And a Christmas Show to Finish the Year...

I was fortunate enough to be selected to sing in the Chrismas show at the theater at which I did a couple of AMAZING shows this year..."Bye Bye Birdie!" this past spring, and "Children of Eden" this fall.  All of the "adults" in the show were in the cast of "Eden", so it was AWESOME to not have to say goodbye, quite yet, to some of them.

"Fortunate" is a relative term, however, as we had FIVE rehearsals to memorize seven ensemble numbers, a solo, and blocking for the entire show.  I was the only tenor, so NO PRESSURE THERE...  It was intense, but I think it went WELL!

Here's a shot of the six of us performing one of our numbers...

Me, Peggy, Pat, Kim, Annie, and Joe



The week of my birthday was "tech week", and there were a couple of REALLY rough "run throughs" of some of the songs (especially the ones for which we got the music the Saturday BEFORE), but we PULLED IT OFF!

Here's our version of "Where Are You Christmas?"...

I also managed to re-memorize "Strange Way to Save the World" (I sang it in the Christmas show three years earlier).  Except for a "hairball" in the middle, it went pretty well....

It was a REALLY fun show, with some REALLY great people, and I REALLY enjoyed performing in it!

Here are some shots from after the show...

A "final" shot of Peg and me"!!!

Duane and me!!!!

Here's hoping YOU had a chance to experience something recently that got YOU in the Christmas spirit!!!!

Birthday Celebration!

I'm a little behind in my blogging!  Even though the show is over, I've still managed to be overwhelmingly busy.  I went right from "Eden" into the Ashland Christmas show, so had two weeks to learn the nine ensemble numbers that we did, and memorize my solo.  I'll post more about the Christmas show in my next entry, but wanted to write a quick note about my birthday...

I turned 47 (gasp!) on November 30th, and Duane and I went out for pizza at Italian Pie Shoppe.  I wanted a low key, mellow celebration (after the last few months of crazy), and it was delightful!  Duane and my sister were in "cahoots" to surprise me with her and my nieces waiting for me at the restaurant, and it was AWESOME!  I walked in, and there were the three of them, waiting to sing (really embarrassingly loudly) to me as I walked in.

We had a FABULOUS smorgasbord of pizza, caught up (I hadn't seen the girls since before Thanksgiving), and Duane even managed to bake and bring a cherry pie (my birthday cake of choice for the last six or seven years) to the restaurant.  (TOTALLY CUTE ASIDE...I came home from rehearsal last Monday to the smell of burnt popcorn.  I didn't think anything of it, until Robin told me at the restaurant that Duane burnt the popcorn to hide the smell of the pie that he'd baked earlier that evening...how CUTE is he??!!!!!!).

Here are some shots from the FABULOUS, FABULOUS celebration:

SURPRISE!!!!!!

THEY MAKE JALAPENO BACON SALT??!!  WHO KNEW??!!! Thanks Davey!!!

My "London/Paris/Roam" shirt from Amy!!!

A "chicken fan" from mom and dad!!!!

CHERRY PIE!!!!!!!!

The "co-conspirators" doing the Shepherd HIGH FIVE!!!

Here's hoping YOU were able to enjoy a lovely celebration/surprise recently too!!!!!!