Monthly Archives: March 2016

My kids are gone. They have packed up this morning to head to the Florida State Thespian Conference in Tampa. The school, the halls, and especially the Blackbox is a much quieter place. It is spooky. I am very familiar with the Florida State Thespian Festival in that I lead the organization for 18 years as State Director – taking the organization from a few hundred to a few thousand – from bulk mailing to the organization’s first web page. Read more →

We are days away form Spring Break and the halls are rather bustin’ at the seams to get out, get free, and get some sun. I admit I am also ready for the Spring. My show is going to take a break. We are 2/3 the way through the process and now I won’t see them for ten full days. At the same time that I am ready to be “adolescent free” for a span of time, I am also becoming a bit of a mother hen hoping that they tend to themselves during the break and that we don’t loose the forward movement we have found in the past few rehearsals. Read more →

I often find myself sitting in my office with my intolerably delicious sugar-free, gluten-free, antibiotic-free, and taste-free diet shake with more unpronounceable ingredients than you can imagine. I am sure I am going to get deathly ill someday for all my effort to be skinny and healthy. Anyway, after I shake up the drink and get busy “eating lunch” I hear a knock on the door from a student who has a question. Should they take that call or this class – spend their time doing this or that – read plays or lounge out in the sun with friends? These questions are hard to give simple answers. There is a TEMPTATION to tell them to the pick the hardest, most demanding of the options – but I am not sure if that is always the answer. Read more →

One of my very favorite lectures is the one I deliver on the theatre of the absurd. This lecture helps them prepare to read The Dumb Waiter, The Sandbox and The Bald Soprano. The topic that I focus on is WAITING. The world of existential absurdity is built on the experience of doing nothing very slowly. Characters in all of the above play spend the majority of their days waiting. They are waiting for death, waiting for love and the ultimate waiting – the Waiting for Godot! Read more →

This time of year brings some unsetteling news. In the month of March, seniors are receiving letter after letter – or more correctly e-mail after e-mail letting them know if they have been selected or rejected for this or that or perhaps none at all. I am rather stumped at this idea of getting this information via an e-mail that arrives on your phone in seconds. Read more →