Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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A Very Good Week

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The first peony bloom of the season – from the bush that didn’t bloom at all last year. I have to move it in the fall because the tree that is next to it is overwhelming it with shade. But, for some reason, it was able to produce one big beautiful flower this year. I’m grateful.

The catmint is nectar central for all the bees. Honeybees, bumble bees – they’re all there. The constant buzz (literally) of activity is the best movie in town.

And later in the day, I saw this:

Henry lurking in the shadows. Was he watching the catbird? Or was he contemplating life?

I grabbed my camera and took some photos. Right after that, he turned toward the entrance to his den and disappeared. I think it might have been due to this guy on the edge of the back forty.

I think he lives under our next door neighbors’ shed.

But enough about all that. Let’s get to the meat of this post.

I have to go into the city on Saturday. Why?

Because I have a ticket to the matinee of Hamilton!!!!

Oh my goodness, I am beyond excited about this! Here’s how it happened. One of the guys working on the music for Escape to Margaritaville  also worked on Hamilton  for several years and continues to work on the tours. He and Don got to talking about that one day and Don mentioned that I really, really, really wanted to see it. He said that he has access to House Seats and did I want him to put me on the list?

YES. YES. YES. He asked me to pick three dates in June. I chose three matinee days. He submitted my name and our credit card info. Saturday turned out to be the day the box office thought might work best, but I was still on a waiting list and as this week went by, I began to give up hope. I mean, it’s Hamilton  and getting a ticket is nigh to impossible.

Yesterday, I asked Don whether he had heard anything yet from his friend who had told us that he would hear something the week of the performance. Don said he’d call him. Coincidentally, his friend was emailing him the confirmation at the same time Don was calling.

I’m in!

House seats aren’t free – they’re still pricey, but less expensive than the cost of seats being sold to the general public. I learned my lesson when I turned down the opportunity to buy a house seat to see the original cast when it was at the Public Theater. I grabbed this chance.

Whoo hoo!

A good week: the celebration of my dear friend Rick, Comey is testifying today, the Original Broadway Cast album of Anastasia  is being released tomorrow, and I’m seeing Hamilton  on Saturday!

Happy Thursday.

Wednesday

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After three days of rain, darned if I didn’t just look outside to see the sun shining. Huzzah!

I’m still on a bit of a high from Monday night’s celebration of my friend Rick. I’ve been away from San Diego and the MFA program for 16 years now. And though I am friends on Facebook with most of my former students and am usually aware of what is happening in their lives, seeing so many of them in one place so many years later was incredibly powerful. So powerful that I was a bit shaken by the experience – in a good way.

There was such love in that room. And joy.

I forget sometimes what teaching meant to me. When we left San Diego, I was more than ready to move on. I love my coaching work. But teaching? Knowing that I’ve had an impact on the lives of my students and hearing them say that very thing so many years later reminded me that though I tend to compartmentalize the various stages of my career, that part of my life is still alive and kicking, living on in my students.

Don reminded me of all that when I called him Monday night. He knows most of those former students and knows, he says, the impact I made on them. I tend to underplay that kind of thing and deflect any compliments. But I’m going to bask in the glow of those relationships and the affirmation of the work we did there.

This peony, which is on the bush that didn’t bloom last year, is about to fully open.

This one, on the other bush, isn’t far behind.

And, now that the sun is out, I may see this rosebud open today.

Some of you have written me, sending me links about the announcement that Escape to Margaritaville  is going to open on Broadway next year. I’ve known that since January, though the official press release just came through, which is why you’re reading about it now.

Don’t get too excited. We aren’t. Because we know, as veterans of the theater, television and film, that nothing is guaranteed. A lot can happen between a pre-Broadway tryout and the eventual Broadway run. Scripts can and will be rewritten, characters might change, actors can be replaced. I’ve seen it happen. Don has seen it happen even more than me and he has certainly – as has every actor – had roles promised to him only to see them taken away.

No one in the cast knows anything about a life in this musical beyond the run in La Jolla. And the producers and director won’t be making any decisions until after that run has ended.

Yes, it would be wonderful. But…we’ll see.

Even Anastasia, which was a rare transfer to Broadway where most of the cast remained intact, replaced one lead actor and several ensemble members. It’s just the way of the world.

But thanks for caring!

Happy Wednesday.

 

Cast Albums, Opening Nights & Blue Jays

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While I’m blogging this morning, I’m listening to “My Petersburg” from Anastasia. Over and over. Sung by Derek Klena, it is my favorite song in a scoreful of favorites. I remember when it was added in the middle of the rehearsal process in Hartford. It’s simply great – as is Derek, the young male lead who is one of the nicest people on the planet. And handsome, to boot!

Anyway, it makes me happy. And since I woke to more rain and a forecast that does not bode well for the next week and a half, I’m resorting to music and crossword puzzles and flowers in vases and homemade biscuits and maybe a trip to the nursery to look for plants for the Guy Wolff pots.

Opening night for Escape to Margaritaville  was a big deal, a joyous and happy celebration. Jimmy Buffett came onstage at the end and everyone sang Margaritaville. There was a huge party afterward and lots of VIPS and producers and Parrotheads. Don had a great time and now everyone will settle into the run of the show. As always, it’s hard to know what to do with all the spare time you have once the daily rehearsals have ended. I well remember from my days as an actress. Now, as a coach, I’m usually leaving town the day after opening.

I sent Don flowers. He sends them to me and I thought “Hey, I should send some to him, too! This is a big deal!” If I had asked him if he wanted flowers, he would have said “Oh no, don’t bother.” But he was delighted by them and I’m glad I did it. We won’t mention my panic when I couldn’t find out whether they had been delivered. The company I used is supposed to email when the flowers have been “hand delivered” but they didn’t. I called them twice and they couldn’t get hold of the florist. It was now one half hour until curtain and I couldn’t contact Don and didn’t want to try to contact him as I knew he would be preparing for the start of the show. Finally, I messaged him (after the show had started) and said that I’d sent something to him and if he had received it, could he message me? At 3 am my time (I was sleeping) he sent a photo of the flowers. Sigh of relief. They were brought to him in his dressing room about 10 minutes before curtain.

The email? It came a day later. Not helpful.

This guy was way, way across the yard and as I snapped several pictures of him, I wondered if he was another kind of jay. I was confused by his gray feathers. But then I googled ‘blue jays and gray feathers’ and discovered that blue jays look completely blue in the sun but in the shade they look gray because their melanin is more in evidence.

I love learning things like that.

Just as I was finishing this, the free weekend streaming of the Original Broadway Cast Album of Anastasia  ended. Sigh. Now I have to wait for my CD to arrive in the mail in about two weeks.

Happy Tuesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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