Ahoy, mateys! I’ve returned from the land of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. My wife and I were away this past weekend doing some camping and geocaching in NE Missouri. I have to tell you, it is refreshing to have a hobby that is not related to theatre. Generally, for the last 20 years or so, I’ve been very lucky to make my living in the theatrical field, and so what for many is a hobby is for me a job. And that is normally fun. But, as anyone who has a job can tell you, no matter how fun it is, you sometimes need a break. For many years my hobby was Fantasy Football and sports writing. I still play fantasy sports, but I no longer crunch numbers on a daily basis, nor do I track down scouting reports on all the NFL draft hopefuls each year (which is what I would have been doing at this time of year anytime over the last decade). These days my hobby is far more active. I grab my GPS unit and go treasure hunting (sort of). So… now you know what I was up to.
In the meantime, Jackie Davies took over the dice bag and rolled herself a couple of really good reviews that I hope you took the time to peruse. I’m hoping she enjoyed the reviewing gig that she’ll fill in again for me sometime. When it comes down to it, she’s a good writer with good insight. I like that.
I’ve made this week’s die rolls already, but I’m waiting for theatres to get back to me to arrange viewings, so… I can’t yet tell you what I’m seeing this week. With the exception of “Emma” at the Greenhouse Theater Center. The Dead Writers Collective is responsible for that show, and Jane Austen, one assumes, is the dead writer in question. A couple of other shows are likely to be reviewed this week, too. We’ll see.
Now, last week I plugged a couple of things that were occurring, but not on the chart. For various reasons festivals other short-run productions don’t always get a lot of press coverage. And, my own rules exclude them from my reviewing, as well, but I wanted to mention very quickly that tonight (Tuesday) and tomorrow night (Wednesday) there is a festival of plays happening at the Greenhouse Theater Center. It’s the Indie Boots Festival. This year every play in the festival must revolve around the name “Olivia”. Last year’s festival was a lot of fun. I can’t go this year, but if you have time, you should.
Okay, just a tiny bit of randomness today because I’ve got to get ready to go see an opera.
- There is a city called Atlanta in Illinois. It’s along Route 66. Cute little village.
- Two wonderful people who are also my friends celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary this past weekend. Happy Anniversary, Kevin & Kim!
- Today’s trivia comes from Useless Facts: “The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.” – My favorite Hawaiian word is a’a, which is a type of lava. Not much clever to say about that. It’s just true.
- Some day I would like to try para-sailing.
- One of the items in this list was directly lifted from a past entry of “Fringe By Numbers”. It is not the one you are currently reading.
- 94 bottles of beer on the wall…
- I bought a bottle of clear nail polish yesterday. I never knew there were so many options when buying something like that.
- Mac and Me