It’s First Preview this evening, but before that I’m at a couple other important shows!

At 4pm, I got to see the dress rehearsal of my daughter’s performance. Along with a whole passle of other 4th graders she’s singing and dancing to “Rock Around The Clock” in the High School performance of “Shake, Rattle and Roll.” (Did I just use the word passle?!) It’s a nice opportunity for some younger students to have fun and get onstage experience with some older performers. I have a preview performance at Williamston that I have to attend this weekend, and I’ll miss her actual show. So instead I got to watch her final dress rehearsal, and loved it!

And NOW – at 5:45, I am in the cafeteria/performance space at my son’s school waiting for HIS 2nd Grade Concert performance to start! (He’s got a solo – a whole sung verse about life as a meteor in space!?) 🙂

As soon as the curtain falls on this, I will be jumping in my car and returning to Williamston (where I spent all morning and afternoon with the rest of the staff prepping the building for tonight’s first preview.) Can’t wait to see the show with an audience! I love the preview process!

Very exciting day all around – and I will be sleeping soundly tonight, I think!

“We’re becoming the culture of the meaningless.”
– Marianne Williamson

This quote is a painful reminder, but a good one because it’s true, of how much time is spent on absolutely unimportant things.

I have to start thinking about more of my days with this quote in mind.

Some days you just get the best of both worlds.

On Wednesday we had a great rehearsal at the theatre. Suzi Regan and Annie Martin are leading a wonderful team of women in the creation of our new play. They’re doing wonderful work, and the energy around the building is terrific.
There’s just something really special in putting together a team of good folks to create a piece completely from scratch. So… A good day at work.

Then in the evening we went to my 7 year old’s soccer practice. One of the most beautiful evenings of the year – 70 degrees, a nice breeze. While Max ran around the field with his team, Maggie spent the hour flying her kite, and Jeanne and I (with Sneakers on the leash) went back and forth cheering for the kite-flyer and the soccer team.

Following this lovely evening, we of course went for ice-cream!

Then today was amazingly similar! A wonderful day at the theatre, followed by going to Maggie’s school to see the 4th Grade Musical, “The Cat & The Rat”. It was wonderfully sweet, and Maggie made a great rat! 🙂 AND, of course, I insisted that we once again celebrate with ice cream!! (I think Jeanne may be right about why I can’t seem to lose weight!)

So – Tony’s advice for the night: Have a productive day, then relax by doing something fun with someone you love… Then eat ice cream!

As I announced a while ago, we extended HATE MAIL at Williamston Theatre. It was the first time we’d been able to do that, and as happy as we were about it, it was a little worrisome as well.

Like most of the things we do with our young company, the extension was an experiment…and a risky one. Well, I’m pleased to announce that our experiment was officially a success! We sold more than enough tickets for the extension to pay for itself – in doing so, we added two more weeks of work for a handful of artists, 2 extra weeks of mission-statement-fulfilling performances, and 2 more weeks of folks coming into the building and enjoying being here!

It wasn’t a runaway success, mind you. It took until the matinee show Saturday to be able to say that we’d hit our mark, so it was show 8 of 10 before we’d done it. Still, that leaves us with two performances above and beyond. As much as I want to sell out every seat every night, I’ll take what we got as a nice result for our first time down this particular path!

Friday morning I taught a “Senior Seminar” class at Michigan State University. Had a great time chatting with a bunch of soon-to-graduate theatre students.

Following that, I had our final Understudy rehearsal for HATE MAIL, which went wonderfully!

Then went to see a terrific production of DOUBT at Performance Network Theatre. Man, you just can’t beat a good script teamed with good acting and good directing – plus some fabulous designs – beautiful. Afterwards I went to bar with some friends from the show and had a great time catching up over beer as we watched the Tigers double their season win total to a whopping 2!

Will someone please tell the Detroit Tigers that Spring Training is over and it’s time to start hitting the ball? This 0-5 start sucks… and they’re down 9 to 2 in the 7th inning.

It’s only the first few games, but geez, what a disappointing start!

Although it seems like it’s just started, our 9 day family vacation is coming to a close. In a few minutes we’ll be unpacking, doing laundry and picking up the puppy from where she’s been staying with friends.
We’ve had a wonderful trip to Disneyworld, and several days visiting my parents at their winter home in Florida.

Jeanne’s been to Disneyworld, but it’s the first time for the kids and I, and what a great time we had!!

Too sleepy and busy to post much this second, but updates will come soon!

My 4 year old nephew, as his grandfather surprises him with a trip to the movie theatre:

“Poppa!! Are we going to see Hooter Hears A Whore?!?!”

Bwahahaha! Kids are awesome!

Quote of the day:
Heard in passing from a woman at a flea-market…for it to have the right effect, though, when you say it in your head you have to be as angry and biting as you’ve ever been:
“Geez-oh-mercy! What am I gonna do with a duck key-chain that cost me FIFTY-CENTS?!?!”
Bwahahahahaha!!

Baseball! The Major League season kicks off full force today and tomorrow. Let’s hope the Tigers lose their pitching and bullpen woes!

Spending some quality family time over this Spring Break. Yay! A lot of driving around, though – I’m done being in the car for a while!

Today we’re hanging out with some old friends and their kids – gonna be great to catch up!