So here we are, entering a new era. We anticipate good things, hoping for equality, justice, maybe even the American way.

As I watched the inauguration of President Obama here at White Station Middle School, I was so disappointed to hear a teacher cry out as he finished the oath of office, " No more Bush!" This was met with thunderous applause from the students, all of whom seem to already be staunch Democrats at the ages of 11 to 14, roughly.

How have we started a new era of tolerance if this is the gut reaction of a Teacher in front of an entire assembly full of students?

mid term

I can write to you while I'm giving Mid Terms here at Overton. It's so wonderful to be somewhere where the students really want to learn and are interested in what they're doing. The birth we dealt with the other day was not in the performing arts building, I'm proud to say. I've been updating my LinkedIn page, so check that out-I've actually got a little poll going which you can particiapate in.

Cheers,

Steve

am i really getting THAT old?

Hello again...I'm at Overton again today and what a surprise yesterday when the word began to spread (pardon the pun) that a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD girl had her water break in the classroom and needed some assistance. An all call was put out for the nurse and an ambulance arrived quickly, rushing her to St Francis, I assume. I don't know the outcome-I've asked but noone seems to know.

The pending birth was discovered by a classmate who cried out, "oooh, you just peed on my shoe!"...........

So, the question is....

Have I blocked out the memory of this happening when I was fourteen? Fifteen? Sixteen?

When I was seventeen, I had a fifteen-year-old girlfriend. She had a friend who left school a few weeks early because her family had an "emergency" out of town. I graduated, but my girlfriend began to hear over the summer that her friend had gotten pregnant and the parents had taken her out so the pregnancy could be kept quiet and she gave up the baby. She came back in the fall and denied it through to the end of her senior year. That was the only instance I knew of like that-maybe there was more.

These students I'm encountering are proud of the fact that they're pregnant.

Am I really getting THAT old?

oh the weather outside is...

I haven't had a chance to post in a while. I'm back at Overton and have had a few performances since last I wrote. Two more Greatest Generation concerts, one in Covington, one in West Memphis. The venues are always interesting. In Covington, the theatre was an old vaudeville place, and the producers were clearly hanging on for their dear lives. No heat to speak of, and a run-down feel to the building-but so much potential. Probably 300 seats, of which MAYBE 100 were filled. A great show, which once again would have been even better with the house respectably filled.

In West Memphis we had an even bigger house with even fewer seats filled. No more needs to be said except that we had a nice time at Blue Monkey afterwards. I love the Vocal Arts and hope something can be worked out so it can continue-and I can continue with it.

Had a gig with Deb last night at Memphis Country Club and that went well. We actually have two such concerts on Saturday and one on Sunday-sandwiched in between all that, a MESSIAH at Germantown Presbyterian.

God bless us all, everyone.

freezing

I'm sitting in an art classroom at Overton and it's got to be forty degrees in here. Anybody who knows me knows I'm unhappy. I'm hoping I can figure out how to completely disable the air conditioning in here soon. Tonight is Hallowe'en, and Deb and I are going to have trunk and treat at the apartment complex, followed by Sweeney Todd at Theatre Memphis. Then we're probably going to One More for Karaoke. I will probably be warmer outside tonight than I am right now in this Memphis City School classroom.....

Kallen Fatigue????

The Commercial Appeal sent Jon W. Sparks to the Orpheum to see us in Traviata and wrote a review that prompted a response from a reader concerning Kallen Fatigue.  The writer said he suffers from this malady as well but still enjoyed the production.   I agree with Michael Ching when he states that regulars are a good thing and all the big houses do this.  If Pavarotti wasn't at the Met one year, there was talk as to what was wrong, not a yippee from the press.  I enjoyed doing the show, not just because of Kallen, but because I thought it carried out the reason I fell in love with Opera at the age of 13-it was a metamorphosis of theatre, art, music, and dance.   

as you like it, traviata

I've been in the wonderful predicament for the last two weeks of rehearsing one show while performing another. As You Like It closes Sunday after three wonderful weeks of performances. We got one "review" so far from Christopher Blank, and I guess you'd call it favorable. He liked the show. He just didn't, and doesn't, really mention the players and their performances.

I've been rehearsing Traviata with Kallen in the afternoon and at night when I didn't have an AYLI performance. Kallen is her usual wonderful self, Quinn Kelsey is the Germont and he is fantastic, Bill Joyner is Alfredo and is simply wonderful. Karen Tiller is directing and she's doing good things. We open next Saturday...come see us! And if you haven't been to the forest of Arden, you need to get there by Sunday!

More later...

Steve