Happy Family

Marin Mazzie, Jason Daniely and I.

Second Time

It was a Broadway dream. I saw a show for a second time, and that second time was a completely new experience- a much more impacting, even more beautiful one. It was "Next to Normal." But this time, I wasn't marveling at the electricity radiating from every pore of Alice Ripley's presence. I was feeling.

Thank you, Marin Mazzie. Thank you, Jason Daniely. Thank you to a remarkable cast. Thank you.

Guess what I get to do tomorrow night? Yes, that's right. I'm seeing it again. A third time. Impact me!

Peace

We do it all to keep from unraveling.

We smile. We breathe. We interact.

It's all to keep our ball of yarn from falling apart- speeding across the floor in a line of straightened chaos. It's death by oneself. It's a natural fate.

Instead, we humans do something else. We do everything else.

And we do it all to keep from unraveling.

Remember September

It seems as though September never happened. Well, did it?

I didn't feel like I was so far from home, though- I suppose- I am realizing that now. September was rejuvenating for me, good for me in many ways.

I guess I was, to steal from some famous song in some long-running musical, a tender and callow fellow.

I'll go on trying to remember September and simultaneously looking ahead at October, November, December drawing near.

Last fall, I lived in lyrics penned by Taylor Swift- a dark place for such cheery melodic tunefulness. I have to keep myself from returning to them again.

I can feel it happening. My God.

Oddity

It seems quite odd that my last post was about my unrivaled anticipation for "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown."

Saw it. Bleh.

Happy News

Laura Benanti, Patti LuPone, Sherie Rene Scott, Danny Burstein and Brian Stokes Mitchell- all in one musical. And to top it all off, Bartlett Sher (the genius behind "The Light in the Piazza" and the breathtaking "South Pacific" revival) is directing. "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" is going to be phenomenal. 

Welcome, my friends, to Broadway heaven. 

Only a Few Lines Remembered

I was very lucky to have the chance to play Henry the old Shakespearean actor in a production of "The Fantasticks" this fall. November is fall, right? I got to deliver some really searing lines that really affected me then and have continued to stay with me.

"Remember me- in light."

I'm back in Memphis after what seems like a whirlwind of vacations. A week in Disney World. A few days in Chattanooga. A quick stay in Mobile. Plenty of food, plenty of fun, plenty of hours in the car. 

This is what just so happens to be my final week at work. All of my younger friends will be returning to school in about a week, so I will have a little less than a month somewhat to myself. I suppose I should take that time to get my life together and, well, prepare myself for what's ahead of me. 

I was given this one quote today. To be quite honest, I am still working on figuring it out and making complete sense of it. I need a park to sit in. I need to go there and simply think about these words- apply them, relate them, breathe them.

"Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite."

Edward Albee said it... or wrote it. 

I'll try to lose myself in thought and find the meaning along the way.