Well my show is open, with strike happening tonight. This weekend was pretty uneventful. The kids played with friends on Saturday, with today being a stay at home day. Although Arden was sick today so that threw some things for a loop. That seems to be one of the hardest times to be a parent. When your kid is sick and cranky(really cranky) and even though you tell yourself to cut them some slack, you get extremely frustrated with them. But beyond that things are ok.

I find myself doing a lot of department head things lately. Reports, budgets, student requests, faculty requests etc. I’m glad to do most of it, since it needs to get done and is quite necessary for the department to run. But I’m finding less time for the fun stuff : teaching, designing, being in the shop. Hopefully soon I can get a decent balance between the two opposing forces. Well, until that balance comes, I guess I will consol myself with the fact that my new office has two big windows filled with natural light.

A couple of weekends ago I led a trip of students to New York City. Rob Mish and I were the chaperones, and we had 5 students with us. The students were exposed to a broad range of theatrical experiences. We arrived on Thursday, and went to ALvin Ailey’s Studios to see a reading of an original play. The legend of Sleepy Hollow, an adaptation by Christopher Cartmill an alum of Washington and Lee University from the ’80s. A lively inventive version that integrates dance and theatricality.

We got a tour of a prop shop for film and television, called Eclectic Encore. They do a lot of work for Law and Order, and Saturday Night Live. Then we walked a couple of blocks (and saw Jeff Goldblum walking down the street) to a talent agency and talked to another alum that works there.

That night we went to see Equus written by peter Shaffer and starring Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths. A very well done production.

The next day we saw an Off-Broadway show down in Greenwich Village, called Fifty Words, one of those great dramas filled with people that have lots of underlying problems that all pop out over the course of one long night.

Then we broke up to see different shows, the students went to see Spring Awakening. While I went down to Union Square to see Fuerzabruta. It was an amazing show that is hard to explain. It was like a magical dream of interconnected vignettes. The audience was brought on this journey about struggle and finding connection that ended triumphantly. I am making our next group of students go see it(whenever that might be).

Here is their official clip on YouTube:

You can find more YouTube clips Here, or find pictures on Flickr(photo sharing site) Here.

Currently I am on my way to a conference in Colorado City at Colorado College. Probably by the time can post this I will have arrived at my hotel. It is for department chairs of theater and dance. While I had to get up really early to drive down to the airport, the travel has not been that stressful.