good behavior

Vacation!!

After this morning's baby story time and a day of cleaning out my desk to prepare for everyone else that will be there next week, I will have a week to myself for vacation! Not that it's as easy as that. Since I'm staying home, less than a 3 minute walk away from work, it will be interesting to see if I can really stay away the whole time. I do have two theater rehearsals next week in preparation for the Under Milk Wood performance next Saturday, but otherwise, I have successfully managed to keep my week off perfectly free from responsibility so that I can get in some much needed R&R.

After Under Milk Wood I can start directing all of my extra attention to my next big project. I'm directing "The Vagina Monologues" for a V-Day benefit next February. However, with the holidays coming up and winter weather inevitabilities I'm getting started on that sooner rather than later. I'm holding the auditions on November 16th and 20th, and hope to have the show cast, the parts handed out, the rehearsal schedule set as near in stone as I can make it, the budget completed, and, well, as complete a plan as I can by the end of November. *twitch* Yeah, I can do this. Actually, I'm rather excited about this project. I think that the reputation the Monologues have already will bring a much larger audition pool than I would get for any of the other eclectic pieces that we do in this theater company. And I'm really thrilled to be somewhere near the center of a group that is going to get women's issues discussed locally. I've joked that the scary "V" word has probably turned some people away, but I hope to change that: If you can't say the word, how can you have an honest discussion about what's being done to them.

The local women's crisis center is gathering local statistics for me about the work that they do and what they know about the community. But, from my own position in the community I am aware of a lot that goes on in this area that never gets discussed, always stays in the dark passing from one generation to the next. So, this benefit is to address that.

As part of V-Day we are donating the funds we make to organizations that are in a position to actually do something. We can get a larger audience talking, but it's these other people that are out there, doing the work. We're donating to the Woman's Crisis Center, which holds a main office in Brattleboro with an office in Bellows Falls, New Beginning's a crisis center in Springfield which also serves Rockingham, and Making the Most of I, a women's reeducation program that deals with self-esteem issues, identity, education, all the pieces of reconstructing a woman so that she can leave violence and abuse. It's really easy for me to say "well, she should just walk out", but for many women it's not that easy - they don't see the options the I do, which is where Making the Most of I is a really valuable program.

And then as something running alongside the production there will be an art show "On the Subject of Women" at the Exner Gallery - that Nancy of Making the Most of I is organizing. Actually Nancy has been really interesting to work with, I think she's going to do very well with the art show - and she did get us a major sponsor! Alyson's Orchard is going to pay the theater fee for the production (we hope to be the first theatrical production on the main stage at the newly finished Bellows Falls Opera House, aka the cinema - a tentative setting, but we're hoping it all works out), and the fee for the gallery show.

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch "V-Day...Until the Violence Stops" it's a look at the V-Day movement, how it started, and how it continues to this day making a difference. The movie follows some communities around the world as they host their own V-Day event and even after seeing it as many times as I have, there are some parts that I cannot watch without tears. It was, in fact, this documentary that inspired the show. A friend of mine (that has since moved away, and is greatly missed) saw the documentary and was telling me about it one day at the library, while her daughter played, and she mentioned how wonderful it would be to do something like that here. My reply was "well, why don't we?". And that started it, she and I started brainstorming how it might look, what we might do, and who we should get involved. Then she held a screening at her house and I and a few friends came and watched and afterwards began discussing how it would happen. I got my friend and partner in theatrical-crime, Jeanie, involved and it all started taking shape.

But, in typical Sam fashion, I'm also thinking ahead to the next thing that I want to do. I'm loving directing. Of course, I still love to perform, but I also am really enjoying orchestrating events. So, I've found a show that I would love to direct!! Mostly, it's the kind of show I would love to see! Let's Murder Marsha, I mean even the title screams "perfect show for you!!"; it's the kind of eclectic, funny, little theater piece that I love. So, yeah, I think that I would like to do that at some point in the future.

Just a couple of fun things today:

Lite Bright!! I like this web version becaus I know the pain of stepping on the little pieces in the middle of the night.

Another classic, the Gamers' Manifesto; they're right on with so many points.

And speaking of gamers, this is a rather nifty little shooter game.

What I'm Reading: Under Milk Wood - more of, and loving it. It's such a fabulous play. The use of language is unbelievable. And well, ok, yeah, I guess I did go on a bit long about the characters already, but still - I just love them, and this play.