The Miserables

You probably already know that I love the theatre (notice how I spelled theatre if you have any questions) and luckily I have enough money to see lots of shows.  I budget so I can enjoy season subscriptions to lots of local companies, as well as getting myself to NYC at least once a year.  And the best part is that I have friends who enjoy doing this with me, so we have girls night out a couple of times a month for dinner, then a show.  Heaven!

NOTE:  My regular theatre buddies are Jill, Maria, Helen, and Christie. I also go with my mom and now with my niece Katie back in town, I'm ready for even more.  Watertower or Lyric Stage anyone?

Currently, I have subscriptions to AT&T Broadway at the Winspear, Theater Three, Dallas Summer Musicals, and the Dallas Theater Center.  I love them all, but I think my most consistent favorite is the Dallas Theater Center (DTC). 

DTC just makes me think.  Last night we saw their production of Les Miserables and I loved it.  It is one of my favorite shows ever and it was really fun to see what a local company would do with my favorite show.  They set it in modern day instead of the Marie Antoinette days of old, so instead of shooting bayonettes, they shot handguns.  The hilarious innkeeper and his wife stole iphones and samsonite luggage from unsuspecting patrons in suits and jogging outfits.  Super fun.

If you don't know much about the story, the young male hero (Marius) ends up fighting a battle for the people during the French Revolution in Paris.  In DTC's present day production the battle seemed to be over more current topics such as the homeless, veterans affairs -- many different topics with no particular focus.  I am not a student of the French Revolution (and even though it is my favorite musical, I've never even read Hugo's book <chagrin>), so maybe the battle had no focus then either -- but I had always thought it was about the treatment of the poor by Marie and her cronies.

So last night while I'm watching this updated version of the show at DTC and see all of the unfocused contemporary moral problems that supposedly started the students and Marius fighting the police in the streets, I just kept thinking that winning a war without a focus would be hard.  To really get people behind something, you need a single enemy -- or at least a single cause to get them riled up.

Now, if the DTC show had been put on just a few weeks later in the year, they could have really said something and focused Marius and the boys on a revolution relating to the surge of young migrants from Central America crossing the border into Texas.

That's a fight for the miserables (apparently) soon to be among us.

Am I creative?

How do you know if you’re creative? 

I’d like to think that I am, but when I really examine my “creativity” I think that it is more that I am pretty good with words AND I’m good at knowing a good idea when I see one and being able to adapt it to fit my needs.  But I don’t really think that that is creative – it’s being good at recognition and follow-through.

A big part of my “success” in my work and in life is being at the right place at the right time, combined with recognition and follow-through. 

Guts are needed too – probably more than brains.  What do you think?

P.S.  My #FundraisingFriday $10 gift is going to the Undermain Theatre.  They are very creative!

I'm getting kinda nervous...

I’m getting kinda nervous.

See, I’m going to a Karaoke party for a charity on Friday night and I told the 2 fabulous chairs and everyone at my office and my family and the friend who is taking me as his guest and really now that I am telling you guys…

Well, let’s just say that I told A LOT of people that I would sing Friday night.

So that’s why I’m nervous. 

Now, I can sing – I was a theatre major in college (notice I even used the fancy spelling of theatre, like I did back then when I wanted to be in the THEATRE and project to the balcony).  My parents would tell you that they paid a lot of good money for me to be able to sing on stage.  But even though I can do it, it’s been a long time and I’m still a little nervous.

The older that I get, the less I want to try something new.  I know what I’m good at and what I’m not.  I just no longer attempt things that I’m not good at.  I don’t have to disappoint myself or anyone else.  I don’t have to get nervous.  And I don’t have to learn anything new.  Life is easy.  But how boring is that?

What if that was what we told kids?  What if we told the children we work with at Community Partners of Dallas that they should just follow the patterns of violence that they already know too well?  What if we told them that their lives were never going to change – that adults will always use and abuse them, that they will never have a wish fulfilled in life, that they will never have a better life?  That they are victims and that they will be victims for the rest of their lives?

No, we don’t tell the kids that because we truly believe that they can change the cycle.  I’ll sing for them on Friday.

But I’m still a little nervous.