Endings and bears.

My Uncle Carlton died recently. Lung cancer. He was a professional fireman. Doctors think breathing in all the toxic fumes of burning stuff caused it. How about that? You dedicate your life to valiant, even heroic efforts to save lives, and you lose your life for it, even though you don't get killed in a blaze or collapse.

In jollier news, Christmas Carol has ended, and it was a positive event. It was a joy getting to know lots of folks, reconnecting with folks I knew from beforehand, getting an actual audience for our efforts, and getting a polar bear.

The actress who played my wife and I had one sequence in the show where we simply hung out on set and looked like we'd been shopping. So while onstage we'd quietly improvise discussions about the contents of our prop gifts, and one thing we often mentioned was an inflatable polar bear, in homage to my friend Dr. Brain's huge inflatable polar bear that his kids venerate every Christmas. So on the last night of the show she gave me a plush polar bear. Since another gift we often cited was figgy pudding, I've named the bear Figgy. Yay Figgy! And yay Becca for giving him to me! And for being a good sport about playing my wife.

Woolf

There's still time to see the Playhouse production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but not much. It's well worth seeing. Director Billy Ray has put together a production of this demanding warhorse that does it justice. I could rave about the cast on a person by person basis, but I'm posting on the go so I'll make it short. I recently reread this script, and it's a bear. There are so many transitions that left me wondering how one gets from here, to there, to there. The actors have found ways to make these tricky emotional transitions. Also, they've found different levels in the script; in a bad production it would all be a long hard slog through monocrome nastiness, but they've found the light touch that so much of it needs; when it does become full-throttle nasty it packs that much more punch. And there's real love and tenderness in it, especially at the end.

Backstage

Backstage, during a show, in costume, with my glasses off, everything is dark and blurry. My fellow cast and crew members mill around, sometimes whispering, mostly silent. I can't always tell who's who due to my poor vision; sometimes someone nearby whispers a wisecrack or gives me an unexpected hug. Everything visual pushes towards abstraction. It's a pleasant sensation. The dark backstage area is large enough to be expansive, small enough to be close and cozy with others. Every now and then I go onstage, into the light, and try to do something wonderful; then it's back into the warm darkness with my colleagues.

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Christmas Carol

Christmas Carol opens Friday. Yesterday we finally tried running the show in Virginia Samford Theatre, and it went much more smoothly than I ever would have expected. On the other hand, I'm dropping so many balls; I know all the things I have to do, but knowing things in theory and doing them in practice are two different things. It's a presence of mind issue. I usually have this problem because all the tasks I have to perform are very simple, and as William H. Macy said, acting is so simple that it's difficult.

I don't have time to delve deep, but over Thanksgiving I read the Polaris rulebook. The scenario is so comically reactionary that you'd have to crossbreed Justice Robert Bork with a cave cricket to find anyone to take it seriously, but the formal aspects of the game design are intriguing and clever. I was hoping for something like Peter Greenaway, but it's more like Jean Rollin. I like Rollin too. I'll be buying more indy RPGs, including ones by Ben Lehman. I've been harsh on his work, but Gygax and Arneson, the creators of Dungeons and Dragons, commited a truckload of embarrasing mistakes too. Pioneers aren't expected to dot every I; they're expected to blaze new trails. Indy RPGs are doing that, and I'll take them with all their flaws.

Speaking of Fantasy

It seems to me that there are two kinds of genre fantasy writers. The first kind creates an idiosyncratic reworking of mythic and legendary stories. The second kind reworks Tolkien. It's noteworthy that Tolkien's work falls squarely into the former category.