I'm 2 Today!

Hudson's birthday was this past Saturday. Since that was the same day my show opened and Daniel and I were involved with another Christmas program at church, we decided to have a little party next weekend. But I did make him a t-shirt that said "I'm 2 today!" so that he'd get lots of attention on his birthday. When people asked him how old he was he'd hold up an arbitrary number of fingers and say "2!". Here's a couple pics of him trying on hats while we did some shopping at Marshall's





Since it was his birthday, we let him eat as many cookies as he wanted at church, hence the crumb drool down the front of his shirt. Thanks Don and Karen for the sit-n-spin, mom for the book and the blow-up dumbells (Hudson loves to "struggle" to lift them, grunt, and say "heeeavy"), and dad and Lisa for the remote-control dump truck. And thanks to everyone for the cute birthday cards too!

Coffee, Licorice, and Little Jazz Hands

Hey, I'm sorry for the long break between blog entries. I have been lost in the enchanted world of childrens' theatre. I just came back from striking my first full-fledge set design since college, a children's musical called "Into the Magic" at Marblehead Little Theatre (http://www.m-l-t.org). It was so fun and so rediculously exhausting. I pulled two all-nighters there this week (another first since college) and my diet for the past two weeks has consisted mainly of the occasional cup of coffee and the saltines, licorice, and Capri Suns I scavenged from the attic at the theatre. It's been awesome. What is it about theatre that makes it so addictive? I mean, there are long, late nights of labor-intensive, low-paying work when you count down the days till the show is over. Then when it's all done you spend two hours tearing down the set that took two months of planning, designing, building, and painting to make. Yet amidst the sound of screw guns, breaking wood, and ripping fabric, you starting counting down the days till the next show. It's sick.

Well, here are some pics! By the way, you can click on any pictures in our blog and see a bigger version.


The Cast--characters from all the major fairy tales.


This is the bedroom set. Two sisters--one a young girl who still believes in fairy tales and make-believe and the other a 13-year-old who's growing out of that phase.


Here's how the set transitioned from one scene to the other.


And this is Studio A of "Make-Believe World" which is actually a movie studio lot where all fairy tales get re-enacted 24/7 as children in the real world are hearing the stories. So the show was kind of like "Shrek" in that sense-- a mix of all the fairy tales. There were other little set pieces and props that moved on and off stage during the show but these pics represent the majority of the set.

It was a great show and all four performances were sold out. And now I am kind of the resident set designer for the Marblehead Little Theatre's Children's program. It's good to see my college degree hasn't gone to waste : )