Finding the time to Play

Learned something over the weekend. Sweet-potato chips from "Cheeseburger in Paradise" do NOT do well in the oven the next day. Which is very sad. Those chips are mighty tasty. At least they were on Friday. Saturday, they were charred beyond recognition. The mini-cheeseburgers fared better—really, I'm a better cook than I am a reheater.

These past couple weeks have been... well, I'm tired of using the word 'busy'. There has to be another word for it. I could say 'very busy', but that's just poor writing. As Mark Twain said: "When you catch an adjective, kill it." So how about... these past couple weeks have been... hectic... fervid... frenzied... no... how about just 'not leisurely'? Yeah... I like that one. Sorry Mark.

Not leisurely. And not in a bad way. It's just been... not leisurely.

Random interjection to my own post—I absolutely love the ending sequence to the film, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (the new one with Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie). Well, the second to last sequence as they rip up the inside of what is essentially a Great Indoors store... the actual last stand moment with the rotating camera sweeps—beautiful. That's the film school geek in me. Every so often there are shots in films that I just have to stop and admire. Feel free to mock. I'm a big boy. I can take it.

Back to my post about the last couple weeks: like I was saying... things have been crazy, but in a good way. You know, the way that when it's happening you want to scream but after it's over you can look back and actually smile about it? Yeah, that way. And most, no, actually ALL of the wonderful insanity has stemmed from theatre.

Three weekends. Three major theatrical events in my life. And nary a post between them.

First up was a trip to a regional theatre "competition" (they like to say "showcase" but when you're vying for a bid to "showcase" at the next level... i.e., advance... I call that competition). I was honored to have the show I directed, DARKSIDE, picked to represent my theater.

Quick explanation: every Fall, fifteen community theaters are invited to showcase an excerpt from their past season at a state-wide festival. To get an invite, you attend one of five regional events geared to showcase your local area theaters. Adjudicators hand out awards and decide who should advance to state. Was that quick?

I won't go into too many details. I will say that I am very proud of my cast and crew. They were awesome and made me look good as a director. We won several awards. Two of my actors were feted individually and the whole cast took home an Outstanding in Ensemble award, which is awesome. The set received accolades (much deserved) and I walked away with an Excellence in Directing (also awesome). It was a good day.

And now we're going to the state competition which takes place on the American Labor Day weekend holiday. Basically, if you like theater and if you're in Ohio (near Cleveland) that weekend, you might want to consider coming to this 4 day festival. Lots of events, workshops, parties, games, fantastic theater (and yes it's community, but in a state where professional theaters tend to tour through, we can hold our own), not to mention a masquerade ball and banquets. Seriously, it's like the Olympics of Ohio Community Theatre.

Speaking of banquets, I sort of co-hosted one. Sort of. My theater had its annual banquet and thanks to the tireless efforts of Keaton, Gigi, Zubov, and myself, and unstoppable determination of Smokey, the whole thing simply rocked (Smokey deserves a parade for all her hard work on this event). But again, I'm not one for going on and on about events, so I'll spare your the play by play. But what I will mention is that it was great to see so many people show up this year and we really appreciated all the support we received from members and local business (who graciously donated our door prizes). The food was delicious (even if Stefacula accidentally piled a lot of poultry onto his plate thinking it was just pasta... he's allergic, which is why it was memorable). And the capper of the evening, an hour long Friar's Club-style Roast of our retiring Artistic Director was, to quote Snowflake, off the hook.

And then this past weekend, we (the theater) opened our latest production, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday. And once again, I was able to work with my good friends on a show that's just amazing on all levels.

If you're anywhere near Curtain Players, please check out this show. If not for the fantastic cast (don't they look awesome in the water?), or the stellar lighting, or the precision directing, than come to listen to awesome sound (yes, that's a shameless self-promotion as I designed the sound for this show!). My first foray in the tech booth and I had an absolute blast with it.

The reason that the not leisurely past few weeks haven't killed me is (and brace yourself for an abundance of schmaltz) because I was doing all of this stuff with my friends. And the whole point of being in theater for me is to hang out, have fun, and be a part of something special.

Too often in life I find myself driven to the breaking point by work and stress and all the stuff that fills up my Google Calendar. And one of the things I've recently learned is that for all the insanity, there's a passion there that needs to flourish. Yeah, I'm busy. But I'm busy doing things that I love to do. Things that fuel my soul. Things that make me smile (even if that smile is fighting through the gritting of teeth). And most of all, I'm "busy" being around the people that make life more interesting and more fulfilling.

I like genius. I like the tenacious. The passionate. The fun loving. The determined. The spirit of those around me when we join together to create. To play.

And now the mad rush of theater has died down and everyone is relaxing, like we're on some vacation. Except me. Except Keaton. Except Sultry Sue. For we have embarked on a new adventure. Filmmaking. No, no, nothing like Sundance or anything. Something more fun. Something spirited. Something with tenacity. And my next blog, maybe, will be all about it.

For now, this post has gone on long enough (been working on it for a while). Time to release it into the wild and see how it flies. Coming soon in the next posts... learning to be a Survivor... Operation Apollo Freedom sees victory... and why Granddad's Hawaiian pizza rules.