Thursday, June 22nd
Well, what can I say? Life is returning to normal after the insanity of the last few months. The word of mouth that has come back to me on 'Kiss Me Kate' is that it was one of the better pieces of theater in Birmingham in the last few years. Maybe it will lead to being offered something else to direct at some point. I don't have the energy to think about that for a while. As a matter of fact, when my stint on the Board of Directors of CenterStage ends at the end of the month, I'm likely to drop out of production entirely and just do some performing this next year. I'm tired.
Politically Incorrect Cabaret is bringing back 'Blues in the Night' for a couple of performances next month. Same show as this last winter with some cast changes and a couple of new bits. Still singing Hans Eisler's 'Stempellied' and 'You Can't Get A Man With A Gun' (Ethel Merman fits my range). We do it in Huntsville on the 9th and in Birmingham on the 22nd. Nothing is set after that. I'm thinking of auditioning for a production of 'How To Succeed...' in mid-July to perform September. After that, everything is up in the air.
Work is work. We are way down on doctor time in clinic this summer so it's going to be a royal pain around here as we try to survive until we get some new staff in around Labor Day. I'm way overdue for some vacation or sabbatical time and am going to have a little talk with the powers that be about it with my annual review this next month.
Not much else to report. We're working on getting ready for the remodel of the house, if it's financially feasible. Also thinking about getting some cheap office space for Tommy so he can work on his projects outside the bedroom. Looks like he may be in to University of Montevallo in the fall which will change a lot of what he does.
Monday, June 12th
Today, I finally start to get my life back after 'Kiss Me Kate' and what a strange and crazy ride the last few weeks it has been. On the good side, the show was better than I had hoped - as good as anything I've ever seen on stage at the Virginia Samford Theater and the cast gave me that pure joy of performing that made the show click and land with audiences. The bad news, despite a great show and great word of mouth, no where near as many butts in seats as we needed to pay for the darn thing so I will be running around trying to do some retroactive fund raising. The show deserved SRO but it was not to be (although yesterday's matinee was pretty darn full.) If we'd been able to run another week, we might have been able to do it through word of mouth but there was no way we could afford to rent the theater any longer.
It's been an exciting week. Not only Kate running, but Tommy came back from Europe. He enjoyed the singing and some of the unusual experiences. He could have cared less for not very good bus tours of the French countryside. All in all though, I think he had a good time. He came back in time to see a performance, get together with my parents (who came in to see the show) and then have sinus surgery this morning to try and ablate his congestion problems.
To make life really interesting, the actor playing Baptista detatched his retina during the hiatus between the two weeks of the run so, with about thirty-six hours notice, I stepped into the role for the second half of the run. Never had to completely wing a scripted part in a musical before. The first show was about getting lines in the right place. After that, I was able to think a little bit about performance. I would rather have watched from the house, but it was fun being able to work with a top notch cast, even through somewhat trying circumstances.
Now I have to catch up at work and get going on the next version of 'Politically Incorrect Cabaret' which is going up in a few weeks.
Here's a couple of Kate photos - more available at http://www,photobucket.com album asduxbury subalbum Kiss Me Kate
Tuesday, June 6th
Happy D-Day everyone -
'Kate' opened on Friday and is as good as I hoped it would be. Not a weak link in the cast and full of energy and hijinks. Costumes came in just in time. Set never did get completely finished but nothing that audience is likely to notice. People who have seen it have loved it. Four more performances to go and then my life returns to a semblance of normal. At least until the next project.
Tommy remains in France. He's been enjoying the singing in cathedrals but has had little good to say about the way the tour has been operated with his being herded on and off busses on a strict itineray full of things he is not terribly thrilled about seeing. He's skipped a couple of days to do things he enjoys and that has helped somewhat. He returns home on Thursday.
I hope to have a couple of evenings of next to nothing to do at home before this weekends performances and the arrival of my parents. Maybe catch up on a few chores.
