Sometimes I write here, and it’s for me. Sometimes it’s for anyone who decides to read this. Sometimes I write knowing that this’ll appear on Facebook, and I’m still questioning whether I even want to bother with Facebook or not. And sometimes I write feeling a little weird that this is featured on Encore Michigan when I won’t be writing about anything theatre related. Usually I think the best writing comes when I don’t worry about that stuff and just write. So I’m gonna.

This entry is about family. Friends. People who matter to you. I wrote it, I rewrote it. It got long, sentimental, too much… muchiness, to quote the Mad Hatter. So I’m streamlining. The long and short of it is this: I had a couple doctors appointments recently and it turns out that I’m in okay health – not great, but okay. Also this week, though, I found out that a friend is in less good health, and has a battle ahead.

So I’m sitting here watching my kids jump on the trampoline and laugh, and I’m thinking about the mosquitoes and the seasons changing and the people in our lives.

And I’m thinking I’m fortunate to have a huge amount of wonderful people in my life, and I should let them know who they are and thank them more often.