Finally Coming Up For Air...

Ok, enough with the historical why-we-moved data... you wanna know what's going on in our lives.

Well, to begin with, to the right you'll see a photo of our house... no, wait, that's Hiroshima in 1945. Sorry, after opening the American Classics Festival last week, the photo to the right is just what we feel like :)

Actually, with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off we're beginning to feel a little more normal. It was a hard push, though. Basically from June 1 through July 29, our focus has been Mt. Hood Rep, Mt. Hood Rep, Mt. Hood Rep.

In many ways this year's festival was a lot more work for both Trish and I... to begin with, this year I took the official job of "production manager" (I was already "the guy you called to get things done," but this year I got the official job title). This meant a lot more interface with all aspects of the production: the directors, the stage managers, the TD and students, and the college (though the college was very very good to us this year... Diana Rosvall, our contact there, was divine. Very responsive, and always available. We owe her big for everything she's done for us!)

Add to that the fact that Trish was not only directing Talking With, but doing the costumes and props AND playing a part. I can usually work pretty closely with Trish when she's directing a production and take some of the load off of her, but this year I was too busy being production manager, selling tickets in the office, and playing a part myself in The Front Page.

And then there's the snake that we "adopted" for Talking With who wouldn't eat for two months... but I digress.

The good news is that it all paid off... we had an amazing opening for The Front Page. 180 people - some invited, many who paid for their tickets. Talking With's opening wasn't as good, but it's not as "known" a play (we're relying on word-of-mouth to start building audiences for it). Sunday Night By The Philco had a great opening as well... and we capped off the weekend with a great review published in the Oregonian on Thursday!

So... life's going pretty fine for us at this point. We've still got three more weeks of the Festival's run, and the audiences are building. Best of all, we've got three days off again (yay!) in between shows. Makes the living a lot easier.

Ok, I've gotta get some client work going... more later.

-Harold-