Fat Dog, Nice Flower

What's been taking me so long? I've been busy -- that's my lame excuse. I think I had a true day off about a month ago. I'm tired, but happy, and not sitting around twiddling my thumbs. Imagination Stage has been keeping me busy. Along with Sleeping Beauty and the reading for The Christmas Doll, I also took part in their fundraising Gala, which involved the SB castmembers and a few dozen kids of various ages, scenes and musical numbers (I sang solo for the first section of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and sang and signed in a presentation of "Aurora's Song," which featured a member of the Deaf Access program), some awards and presentations and the dedication of the Christopher and Dana Reeve theatre, featuring a touching speech from a video-taped John Lithgow. The part that amazed me most was during the reception that followed -- a number of the kids gave me hugs before they left, and I realized that they enjoyed being a part of the Gala immensely. One of the kids, Elijah, dragged me over to the piano player (Glen, I believe) who was playing in the newly named Reeve Theatre, and he made me sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with him again! Soon I noticed that a number of people had crowded around for this new, impromptu performance. Elijah continued, singing songs like "Paper Moon" and "Margaritaville" with the pianist -- I managed to escape after "SOtR."

Monday two weeks ago I went to a general audition at Center Stage in Baltimore. Last Monday I did a photoshoot for an online "English as a Second Language" training program (through a series of 70-some pictures, I portrayed an occasionally bungling street cop). I had a couple of commercial auditions on Thursday and Friday. Last night I had an audition at Rep Stage for Bach at Leipzig, and today I drove to Cumberland for a general audition at Cumberland Theatre.

Wee!!!!!! And Sleeping Beauty has one more week to go. Not sure what happens next.

And below is a picture for a dog food commercial that made me laugh out loud. I first found it at Neatorama (where you can also see another funny commercial from the same company), and you can see a bigger copy of it HERE.