A One-Year Anniversary

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Tony Caselli

One year ago today, April 1, 2014, I got out of the hospital after spending a long time there, a little over 70 days, I think. There was a lot wrong with me while I was there, we were so happy to beat the doctor’s predictions about how long a rehab stay I would need after coming out of the coma.

It’s quiet in our house tonight. Everyone is sleeping. I just got home from rehearsal. I checked in on the kids – both teenagers needed blankets pulled up. I sat just watching each of them sleep for a minute, and then checked on Jeanne, who fell asleep with a book and wearing her glasses, as usual.

It’s been an amazing year. Spending time with my wonderful family, and friends. Getting back to work at a job I love with people I love. Learning to celebrate everything and savor everything. Watching my family sleep, tucking them in, that’s such a gift.

So much has happened. The amount of support my family and I received during the hospital adventure was, is, overwhelming and humbling and incredible. I spent months on dialysis – an amazing process that cleans your blood when your kidneys can’t, but it also takes 4 hours, 3 days per week… and leaves you feeling pretty miserable for an entire day each time you have it. We were amazed and so grateful when my kidneys healed enough to stop needing dialysis. There’s no guarantee they’ll stay that way, but I’m grateful for every day I don’t need it.

It’s funny to think that it was a year ago that I came home. It feels both like yesterday, and a hundred years ago at the same time. A couple of months ago, Jeanne and I were asked to speak to the Michigan Health Association of ICU Workers at their Keynote Conference. They wanted to hear our story, as people who had been through a long illness in the ICU. It was an honor to speak with them, to share the good things that happened and the bad. They asked lots of questions, and wanted to know how to help people going through what we went through (even more than they already did). It was wonderful to participate, there was a feeling of “giving back” to these people who had made such a difference in our lives. At some points they cheered, and clapped – at others they gasped, and afterwards Jeanne and I got many hugs. We’ve been asked to speak to another group in the Fall of this year, and I can’t wait!

I say often that I’m still processing everything that happened, and that’s still the case. I still have the occasional hospital nightmare. Jeanne and I are still evaluating our lives, our paths, and working to simplify and purge, and who knows what that means for the future? My health is better, but still not perfect. The experts have diagnosed the reason behind the whole series of illnesses that led me to the hospital as CVID, or Common Variable Immuno Deficiency. Short translation: my immune system stopped making immunoglobulins to fight off infections or illness. Why? They don’t know, as is the case in a LOT of CVID diagnoses. My doctor said it occurs in about 1 of 50,000 people, and can just appear or can be brought on by a strong shock to the immune system. The bad case of shingles I got in mid-2012 is being considered as a possible culprit.

Now, to counteract the CVID, I have a weekly treatment. It’s an infusion of immunoglobulins that have been harvested from donated blood. A 90 minute procedure with almost no ill effects that I can do at home. Again, I’m amazed at modern medicine, and how incredible our world is.

So. 1 year ago tonight. And here we are, one day away from the Opening Night of the first play I’ve directed in about a year and a half! Crazy. Life is crazy. And beautiful. My kids are amazing, and I get to be with them. My wife is the strongest most beautiful woman ever. I’m incredibly lucky to have the life with them that I have, and I’m determined to find ways to give back to that life. As challenging as the last year was, and as much as I don’t want any of that to happen to anyone, I’m grateful that I had a wake up call to remind me of what is so easy to forget: If we pay attention, Amazingness is everywhere. And now I get to direct a play all about a guy who learns how to fall in love with his life again, and it feels just right. Falling in love with our lives over and over again is something we have to remind ourselves to do …and it’s worth it.

You know, when I left the hospital, I spent the next 6 months walking with a cane, re-learning how to walk without falling over, without stumbling. I still have several of those canes, in a corner of the living room by our front door. Jeanne doesn’t like them there, she says they remind her of everything that happened… But that’s why I like them there. I *want* to be reminded. I don’t ever want to forget how hard it was for me to walk, and how much help I needed…and how much help I got. Every day is a gift, and they help me remember that.

Now, I’m going to check in on my kids one more time before I go to sleep. Because I can.

I’m so grateful that I can.

Pic Post Saturday

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Tony Caselli

Random photos from the life of a Dad, Husband, Artistic Director!

Our new season promo.

I updated the Team Tony page on my website and added some pictures, including this one from the amazing folks at the Ringwald Theatre!

Williamston Theatre did a reading of Joseph Zettelmaier’s new play “Campfire” at the Renegade Theatre

This just made me laugh.

A night at the Red Brick with the three most important people in the world.

Maggie and I

Jeanne and Maggie went away for the weekend, so Max and I had some quality time… like a video game and pizza binge!

I don’t know who this guy is, but I was at the Oddball Comedy Fest and saw his shirt, and now I want one!

So many good things

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Tony Caselli

The last couple of weeks have been been busy, and full of wonderful good things!

I celebrated my 4-month “getting out of the hospital” anniversary! Man, it still feels odd to say that. Not the “getting out” part, but the whole hospital thing. I mean, it’s still so much to process, and sometimes it almost doesn’t seem real, like it’s just something you read about, or might see on TV. But, I’m getting better, getting strength back, and have found myself more and more grateful for my life, and the people in it, every single day. That’s part of why today I’m posting about all sorts of good things!

Stuff to celebrate:

*I’ve been able to stop dialysis! While not 100% healed! my kidneys have healed enough so that I don’t need to have my blood cleaned three times a week! This is such a giant weight lifted off my family and I, it’s hard to even describe. It’s a good thing.

*Getting to see 3 terrific pieces of theatre recently. The Last Romance at The Purple Rose, Carousel at Encore Musical Theatre, and Hamlet at The Michigan Shakespeare Festival. Had a great time at them all, and hopefully will see more soon!

*Getting a visit from Laura Thaisen! Laura was one of Williamston Theatre’s first apprentices, and she’s gone on to become a professional stage manager in Minneapolis, and we’re extremely proud of her. It was so great to have her visit, and to meet her significant other just weeks before they became officially engaged!

*We broke our yearly attendance record at Williamston Theatre! This is a wonderful thing, and we’re hoping that it’s a trend we’ll keep doing for the next few years.

*I did ten push-ups. Yes, ten. Go ahead and laugh, but a couple of months ago it was all I could do to hold myself up. This week I walked over a mile with my son and my dogs, and I did ten push-ups! Little steps, but they make me wanna take more steps.

*Guardians Of The Galaxy. Awesome. I am Groot. Enough said.

*We had a fabulous family weekend “up North”, playing games and napping and chatting and eating. We went to an entertainment center where we got to race go karts, and drive bumper cars, and I’m not gonna lie, I had a moment. A moment where I was driving my bumper car around, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I look up, and my parents and wife are sitting and watching (and taking video!), and they were laughing, and so happy, and every bumper car was filled with family: my kids, my sister, my nephews… We’re all smashing into each other and laughing our fool heads off, and the sense of wonderfulness was just, overwhelming.

This is the part where I want to write something about not taking things for granted, and celebrating life every chance you get, and how many times since getting out of the hospital I’ve said to myself “I almost missed this!” – those lessons and more are bouncing around in my head, and my heart, and I’m still processing them in so many ways, many times each day. Maybe someday soon I’ll be able to write coherently about them…

Until then, friends, remember to tell the people you love how you feel, take joy in every well spent moment, and revel in how many moments truly are well spent.

Okay 2014, let’s shape up a little.

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Tony Caselli

It’s been a while since I wrote on here about the adventures of Wheezy McCoughCough, The Bronchospasm Kid.
(I think the last couple times were here and here, if you’re interested.)

Some of that is because I didn’t feel like using this site to complain about health issues, and some is, well, I guess that’s really the reason! The last few weeks have been a challenge, though, and I feel like it’s worth writing about.

Just after Christmas, I was hit by another bout of breathing issues, (wheezing, coughing, bronchospasm, fever, chills, shortness of breath) which knocked me flat on my behind for a while and, unfortunately, kept me there more or less since then. I’ve had better and worse days, and managed to fit in a fair amount of work, but the last two weeks have been particularly hard. I’ve felt sort of like this:

Well, I guess I haven’t felt exactly like that, since that’s a fictitional gnome hurling rainbows. I pretty much just wanted to use that image, because no matter how lousy I’m feeling it cheers me up a little.
(And the video of it is even funnier, if you’re interested!)

My doctors, thankfully, are working diligently with me and I am eternally grateful for the awesomeness of my wife, kids and co-workers who have helped me.

It’s very hard for me to lay on the couch taking medicines wondering why I can’t breathe and not be doing something at the theatre. I dunno, I’m a little bit of a control freak, I like to make sure things are happening, but I also love my job. At the same time, if I’m not there I feel like I’m letting people down. Thankfully, my friends at the theatre can certainly run the thing without me for a while. If that wasn’t the case, we would’ve been doing something wrong these last 8 years. But at the same time, I don’t like feeling useless, or like I’m putting the burden of what I should be doing to earn my paycheck on everyone else.

Still, the lesson here is “When your doctor tells you to rest, and your wife tells you to rest, and your coworkers and friends tell you to rest… You should shut up and rest.”

So, I will. And I’ll be grateful for the amazing people and opportunities in my life… and I’ll hope that the cure to whatever this medical mystery tour I’ve been on the last year presents itself soon.

In the meantime, everybody have a great start to 2014, and take care of your health! 🙂

A nice early gift.

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Tony Caselli

With family scattered all over, sometimes the act of getting everyone together can be a challenging task that happens a lot more rarely than we’d appreciate.

This week, my parents came up from Florida for the holidays. They spent a couple days with us, and then we all piled in the car to make the drive to my brother’s house in Orchard Park, NY. My brother Dominic and his wife and kids moved there this Spring for his job, and so our family is more separated around the country than we’ve ever been.

As we drove the 6+ hour drive, the sun set and the weather got a little rainy. It was a very fun family trip, lots of laughing, games were played, and as we were passing through Pennsylvania it occurred to me that it had been many, many years since I’d had a long car trip with my parents. And now that my kids are getting older, who knows how many more Jeanne and I will have with them.

So, I was driving… and there was this wonderful, perfect moment. My daughter, tired like teenagers get, was sleeping and gently snoring in her seat. My mom was reading, quietly engrossed in her book. My wife and son were in the far back seats, watching (for the first time ever) episodes of Firefly on the DVD player and wearing the headphones so that, although we couldn’t hear the show, we could hear them laughing and exclaiming things to each other as they watched. My dad and I were talking as I drove, just chatting about life and health and schedules and a million things. Just as we came to a lull in the conversation, something happened on Firefly that got Jeanne and Max laughing, and they shared a look and a moment that I caught in the rear-view mirror, and as their laughter settled Maggie sighed loudly and contentedly in her sleep. I looked back at my Dad, and he was just smiling, looking out the window, as my mom continued reading. That little moment, all of us together, headed to spend time with more family, was just perfect. Then, of course, it faded away – I had to change lanes, we started chatting again, snacks were passed around, and we continued down the expressway on our journey.

But that moment – I’ll hold onto that for a long time. Who knows if we’ll get one of those again.

That’s the best gift I could’ve asked for this season.

“Over The River And Through The Woods”

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Tony Caselli

We opened our latest show at Williamston Theatre this weekend, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It’s a piece that I love, because it’s all about a big Italian family, it’s very funny and very sweet, and it takes me back to my Grandma Caselli’s house when I was a kid!

We’ve been fortunate in that audiences are loving the piece as well. It’s one of those plays that makes you both laugh and get a little weepy, it feels just right for this time of year, and the cast is fabulous. We’ve gotten some great reviews so far, too:

MODOReview
Encore Michigan
Lansing Online News

“Over the River and Through the Woods” is a show that is a generous serving of laughter spiced with tears, longing, sadness and pure delight at all the wonderful things that family can be. It may not talk about the holidays at all, but it has the heart of the holidays. It is about the ways we love each other, grow away from each other and always carry with us the gift of where we came from.” – Bridgette Redman, Encore Michigan

Friday Fun Things

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Tony Caselli

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.

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…

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

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!

Happy Friday, y’all!

Monday: A Pic Post Of Good Things

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Tony Caselli

Random moments from the life of a Dad, Artistic Director, and Geek.

Sometimes your daughter gets old enough to drive a car.

And then you’re like

But then you get to do some light reading for work:

And you’re reminded

And the truth in that quote hits you like

And you think “There are a heck of a lot of wonderful things in my life”. Such as this renovation of the seating banks at Williamston Theatre:
From this…

to this…

where the second, third and fourth rows will have MUCH better sight lines to the floor of the stage, which is one more step to providing the best theatrical experience we can for our patrons!

In other good news, the Chelsea Community Fair was this weekend, and we had a blast. Along with rides and junk food and demolition derbies, we got to see this pig and her brand new piglets. Adorable, and now we’re fighting the urge to get a pig.

And, lastly, I’m excited to announce a new freelance gig – this Fall my pal Joe and I will be hosting a show on the TV Talk Network. TV Talk is a company that produces short-form talk shows discussing today’s favorite television entertainment. Joe and I will be hosting TV Talk: Hostages, a show about the new CBS series “Hostages”! Check out the details and download the free app at TV Talk – join us, it’ll be a ton of fun!

Some Random Thoughts On A Wednesday

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Tony Caselli

-Finished up callbacks for next season. Manohman, there’s such a fabulous, excited feeling of “The Future” when you’re at this stage – knowing the great scripts that are coming up, the potential that you get pairing those with talented production teams and casts, so much anticipation! I’m like a kid in a candy store who just got a handful of cash from Dad to get whatever I want!

-So we’ve been playing the game “King of Tokyo”. It’s a ton of fun, the whole family is enjoying it! Basically you’re a monster rampaging Tokyo (you know, like you do), and so is everyone else at the table, so you try to beat them! Really fun family game – strategy, luck, teamwork, and silliness. 🙂 Here’s a little video (My wife was playing too, but didn’t want to be in the video!)
https://twitter.com/TonyCaselli/status/349219950679957504

-So far this summer I’ve seen the two big blockbusters I was excited about, Star Trek: Into Darkness and Man of Steel, and I can say this: They were both good reminders that, as a storyteller, what matters is the storytelling. Flash and glitz are great, but if the *story* isn’t strong, if the characters aren’t compelling, then the experience is weak. A good reminder as I launch into plans for next season at the Williamston Theatre, where our audiences are counting on good experiences.

-Speaking of movies: In a public restroom at a movie theatre. A long line of urinals with men standing in front of them, most of them doing what you do at a urinal in a public restroom… except the guy next to me, who is talking. Now, people talk in restrooms. But he was talking on his phone, loudly. Well, we thought he was just “on his phone”. Turns out, he was Skyping someone from his smart phone. Yes. VIDEO chat. At a urinal. With what, it turned out, was a ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY who had also just seen the movie that he had seen, and wanted to chat about it. And we all hear them asking him “Dude, are you in the restroom?!” and to prove that he was, he waves his phone around the room so they can SEE the long line of urinals, and the men standing at them^!! (It’s rare that you make eye contact with another man at a urinal, but there were several of us looking around at each other with little bemused head-shakes at the guy and his videochat!) *sigh* People are amazing. It would’ve been the perfect time for a *facepalm* but, y’know… that would’ve been unsanitary.

-This week has been a lot of fun: my brother-in-law Bill is back for a visit from Taiwan with his wife, Joy, and their 3 kids. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve seen them, the kids are super sweet, and we’ve had a wonderful time visiting and hanging out! Also, it’s been a lot of fun comparing all the cultural differences, and the similarities, and just enjoying the reminder of how much people all over the planet have in common. Coming up this week – a Tigers baseball game with the whole family!
https://twitter.com/TonyCaselli/status/348568654104887296

^Footnote: After he left, the guy who had been on the other side of him said, to no one in particular, “I FEEL VIOLATED!” which, of course, got a nice laugh from everyone else there.

Happy Wednesday, everybody! Be safe out there!

Friday Pic Post

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Tony Caselli

Opening 10:53 tonight, and started rehearsals for Ernie this week – it’s been a terrific week to have my job! Plus we’ve had some terrific Quality Family Time, with track meets and orchestra concerts and show choir performances!

To celebrate this good week, here are some random photos from life!

Maggie rocked it in her “Company C” performance. She’s the one in the red top, in the first two pics. In the 3rd pic she’s on top left, playing the bass!