Monday, March 23, 2009

New and Improved

In the last post, I talked about rousing this blog and bringing it new life. Since then I’ve been rousing myself, to create a new me. Not that there was anything drastically wrong with the old me, but I think it’s time for a new and improved model, sleeker, up-to-date, more effective.

All my life I’ve rushed from one thing to another with never a minute to catch my breath. So much to do and not enough time. That was my motto. I’ve finally realized that I don’t have to do everything. I can actually choose what to do and, more important, what not to do.

“Lucky, lucky, lucky me. I’m a lucky son of a gun. I work eight hours, and I sleep eight hours, and I have eight hours for fun.” Those words from an old song may tell how life’s supposed to be. But I seemed to be working all the time except the six, or at a stretch, seven hours I slept, a restless sleep that left me weary in the morning. If I stopped even a minute during the day, my eyes would go to half mast and my brain would follow. Then I’d race around trying to make up for lost time. Sleep deprived, that’s what they call it.

With the new me, I now let my engine stop racing and do a little body work before I pull into the garage at night. I force myself away from the computer at least an hour before my sleep start-time. I think it’s working. My motor is not quite so sluggish in the mornings and I don’t get stalled during the day. Plus I’m actually getting more done.

In this self-directed decluttering of my life, I’m dividing everything into three piles, keep, give away, and throw away. Believe me this is harder than bringing order to a messy house. So far in the keep pile, I have my family, my writing, my gardening, and my church, not exactly in that order. Among the giveaways is my doing everything that somebody else doesn’t do. The throw-aways include living up to expectations of other people and being a perfectionist, both extremely hard to give up.

As I look back at the keeps, I see that I need to prune away my useless, time-consuming, mind cluttering practices and adopt more a more productive modus operandi with my family, my writing, my garden, and my church. Not to neglect any of these, but to bring my best work in each area to a higher level, making me happier and my life more enjoyable. Gardeners know that a little judicious pruning now and then allows much healthier, more fruitful growth.

Stay with me and see what happens.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Fulfilling a Dream

Scenes from HEIST AT HEAVENLY HOST


February 28, 2009


































You may be wondering why this blog seems to have died a natural death from pure neglect. I really don’t know, but it’s not because I have nothing to say. Today I am rousing Gracee’s Blog and giving it new life.

For the past four months I’ve been resurrecting a childhood dream, writing and directing a play. As a teacher, I’ve written many plays for children, but HEIST AT HEAVENLY HOST is my first attempt at drama for adults. I said drama, but it takes a real stretch of the imagination to call this two-act comedy with a bit of mystery a drama. Someone called my masterpiece a bit of fluff.

Writing HEIST was the easiest part of the process once I succumbed to a barrage of requests for a play to entertain generous donors while raising funds for The Memphis Church Health Center and Memphis Interdenominational Faith Association food bank.

With help from Marcia, one of the instigators of the play, I found a cast full of eager, energetic actors all ready to put their reputations on the line with mine and Marcia’s. At the first reading, we chose actors perfectly suited for each role. The chief criteria? Voice volume–the louder the voice the better the role. As a result, the audiences heard every word with no speech augmentation, which was good because we had none.

Previously, I had only worked with children so I was pleased to find that my cast of talented actors was exactly like a fifth grade class. At the first practice, I recognized our class clown and several quick learners as eager to please the director as second graders are to please their teacher. Some had done their homework and taken a glance at the script. One lady's main interest was conversation with her friends, and a young man marched to his own drummer. There were some who couldn’t remember a thing from one practice to the next. They were all perfect for the play.

The biggest problem was getting the twenty-one of them on a stage slightly bigger than a postage stamp. The dumb playwright, yours truly, should have known better than to have the whole cast in a single scene. A member of the troupe, not only a fine actor but a real handyman, came to the rescue and constructed an extension as big as the original stage. Then he risked life and limb, rigging up enough light to illumine the stage.

Everything finally came together at dress rehearsal the day of the first performance. The stage was perfect, the props were assembled, and the actors spouted their lines and acted up a storm. Literally. By the time dress rehearsal was over, snow was pouring down.

You have to know an inch of snow in Memphis brings the whole city and everything in it to a screeching halt. Snow kept coming until we had more than six inches all over the city. Who could have guessed our great performance would be cancelled by a blizzard?

In Memphis, snow often goes as fast as it comes, and the next day the roads were clear in time for our matinee and a second performance that evening. We reached our goals. The audiences were amused, laughing almost as hard as the cast, and ticket sales brought in enough for a sizeable donation to our chosen charities. HEIST AT HEAVENLY HOST was a success!

Thanks for the memories, CTK Players!

Grace