All the World's a Stage

Welcome to the living hell that is community theatre. Notice that I spell theatre with an -re and not the more regular -er. I have come to believe the proper spelling for theatre, the art, is with the -re and for theater, the building, is with an -er. So if I were headed to the theatre, it would mean I was heading for an evening of entertainment involving a theatrical production. If I am am headed to the theater, it typically means I am headed to the dreaded building to pound nails, paint walls, run rehearsals, or any of countless meaningless tasks that come from a theatre director. Or should I say, community theatre director. Let's be honest here, I'm not famous, or performing in Phantom of the Opera or even Macbeth or Hamlet. I'm talking about voluntary directing work for low budget productions such as Best Christmas Pageant Ever or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Productions that provide hundreds of hours of unpaid work with casts of hundreds of (mostly preteen) locally found actors and actresses to provide 90 minutes of (psuedo-) entertainment for literally tens of thous-...no make that, tens of people who find their way into our audience. Volunteer was never such a dirty word before the creation of community theatre. But alas, those of us who are addicted to it can find no freedom from it. Come hell or high water in front of an audience of as few as 6 people, we are there pouring our hearts out to become John or Ethel Barrymore, at least in our own minds...

Honestly it isn't as bad as all that...from my perspective. From my wife's perspective...it's ten times worse than all that. Lady McMom, is a big fan of me and of my productions, that is unless they take me away from the family, which is almost always. Oh yes, Lady McMom and I have kids. Sir M (4) and Lady A(2). From the birth of M, my theatre has been limited, though not as much as Lady McMom would prefer. I took on direction of a play less than 6 months after Sir M came into the world. That may have been the last time it was somewhat of an enjoyable experience for Lady McMom. M was too little to know what was going on, and he and Lady McMom came to many rehearsals so we could all be together. I acted in this show as well as directed, and found a way to get young Sir M on stage for a little bit of audience baiting. Did I tell you I am notorious for adding fluff to my shows???

Of course, it's been kinda downhill since that production (although I have directed 3 and acted in a 4th since then). Sir M made a second trip to the stage in the next production, and Lady A got her feet wet in my most recent directorial project. Both were set to play my children in the production I acted in, by Sir M, refused to go up on stage and I had the director replace them. I have yet to Lady McMom on stage, but that will happen...probably about the time pigs fly and politicians stop being lying greedy criminals.

So what will this blog thing be about....who knows? I suppose at this point it will be a little about the home life and a little about the theatre life, and little bits of both in between. As Bill Shakespeare wrote (and Deluxe has printed on my personal checks) "all the world's a stage." God, what an overused cliche, but then again, it is my motto. Now if I could only come up with a cool themesong...