Frying pan....fire......

So, I finished up DANCING IN LUGHNASA on Sunday afternoon, went home, slept, and began a new rehearsal period on Monday evening.

I haven't done such a thing in a loooong time.  Back in the days when people paid me for my talents.  Back in those delightful halcyon days when people wanted my talent.

The running joke for the fifteen minutes I was in rehearsal was, "have you learned your lines yet?" and my reply was, "I took the weekend off."

I didn't take the weekend off.

It's a play for the season, a delightful farce called INSPECTING CAROL, that had some popularity a while ago, and is still pretty popular among the amateur theatres.  It's fun; quirky characters and A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

And I play the guy who plays Ebenezer Scrooge.

This guy haunts me like Jacob Marley.

I played him at the Melodrama Theatre in California from 1999 until 2002.  Over three hundred performances; two-a-days, mostly.  Some years, it was like butter; some years, it was like a really bad visit to your sadistic dentist.  Twelve hours a day in the theatre with huge audiences that hadn't quite gotten into the spirit of giving; eating from the snack bar and pretending it didn't hurt; working with little tiny petri dishes that called themselves the Cratchett Children; getting sick as a dog on things that Typhoid Tiny Tim brought with him to the theatre.

And of course, the annual party at Casa Clemo.  Food, a fire in the fireplace, a gift exchange, and a nice, long soak in the Jacuzzi......high stress becomes brotherly love.

But it's October and it's wet and it's cold and I'm tired and there are lines to learn and software to become familiar with and there is a stack of reports to read and sign off on and new hardware to tame.....

Staggering onward, rejoicing.