Gone Fishin'

Hey, all (both of you), I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks, starting tomorrow. I'm taking off tomorrow with a friend for a few days of hiking in upstate NY, followed by a few days in Manhattan. Then I'm off to the beach. I probably won't be updating while I'm gone so, well, don't miss me. Both of you.

Strange Ending

The Strange Dreams of Nobody in Particular closed this weeked. It was a great run, and thanks to the many talented people who worked very hard on it, we pulled off a final marathon that I'm very proud of. Now all that remains is our encore performance in Millenium Park, and then my baby goes off on its own for a while. I'll miss this show. More than I think I realized.

Belle Epoch...
Last Saturday, I woke up, went to the store for some milk, and when I came back, noticed that my mail had come. In it was a package containing a small bottle of hausgemacht (that's German for Home made) absinthe. It was sent to me by an acquaintance on one of the absinthe forums I'm a member of. He had received a bottle of it and wanted to share his good fortune. There's really nothing quite like receiving unexpected presents of absinthe in the mail. It made my morning.

As recently as a decade ago, the only place anyone could get absinthe was the Czech Republic, which sold mixtures of cheap essential oils in poorly rectified alcohol to American tourists for far too much money. Today, there are several online suppliers, of varying reputation, that you can go to for your absinthe fix, but what really impresses me the most are the HGers, the people who make absinthe at home. There's a surprising number of peope in the U.S. alone who make absinthe. They come from diverse walks of life--IT people, military men, theatre folk--and they're united simply by a love of this drink, its complex history, the desire and ingenuity to pull off a culinary challenge.

This is what I love about absinthe. Beyond its history, beyond the mythology and romance of the drink, I love the ingenuity that it inspires in people. Even people who aren't making the drink make accoutrements for it, from spoons and grilles made by artists like Kirk Burkett, to a slew of homemade fountains, some merely functional, others unique works of art unto themselves. I have to admire the cleverness of these people. Anyone can buy the accessories to go along with a drink, but it's this ingenuity and creativity that makes it a hobby. I'm happy to raise a glass to that.

Strange Dreams at Millenium Park

I've been sitting on a bit of news for a while, not wanting to jinx it, but I think it's safe to talk about it now. A few weeks back, right around the opening of Strange Dreams..., our artistic director, Glen, got an e-mail from the city, asking if we would be interested in performing Strange Dreams... for Millenium Park's Promenade Performance Series. We wrote back and said that we would definitely be interested, but we didn't hear from them again.

On Friday, they wrote to Glen to tell him we've been booked for performance this coming Wednesday and on August 5. This is a fairly big deal. It means good exposure for Tantalus, and on a personal level, it's good to know people like the show.

Before the Offer Expires

Hey all. I can't believe I almost forgot about this. Tantalus Theatre Group is running a promotional sale of T-shirts and sweatshirts. The shirt features the Tantalus logo on the front with our Web address on the back. Sweatshirts come both with hoods and without, as zip-ups and pullovers. E-mail me soon if you want to order one and I'll place an order with you. If you don't live in Chicago, don't worry. We can either mail it to you, or I can bring it back east with me when I visit this summer. Details for the order are below. I believe I need to get them in within the next couple of days. E-mail me if you're interested and I'll send you the information about the prices.

In other news, Strange Dreams... is almost finished. We run for two more weeks and then, poof! It's gone. I've considered going back to the original stories, though, as written and reworking them. There's a lot to Strange Dreams... and although a show about storytelling is very different than a book about storytelling, I think it could make a really good children's book. It has potential, anyway.

After this show closes, a long hiatus from the company is in order for me. Mostly for practical reasons--I can't study for the GRE and focus on getting into grad school at the same time as I focus on Tantalus. But it's also to give me time to think and to rest. We've been going through a lot of restructuring lately, rexamining our mission statement, and it's made me realize a couple of things. One of them is that I really do care a great deal about this company. It's been such a part of my life in the past three years that I have a hard time conceiving of what I did before I was a company member. The other is that, despite that, I may be in a very different place artistically than Tantalus is. I need some time to think about that.