I'm not dead...yet

It's been one of those weeks. One of those long, long weeks, with too many hours spent staring at either a computer monitor in my office or a computer monitor in a darkened theatre. I finished tech for Oliver! this week, and damned if I'm not very glad it will be a while before I do another big musical.

Like a looooong time.

See, the facility that I was doing Oliver! in is a community theatre celebrating their 80th anniversary season this year. In pretty much the same building. So it's an old space, with rickety ladders, a ceiling that's too short for the shows they do, and not nearly enough dimmers for the work I'm trying to do. And a brand new Technical Director on his first show.

It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I got along really well with the director, who I've known for years, but never worked with until this show. I managed some very nice effects, and some of the songs, particularly "As Long as He Needs Me" and "It's a Fine Life" look really good, in my never-really humble opinion. But that meant that I had to cancel a week of Killing Time rehearsals to go design this show, because Theatre Charlotte hired me first, so the second gig to come along has to stand in line behind the folks that booked me first. And last night we got the final rewrite of the script for Killing Time, with some things better, some things not as good. So that made last night's return to table work interesting, especially since we now only have four weeks to work until we open.

And one of the scenes that we worked very hard on blocking last week was cut entirely, losing me a couple of pratfalls and one good sex joke. Not really a big deal, but I liked that scene.

So I've been getting home late, writing for PokerNews before bed, writing for PokerWorks when I get to work, and trying not to fall asleep at my desk more than once a day. And I've yet to put my new bike through its paces, and have largely eaten like shit for a week. So I'm lucky that all I've done is maintain my weight and not put back on a pile. But I'm holding pretty steady at around 225, so now that life has returned to relative normalcy, I should be able to get back on my exercise routine and stabilize my diet again.

Starting Monday. Because the weekend is also fucked. I have rehearsal Saturday from 10AM-6PM, then I'm going on a date with my wife for the first time in at least a month. I'm gonna get up early Sunday to go ride, and then I go to Spirit Square to help tech the Metrolina Theatre Awards. This is an annual awards show that I've been involved in since its inception. The Metrolina Theatre Association (MTA) is a service organization for theatre in a 50-mile radius of Charlotte. We started an awards program 4 years ago to celebrate excellence in theatre in our region. I'm really attached to this awards thing since it was kinda my baby. There were 4 or 5 of us that worked our asses off for over a year getting the rules written and procedures outlined before we managed to ever have an awards ceremony, but this is year 4 for the awards, and I've gotta admit, I consider the fact that these awards happen at all to be my biggest accomplishment in theatre in this town.

Of course, like so many things, most folks don't really know that I wrote the 15 different rules revisions and pretty much devised the methodology by which these awards happen (except for the two or three of you who still come by and read this drivel), and I'm okay with that. I didn't work my ass off on the awards for recognition, I did it because it needed to happen for the good of the community. And anyway, like I need any more fuel for my massive ego.

But it's nice to be nominated, and I am. Suzy and I both are, actually. I'm nominated for Best Lighting Design in a Drama for my work on The Crucible, and Suzy is nominated for Best Costume Design - Drama for Amadeus. I think she's got a good shot at winning, and hope she does, because she worked her ever-loving ass off on that show and deserves some recognition. I'd certainly like to collect another trophy, but it's no big deal if it doesn't happen. I was very honored to be nominated for the Bill Rackley Award, which is given for overall excellence in design and technical theatre, and is named after a teacher at UNCC who passed away some years ago, but not before leaving a positive mark on a lot of people, including me. I don't think I have a snowball's chance at that, but it was very nice to be nominated.

So I'll be there at noon calling a focus and setting lighting looks, then I'll be calling the spot cues for the production. Then Monday night I go back into rehearsal. I am having a poker game tonight though, so there might be actual poker content at some point. But those of you who've played with me know that the chances of that are pretty damn slim. And if you've played my home game you know it's even less chance that actual poker will happen tonight, after a two-week hiatus from the Falstaff home game. It could get a little nutso.