A collective sigh of relief...

The show opened, the audience laughed and everyone enjoyed themselves. In fact, I received several compliments including "This was my favorite show of the year," and "I plan on coming to see it again."

But perhaps the best compliment I received was from one of the parents of one of the cast members (who is also a designer for the show) who told me that from her perspective this was the least stressful and most enjoyable one that he has been involved in during his college career... I figure if the parents notice that the students are having a good positive experience then I must be doing something right! I know that not all shows are going to be this good (I won't always like my cast, they won't always work as hard, or be as talented, tech won't come together, etc)... but for now I'm going to enjoy the perfection...

I know this blog has been incredibly one sided (and therefore probably pretty boring) for several weeks now... mainly because my life has been pretty one sided and therefore not terribly exciting. But we have been doing a few things around here besides working on the play and I promise to post about them (and probably add some pictures too) very soon.

Opening Night!

This is it... we open tonight. All I have left to do is right cards to the crew and buy a couple of thank you presents for designers and such and I'm ready. This process has really been much less painful than I thought it would be (except for all of the things that I'm running into because I'm sleep deprived). The show was still making me laugh right up through last night. Of course I'm nervous because I want the audience to appreciate all of the work that my students have done as much as I do. But I know it's funny. And I know it's well acted. And I know it's well crewed and well called. What more can I ask for? Oh yeah... that it be sold out every night. Well, got have something to keep working on!

A day of rest...

For the few who may not know, yesterday was my 30th birthday... and it was a good day. I spent most of the day at school, between class, office hours, costume shop hours and then rehearsal. But my cast has once again proven that it is the best cast ever... I did not receive just one cake, but two and they tried really hard to keep it a surprise. At the end of the second act, one of the characters brings on a birthday cake for his son's birthday party. Instead, they brought on a real cake with candles and sang happy birthday to me (instead of to his son). It was very sweet and a good reminder that I love where I am (though I am certainly going to miss a lot of these students when they graduate in three weeks)!

Today is my only day off this week (since we have Q2Q and then first tech tomorrow). And Reid has been very sweet in letting me do whatever I want. So, I got my hair cut, my eyebrows waxed and bought 12 bags of top soil for our garden (I know... I live large!). I also transplanted some more of our seedlings into big plant containers (since we woke up to four or so inches of snow yesterday it'll still be a couple of weeks until these guys move outside... and if you're wondering the snow is all gone now). I'm going to spend a little while putzing around on the computer and then Reid and I are going out to dinner... all in all a perfect day off!

Magic Monday...

After a good run through, and good comments from my colleague who watched the show, I'm feeling good about our prospect of opening in a week and four days! Of course, the head of my department comes to watch the show tomorrow... and he is a harsher critic, I think... so we'll see how tomorrow goes! But today... today is good.

Easter

Easter, for me, is a time of reflection. I have spent a fair amount of time (and continue to do so) thinking about what I believe in. This morning I read the entire chapter of Matthew from my trusty study Bible. And though I can't say that I believe in the literalness of all that is written there, I can't help (as I doubt few could) feel a sense of purpose and peace when I read the story of Jesus, his disciples, his teachings, his death and, of course, his reserruction. So, though I might say very little about religion or spirituality on this blog, it is on my mind...



I think of all of Matthew, this is my favorite today:

"Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." -6:6.

Though sharing your faith is a fine thing to do, real faith is a quiet thing that is between you and only one other.



Whether you celebrate Easter or not, I hope that in this chaotic world of worries and fears you find a moment today (and every day) to be at peace.

Hooray!

Though not many of you are in Colorado or care about the budget cuts that were suggested by the Joint Budget Committee... but it looks like the tide is turning (at least in a tiny part due to my insistence that all of my students call their representatives in government)... They are finding money in all sorts of different places... it's still only a temporary solution, but at least it shows that the Colorado government does care about higher ed (or at least they want their constituents to think they do)!

Theatre...

I know most of my readers aren't theatre people, but a few of you are... and for those of you who are, ever had a rehearsal where you find yourself repeatedly saying under your breath "WTF?" (okay, so I wasn't saying the letters but my parents read this blog... and are the most frequent commenters so I didn't think it appropriate to spell it out)... yeah, tonight was one of those nights. Good thing we have two weeks until opening!

Is education really not important?

Here's what I'm worried about today... If you live in Colorado, please call your representative, senator and the governor's office and tell them what a horrible mistake it would be to cut $300 million from higher education (or the equivalence of 60% of Adams funding)... if you don't live in Colorado, please pray for those of us who do!

The idea that the state legislature is playing chicken with Pinnacol Assurance for the funding of the institutions that I and all of the other higher education employees in the state of Colorado work for is beyond frightening. And to know that I live in a state that cares so little for higher education that its government would even think of cutting our funding this drastically saddens me greatly. The truth is even if they get the money from Pinnacol, the cut will be permanent and the money from Pinnacol will not be, which means that in another year or two years or three years we'll be facing the same cut. Let's hope someone in Denver (or a whole bunch of someones) wises up.

Winston...

Is back to his normal jumping, running, playing self... complete with two trips out during the night that included mommy chasing him around telling him to stop eating stuff off the ground... and then daddy doing the same twenty minutes later. Ahh, the joys of "parenthood."

Leave it to my mom...

To point out that it was actually a month, a week and a few days between stomach bugs. I still think that's a little close together for me. At first I also thought that it was something I ate... but then I took my temperature and it was over 100... to me that says virus. But besides a residual headache I'm doing much better today. My husband has been great this weekend... he drove to the store and bought me Pedialite (which I love when I'm sick and which he openly says is disgusting... but he bought it anyway), he's fed me whatever little thing I think sounds good and he even slept on the sofa last night so that I could have the whole bed to myself (though I think that was as much to keep him from getting sick as it was for my benefit...).

In other news Winston got into something last night while we were out at the student one-acts (yes, I felt like crap and still went to the one acts because it was the last night, I had not seen them, and I'm just that committed of a teacher). He has a really swollen belly today and has been drinking water like crazy (actually he was drinking it all night last night too... hence the "aloneness" of the bed was just an illusion as the two dogs conspired to get me up at least four times). We're hoping that it is just indigestion (we found a bag of dog food that he had ripped into the corner of underneath the baby gate) and that it goes away quickly... I feel so sorry for him!

Two stomach bugs in a month??

Woke up last night at 1:30... back to sleep at 3 after puking. Back up at 5 and again at 7:30 for more puking... This is SO unfair. The only thing I have to be thankful for is that it's the weekend.

Seedlings! And boy does time fly...

I couldn't believe it but yesterday morning I went upstairs to the room where we have sequestered the seedlings, so that they aren't molested by our pets, and found that some of them had already started sprouting!! Only four days from the time they were planted, the marigolds, basil, chives and onions are already peaking out from the soil (sorry, no pictures yet). Some of the others (namely the pumpkins, the peppers and the other herbs) aren't there yet... but that's okay because the packets all said that we would see the beginnings of plants in 7-10 days... which means that we are raising some precocious seeds!

In other news, days are speeding past like bullets! My days are not usually as structured (or long) as they have been the last two weeks, which means that before I know it, it will be the weekend (and we'll be one week closer to opening). Anyone who is in the Alamosa area (Lucy, that may just be you) and who isn't offended by a little bit of adult language, please come to Bright Ideas! We are having a great time rehearsing and I have no doubt that the audience is going to enjoy our hard work!