Jeremiah Update; March.

There is little time. I must away to rehearsal shortly, and that means that I’m going to have to tell you all everything at a pretty fair clip. Just give a paragraph to the important and impending and the rest I will just have to get back to you on later. There is no going back though. There is only the future. And our place in it. Then you can all help me make a very difficult decision.
I am appearing as Harry Roat in Wait Until Dark. It opens on Friday. For those of you unfamiliar with the piece, I play the villain. This is my return to stage after a self-imposed two year hiatus. I told myself I would not appear in any non-original work. Did it. Also did not act in anything original. Which is bad. I’ve got plays to put on. It’s all just a question of the time. And the grant money. You can’t make good theater without a little bit of money. Not a lot. Just enough for things like paint and wood. Obviously anything I write has a sword budget. We wander into the future, go see Wait Until Dark. You will enjoy it.

I am starring in The Man of La Mancha at Bemidji State. The perpetual war state that I have with BSU has but one sanctuary, and that is the theater. I love Bangsberg. I love how it smells. I love the people inside of it. I love how it’s so very much brick. I wish there was an elevator out front. Other than that? Fantastic place to make art. So, yes. Cervantes as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. Man. A role like that doesn’t come along often. I’m in acting for the art more than anything else. Managed to fly underneath the fame radar for a while now playing some of the greatest characters in theater. I should probably get a short list of roles I can still play at my age that I’m interested in.

These things are taking up much of my time and attention. I assure you that, if I should owe you a script or play, or thousands of dollars, I will get on that after my attentions are focused on merely one performance. I can have a real life while working on a show. I cannot get a lot done when I am playing an evil maniac and a hero lunatic while still feeding myself. Out of the Hat 2 is happening March 20th. That will also be awesome. If you did not make it last time, then make sure you come to this next one. For the one in November I wrote Grimaldi’s Chicken, and that show will be presented at the MN Fringe Festival starring the original cast. I take delight in the idea of Bemidji actors on Minneapolis stages. This is something I have always wanted to do, and it will happen somewhere between August 5th and 15th.

So those are the dates that are locked in. Wait Until Dark, first and second weekends of March. Out of the Hat 2, third weekend of March. Easter first weekend of April. Man of La Mancha second and third weekends of April. Grimaldi’s Chicken at MN Fringe August 5th-15th. Which leaves us the question of May and June.

The first question is; Can a person direct Hamlet and do anything else? Anyone ever done that? I’d like to. Hamlet has to happen in May and June. Jesse is going to have the damned show memorized in a couple weeks here and he deserves a cast and a set and what have you. Jesse Whiting is one of the best actors I’ve ever had the privilege to work with, and he will be a great Hamlet. Probably hold open auditions April 1st. No fooling. It will be the flagship for the First City Shakespeare Repertory. It’s a concept I’ve been working on since winter. A board of directors comprised of 12 directors representing arts and educational organizations in Bemidji. All give a four year commitment to produce one Shakespeare play a year. We get through the plays in four. Any and all money received first goes towards the construction of The First City Globe, an environmentally sound replica of the original Globe Theater, on Lake Bemidji. Once the Globe has bee built, any remaining monies are placed in an endowment to provide scholarships for Beltrami County youth.

So that should probably be enough. But then there’s the question of becoming governor. The actual process of being placed on the ballot is pretty easy. I want to create a new party, and I would just be the tip of the spear. The real people who win on the Moderate Progressive ticket is everyone. He Who Would Lead Must Be a Bridge. Bran the Blessed said that, and I believe it. But is it worth it? The heartache and the exposure and the terrifying fear of complete and utter state-wide rejection? I’ve gotten a fair share of rejections in my day. Just got a letter that told me my art was weak. Too weak for the sweet grant monies. But Don Quixote is not helping matters. He is inciting some real inner revolt. Maybe this time The Revolution will work? I think it can be facebooked…

Then there’s 30 Minutes. It’s this movie I wrote with my dear friend Andrew like… 7 damned years ago. And I don’t know why we haven’t just made it. It’s hilarious. It’s the quintessential pizza delivery movie. Andrew and I could rock the hell out that picture. It’s all a matter of cameras though. Crap cars. Lights. So many lights. I think I may have financing figured out though. It involves going out of doors. Which is terrifying.
Then there’s English Nonsense. That was the grant monies. I sent those people Chapter 1, and I bet they didn’t even read it. I even went down to the cities to see the review, but was attacked by mold. That would have gotten them. If some lunatic in a Fleur shirt was throwing felt tipped pens at me?

“Are you recording us with your phone, sir?”

“I am madam. Continue reading. You have not even reached the cannibalism.”

Yeah. That would have got them. As it is they did not give me $6,000. Probably it was given to some shut-in from Egan to create a stop motion video of them constructing a self-statue out of their own feces. It will probably win at Cannes. Oh the loathing.

So, the question is, how do we fit all of these things into May and June?

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