WE MUST REJOICE OR WE WILL ALL GO MAD

There's this scene in the film Jesus' Son, where Billy Cruddup's character, a heroin addict with the charming name "Shit head", witnesses a car crash. Shit head is completely lost, and seeing something terrible happen. Yet even so, he takes a step back, and looks around at the road and the surrounding trees and the shine on the rain covered asphalt- and says something about how beautiful it all is.  It all, as I interpreted it, meaning the world.

I get that.

I think the world is beautiful. I think people often suck, that death is a drag, and that too often we
human beings make unbelievably stupid choices that result in destruction. And I find the world magnificent. At almost every moment.

Maybe I'm crazy.

I've been working on several different shows the past few months. I just helped a group of teen agers at a high school for troubled youth produce a play they created out of nothing in just six weeks. Some of these teens have already been arrested, or abused, or bullied- but somehow we managed to find a way to create something that we all cared about and were proud of- a play title "A World Gone Mad". Watching a group of people who have every right imaginable to be cynical find hope and glory and the insane giddiness of putting on costumes and speaking in front of others is, borrow a line from Ray Bradbury, a medicine for melancholy.

I have another medicine I want you all to take. It's called Lend Me A Tenor. 'Tis a farce by Ken Ludwig I am directing for Inspire/Creative that opens next weekend at the Old Schoolhouse Theatre in Parker. It's silly and stupid and improbable and revels in the lunatic aspect of existence. I have assembled a cast of magicians of the soul, and all they do is make me laugh at ever rehearsal. I love them and I love the show and I love being alive, so get your ass out to Parker and smile.

If you are short on scratch, we have a free preview Thursday November 12 at 7:30. Yeah, free. So what's your excuse now?

The world beats us up enough, don't help it in the task.