Happy Easter!

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Happy Easter everyone!

Following in the tradition, we will have ham today to celebrate a neat event.

According to historical records (which are, admittedly, a bit unclear), we believe that today marks an important anniversary! It was thousands of years ago that Jesus came back from the dead and, perched on a giant boulder outside of a cave, spoke these words to his followers: “I had this crazy dream! I was on a hill, and surrounding the base of the hill were dozens of giant bunnies with baskets chanting ‘He is risen!’ and pelting me with chocolate eggs and baked hams.”

And thus a tradition was born.

Late Night Saturday Rambling

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Miscellaneous brain dumping:

It’s Saturday night.  I’m pretty sure the Easter Bunny visited our house a little while ago while I was distracted, so I’m not going to be up much longer because I don’t want to risk upsetting him!

Opening Night for IT CAME FROM MARS was fantastic on Thursday. The show, which is a co-production that I directed at Performance Network in Ann Arbor and just re-mounted at the Williamston Theatre, is a huge amount of fun, and I’m hoping we can get good audiences. (We basically sold out the last 3 weeks of a 5 week run in Ann Arbor!)

I got a chance to play with an iPad today for a while – after hoping that it would be really cool, it turns out that it is. I want one. I hear detractors saying things like "It’s just an iPod Touch on steroids!" Well, sort of, yes, although it does more than the Touch does… but the thing about that criticism is, well, the iPod touch is FREAKING AWESOME. There’s a reason they’ve sold a gazillion of the things, and I absolutely fall into the "I WANT ONE!" camp.  🙂  The iPad, well, as my friend Mike said about the iPhone years ago…. it’s like holding the future in your hands!

The whole family finished watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender" yesterday – what a fun series.  If you haven’t seen it, and enjoy fun, fantasy animation, I wholeheartedly recommend it.  (and no, the "avatar" name has NOTHING to do with James Cameron’s technically cool but disappointingly dull storyline of a movie).

A fun side note to "The Last Airbender" – over the last 6 weeks, we’ve watched a LOT of this show – and had a great time doing it.  The kids fell in love with the opening sequence to the show, which narrates the story of who the Avatar is, and at the end of the narration the young woman says something like "Legend has it the Avatar is the only one who can save the world…. and I believe it."  Well, my kids developed a tradition of responding to this narration that was hilarious to me:  EVERY TIME the narration ended, Max would say "I believe it too.  Maggie, do you believe it?"  and Maggie would reply  "I believe it!"  and they would both burst out singing Journey:  Don’t stop, believing!!   Hold on to that feeeeeeling!!"  and then they’d sit and watch the episode.  This made me laugh.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Where in heaven’s name do kids come UP with these things?! 

And now, time for sleep, where I will spend a long time thinking about what the 6th and final show for next season will be before I finally doze off!  🙂

A sad event

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We had a loss in our family this week….

Night, the One-Eyed Wonder Gerbil, was laid to rest this morning underneath a grove of pine trees. Everyone said a few nice words, and Maggie played her guitar.

His epitaph, written by the kids, reads:
RIP
Here lies Night The Girble
He was a nice Gerble
Died March 30, 2010

He was buried with his favorite coconut shell and, although Max says he is looking forward to having more space on his bookshelf, we will miss him.

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A great Thursday

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I spend a lot of my life being grateful for my family, and for my job, and being thankful for what I have. Lord knows I also spend a bunch of time worrying about what I/we don’t have.

Today was a great reminder of how lucky I am. We had a great rehearsal, I had some wonderful discussions about how to keep our theatre growing and, hopefully, prospering. After I got home, I had a great time chatting and laughing with Jeanne about life. Most of all, I got to be at my son’s school this morning as his class did their presentations of biographies of important people in history. It was really neat, and all the students were wonderful.

I’ve known that Max was working on this project for a while, he’s been excited about it. And, since I am a big nerd/science geek myself, I was pretty excited when he chose Neil Armstrong as his subject. The kids each had to fill up their big tri-fold screen with info about their subject, and they were placed all around the library. Then the parents came in and sat down, and all the kids stood in a row and did 5 line “teasers”, inviting people to check out their displays. Following that, the parents walked around the room checking out all of projects.

Max’s teaser? “Hi! I got my license to fly before I got my license to drive! In 1969, I was the first person in history to step foot on the moon! Think you know who I am? Then moonwalk over to my presentation to see if you’re right!”

And moonwalk I did, and so did lots of other people. It was so great to see him proudly greeting people as they came to see his display, “Would you like to see a picture of Neil Armstrong in his spacesuit? This is a replica of a 1969 newspaper from the day that he walked on the moon!”

Such fun. And not only did he know his stuff, he was proud and confident as he shared it with everyone there. And near the end, after he posed for a goofy picture, as I was giving him a we’re-in-school-and-I-don’t-want-to-embarrass-you fist bump, he wrapped his arms around me in a great big hug and said “Thanks for coming Dad, I love you!”

Yeah, I’m a lucky man.

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Short and sweet

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Yeah, it’s St. Patrick’s Day.

I had a whole long journal entry typed up, talking all about the last couple of days and today, and a bunch of stuff. 

The computer froze right up when I tried to post it.

At first, I was really frustrated.  Then, as I tried to figure out if I could re-create all the stuff I’d lost, I looked at the picture I was posting and realized that I didn’t NEED a long entry.

Look at that picture!  🙂  It says everything I was trying to say… and it says it better than I would’ve.

I’m a lucky man.

Thinking about what we do…

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As I put together what I *think* are the final pieces to our next season at the Williamston Theatre, I find that once again I’ve been giving a lot of thought about what exactly a Professional Regional Theatre is – it’s been a while since I found myself really questioning that in-depth. what it does, what it should do, how it fits in with both the nation-wide Regional Theatre Industry and the city and surrounding neighborhoods and state: what are the obligations, the responsibilities?

As happens often, instead of answers, I found some quotes that moved me and made me think:

“We have to dream nationally (with ambition, creativity and excellence) but produce locally (inviting audiences to help nurture new work and innovative artists). Then American theatre can dramatize a changing America, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city, region by region, in the 21st century.”
–Celisa Kalke

“I’m scared that the regional theatre, by the time it is mature, will have bored the shit out of millions of people all over the country.”
–Andre Gregory

“Why do we need to continue to exist? What is the urgent, positive, galvanizing need we will fulfill—a need that will energize others and gather them to us? Is there a social need (e.g., to bring joy into children’s lives), an artistic need (to see the creativity of specific artists reach its fullest potential)—a need that can be clearly defined, embraced and framed? ”
–Ben Cameron

I love the Ben Cameron quote because it’s a question and, along with the others, it has me questioning again. Of course, I’ve got a good idea of where the season is headed, and I’m pretty satisfied with that, but I’m also finding myself dissatisfied with how well I feel we’ve got a handle on some of the other questions I raised above. (And not because I think we’re doing poorly at those things, but because I want a stronger handle on them – Just like each moment in rehearsal: I want to take a good thing and make it great.)

So. No answers right now. That’s okay – I certainly don’t need to have all the answers right now and, in truth, I’m looking forward to exploring these topics during the rest of this season, all of next season, and hopefully far beyond.

I do think that this factors into my overall feelings about what we do, though:

Tell me a fact, and I’ll learn.
Tell me a truth and I’ll believe.
Tell me a story and it’ll live in my heart forever.
— Indian Proverb

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