Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wednesday, April 22nd

I'm damned sore from extra tap rehearsals preparing for the annual extravaganza on Saturday night. The joints are very definitely hitting middle age and letting me know when I spend hours bouncing up and down on them. The show should be a good one - where else will you see 8 gay men of a certain age doing 'The Aggie Song' from Best Little Whorehouse in Texas?

The University remains in melt down over budget issues and continues to drive me slightly bonkers. Things should start to come to rest and sort themselves out over the next few weeks and I should have a pretty good idea what next year will look like by the fourth of July. It's not likely to be a pleasant time for a while as we all make do with less and less resources.

On the road again for work starting next week...
Leaving Birmingham on the 29th for Chicago and will be in Chicagoland through the 4th. Then heading to Pikeville Kentucky for three or four days to help open the new Kentucky site of the mineworkers program I've been involved in for years and years. Back home on the 9th of May. Tommy is planning on coming with, assuming his back has recovered enough from disc surgery.

July and a week on Maui can't get here soon enough.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Friday, April 10th

Happy Good Friday all. Although I'm not so sure what should be happy about a day commemmorating a death by torture. But then, I've always been a little ambivalent on the whole Passion story unless it's looked at in the context of the king who dies to live again folkloric theme that's been around for about 10,000 years.

The University continues to provide its own peculiar brand of torture to its employees at the moment as the financial storms of the current day rampage through its power structure. The current response to geriatrics is for the powers that be to try and run and reorganize things by committee and its working about as well as one might expect. This too shall pass and I, in the meantime, will try to keep my head down, do my job and protect those in my care.

The 'Generations' benefit was a big success. Full house, good program, lots of good publicity for both the Seasoned Performers and the Center for Aging so it's likely to become an annual staple as a fundraiser. I'm going to try and construct a 'how to' manual for production this summer so that it can be turned over to others to make it happen next year. I have enough on my plate.

Out of the blue, my parents have decided to gather the entire clan for ten days on Maui in July. They're paying for it. That solves the summer vacation issue. Tommy and I are so there. I haven't been to Hawaii for nearly a decade and I love that island. I can smell it already.

Theater life is set through the fall. I've been cast in Dryden's 'Marriage a la Mode' to perform late June and 'The Taming of the Shrew' to perform in late August so that should keep me busy, learning period language lines, if nothing else. I auditioned for Charlemagne in 'Pippin' last week as well but haven't heard anything. I'm not expecting it - I'm not the mover/dancer they're likely to want.