People wonder at my Disney fascination. I'm a 45 year-old guy with my only child a senior in high school, and our big trip this year is gong to Walt Disney World. Again.
Again? Weren't you just there? And, yeah, wasn't that with just your wife and you didn't even set foot in a park? You'll drive that far for a long weekend? Isn't that an expensive vacation? Does your son even have fun? Isn't Disney for little kids?
If you're a Disney fan like me, you've heard all of the above more than once, haven't you? What is it that keeps us coming back? It's likely something a bit different for all of us, but for me it's primarily The Bubble.
The Disney Bubble. You enter as you pass under that archway that your passenger takes a photo of and posts immediately on Facebook or Twitter. It means you are in The Mouse's hands, in a place where the troubles of the real world can be safely put aside, where hundreds of people are employed to make you happy, where seeing the world with child-like excitement and reacting to it with child-like joy is not only accepted but encouraged. You don't need to drive if you don't want to. You don't have to cook if you don't want to. If you've done it right, you either know where you're going to eat or you don't care. In the bubble, a Big Important Decision is whether to head to the Polynesian for a Lapu Lapu break via monorail or boat. The Bubble is worth every penny.
Our Disney trips always seem to come just when we need them, and this one is no exception. About six months ago the lovely and talented Lisa took over as manager of our town after the town manager was fired. She's an interim filling in until a mew manager is hired, which hasn't happened yet. Until then she's carrying on with her regular job as town clerk and filling in as manager. Running a town with more than 100 employees and budget of over $30 million is a big job, and it's taken a lot of Lisa's time and energy. Then Matthew happened.
Look, it could have been a lot worse. We escaped the worst of the storm and flooding and my heart goes out to those inland who are still as I write this trying to deal with Matthew. But watching Lisa guide this town through the blow has been an unforgettable experience. She's been working 15+ hour days since Thursday and even when she's been home, she's more often than not been on the phone dealing with some storm-related town issue. From preparation through the storm itself to recovery and the aftermath, Lisa and her team (and she has great department heads) have kept things calm and smooth and humming along. But it's taking a huge effort on all of their parts.
Lisa is extremely intelligent, calm under stress, strong, and a natural-born leader. She knows instinctively it seems when to listen and when to lead, when to take advice and when to lay down what needs to be done. She's learning this on the job, but has already become a source of information and advice for others. People who've lived on this island a long time are saying they've never seen such a professional response to a storm from this town. I couldn't be more proud.
But it has been so hard watching her deal with all this and not being able to help. She's under a lot of stress. She has been making decisions over and over every day that will immediately affect people and will have long-term consequences for our town. She's doing great. I am not only proud of her as my bestest friend and wife, but truly thankful for her as someone who loves this island as a dream come true.
She's taking good care of my paradise, and she deserves a break in The Bubble. Yes, it's expensive, but it's the best bargain I can imagine if it can give Lisa some time completely free.
Showing posts with label proud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proud. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Monday, September 7, 2015
Stiteses In The Swamp Pt. 2: Full Moon Friday
Lisa was my life-saver during the entire production of this show. I tend to over-promise myself and set a new record for that this time. Lisa was like a little Guardian Angel floating around and taking care of everything I wasn't. I told Director Cal that sure, I'd find someone to do props. That "someone" turned out to be Lisa, who stepped into completely new territory and rocked it. And then there's the publicity. Lisa took it upon herself to get Shrek in the local newspapers, and I don't think any BLT show has been represented better in the press, a big factor in the over 1500 people we had turn out to see the show. One article she wrote, a huge piece in Southport Magazine, is truly not only the best article about a show we've ever had but also a spectacular representation of what ALL community theatres do in putting together a major production. Whatever needed to be done, Lisa was right there either helping do it or totally taking it upon herself. I couldn't have survived without her.
But the el numero uno, very biggest, thank the Lord above for Lisa factor in this show was her debut as a stage manager. I signed on as stage manager for this show early on, then got talked into actually taking a small on stage role as well. I had no idea how much work a small role would be, the dancing and singing was way out of my comfort zone and the work involved in learning to do even that small amount of choreography blew me away. I agreed to the on stage stuff knowing I couldn't stage manage by myself if I was going to be otherwise occupied. Lisa had already agreed to help me stage manage Shrek, but my acting debut would place a whole lot more on her shoulders. On top of the props, she knew she'd be busy, but leapt right into the role with both feet. And she rocked it.
Stage management is a huge job. I'm still learning myself and this show taught me its share of lessons. Lisa soaked it up like a sponge, organizing a crew to execute set changes as well as anyone could have. That's a pretty big deal for someone learning on the job. I could go on and on about all she learned and all she did over a week of tech rehearsals and two weekends of performances, but this particular show offers up one night that pretty much encapsulates everything. It was the Friday of our second weekend, the night of a full moon. I'm not usually superstitious about such things, but may be changing my mind after this one.
Much of stage management involves dealing with "Backstage Drama." Everyone says "leave the drama on stage," but it never happens. It couldn't, really, given you are looking at dozens of naturally dramatic people attempting the near impossible over and over again. Drama happens, and takes one of two forms. The first is caused by, to put it simply, things breaking. Equipment breaks. Electronics fail. Sets break. Costumes fall apart. People are injured. You can count on ALL of those things happening on every show. Some of these things rise to the level of actual emergency. The second, which you can also count on every show, is drama created by people being, well, dramatic about things. Everyone is under a lot of pressure and sometimes what would be nothing in real life makes otherwise sane people lose their minds during a show. Though it can't be ignored, this kind of drama is almost never an emergency and can't be allowed to distract when one crops up. Our Full Moon Friday offers a great comparison of the two, and why Lisa was a great asset to Shrek the Musical.
Some backstage emergencies are actually pretty hilarious. Full Moon Friday offered one of these in the form of the Greatest Costume Malfunction Ever, otherwise known as The Donkey Dong Incident. During one of Donkey's big song and dance scenes, a piece of his costume became unattched at one end causing a strip of costume to dangle between his legs. Yes, it looked just as you are imagining. Dan, our awesome Donkey, could do nothing else but carry on, dancing around with a swinging......thing. Audience members were texting Lisa saying basically, "uhhhh, we have children here...." So much for no one noticing. Some things just can't be fixed until the scene is over, ya know? It was, by the way, fixed by the Donkey's wife. Insert your own Donkey dong joke here.
I wrote in my tribute to John the Sound Tech about our trouble with microphones. Full Moon Friday saw our lead's mic fail, in the middle of a song. Does Lisa freak out? Nope. And thus no one else does. Charles Patton, our Shrek, can project like no one's business, so he did. By the time he had a brief moment off stage, a spare mic had been procured and was hurriedly attached to the ogre. Lisa told John on headset about the new mic, John fired it up and when he went back out, all was well. Emergency dealt with.
Those two are the sorts of happens-every-show things a stage manager has to deal with. Staying calm is essential, something Lisa is very good at. But every now and then a REAL emergency crops up. Staying calm THEN is even more important. On this night there was an equipment malfunction in the tech booth area that escalated to involving the auditorium's two paid managers, then the Brunswick Community College's public safety personnel. It was touch and go for a while and we came very close to evacuating the building. This is NOT the sort of thing that happens every show, I never had anything like this happen on my watch. I never even knew this was happening until after the fact. Thing is no one not on headset had any idea. Lisa handled it like a pro, responding to a scary situation without freaking out, without blowing up and without letting it affect the show or the performances of any actors. She preserved not only the magic of the performance for the audience, but shielded all the actors (who would have not been as calm, I can assure you) from potentially distracting "drama."
So what of the other type of drama? In point of comparison, pretty much simultaneous to the tech booth situation, there were folks behaving much less calmly than Lisa over which of several available dressers were going to help with a costume change later in the show. It wasn't a question of if there was going to be help (which would have been a real problem), that was never in doubt, just who was going to be involved or not. It got needlessly dramatic. Lisa was as ignorant of this......situation.....as those involved were of what was going on in the tech booth. Thankfully.
I can't say enough how thankful I am it was Lisa and her calm professionalism in the wings keeping things under control. She spent the last two musicals in the dressing room dealing with that sort of drama, but she is much more suited for a stage management role. And BLT is lucky she is the one who was filling that role on that Full Moon Friday.
But the el numero uno, very biggest, thank the Lord above for Lisa factor in this show was her debut as a stage manager. I signed on as stage manager for this show early on, then got talked into actually taking a small on stage role as well. I had no idea how much work a small role would be, the dancing and singing was way out of my comfort zone and the work involved in learning to do even that small amount of choreography blew me away. I agreed to the on stage stuff knowing I couldn't stage manage by myself if I was going to be otherwise occupied. Lisa had already agreed to help me stage manage Shrek, but my acting debut would place a whole lot more on her shoulders. On top of the props, she knew she'd be busy, but leapt right into the role with both feet. And she rocked it.
Stage management is a huge job. I'm still learning myself and this show taught me its share of lessons. Lisa soaked it up like a sponge, organizing a crew to execute set changes as well as anyone could have. That's a pretty big deal for someone learning on the job. I could go on and on about all she learned and all she did over a week of tech rehearsals and two weekends of performances, but this particular show offers up one night that pretty much encapsulates everything. It was the Friday of our second weekend, the night of a full moon. I'm not usually superstitious about such things, but may be changing my mind after this one.
Much of stage management involves dealing with "Backstage Drama." Everyone says "leave the drama on stage," but it never happens. It couldn't, really, given you are looking at dozens of naturally dramatic people attempting the near impossible over and over again. Drama happens, and takes one of two forms. The first is caused by, to put it simply, things breaking. Equipment breaks. Electronics fail. Sets break. Costumes fall apart. People are injured. You can count on ALL of those things happening on every show. Some of these things rise to the level of actual emergency. The second, which you can also count on every show, is drama created by people being, well, dramatic about things. Everyone is under a lot of pressure and sometimes what would be nothing in real life makes otherwise sane people lose their minds during a show. Though it can't be ignored, this kind of drama is almost never an emergency and can't be allowed to distract when one crops up. Our Full Moon Friday offers a great comparison of the two, and why Lisa was a great asset to Shrek the Musical.
Some backstage emergencies are actually pretty hilarious. Full Moon Friday offered one of these in the form of the Greatest Costume Malfunction Ever, otherwise known as The Donkey Dong Incident. During one of Donkey's big song and dance scenes, a piece of his costume became unattched at one end causing a strip of costume to dangle between his legs. Yes, it looked just as you are imagining. Dan, our awesome Donkey, could do nothing else but carry on, dancing around with a swinging......thing. Audience members were texting Lisa saying basically, "uhhhh, we have children here...." So much for no one noticing. Some things just can't be fixed until the scene is over, ya know? It was, by the way, fixed by the Donkey's wife. Insert your own Donkey dong joke here.
I wrote in my tribute to John the Sound Tech about our trouble with microphones. Full Moon Friday saw our lead's mic fail, in the middle of a song. Does Lisa freak out? Nope. And thus no one else does. Charles Patton, our Shrek, can project like no one's business, so he did. By the time he had a brief moment off stage, a spare mic had been procured and was hurriedly attached to the ogre. Lisa told John on headset about the new mic, John fired it up and when he went back out, all was well. Emergency dealt with.
Those two are the sorts of happens-every-show things a stage manager has to deal with. Staying calm is essential, something Lisa is very good at. But every now and then a REAL emergency crops up. Staying calm THEN is even more important. On this night there was an equipment malfunction in the tech booth area that escalated to involving the auditorium's two paid managers, then the Brunswick Community College's public safety personnel. It was touch and go for a while and we came very close to evacuating the building. This is NOT the sort of thing that happens every show, I never had anything like this happen on my watch. I never even knew this was happening until after the fact. Thing is no one not on headset had any idea. Lisa handled it like a pro, responding to a scary situation without freaking out, without blowing up and without letting it affect the show or the performances of any actors. She preserved not only the magic of the performance for the audience, but shielded all the actors (who would have not been as calm, I can assure you) from potentially distracting "drama."
So what of the other type of drama? In point of comparison, pretty much simultaneous to the tech booth situation, there were folks behaving much less calmly than Lisa over which of several available dressers were going to help with a costume change later in the show. It wasn't a question of if there was going to be help (which would have been a real problem), that was never in doubt, just who was going to be involved or not. It got needlessly dramatic. Lisa was as ignorant of this......situation.....as those involved were of what was going on in the tech booth. Thankfully.
I can't say enough how thankful I am it was Lisa and her calm professionalism in the wings keeping things under control. She spent the last two musicals in the dressing room dealing with that sort of drama, but she is much more suited for a stage management role. And BLT is lucky she is the one who was filling that role on that Full Moon Friday.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Run, Kelly! Run!
Almost exactly three years ago, our lives were enriched by the addition of a new friend. Kelly Gottsman walked into our house one night in early January of 2010 on the arm of my best pal Micheal Howard. We ate chocolate fondue and talked for a few hours, just the five of us, and when Michael and Kelly left, my wife and I turned to each other and made bets on when the wedding would be. You'd have had to know Michael at the time to know how outlandish the idea had been hours before, but we'd witnessed the magic of two people meant for each other that night, and as holders of that torch ourselves, we recognized it. Eight months later, the Doctors Howard were married and living Happily Ever After. They totally beat both our guesses.
I was going to say Kelly is larger than life, but she'd probably take that as a joke about her height. Instead I'll say she is one of the most completely ALIVE people I've ever met. She IS tall, taller than me and I'm over six feet. It was hard to tell at first because Kelly is fond of heels, but one night standing next to her, both at the kitchen counter chopping veggies, both barefoot, I saw she had me by a good half inch. Yes, within weeks we were at the barefoot in their house helping cook dinner without being asked stage of friendship. That's the kind of person Kelly is. She is also drop dead gorgeous. The boys in our little social group, all around 10 at the time, had goo goo eyes. She also has the most awesome sense of humor EVER. Maybe I say that because it is often rooted in the meanest sarcasm ever, much like my own, but I love it that way. She is also one of the smartest people I've ever run across. I have some very smart friends and relatives and had some genius professors in college, and I'd put Kelly's mind up against any of them. She pulls up facts and data like a computer and that thing YOU think to say a day after the argument has ended comes to HER right then. It isn't fair, really, but isn't her fault, she's just that way. She uses her powers for good, usually, and helped save my sanity and that of my sister and family just a couple months after meeting me. She didn't know these people, yet she was there with expertise and advise and comfort and while I won't go into the details, I'll say I won't ever forget it and can't ever repay her for it. And that's just what she is to me and my family. She worked a miracle on Michael and his son. You ever want to meet the real life Mary Poppins, I'll introduce you. But Kelly is really much better than Mary Poppins. For one she is real, as real as you can get. And what's best, she didn't leave when she had worked her magic. She may not have a talking umbrella, but she has magic just the same.
Last year was a tough one for Kelly. The problem with being a real life Mary Poppins is that sometimes real life comes up and bites ya in the ass. She had some health problems that didn't look like they'd ever leave, and then she lost her father to cancer, actually a form of leukemia. Earl Gottsman was awesome. He is the source of Kelly's height, and from what I knew of him and have found out since his death also her kindness and love and generosity and good humor. He was a college professor and sometimes administrator. Even into retirement, he was an adult league softball star. He was friendly and accepting and threw himself into Kelly's new family (which happily includes us) with vigor and enthusiasm and love. He adored Kelly and was incredibly proud of her and he was her Daddy and he was too young to die, yet he did. Devastating.
Kelly was sad. You'd have to know happy Kelly to understand how heartbreaking that is. But Kelly, amongst everything else, is a fighter. She proudly claims to "never half-ass" and she lives up to that better than anyone I know. Kelly has decided to honor her dad by raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by running the Disney World Half Marathon this weekend. Kelly was a runner in high school and maybe college, and she was fast. She says she wants to get her fast back. Hell yeah, Kelly! She has raised $3800 so far and if you'd like to add to that total, there is still time. Her fundraising page has a blog that is funny and inspiring and also features a link to easily donate by credit card. It's on the right hand side. The big button that says "DONATE NOW". Hee hee :)
Kelly hopes to finish in under two hours, which is good time, I understand. She explains it this way, in perfect Kelly fashion,
Anyone looking down the barrel of getting older has got to admire that. She's awesome, see?
I'm looking forward to Saturday morning. I'm going to wake up at 5:30 am to "be there" in spirit at least for the start. Kelly thinks she can work out a way for me to track her progress through the race online, and I hope she does. I'll do it. I'll be her cheering section back home. Michael is going to be a "ChEAR" person on site. That term is too cute. So too cute it even makes a dedicated Disney Geek want to hurl, but that's what they call it. He'll get to see the start at Epcot, then get on a monorail for the Magic Kingdom where he will get to see her run through the Cinderella Castle, the half-way point of the race, before heading back to Epcot to see the finish. It all sounds so cool. I'm so happy for and proud of both of them. I'm beyond thrilled that this is all happening at DISNEY!!!! All I needed was further proof the place is really magic, right?
Via con Dios, Doctors Howard. Have a great time, be proud and be safe. I love you both.
 |
| Kelly is the one without the top hat :) |
Last year was a tough one for Kelly. The problem with being a real life Mary Poppins is that sometimes real life comes up and bites ya in the ass. She had some health problems that didn't look like they'd ever leave, and then she lost her father to cancer, actually a form of leukemia. Earl Gottsman was awesome. He is the source of Kelly's height, and from what I knew of him and have found out since his death also her kindness and love and generosity and good humor. He was a college professor and sometimes administrator. Even into retirement, he was an adult league softball star. He was friendly and accepting and threw himself into Kelly's new family (which happily includes us) with vigor and enthusiasm and love. He adored Kelly and was incredibly proud of her and he was her Daddy and he was too young to die, yet he did. Devastating.
Kelly was sad. You'd have to know happy Kelly to understand how heartbreaking that is. But Kelly, amongst everything else, is a fighter. She proudly claims to "never half-ass" and she lives up to that better than anyone I know. Kelly has decided to honor her dad by raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by running the Disney World Half Marathon this weekend. Kelly was a runner in high school and maybe college, and she was fast. She says she wants to get her fast back. Hell yeah, Kelly! She has raised $3800 so far and if you'd like to add to that total, there is still time. Her fundraising page has a blog that is funny and inspiring and also features a link to easily donate by credit card. It's on the right hand side. The big button that says "DONATE NOW". Hee hee :)
Kelly hopes to finish in under two hours, which is good time, I understand. She explains it this way, in perfect Kelly fashion,
When I ran this race 10 years ago, my finish time was 2 hours and 39 minutes. Provided the course hasn't changed to include running up Space Mountain, I'm confident that my 32 year old self could dust my 22 year old self by a solid 40 minutes.
Anyone looking down the barrel of getting older has got to admire that. She's awesome, see?
I'm looking forward to Saturday morning. I'm going to wake up at 5:30 am to "be there" in spirit at least for the start. Kelly thinks she can work out a way for me to track her progress through the race online, and I hope she does. I'll do it. I'll be her cheering section back home. Michael is going to be a "ChEAR" person on site. That term is too cute. So too cute it even makes a dedicated Disney Geek want to hurl, but that's what they call it. He'll get to see the start at Epcot, then get on a monorail for the Magic Kingdom where he will get to see her run through the Cinderella Castle, the half-way point of the race, before heading back to Epcot to see the finish. It all sounds so cool. I'm so happy for and proud of both of them. I'm beyond thrilled that this is all happening at DISNEY!!!! All I needed was further proof the place is really magic, right?
Via con Dios, Doctors Howard. Have a great time, be proud and be safe. I love you both.
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