Back to Woik

Back from NYC. Caught two shows - DEUCE Starring Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes, and INHERIT THE WIND starring Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy! Both shows were great. Deuce has been pretty much universally panned by the critics, but why is it these days every play needs to be Hamlet??? The sold out house that I attended was laughing, very attentive, and lots of smiles. It was a fun show and I loved it.
"Inherit the Wind" has always been one of my favorites, and this one was incredible. Front row seats, Christopher Plummer about 5 feet away doing a scene on the steps leading up to the stage ... a great night! Got to meet Brian Dennehy afterwards, so that was cool. Dinner at Sardis ...all in all, a good trip! Now back to the writing grind. We record GUNS OF POWDER RIVER this weekend, and then on June 4th the first three episodes of Season 5. Those are the scripts I'm doing now. So - its back to woik.

Whats new around here and Random thoughts

After a one year hiatus, I am going back into the editing room for some hands-on production work. The last production I edited for CRT was DANDELION WINE (and every production that came before it); and since then most of my CRT time has been spent scheduling, recording, and writing (and writing, and writing); but I've decided that I need more splicing and dicing in my life - so I am going to be editing!

Useless random thoughts?
~
I feel very old
Mothers Day can really suck
I could easily move away from this New England weather. I need to think of that more.
-so why am I looking at a huge house in North Hampton NH?
My world moves much too slow for me
I write better in bars
I need a vacation ... But bad. It's been 7 years or so.
I dont listen to audio books, in fact, I dont even like them.
I heard an interview with someone from LA Theatre works lamenting on how 'young people dont go to the theatre anymore." LADY - an Orchestra ticket for a Broadway musical can reach $250.00! The cheap seats are 50!! TOUCH REALITY - ITS REFRESHING.

My top 10 Pet peeves;
1) A person talking with their mouth full. I dont want to SEE the process, thank you!
2) Guys wearing baseball caps in restaurants.
3) The same baseball caps worn backwards.
4) Cell phones in movie theatres!!! And people talking on them! I love paying 12 bucks to hear someones conversation.
5) Those awful "cricket phones" that chirp. Do they have a vibrate mode?? And then both parties shouting into them! Just what I want to hear in a nice restaurant.
6) Excuses.
7) People who are mean to kids
8) People who are mean to their pets
9) small talk
10)Leaf Blowers

Ok, I vented. now back to writing the script

TOM SWIFT WRAPS

Last night we finished recording TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE, which will be released for broadcast as THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SWIFT. I think this will also be fun production when it is edited and scored. I am hoping to have it on-air in July. The CRT players rose to the occasion once again and turned in some fun performances - special thanks to Matthew Scott Robertson who played Tom, Hugh Metzler who played his father, and Quent Risher who played Rad! This was Quent's first return to CRT in 10 years! All in all, a fun time, great recording sessions, and one more reason why I love recording for CRT, and last night brought us to 220 productions!

POWDER RIVER - SEASON TWO IS RELEASED

Season 2 of my western series POWDER RIVER was released on May 1st! A couple of favorite episodes in this batch are SON OF THE MORNING STAR, BLOOD ON MONTANA SNOW, THE BLIZZARD,and JENNY WHITE. I think this is my favorite season so far. Not sure though.

ITS MAY!

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us in Gloucester this weekend! It was a great run and a lot of fun at the West End Theater. Tonight we recorded episodes 1,2,3 of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SWIFT, and it was an enjoyable session. Matt Robertson is playing Tom, and he's a lot of fun (and a good actor!)He is backed up by CRT vets Hugh Metzler, JT Turner, Quent Risher, Derek Aalerud, Lincoln Clark, Shonna McEachern and Marcia Friedman. All in all, a great night, topped off by last call at the pub where I took some NY Yankee Bashing from John at the bar! Oh, it's tough being a Yankee's fan in Bawstun.

REX IS BACK!

Rex Trailer will be making three more appearances on POWDER RIVER in Season 5! These episodes will take Britt MacMasters to California, and will lead off the new season. Also guest starring will be Bill O'Brien - better know to millions of Boston TV fans as SGT. BILLY! I am so excited about this! I watched BOOMTOWN each and every weekend for many, many years ... and this is just so damned cool! In the picture you see CRT's SAM DONATO, SGT. BILLY O'BRIEN, and REX TRAILER in BOOMTOWN.
Man, those were the good old days.

Updates, Updates!

BARRYMORE is up in Gloucester this week at the West End Theater! The set looks great in this venue. Hope to see you in Gloucester!

I'm back to writing POWDER RIVER. Right now I am working on the two hour special, GUNS OF POWDER RIVER, and after that, I'm all ready to start in on Season Five (as soon as I can get some ideas for 15 new episodes)! We'e lining up some special guest stars for these new episodes, and I am very excited about it. The series will be in production from June thru August.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SWIFT starts Monday night, as we tape three episodes.

Production is winding down on our second Ray Bradbury production, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. It's been a very long production schedule on this one, but worth the wait. I think it will blow people away when they hear it. It is quite spectacular.

POWDER RIVER CD RELEASE

Check out the final release cover art to our "POWDER RIVER Season One" CD / Cassette / MP3 release!! The shows have been re-mastered, and in some cases, new sound effects added (not a lot, but some :)The shows sound great. 15 episodes are included here, including one of my favorite PR stories, THE WINE OF LIFE.

I saw the "official" POWDER RIVER cover art today, and it looks pretty cool. Went to Gloucester to the West End Theater, and Gordon Baird, who is bringing BARRYMORE to Gloucester - congrats on the Equity Card!! Gordon opens this week in CRAZY FOR YOU at the NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE. Try to catch it (after you catch BARRYMORE)

BARRYMORE IN GLOUCESTER

I'm really looking forward do doing BARRYMORE at the West End Theater in Gloucester next week. We are there for three days, April 27,28 at 8pm and Sun. April 29 at 5pm!
Judson Pierce will be playing the role of the prompter, Frank. We had a run thru with Jud the other night and he was great!!! For CRT fans, Jud played the wooden saw horse in our WIZARD OF OZ series, and he's also won a few 'best actor' awards!
This is a cool theatre and I can't wait to do the play there! See ya in Gloucester!

POWDER RIVER on IMAGINATION THEATER

Jim French productions is now broadcasting our POWDER RIVER series once a month, as part of their IMAGINATION THEATRE program. We are heard on over 80 radio stations across the country, and even in New Zealand on 92.2 FM, Wellsford, North Auckland! It's also our most popular show on XM Radio (just look at the comments in the CRT Fan Group!).

For those of you have never heard a POWDER RIVER episode, you can listen to the streaming broadcast .... here is the LINK

Since IMAGINATION THEATRE is on for an hour, we are editing 2 episodes together for each broadcast. This first has THE PREACHER (2004) and A TANGLED ROPE (2004).