... And the Livin' is Easy

Summer is more than half over for me, and I realize I've spent very little time writing here. Part of it is the continued writer's bloc and part of it is just being busy.

The past several weeks have been spent serving as production manager for the local community theatre production of The Music Man. I've written many times in the past in defense of community theatre and how it offers a venue for people to maintain creative pursuits while still having "normal" lives. Working on a show the scale of The Music Man was a perfect example as parents took the stage with their kids in a cast filled with teachers, ministers, doctors, college students, children, and more. For those of you unfamiliar with the role of a production manager, it, well, sucks. My job consisted mostly of emails and phone calls. During rehearsals, I sat and was basically useless in terms of having any sort of creative input. It was, to be honest, creatively castrating -- so much so that I made a vow to never be PM again. I walked away from the theatre this weekend feeling as if I'd made little to no contribution to the show, feeling very disconnected from the whole process. It was not a good feeling, although it did make me excited to get back to work in a few weeks and start work on our fall production. My creative impulses are bursting from lack of use!

Now that the show is over, the rest of my summer will be divided between yard work (it never ends!), housework (I might actually unpack the last of the boxes from my move a year ago), squeezing in one more Phish show (at Chicago's Toyota Park -- a new venue!), and getting ready to go back to work. I have lesson plans to tweak, a play to ready, and a speech season for which to prepare. Speech season prep takes on some interesting dimensions as my sis was just hired last week to be the speech coach at another area school -- as if my sis and I aren't competitive enough!! (Should make for some interesting blog posts down the line, no?)

So I'm going to settle down with a cool beverage, watch The Wackness, and try to come up with some ideas for more posts this summer. Peace out!