Playing catch-up.....and piano.

Yeah, I know. I suck at updating this thing. For those that have the attention-span of goldfish and hamsters, here's the sparknotes version: I've spent the last couple months scraping ice off my car, searching clothing stores for the perfect skinny-tie, taste-testing various brands of corn dogs and frozen pizza so I can determine my favorites, pretending my teddy bear, Constantine, is real and having serious life conversations with him, and having a grand ole time driving back and forth across the Twin Cities yelling showtunes in my car.....which I'm pretty sure is a red flag for something, but I haven't figured it out yet...ha. Oh yeah, and I've been playing the piano. A lot. You could say I've been flirting with carpal tunnel except for the fact that I diligently do my hand and finger stretches every day. Nerdy enough for you? Don't make me mention my bunny-paws playing technique. That, my friends, is true dedication.

Anywho. I was initially planning on having about 6 weeks off from any shows after finishing Bare, Godspell and Millie and before starting Footloose. It was going to be a perfect time to relax and concentrate on enjoying the spring, teaching, coaching, playing auditions and traveling to catch up with friends. Well, spring didn't happen and neither did any of the other things. I agreed to music direct a 7 week workshop musical for a wonderful human that I really enjoy working with. Per usual, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I've only done a handful of workshops in my day (wow that sounds like something an old person would write....excuse me as I remove my dentures) and all of them until now have placed me in the role of actor/singer. From that perspective, it is incredibly eye-opening. As an actor, working side by side with a creative team to develop a new work has got to be one of the most exhilarating types of collaboration. There isn't any cast album to listen to. There aren't YouTube videos to mimic. There is just text and music on a page. For all intensive purposes, a blank canvas. As the music director, I am given a much heavier creative hand in the outcome than I'm used to as an actor, and I'm still figuring out how to best work that influence. Luckily, we have a great cast and a wonderful production team working on it, so I'm excited to see where it lands in the next two weeks before opening. Ugh. Two weeks. I should practice or something.

In my downtime from working, I have been enjoying frequent trips to the theater to see wonderful shows, outside walks to parks and throughout downtown, a sampling of the more delicious breakfast offerings on Saturday mornings, and a feeling of being mostly flustered, most of the time. For the first time in a really long time, I'm off the market....and I couldn't be happier. Or more surprised. I wasn't looking for a boyperson. I didn't really want a boyperson. I had my friends and my work and that was enough. But here I sit, doing the "first thing I think about when I wake up and last thing I think about before I fall asleep" gig. The weirdest part, is that I always had very cynical view of the people that claimed those feelings. Now I'm basically an admin of their facebook group. And I'm okay with that.

Well, I have a loooong day ahead of me tomorrow that includes playing mass at church followed by no less than 8ish hours of callbacks for Footloose. Exhilarating but exhausting. I feel like I'm missing so many important pieces right now, but I need to hit the sack if I'm going to be able to read music tomorrow, so I'm signing off.

In honor of all those graduating right about now (and because it's a current theme in my life), here's a quote:

"It feels like some kind of ride but it's turning out to be life going absolutely perfectly."

-Brian Andreas, Story People (buy his stuff. its good.)

Best,

A