THREE months removed?

I'm in Connecticut this week for some family-type business. Sorry to all of you Northeastern folks I'm not able to contact while I'm close by. But time is rather short. I hope y'all understand.

Anyway...while I was on my flight into lovely Bradley International last Friday, ole DM (director of "Don't Dress For Dinner" called and left me a message. Seems he is doing a show in nearby Cold Water and his back is flaring up something awful. He's lost feeling in his left arm and hand and he's even having trouble sleeping and he has been told that it would not be a smart choice to continue on in this show that he's doing. It's a quick commitment (10 days of rehearsal and then two weekends of performances) and DM is now in charge of finding his own replacement. He asked if I would be interested in taking over the role from him. Rehearsals would start in two days (Sunday) but I told DM that the earliest I could get there was Tuesday. I would have to do the family thing, fly back to Chicago, pack and get my various affairs straight (whatever that means), and get to Battle Creek to get a ride the rest of the way to Cold Water. He told me to think about it and get back to him.

After thinking about it a little and talking to "Heidi" and "Jonathan" and my mom, asking my brother for permission to go back to Chicago a little early, and doing some more thinking...I accepted. I left DM a message saying as much on Saturday morning. Hours later I still hadn't heard anything. Finally, after checking in and seeing if he'd even gotten my message, I heard back (via text message) that the theater had thought that missing two days of rehearsals would be too much and that they decided against me. Which sucks...but whatever. If they had somebody closer who could start rehearsals on time, then so much the better for them. I was upset (you hate losing a job...and it would have meant some more time with my new Delta House friends, which would have been nice) but you learn to move on as quickly as possible.

Then, two days (or so) later, I learn that DM is still doing the part. Which is...to say the least...surprising. This theater rejected my offer to come in at the last minute to help out because I would have missed two days of rehearsals (and, for the record, I would have gladly negotiated them down to only missing one day...but I never got the chance to haggle with them) and they decided to stick with the guy who has SEVERE health problems. I mean...loss of feeling in a whole arm?!?! And who is DM to actually accept this solution? After 10 solid days of driving about 45 minutes to and from rehearsal maybe twice each day and rehearsing maybe 6 or more hours a day and not sleeping at night, he's gonna be in a better position to perform than me...who would have maybe missed a few hours of rehearsals early on?

I'm shocked that DM would still be doing this part, actually. I've put my own health in jeopardy for a role before but not when the problem is a serious-sounding as DMs case sounds. And it's hard for me to believe that the theater, the director, or DMs wife would think this was in any way an acceptable solution. That's even assuming that DM himself was stupid enough to WANT to do the part, which I don't think he was.

So anyway, I was almost in the greater Battle Creek area for another 3 weeks or so. But it didn't work out.

What WILL happen, though, is that I will be going back anyway for a couple of days probably next week. I'm anxious to see "Heidi" and "Jonathan" and all the rest of the good folks in Battle Creek again, see "Mid-Life" and maybe even the show that DM is doing (I think it's open by the time I get there), and hang out. This...as it turns out...might end up being my Summer of Slack. I'm not necessarily happy about it but the thought of a day job makes me sick to my stomach and I don't have any show set up just yet. So...I slack. What the hell, there's a first time for everything, I guess.