Every spring,  we New Leafers talk about how busy we’re going to be over the summer, and how this year, we’re not going to let the ball drop; this summer, we’ll keep up with all the work so we’re not completely backlogged at the start of the next season (we generally start rehearsals for our fall shows in mid-August).

Of course, it never quite happens.

So what did we do this summer?
Well, Marsha just got back from 5 weeks in upstate New York, working with the Bakerloo Theatre Project .This was her 4th summer with the company.  This year, they did a gender-blind casting of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where she played King Alonso of Naples, and various “spirits of the island;” and a stripped-down, very comic production of Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, where she got rave reviews as Madame Ranevskaya. 

Michelle’s a technical assistant at Chicago Shakes and has been building the set for Willy Wonka, which includes fun things like a pink candy boat, a nut room, a giant TV, a flowing chocolate river, an inventing room, and a bubble room with big and little acrylic balls and blue mylar.  (I totally want to go play on this set.) She’s been monkeying around on scaffolding trying to figure out ways of attaching bizarre materials 16 feet up in the air. Good times.

Jared, as he has for several summers now, is working at Ravinia. He has to be there pretty much all day every day. I haven’t actually seen him in months (so thank God for email!)

Kyra’s working a day job and directing a one act at the side project for the fall titled “The Best Christmas Present, Ever.” She’s also been planning her wedding – and that, alone, is more work than I want to think about right now.

Nick and Jess spent 5 weeks teaching at Cherubs this summer (a.k.a. Northwestern University’s National High School Institute, Theater Division). If you know Cherubs, you know this is a 24/7 job. Nick designed sound for 10 shows and taught sound design classes; Jess directed one of those shows and taught a whole bunch of acting classes. Nick’s also doing all the programming for the awesome Chicago Theatre Database, which is in beta right now and growing so fast it’s scary. 

As for me, I’m working my regular 9-to-5, building an illustration/graphic design portfolio in preparation for changing careers (again), taking classes in bookbinding and digital letterpress, and starting an Etsy shop to sell handbound journals/sketchbooks and original art. 

So now it’s August (yikes!), and here we go again…kind of panicking as we realize that we’ve got a fundraiser on August 27^th to plan; we’ve got a short play in the Abbie Hoffman festival that needs to be rehearsed, teched, attended, etc.; rehearsals for our fall show start August 25^th and production meetings start now; we had callbacks last Saturday for our winter show, though we can’t finalize a cast quite yet; and we’re committed to creating an original piece for a spring workshop production, which we really need to write one of these days (much more on that later). We’ve got grants to apply for, an improved box office system to roll out,  a fiscal year to close out and another to open, marketing to design, press releases to write, and branding decisions to discuss.

Welcome back, everyone!