: Hey what have you been up to, Matt?
: Not blogging about Theatre stuff, that’s for sure.
: That’s too bad I guess.
: I know, right? Here’s a small bag of excuses for my summer silence.
- Since the start of July, I’ve been crazy busy with kids’ Theatre camps. (But wait, isn’t working with kids in Theatre, like, the perfect freakin’ thing to blog about? I had an amazing two weeks working with four incredibly creative teens in the Arts Umbrella Summer Teen Theatre Intensive. The students wrote their own monologues and scenes, which we turned into a final show called Game Changer. They had workshops for directing, writing, masks, voice over and on-camera work. I went home each night having learned something big about people, Theatre and collaboration. Not to mention I got to play with the fabulous Karen Worrod – soon to be seen in LML’s The Antagonist.)
A scene from “Game Changer” by the Arts Umbrella Summer Teen Theatre Intensive
- I’ve been busy being a dad. (But kids are full of the most hilariously bloggable stories! For instance, Frankie’s latest trick is acting like a puppy. She decides, “Okay, I’m going to be a puppy now” and proceeds to crawl around the floor/lawn/playground on all fours, yelping and nudging up against people’s legs looking for scratches behind her ears. I even caught her studying a dog at the beach the other day like she was rehearsing, doing an animal images exercise. Also her fake laugh and fake cry are coming along great. We’re working on angry face too.)
- I’ve been spending loads of time with the team putting our next show together. (Well, that’s obviously the dumbest excuse ever. “Hey I’m doing this fantastically hilarious Fringe Fest show but sorry I’m too busy producing it to tell you all the awesome stuff about it.” And trust me it is fantastic and hilarious and ambitious and timely and honest and painful and Fringe-y and when I first read the script it was so far up my alley it gave me stomach pains. THE ANTAGONIST is not to be missed and I vow now to not shut up about it until September 18th and maybe even after that.)
You’ll love to hate the protagonist in “The Antagonist”
- It’s summer. (Oh so does everyone just take the summer off to go to the beach and play softball and BBQ and neglect their regular fall-to-spring duties? Lah-dee-dah then! But seriously it’s hard to sit in front of a computer when the sun’s out, am I right? This is probably my strongest excuse.)
- I forget. (Yes, I forget things and forget to do things often… But write it down on a notepad ya dummy! Or text yourself a reminder or ask a frined who remembers good to remind you or just do it now so you don’t need to remember at all!)
- I haven’t been inspired. (The worst excuse yet, considering A. I don’t think I really believe in inspiration, and B. I see/read/watch/hear/check out cool stuff all the time. “Inspiration” is constant when your eyes/ears/mouth/nose/heart is open.)
- I don’t have anything meaningful to say right now. (When I read this one back to myself I want to cry. This is the worst thing a human can say about themselves. We always have things to say and great meaning can be taken from the simplest of stories, be it a small potatoes blog about Theatre, or shoes or waterparks or lobsters or pumpkins or diaper rashes or roofing tiles or donkeys or candlesticks or Kinder Surprises or even potatoes themselves.)
- Nobody reads my blogs except my mom. (Well why not write something nice for her then ya jerk?? She only birthed you and tended to your every need for thirty-one years and counting. Not to mention it was her birthday last month. And maybe she’ll share it with some of her nice friends and they’ll read it too.)
