Love Song at ArtsWest

Saturday, February 13 With John, ran into a couple of friends.

The show features four people I know well: Nick DeSantis, Heather Hawkins, Cindy Bradder, and Christopher Zinovitch, directed by Kate Witt, whom I also know and have worked with before.

Fun show - all the performances were quite good, even if they were all playing a somewhat stylized version of themselves. I found myself laughing, cringing, and even felt lifted at the end - hell's yeah!

I would definitely recommend the show.

of Butlers and Love Songs

I realize I didn't follow up on The Butler Did It" last week. I was SO happy with the way it held up after a week - the show was tight and the audience reaction was so much fun. I love sitting in the audience when no one knows who I am and watching them watch the show - art vs soup. Though truly for me both are art. Seeing the folks on stage commit to the characters, their words, is exhilarating; watching the audience react to things I had no idea they would is a fun trip. Looking forward to seeing the show again tonight.

Tomorrow I see the first show of the year that I'm not involved in, Love Song at ArtsWest. I've been looking forward to the show since it was announced, being that I know the entire cast and director.

There are so many shows I would like to see, but stage managing The Cherry Orchard limits those opportunities to shows that play on days other than weekends. Two shows that I will unfortunately miss are The Seven Year Itch at Redwood Theatre and She Loves Me at Second Story Repertory. The schedules just don't allow.

I'm also a little restless that after The Cherry Orchard I have no plans until next December. Hm ...

The Butler Did It - Valley Community Players

Ok, so my first show to see is my own show. What can I say - the months of January and so far February have been so busy directing Butler and preparing to stage manage The Cherry Orchard, now in rehearsals.

Directing Butler was one of the most fulfilling experiences so far when it comes to theater and/or dance. The process was smooth, the cast incredibly talented and willing to "play" with me, the script a little challenging, but a challenge I was willing to step up to, supported by a great crew over at Valley Community Players, and got to work closely with my mentor and teacher. I can only hope all my future projects will run this smoothly.

Opening night was fantastic. We were so ready for an audience at that point - we had been running the show for a week by then and really needed the audience input. Everyone was "on" and the audience laughed, my mentor was there and was quite impressed.

I missed the last two performances, so tonight's show should be quite interesting - to see how the show has evolved. I'll keep you posted.

Why this? Why now?

I love theater. It's my church. A good theatrical experience will move me to tears—just listening to the opening chords of "I Hope I Get It" gets me started. I see a lot of shows, always looking for the good parts 0f what I saw in the context of where I saw it: high school/teen productions have so much heart, community theater shows the amazing work of folks that usually have day jobs and many other obligations, and regional/professional theater is just that: professional. I have seen some amazing community theater productions that I have enjoyed as much as a Broadway show, and just as many "professional" productions that were so amateurish I wish I could get my money back.

My intent is not to review shows. I am not knowledgeable enough to do that. I simply love theater, I love going and I love being involved in it. This is for me to keep track of what I see, what shows I'm involved in, and to share that with you.

I recently saw a post on the TPS boards (Theatre Puget Sound) where someone had seen one show per week. I tried to recall every show I'd seen, and came up with 34, not counting the four I was involved in. Living in Seattle we are blessed with so much theater - excellent, good, bad, and horrible. Seeing a show per week should not be that difficult, starting on my birthday. The question is what to see? What better way to keep track of it than on a blog. In addition to what I see, I will post my thoughts of productions I'm involved in.

So that's that. I look forward to posting something at least once a week.