Whatever black humors that were coursing through my brain last week continue to dissipate and I’m feeling more like my usual self again. I’ve had mood swings of the negative variety for decades and am likely to have them until I’m carted off to Shady Pines. Why do they happen? The best I can come up with is that my usual sources of resilience and regeneration, usually deep wells due to the rather peculiar experiences I’ve had in life, just run dry and I’m just not in a good place until enough positive things line up to get things flowing again. It doesn’t have to be big or momentous things, but rather little ordinary everyday wins such as a kind word or an unexpected correspondence or a song on the radio that I haven’t heard in years which is connected with a happy memory of some sort. Ain’t nobody got time for dat wallowing in self pity for more than a couple of days anyways.
What’s going on? Slowly but surely I am chopping away at the ‘To Do’ list. Most of the work projects are on track for timely completion (other than reviewing the 8500 pages of hospital medical record I just got sent by an attorney’s office) and things theatrical are progressing in the way that they should. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang had its first full run yesterday and the performances are pretty much there. We have one more week to polish things up before we enter tech. And there’s a lot of tech in this show. Most of it doesn’t directly involve me other than one key moment. Anyone familiar with the film should remember the hair cutting scene. In this stage version, I’m the man who gets the disastrous haircut and I really have no idea how that’s supposed to happen on stage in full view of the audience night after night. I trust the tech team and I imagine I’ll be let in on the stage magic when the moment is right.
We had our first production meeting on my next project, The Merry Wives of Windsor, which I am directing for Bell Tower Players this summer. Apparently they liked what I did with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and so I’m back again. Birmingham thespians – This show has a cast of 18 (8 men, 9 women, 1 child) so if you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at the bard, now is your chance. (With an added bonus of performance in an air conditioned space unlike Shakespeare in the Park). Auditions will be Monday and Tuesday June 24th and 25th. Rehearsals begin July 1st. Performances are the weekends of August 15th and 22nd. I need all ages and types. BIPOC actors encouraged to audition. Ask around to other people who have been in shows I’ve directed. They’ll tell you that I’m pretty laid back and my two watchwords are collaborative and fun. Additional details as we get them worked out. The formal audition notice should be up in the usual places next week. It’s going to be cold reads from the script. No need to prepare anything.
The one piece of life that’s not moving forward is the writing. I churn out these essays (after doing it for more than six years, it’s become a habit and happens automatically). I still write my MNM columns. (Something over 600 over the last twenty years). I write what I need to for work. But as for the new book, nothing much has been forthcoming. I can feel it churning around in my brain and I’ve had a couple of conversations with my publisher about how to organize it so I’m hoping I’ll just get in the right frame of mind and it will start to appear. I haven’t figured out the right stylistic voice for it yet. It needs to be read and understood by the lay public so it can’t be full of academic gobbledygook and jargon but, at the same time, it’s a serious subject and can’t be all snark either.
I haven’t written much about politics recently. I used to get that out of my system with the scripts for Politically Incorrect Cabaret but that hasn’t come back from Covid and won’t until we can find a new generation interested in a combination of satire, classic European cabaret forms, street theater, and Brechtian alienation who can pick it up and run with it. If you’re a performing type in your 20s or 30s who wants to build on its 20 year legacy and move it into a new era, let me know. The editions we did in the age of Trump pretty much ignored the man because the minute you put him on stage, all of the oxygen was going to be sucked out of the room in the conflagration of divisive opinions that would be unleashed. And after nearly a decade of all Trump all the time news coverage, I have Trump fatigue. What happens next given the guilty verdicts in the NYC hush money case? I haven’t the vaguest. But whatever it is, both sides will bloviate egged on by a media environment desperate for clicks and engagements. The sentencing is scheduled for July 11th. That date would have been mine and Tommy’s ten year anniversary of our legal marriage. I wonder what Tommy would have made of all this? He tended to ignore politics as he felt that both sides were wrong so he would probably just roll his eyes at the latest screaming headline and return to the wig he was working on. Steve, on the other hand, would be following every detail, in high dudgeon, and probably organizing a march on the capital.
But enough about me. How are things in all of your lives? I spend way too much time scrolling social media feeds because I actually do care what’s going on with my myriad friends and acquaintances. I love the pictures, the celebrations, the vacations… all of it. This month is Pride month and seeing the Happy Pride stickers and rainbows popping up all over the place, especially when placed there by people I know are not of the LGBTQAI2+ persuasion, makes this old queen (who remembers the confused adolescent of his past all too well) feel that there is a seat at the table.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 