Hotlanta & Christmas

So, many things to catch up on. And a few pics from Atlanta and Santaland tech.

I went to Atlanta to see some of my favorite people in the world. I was actually in an short form improv show for the first time in 3 years – when I confessed before the show that I was worried that I wouldn’t remember how to improvise – Tim Stoltenberg comforted me with “don’t worry Sean, you never knew ho to improvise” – ah, with friends like this, who needs friends. The show was super super old school silly, and my cheeks hurt afterwards from giggling. I did learn two things while in Atlanta:

1) Whirleyball is the greatest invention since Al Gore created the internet. It’s Lacrosse in Bumper-cars – but bumper cars going really fast and slamming into you.
2) A Boysenberry is blue vodka, soda and a touch of lime – it even has a catch phrase, which goes something like “it’ll grow on ya”.

So, since my trip down there – I have returned to Louis Ville, and am now in rehearsal for two shows at the same time. I don’t know exactly how it works, but stage managers push me from room to room – and that system seems to be rather good so far.

It is such a treat to be doing Christmas Carol with some of my favorite actors of all time – all these people I’ve worked with before, that know me, but don’t know each other. Max Moore (our secretly Jewish Fred – no wonder scrooge doesn’t want go celebrate Christmas at his house – he knows he’s not going to be celebrating it at all!) pointed out that if this was an Agatha Christie novel, all the lights would go out, I would be dead, and then they’d all have to figure out how they know me. He’s a clever one that Max.

So, I was warned that even if you don’t change anything about A Christmas Carol – you’d get letters from patrons upset about what you changed. So, with that mind, I’m changing out everything I can get my hands on – all new carols, new doubling, an attempt to switch the focus back from cinematic storytelling to theatrical story telling – AND, an attempt to tap into some “story-theater” and make it clear that this is an adaptation of a novel, not something that is meant to be a play. These are the kind of well meaning ideas that get you fired.

Day One went well – everyone seemed really jazzed with the changes. And the group sounds AMAZING! There are some serious singers in this group – and the new carols sound really good. These are the kind of well-meaning day one thoughts that make you forget you could get fired for this.