Rerun

We took Max and Wyatt to go see the Lion King Musical at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Lauren and I saw the Broadway version in 2001 and we both felt that the show as a stage production is very inspiring. We were very excited to see if we would be inspired by Max and Wyatt's reaction to such an incredible show.

I snuck my Flip video camera into the theater and even after hearing numerous warnings against recording in the building I did my best Freddy Rerun Stubbs bootlegging. Thankfully the Dobbie Brothers never showed up.

Maxfield and Wyatt loved the show even though Wyatt fell asleep midway through act two. Afterwards we went to Lauren's mother's house (she not only gave us the tickets as a gift but also watched Jackson while we were at the show) and she fed the boys snacks of pistachios and cookies and pretzels.

Later that night I asked Max what was his favorite part of the day and he responded by saying eating pistachios.

Line Please

We are down to the wire with the show I have been rehearsing. We open this Friday March 12th and run Friday and Saturday nights for the next three weeks. The play is The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. This is how the back of the script describes the play.

"With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka and the Brothers Grimm, The Pillowman centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art."

Oh and don't let the "child murders" scare you, it is also described as a black comedy.

I have been struggling with my lines.

I have a lot of lines. In the past, having a lot of lines was not that much a of a big deal. I could just take a few hours of each day, study, rehearse, study, rehearse, ad lib here, ad lib there and voi la I was done.

Now, it is not so easy. I have three kids who need my attention, I am busy with work, my wife's birthday is this week, I am coaching Tee ball, my wife is preparing for a craft show ,I have this blog to maintain and Guilder to frame for it. I am swamped. The most honest excuse I have for not knowing my lines is that I am getting old. The stuff I put in my brain just doesn't stick like it used to.

Since the kids are sacrificing their time with me, my wife is sacrificing any type of birthday celebration I would have put together, I am blowing off a Tee Ball coaches meeting, I figured I needed to sacrifice some blog time for my theatrical endeavors. I hope the anxiety nightmares I am having about this show will now stop.

Here are some other blogs for you to read while I take a short break from the Internet this week.

Tales From The Dad Side

Clark Kent's Lunchbox

Creative Type Dad

Muskrat

Luke I am Your Father

The Meanest Mom


If you live in the Philly area and want to come see the show go to http://www.actionarts.net/ for more information.

Oh and since I do not have anything for my wife's birthday please leave a happy birthday message for her in the comments.

The Other Man.

I love cooking. I don't necessarily love to cook but I love cooking really tasty dishes. I love the challenge of preparing a meal with the perfect combination of flavors.

I have written here in the past of how I love the Pioneer Woman and how I bought her cook book (let me just tell you I tried her recipe for her Barbecue Jalapeno Poppers and they are incredible. I have made them four times already). I may have written how I have a Bobby Flay cook book. I may have written here in the past that I enjoy being in the kitchen. I also enjoy cooking shows such as Chopped, Food Network Challenge and Iron Chef.

My problem with all cook books and cooking shows is that none of them, not one single one that I have watched or read, ever, and I mean EVER, take into account that while I am cooking or trying a new recipe, my three year old is going to yell from the other room that I need to come and see his poop right now, because he went poop in the potty. When I run into the other room to see it, spatula in hand, I take 30 seconds to admire his achievement that I end up burning the salmon steaks because I had them on the frying pan too long.

The reason I burn it, is because I was interrupted and I also I don't understand the WHYS of cooking. Most cook books teach you how to cook or what to cook. None really teach why you do certain things when.

The only chef/TV cook/cook book author I have ever seen explain the whys is Alton Brown from the Food Network TV show Good Eats. His show is awesome and explains the whys. Lauren, for Christmas, bought me two of his books. Both books are great because they explain the whys of cooking. They explain that certain foods need to be cooked at certain temperatures because of the chemical breakdown of such foods. Alton Brown is a food scientist. His show is entertaining and it is one of the few shows Lauren and I enjoy watching together. But his books, they teach why certain things should be done certain ways while cooking. Understanding the why really helps in preparing a meal, especially if you know you are going to be interrupted by children.

I never liked Science Class but if my 9th grade science lab teacher, Mr. Mossburg, was to Hypothesize why dry rub ribs take longer to cook then say marinated ribs, and that the Purpose was to establish the correct cooking times and the Materials list included cayenne, garlic cloves and braising liquid, with the Constant being the same oven, I may have actually gotten a B in his Class. I may have also weighed 300 lbs in high school but I would be a smart 300lbs.

Lauren found out that Alton Brown was doing a food demonstration in our area and she bought tickets for us as a Valentine's Day gift. Leading up to the show Lauren became somewhat obsessed with Alton Brown. She read everything online that she could. During conversations she would throw little tidbits of Alton's life at me. She sent me links to information about his books and shows. She denied it but I joked with her that she had developed a little crush on Alton Brown. I may have been a little jealous on all the attention he was getting. Alton Brown, for a week, became the other man.

We went to the show last Friday night. Alton Brown was awesome. He was on stage for two hours. Out of the two hours, I am going to say only 25 minutes was dedicated to the actual food demonstration. The rest of the time was like watching a stand up comic performer.
He was funny. He was incredibly funny, hysterical actually.


He took a lot of questions from the audience and he was quick and sharp and very witty. He was charming and sarcastic without being too cocky. He did this all while teaching about the science of food. It was a great, great show.

I think I developed a little crush on Alton myself.


The winners of the Saxbys Gift Cards are Mrs. P, Susie, and Katie. Please email me your addresses so I can mail you the gift card.

Bedtime

Most nights the job of putting Maxfield and Wyatt to bed belongs to me. I usually start the process at 7:30 by getting them in their PJs as they watch a TV show. At 8:00 we head upstairs to brush teeth, pee, say prayers and climb into bed. Every night the boys ask me to tell them a story.

Sometimes I read to them (which is difficult now that they are in bunk beds)but most nights I make up stories to tell them. Their favorite bedtime stories are The Adventures of Max and Wyatt, go figure, which is about two little boys with super powers. Max and Wyatt's powers change each night depending on the mood of the kids.

Some nights I just don't have it in me to tell a story. I know, I suck as a modern parent. I know, I am supposed to relish in the "right now" of it all by telling them stories as they drift off to sleep. But some nights, mentally, emotionally, I just can't.

A few months ago the PR people at GoodNites emailed me asking if I would be interested working with them again this year. They gave me a pitch about a bedtime story on-line I could download and let my kids listen to each night. They sent me the first four chapters of GoodNites Bedtime Theater stories of Iggy and his Wiggy Bed along with terms and conditions of our agreement. Seriously, the Ts and Cs really did not matter to me because I was really impressed with the quality of the bedtime stories.

One night I let Max and Wyatt listen to the first four chapters. They listened to the first four chapters for five nights straight. After that first week they asked if I could get more chapters. I was hurt. Even though I shushed them while we listened to the GoodNites story of Iggy and His Wiggy Bed, I lied and told them I could not get them more chapters of this "terrible story".

I know I suck as a parent demanding that my kids listen to me babble on about how my kids are superheroes. I know, I suck, I am supposed to relish in the fact that my kids did not need me to stay in the room and they drifted off to sleep.

If you have kids in the "bedtime story" age bracket I really do recommend you check out the GoodNites Bed Time Theater website, my kids love the stories. The writing and the narration are awesome.

The terms and conditions with GoodNites is actually pretty cool. They afforded me the opportunity to try and write a chapter of Iggy's story. They are also affording me the opportunity to do some give-aways in the next two months.

Poop and Boogies turns 5 this month and I plan to do a bunch of prize give-aways (with or with out the sponsors) so it is cool that GoodNites is doing this.

Go check out GoodNites Bedtime Theater. It is pretty cool.

My first Poop and Boogies Turns Five prize give-away will be this Tuesday (not sponsored by anyone) and it will invovle leaving comments. So go ahead and practice leaving a comment.

I have partnered with GoodNites® Sleep Pants for the Bedtime Theater program. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes developing the Iggy’s Next Adventure story, sharing the program information with my readers, tweeting my blog entry and judging the Iggy’s Next Adventure contest entries. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive sentiments towards the GoodNites® products.

Curtain

"It is bad enough that I had to listen to your mother tell me the entire time how romantic it was to watch Shakespeare, which I have hard time understanding, in the park, at night, under the stars but then to have some idiot propose to his girlfriend in front of the whole audience, I am never coming to one of your shows again."

And that was the review my dad gave my performance in Much Ado About Nothing. The "idiot" was a cast member named Jim who used the curtain call to propose to his girlfriend.

Six months later, in a tiny theater in Cheltenham with a different theater company, I asked my dad what he thought of my performance in the thriller Cat's Paw. My mother drug him to the show.

"Well, I nearly had a heart attack when you fired the gun, but that is a good thing because then I was awake for the rest of the show." he said. He then told me he would never come to another one of my shows again because his heart would not be able to take it.

Which reminded me of what he said we had 8 months earlier when he saw me in The Glass Menagerie. "Bill, you were great but that show was very boring. If you keep doing shows like that I am never coming to another show again."

As you can figure out my dad was not into live theater. If he knew someone in a production he may have gone, no strike that. If he was related to someone in a production he may have gone to see them. Of course when I started to act in the local community theaters in our area, although he was not thrilled about it, he made every effort to attend the shows.

A year or two after Cat's Paw, Dave, a guy I met during Much Ado About Nothing asked me to get involved in a modern production of Rope (Alfred Hitchcock made a film version). The production would involve some of the same people I met doing Shakespeare. We would perform at the same location; the only difference was that we would do the show inside in a very intimate makeshift theater "in the round". The stage would be floor level and the audience would be on risers looking down into the set. Rope is a dark drama about two college aged guys who strangle their friend and stuff him into a trunk. They then host a dinner party serving food off the trunk with the body inside. The intimate setting and the closeness of the actors would provide a very dramatic feel for the audience. The play is very dark and moody.

During the rehearsal process I became friends with most of the cast and we started talking about forming our own theater company. These were good people to work with and they knew their stuff. I did everything I could to impress them hoping they would keep me around. I told everyone I knew about the show hoping they would come out to support our fledgling group. I mentioned the show dates to my parents knowing that my dad, who recently had eye surgery, would not come.


A creative decision was made to start the play in almost complete darkness with the two murderers discussing their plans. This would set a very eerie, creepy tone for the audience. Instead of the normal "house" lights down stage lights up, we went with a very slow, methodical, increase in one blue-ish/purple-ish light that would cast an ominous glow on the two villains as they "set up" their diabolical plot. Eventually, over a time of about five minutes the stage lights would slowly increase to be at a normal level. This lighting trick with a touch of the right music would "bring the audience up to speed" in a very dark foreboding way.

Opening night, the cast and crew were full of nerves and energy knowing that we were close to selling out the small venue. We also knew that the local paper had sent a photographer and reviewer. "Places" was called and the entire cast sat in the wings of our stage to listen to the opening sequence. Dave, who was playing the evil Brandon, started with his dialog in the darkened room. Suddenly there were very loud whispers coming from the audience. Two people were doing their best not to disturb the rest of the audience as they struggled to get out of their seats and leave the theater. Their footsteps on the hollow risers echoed louder with each movement. The whispers grew louder and more panicky as they approached the stage area. Due to the very intimate setting, the only way out of the "theater in the round" was by walking right in front of the stage and through a blackened curtain. When they left the area the bright lights from the other side of the curtain blazed across the stage.

Dave, being a professional, kept his composure and continued on past the distraction. The rest of the show went very smoothly. During intermission and after the show everyone in the cast cursed and mocked the two old people who ruined the opening. Dave said it sounded as if an old man was having a panic attack and that the old lady with him was arguing with him. I even joined in the jokes about the old crazy couple.

The next day I received a phone call from my mom. She asked how the show went. I told her that it went well except the huge distraction at the beginning. She laughed. She then apologized and confessed that the two old crazy people we her and my dad.

My dad just had eye surgery the week before the show. When the play started he heard the voices but could not see the actors. He could only see a blueish haze. He thought that maybe he was having a complication or a set back to the surgery. He thought he was going blind. My mom tried to explain to him that he wasn't but the only thing he wanted to do was get somewhere where he could see before he would panic. My mom had to lead him out of the darkened theater.

That night I told the theater group that the crazy old people were my parents. I explained to them what happened and I offered an apology which they all accepted. I also then told them that I made my dad promise to never come to one my shows again.

But this time I made my dad mean it.




I will be performing in a production of the Pillowman next month with the same group I met those 12 or so years ago. If you live in the Philadelpia area and would like more information please email me at batmeaks at verizon dot net.