Monday, monday...

It's a busy day for me.

My sister's birthday is today so I have to go get her a token of my lpve and devotion. I am going to run out to the Michael's and get a gift certificate so she can get a poster and a certificate from her time in Teach for America framed. I think she will like that. She's thinking about how she will decorate her new house so things like that are important to her.

Leftbrain (tm) is out sick today, so I wont be harrassed at the j-o-b today.

I am still playing catch up, but I think I can get a handle on it this week, if I don't get distracted.

Tonight, we move into the dressing room at Toby's Sound of Music is officially in tech.

I am overdue on my writing class assignment - I think I can get it in tonight if I can write at Toby's. I will be glad that I only have one actual book class next semester. (I will be doing module classes for a week and I will have a directing internship) If I didnt have the day job I think it would be better ( in so many ways). It's been kind of tough getting all my assignments in on time this semester.

On top of all this I am still battling this "cootie". It's screwing with my voice and I really dislike that. I hope that it will go away before opening night.

Okay, that's about it... I better get down to it.

The Tooth Fairy, Y'all.

14 hours of sleep, a cup of tea, some slippers and laundry

That's what today is all about. My throat is not feeling better. But I have paid off all of my ebay purchases ( Barbies are my weakness... I just won a Donny and Marie set, a Dooney and Burke, a Powerpuff Girls and a gorgeous Avon Special Edition. I'm stopping, I swear - I had a bad week and needed a boost). I am working on some assignments for school, between naps and relaxing.

It's going to be a busy week, Sound of Music opens Thursday and there is still a LOT to do at work in order for me to get comfortably caught up.

But today...ahhhhhhh.....weekend.

Long day.

I had a pretty long day today.

We had our final rehearsal for Sound of Music before tech. It was an all day thing with a half hour for lunch. Pretty exhausting, but I think that the show is almost ready.

Then Chaneylah (tm) and I went to get her a vehicle. Car shopping is pretty tiring and then add to it that we went to Ghettomotors (tm) to obtain the Chaneylahmobile (tm) and lets just say... it was the longest evening I've had in a long time. It started with a used car salesman jumping on us the second we got out of the car - hate that. Then Miss C had to haggle for financing - which I think is so stressful and a little soul sucking. Once that was done, they got her " into a car" but it had to be driven to the dealership from another location. An hour after that, we found out that they had forgotten about bringing the car over so we had to wait for even longer. Meanwhile, in the dealership the cast of characters that passed through was just astounding. It was "Ghetto fabulous" - down to the point where the dealership was clearing out and the sales people pumped up the Jay-Z music and started looking at porn sites on the company computers. I am not kidding. Five hours later though, Miss C rode off the lot in a really cute bright blue buggy.

I am sitting in the big chair now. Hoping that this throat thing I am feeling is not going to get any worse before SOM opens. I'm off to bed.

Tonight.

I'm posting this blog entry from the office of Toby's dinner theatre. It's a long story, but bascially I am doing my homework here tonight so I can give a friend a lift. Good deed for the day if you will.

But I have to say it's not a bad experience. There are lots of people in the company of this show that were a part of my terrific Little Shop experience. So, I'm getting lots of hugs and waves and stuff. Maybe I needed this today.

It's been a long week and I was feeling out of sorts. I keep forgetting what it feels like to be whole - to be home. To be loved. It's what I feel when , well, I am in my home ,at the Mount and here at Toby's. They've embedded some kind of homing device in me. I always come back.

Home Sweet Home.

Seal.

There's a guy in my office... Let's call him Seal... Seal got a big promotion.... Genevieve did not. Genevieve thought up a way to deal with distributing the 10$ tickets the theatre said it would sell this season... Seal did not... Genevieve's idea, "20/10" launched this week and was a success... Seal has been taking credit for it all week... I would like to club this Seal. I would like to make a Sealskin coat of this Seal.

I would like to know why I am getting jacked at the this joint AGAIN.

I got so upset after hearing him make it sound like it was his idea in a conversation to the Artistic Director, I had an asthma attack. Now my chest hurts and my heart hurts.

Weeble Wednesday

On Wednesday afternoons, I get the pleasure of leaving the world of Ye Olde and enter the world of elementary school. ( One of my co-workers has dubed all little kids "weebles" and the name has stuck.) I am co-teaching an after school group. It's about 30 kids in grades K - 5th grade. They are all fascinating! They are full of energy and for the most part totally open to playing and acting. The only reticence I sense is from the older kids ( the 4th and 5th graders). It's interesting to see at what point in a child's development the peer pressure kicks in. Fortunately, by the time we really get into what we're doing that day, they forget how cool they are supposed to be and act as silly as every one else.

I was terribly scared to work with this young population. I thought for sure that they wouldn't respond well to me and I would be struggling to maintain. But I was pleasantly suprised by their wholehearted acceptance of me. I am able to teach and play with them and they respond...with no agenda, no prejudice. It's totally the kind of experience I need right now and I am ready for more of the same.

Weebles ROCK!

Sucess at Ye Olde

Last night, a program I proposed was launched. The event was incredibly successful. It was one of the largest audience turn outs for a preview performance here - no mean feat as this was the new space which is twice a large as the old one. almost 700 people under the age of 35 came to see a show and listen to a friend of mine spin in the lobby. It was FAB.





The best part about it was that I made sure it was made known that this was MY project. I didnt want someone taking credit for my work AGAIN. I have been encouraged to send a report to everyone regarding the program. I will do that today as well as do follow up work with the new audience. Even though I have mixed feelings about my job - I have very strong feelings about the theatre itself.





Best moment of the night? When the Artistic Director of Ye Olde came over and gave me a big hug and kiss and said " Good job, honey, this is amazing!". ::sigh::

And for a little added fun...here I am at the event. ( Thanks to Miss Carol for the photo!)

Um...

Crazyman (tm) gave notice. He'll be gone by March...will I?

Sister Margretta takes shape

I am working on The Sound of Music at Toby's. I have been cast as "Sister Margaretta" the "nice" nun. She is the Mistress of the Postulants, which means she is the nun who is charge of the women who are contemplating a life in the clergy. She guides them through the process of discernment, where they spend time in and out of the abbey trying to find out if the cloistered life is truly what God wants for them.

Why do I know so much about this? I was in pre-postulant discernment with the Daughters of Charity in 1989 - 1990. I was in serious contemplation of a life as a nun. I had a "Sister Margaretta" in my life. Sister Mary Robert was her name. She was a lovely woman, about 35 or so, she liked a lot of the same things I did - art, music and theatre. She guided me thru the process and prayed with and for me. I invited her to come see me in a play I was doing at school. It was Agnes of God - dont laugh, yes I invited a nun to see that play.

After the show, she and I went to dinner and she told me that she had been thinking it for a while, but after seeing the show she was convinced. My calling was not as a nun. She spoke a life of theatre into my life that day. I was crushed and thought I was somehow unworthy to serve God. Now I know, Sr. Robert blessed me by sending me on... on to do the things I was meant to do.

As I look to embody "Sister Margaretta" I definately take a little Sr. Robert with me. Wisdom, gentleness, laughter and faith. You can't beat that.

I'll give you more info on what the process is like later... that was just what was on my mind today.

Bat Boy: The process begins...

I just spent the afternoon with Dr. Mentor at the college, hammering out some details about the upcoming production of Bat Boy:The Musical that I am directing for them. I am really excited to be back on the director/teacher side of things.

I asked him to give me some assesments of the students we had on hand and what kind of talent we were looking at. I think we'll be okay. The show only requires three really strong leads and the rest of the cast just has to be willing to go out on limb for comedy. It should be an interesting experience to see these young actors tackle a script they arent familiar with and really have to "work" through it.

I love being up in the mountains...it's so peaceful there. The air is different and I feel really enegerized after being there for a while.

There is a lot of work to do. Right now, I have to secure two choreographers and an accompianist...get some set design ideas to the TD, come up with a costume scheme ( so that a student can shop it), find someone with a score so we can come up with musical sides for the audition and well, think about the over all concept for the show.

I'll keep you posted on how it's going.