“On the twenty-third day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence. And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places…”
The Thibodaux Playhouse production of Little Shop of Horrors opens tonight at 7:30! Visit ThibodauxPlayhouse.com for ticket information, and be sure to share the Facebook event with your friends!
It’s late Friday, friends, almost Saturday, and while I haven’t had time to post, I’ve had a very productive day. I spent most of it simply writing. I’ve been working on something I can’t wait to announce, a supplemental project to accompany Project Rebirth, and I got a full 3500 words completed today. I probably have less than 1000 to go to finish my part of it, assuming I’m doing it correctly. This is going to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever been involved in.
I would have finished tonight, but I had to jet off to the great city of Thibodaux to work the door for the Thibodaux Playhouse production of The Sanders Family Christmas. I know, Christmas in July, right? How cute can you get? Several good friends of mine are in the cast, and they all did a fine job. If you’re up for a little holiday spirit, there are still two performances left this weekend. Check out www.thibodauxplayhouse.org for more details.
Finally, in cast I forget to mention it, tomorrow is my brother’s birthday, and he and his wife are having a housewarming party as well, so I’ll be spending much of the day at their place in Gonzales. Happy birthday, bro. See you tomorrow.
As for those of you not related and not going to the party — sorry. I still love you, though.
Two more shows, friends. We’ve got a performance tonight at 7:30 and a matinee tomorrow at 2 o’clock — you can catch the play and still be home in time for the Super Bowl! We’ve been taking an avalanche of photos on this production, too. You can check out all of ’em at my Don’t Drink the Water Flickr album, but here are a few gems from our “pick-up” rehearsal on Wednesday evening:
Krojak (Paul Cook) faces off with Axel Magee (Randy Mayeux)
Chef Ken Poon has lost a cake to the Communists' gunshots!
Axel, Walter Hollander (yours truly) and Marion Hollander (Katie DeHart) start to crack up during rehearsal.
Director Heather Keller peruses the script.
Burns (Erica Annis) and Kilroy (Nick Guillot) tote a cot for the Hollanders.
Father Drobney (Westley Annis) shows off his magic tricks for Marion, Susan (Clara Arceneaux) and Walter Hollander.
Working Drobney's straight jacket.
Katelyn Thibodaux relaxes backstage.
Nick is either slipping or breaking into "A Chorus Line." I'm not sure which.
Convincing Walter to escape.
I swear, I'm not slapping Katie here.
Look! It's the Sultan of Bashir! (Damon Stentz.)
At the party for the Sultan -- Heather gets artistic with the camera.
Ambassador Magee (Tom Simons) reads his son the riot act.
But at least w all have fun.
Just a quick post tonight, friends. The production of Don’t Drink the Water is going along wonderfully. We had a great audience tonight — very responsive, very energetic, and most importantly, it had a few old friends of mine I haven’t seen in a long time. That’s always fun. We have three performances left — get there.
Second, in the wake of Diamond Distribution’s horrifying decision to raise their order threshold from $1500 to $2500, effectively killing a lot of small publishers, we at Comixtreme.com are doing a series of articles dealing with the situation. In addition to my column from last week and this week’s podcast, I also managed to ask a few questions to Dave Kellett, creator of one of my favorite webcomics, Sheldon. He had some nice insights into this whole situation check ’em out:
No time for a real post today, friends. I’ve got to dart off to Thibodaux for a “pick-up” rehearsal to prepare for the final four performances of Don’t Drink the Water at the Thibodaux Playhouse. Still not sure if you want to see the play or not? Take a look at this trailer edited together by my buddy, and co-star, Westley Annis:
There, that should convince you. Check out ThibodauxPlayhouse.org for ticket information and directions to the theatre! We perform Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.!
Last night was the annual Thibodaux Playhouse Awards gala celebration. We produce four shows each year, and a panel of super-secret judges attend each show and they vote on the performances. This year, I won Best Supporting Actor for my performance in Rumors! I am humbled and flattered, and I have a little silver bowl now, which is just awesome.
Pictured with me here are Daphne Hebert and her daughter Marcel, who won best actress and supporting actress (respectively) for The Bad Seed, which also won for best play. My old friend Troy Plaisance, who was not in attendance, won Best Actor for The Seven-Year Itch. Ah, Troy, we miss you buddy.
Congratulations to all the winners!
I’ve had quite a week. aside from my continuing work on my NaNoWriMo novel, Cross-Purposes. I had a meeting and a phone call regarding my top-secret Project: Rebirth, which I mentioned here a while back. It’s a project that has two distinct but related stages, and I’m hard at work on the common area in-between. Boy, that’s super-vague, isn’t it? You guys just have no idea how badly I want to tell you what this is. But I can’t. Not yet. Just wish me luck.
It’s been a long week, friends, but we’re back home. I just wanted to give you one last post updating you on the status of my family and friends who’ve been impacted by this storm. At home, almost no damage. Fallen branches, fallen shingles — absolutely nothing compared to what could have happened. I’ve gotten in touch with all of my family and it doesn’t sound like anyone suffered any real damage, thank goodness.
I spoke to my podcasting partner Chase just a little while ago, and he informed me that the Secret Lair is also out of power. Amazingly, the storm blew open the front door and blew a tree into the house, so the rugs are soaked and there’s a tree in the living room, but no other damage. However, it may be weeks until Chase has electricity again. Because of the havoc Gustav caused, both in terms of damage, power loss, and total upheaval to our work schedules, it will be a few weeks before Chase and I can resume a regular podcasting schedule. Until then, I’ll try to post a mini-episode once in a while to keep up with you guys, and I’ll be sure to let you know right here as soon as we’re back full-time.
Mike’s house also suffered very minor damage, lost shingles and the like, as did Kenny’s apartment. Neither of our emergency back-up geeks have power at the moment, and Mike will be busy the next few weeks helping his parents, who lost their roof in the storm. Jason’s house came out fine, and the good people at BSI Comics are back and open for business. The comics that were supposed to come out last Wednesday will be available tomorrow, and the new stuff for this week will be out Wednesday as usual.
As I write this, I don’t know the status of either of the plays I’m involved with. Hamlet was supposed to go on at the Houma Civic Center, which I understand got hit pretty hard. The cast and crew of this play have worked as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen in theater, and I’d hate to think they would have to give it up. As for my show, Bless Me, Father, our facilities came through the storm pretty much intact, but at the moment, we have no power. I don’t know if we’ll have the time to finish rehearsing, build the set… y’know, everything that needs to be done. And even if we do, I don’t know if the parks service will make us reschedule. While we were out, though, my sister Heather put the finishing touches on the Playhouse’s new website. You can look for updates there at ThibodauxPlayhouse.Org. As for work, I’m scheduled to go back Friday to get the school ready in anticipation of our students returning on Monday.
Thanks to everyone who sent us well-wishes during the storm. Now let’s just hope we don’t need them again next week for Ike.
Just a few other things I wanted to mention before I go. First of all, sorry there was no chapter of Summer Love last week. I’m sure you all understand. But chapter 12 will be online tomorrow, Sept. 8. I promise.
Next, I was really sad this week to hear about the passing of Bill Melendez. Melendez was the animator and producer who teamed up with Charles M. Schulz to turn the legendary Peanuts comic strip into a series of legendary animated specials. A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown… these masterpieces wouldn’t have been made without Melendez’s talents. He was one of the greats, and it’ll be a sadder place without him.
And finally, although I didn’t get my comics last week, I still managed to turn out a couple of reviews. One novel, one book of essays, and one graphic novel, respectively, courtesy of the Amazon vine program:
Those of you who have been with me for a long time, over the many websites I’ve called home, will know that in addition to being a teacher, writer, and geek pundit, I’m also pretty involved in my local community theatre. I’ve been performing in, working on, directing, producing and writing plays for the Thibodaux Playhouse in some capacity or another for almost ten years now, and I’ve been a member of the board of directors now for about five. Well, it’s that time again, friends — I’m putting back on my director’s hat!
On Monday and Tuesday, July 28 and 29, I’ll be holding auditions for the Thibodaux Playhouse production of Craig Alpaugh’s comedy, Bless Me, Father, directed by yours truly and assisted by my sister, Heather Petit Keller. What’s the play about, you ask? Well, here’s the official synopsis:
“The action takes place in Holy Family Rectory where Fathers Richard and
Charles preside over the merriment. The fun centers around Father
Charles’ mistaken belief that Father Richard is about to leave the
priesthood and get married. Actually, the yourg woman in question is
Father Richard’s sister Susan who wants her brother, Father Richard to
marry her… to her fiancé Ira.”
Sounds funny, right? Trust me, it’s a great script — lots of slapstick comedy, wordplay, pratfalls… all the stuff I dearly love in a play. I’m looking for six men, four women and one boy in the 8-12 year-old age range to fill out my cast. Auditions 7 p.m. on both nights. If you live in the Thibodaux area and you want to get involved, either as an actor or crew member, please, come on by! Here are the directions, courtesy of my close, personal friends at Mapquest: Map to the TPH Rehearsal Hall.
Thanks, gang! Look forward to seeing you all there!
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