I am sitting in my cluttered upstairs office listening to John Ottman's beautifully inventive and fresh score for the new film SUPERMAN RETURNS (Saw it yesterday; I'll have a review soon) and thinking about the months to come and the immense amount of work to be done. I have many projects on the horizon and today represents a brief respite from the whirlwind of activity I have found myself in recently.
My wife Jennifer is puttering around her art studio and cleaning up the clutter we so often accumulate. This afternoon, methinks a trip to Diversity Thrift is in order to drop off some stuff. I also will have to find time to mow the lawn or we won't be able to find our two dogs without a search party.
Teaching SPARCLERS with Christina Brookman has been a real joy. We meet with the children (K-4th Grade) Monday through Friday for 3 hours. There are two groups, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We are teaching the students the basics of slapstick comedy and each group will perform for the parents on friday in a sort of vaudevillian variety show complete with knock-knock jokes, funny faces, song & dance, and comedy sketches as well as pantomimed pieces. It should be a blast to see it finally all come together.
Christina is fantastic with the kids. She really knows how to reach them in an inspiring way and never talks 'down' to them. I have learned a lot from watching her interact with them-- She never tries to 'force' them to do what she wants... Rather, she senses what kind of focus they have on a particular day and tailors the activities accordingly. I am constantly amazed at her ability to sort of 'ride the crest'of their energy, be it manic, passive or moderate.
After this week, we will begin session two-- Another SPARCLERS three-week session of classes for two different groups of kids. However, I will only be able to teach two out of the three weeks, as I will be leaving for Massachussetts on July 21st. Rehearsals for the Gloucester Stage Company production of The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath begin on Monday July 24th. I need to do some serious homework beforehand, as the play opens on August 10th and runs until Aug 27th.
Immediately following the GSC run, I will be returning to Richmond on August 28th to jump into a high-octane rehearsal process for the Firehouse Theatre Project's production of I Am My Own Wife under the direction of Morrie Piersol. 'Wife' opens on September 14th and runs until October 7th.
After 'Wife' closes, the Firehouse stages it's own production of The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath, which I will be delighted to be involved with as well. Running November 2-25th, FTP's 'Bonnard' will be directed by my good friend and fantasy baseball adversary Jack Parish. (btw, he's kicking my butt in our Yahoo! League...)
Then in mid february of 2007 I'll pop back out to Lexington, Kentucky to play the title role in Tartuffe at Actor's Guild of Lexington. The run dates for the play, directed by my baseball brother Rick St. Peter, are March 8th-April 1st, 2007.
In the meantime, you can still catch me onstage with the gang in The Taming of the Shrew at The Richmond Shakespeare Festival at historic Agecroft Hall. We run for another week, closing on July 9th. It has been a blast to work with my good friends Foster Solomon and Susan Sanford again. They simply breathe new and joyous life into Kate and Petruchio, and they are giving a gift to the audience nightly. My only criticism is that more often than not, they won't come out for another bow at curtain call time!! They have really earned it, and in my humble opinion, they're being too modest. So if you come and like what you see, let them know you want an encore....
Well, that's all for now-- I'll post my thoughts on SUPERMAN RETURNS very soon. In the meantime, stay away from those July 4th M-80 firecrackers, people...
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