Happy Dancing

I admit to being sidelined a bit by the death of Beatrice Arthur, about which I previously rambled. It made the past weekend a sorrowful one, but I also received a call which cheered me up considerably. Warner Crocker, artistic director of Wayside Theatre in Virginia (and author of a blog which mixes the theatrical with the technical, as Warner is both a stage director and a techno-geek), surprised the heck out of me by calling me regarding his upcoming musical.

I worked out at Wayside several years ago, playing a dullard in the Agatha Christie whodunit, Black Coffee. I don't have a high opinion of my work on that production, about which I have already written. But for now, who cares? I'm thrilled to have been asked back to Wayside, a regional theatre inhabited by folks who really, honestly care about the theatre. Like pretty much all the regionals in the country, they have been blindsided by the economic downturn, but they soldier on, continuing to create theatre against great odds.

I'll be writing much more about Wayside in the coming months. In mid-May, I'll journey out to Middletown, VA, to dream an impossible dream. I'll be playing Don Quixote's sidekick Sancho Panza in Wayside's production of Man of La Mancha.

Let the Tilting at Windmills begin.