When I looked at my calendar in December and predicted “Man, April and May are going to be a nightmare!”, well… it turns out my predictive powers are dead-on accurate! That’s a good thing, right?! #HappyToBeworking #CoffeeIsMyFriend
The phones are ringing off the hook for the last two weeks of The Usual at Williamston Theatre!
Rehearsals for Ernie are going well!
The Detroit Tigers are 4-1 so far this season. I like it!
This video definitely counts as a good thing. Reminds me of my son!
Buffy fans…
Hilarious.
Yesterday, my poor wife had “one of those days.” You know, the ones we all have once in a while, where things don’t go well, random people are jerks, and you just want to either crawl under a rock or punch something, or both? Well, the kids found out, and before she got home they set up a big relaxing pile of pillows and blankets in front of the tv, with the newest episode of her favorite show on Netflix, the room lit with just candles, some chocolate and a glass of wine ready for her!
And of course the pic is dark because it’s just candles, but doesn’t she look relaxed? 🙂 My kids are awesome.
Speaking of kids, my daughter was feeling crafty, and made me a case for my iPad out of felt, colored duct tape, and some magnets!
What a kid. 
This pic is here because it’s amazing…click to embiggen and get the full effect!
April 1, 2012. Mount Etna spews volcanic ash during an eruption on the southern Italian island of Sicily. (From Time Magazine)
Lastly, this came from my brother. He knows me well.
Random pics from a Dad, director, baseball fan, celebrating some good things on this beautiful Sunday!
Today, we had a great Easter! The kids had a great time hunting baskets and eggs this morning, the Easter Bunny did a nice job hiding things this year!
Speaking of Easter – Maggie and I spent Easter afternoon at the ballpark! 🙂
And… speaking of baseball…
I’m happy to be in rehearsals for the remount of Ernie at the City Theatre in Detroit.
This weekend, we had a great time visiting our friends Crystal and Steve, and I had to take a picture of these desserts that we made. Crystal did all the prep, making the mousse and homemade whipped cream and slicing the fruit, but Steve and I were given the task of putting them together – and this is what they looked like! Chocolate coffee mousse, lots of fresh fruit, shaved chocolate… oh man, now I want another one. Or 7.
Lastly… I worked with a great stage manager, Sam, this weekend on a project in NYC, and she came in with this shirt that made us all laugh, and I had to share it. (Warning – yes, this is a little risque. Skip it if that’s not your thing, but this type of humor is exactly my thing… and I suppose if you’re a regular reader of this journal, you already know that!)
Have a great week, folks, and whatever you’re doing this week, have fun doing it.
It’s time to share some more photos in this Commonplace Journal! Wednesday Pic Post, here we come! (Well, it’s after midnight, so it’s technically “Thursday Pic Post”, but who wants to be technical after midnight?)
We open “The Usual” on Friday. Previews have gone well, the rehearsals this week have been a fun process of polishing, trimming, and a little adding (like a newly minted dream sequence). We also made some small adjustments to the set, and some prop tweaks. Here’s an example of the kind of props we were playing with:
(This sticker and more like it can be found here!)
Why would we be using that? Come see the show and find out! If you come see the show, you may see this:
Until then, think about this…
If you’d like something else to think about, spend some time trying to figure out why THIS exists:
(Okay, truthfully – I really want to try it, just because I’m impressed that someone actually said “You know what my bologna needs? Mac and Cheese” convincingly enough for Koegel’s to say “Hey… Yeah, that IS what your bologna needs!”)
Instead of buying Mac and Cheese Loaf for my family last week, though, I set up a crockpot of yummy goodness to cook while they were all at school and work, so when they got home they found this sign:
(Since I’ve been making these crockpot meals more often, I have a feeling that “Songs From Inside A Crockpot” could become a recurring literary & musical theme in our house…)
And another Wednesday has come and gone. Now… sleep!
Today –
A great, productive rehearsal with an incredibly fun, professional cast and crew that make coming to to work a joy.
Over lunch, listening to the first Detroit Tigers Spring Training game of the season.
Tonight, seeing my kids Fiddle Club concert, followed by family time for the rest of the evening.
Perfect. Thanks, Universe, I couldn’t have scripted it better!
First, since it’s Ash Wednesday, I’ll start with a couple of fun things relating to that:
This made me laugh. (In a related note, THIS IS HERE ALSO.)
I made this on the fun iPad app Skitch, because, well, it also made me laugh!
Last night was first rehearsal for The Usual, at Williamston Theatre. This isn’t a great pic, but I forgot to take more! You can see, in the theatre seats, a couple of our Production Assistants (who will also appear as chorus in this show) – Carolyne and Brandon. Also Dana Brazil the choreographer, Alex our apprentice, and Chris Purchis (WT Managing Director.) Onstage left to right are Stef Din (Stage Manager) and the cast: Joe Zettelmaier, Emily Sutton-Smith and Leslie Hull.
I mentioned a while back that Max was building a trebuchet for Science Olympiad. His regional meet has come and gone, and today we did some modifications to the trebuchet, and he’ll start charting the distances and weights again! Here we are in the school gym experimenting this evening before dinner!
And, because it’s fun, here’s a video of the first test fire where, thanks to the improvements we made, it works even better than we predicted!
Darn, now that I’ve listened to the video, it’s hard to hear Max explain it. He says “Okay, this is a 2 kilogram counterweight and a 38 gram projectile on an awesomely modified trebuchet! 3-2-1 Launch!”
And another Wednesday has passed!
Good things on a Saturday!
My daughter turns 14 today. How is this possible?!
Dead Man’s Shoes at the Williamston Theatre continues to get rave reviews!
“The world-premiere production, a joint offering by Williamston Theatre and Performance Network Theatre with direction by David Wolber, marries component skill and tight cohesion into a masterpiece of workmanship with entertainment value to match.”
Sci-Fi fans, if you’re not watching Fringe, you’re missing out on a great show! I just watched last night’s episode, and the show just gets better every week!
I never got my motorcycle license…maybe I should.
The Detroit Tigers first Spring Training game is only two weeks away!
Last week I posted the preliminary sketch of the set for THE USUAL, which we’ll start rehearsals for next week. Here’s the White Model of the set. This process is another step in refining what we want the thing to be. Later come the final versions, groundplans, paint elevations, etc…
I posted this on Facebook, after seeing it shared by several folks, but I’m still laughing at it, so here it is! 
Maggie said “Dad, in health class we learned that, for men, two glasses of wine every couple of nights can be healthy for your heart!”
Now I just have to find the two biggest glasses in the house…
So, Sci-fi fans, THIS is coming:
Doing research for The Usual, I came across these, which I love. Don’t know who made them, but for anyone who played early video games, they’re fun! Anyone up for a little Legend of Zelda in the real world? 
Or (for you early arcade fans), Duck Hunt?!
And another Wednesday comes to a close!
A big mix of pics today!
It’s fun to look at what the bookshelf of an 11-year old boy contains. Old roller skate, tiny metal robot, picture of himself as a baby, microscope, train whistle, Charlie Brown/Detroit Tigers bobblehead, plastic bin containing eyebolts…and a bunch of other fun things.
The Williamston Theatre is in…well, Williamston…which is also known, in slang by the local youth, as Billtown. This graffiti on the back of our theatre is, rather than bothersome, inspiring in a couple of ways… ways that will be revealed later in our season.
Dinner tonight – chorizo/potato/scrambled egg tortillas! SO good. Recipe from the great blog Two Good Eggs
This is for all the sci-fi nerds out there, and it makes me laugh!
Anyone else ever have a Family Movie Night where you rent a DVD, but still go to the movie theatre to get two large buckets of popcorn with butter?
Props from old productions: Decorating Scene Shops since…forever!
I love this shot – Saturday morning in bed with the family! Jeanne’s reading, the kids are playing a game on the iPad… Lots of relaxing and snuggling, the way a weekend morning should be.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence. -Plato
Every cliche about kids is true; they grow up so quickly, you blink and they’re gone, and you have to spend the time with them now. But that’s a joy. -Liam Neeson
Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise. -Allan Bloom
Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. -H. Jackson Brown
(“Sometimes, it’s hard to know what to do in life”, I said.)
Yeah…but that’s what I have you for. -Maggie Caselli
Tony Caselli 