Theatre Snob

Ok I'll admit it. I'm a theatre snob! I have had season tickets to the Fox Theatre for a long time now (longer than I can remember). Anyway, the Fox has announced its 2005-2006 season and here are the shows:
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat September 20-October 2, 2005
Wicked November 16-December 4, 2005
Little Women February 21-March 5, 2006
Bombay Dreams April 4-16, 2006
Doctor Dolittle May 16-28, 2006
The Phantom of the Opera June 7-July 1, 2006
Plus their off-series shows are:
Riverdance December 6-11, 2005
A Christmas Carol December 13-17, 2005
Annie December 27-January 1, 2006
Blast! January 27-29, 2006
Rent March 17-19, 2006
Hairspray May 2-7, 2006
This promises to be a great season at the Fox. Although I did get a letter that they will have to change the night my tickets are for. At first I was a season subscriber on Tuesday nights (Opening Night!) up in the balcony. Slowly I moved down to the Mezzanine and up until last year, I was a Sunday night subscriber during the first week of the show's run. This past year, or maybe the last two years, they added a second week to the run of the performances so I took the Sunday night of the second week. Now I am informed that most shows, like The Producers, need Sunday night to strike their sets and move on to the next city. The Fox has temporarily moved my seat to a Thursday matinee. Thursday matinee! I work! They say they will call and discuss changing my seat to a more convenient day and time. You bet I am gonna need a better day and time! Maybe Friday nights?

BTW auditions were held at Bishop DuBourg Guild Theatre for the the Summer Alumni production of 42nd Street. I didn't audition since I'm going to Disneyland for its 50th Celebration (95 days 23 hours 57 minutes 19 seconds until I go) but I did sign up for a few crews. Afterwards we went to the Sports Zone for a few drinks (both nights). I forgot how much I missed these people. If was fun to get together again with Adrienne, Bob, Christian, Stacey, Kevin (Shrek) Charlie, Teri, and Rachel.

New Survivor

Have you heard about the next planned “Survivor” show?
Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 6 weeks.
Each business person will be provided with a copy of the school’s curriculum, and a class of 25 students.
Each class will have 2 learning-disabled children, 3 with A.D.D., 1 gifted child, and 2 who speak limited English. Three will be label with severe behavior problems.
Each business person must complete lesson plans at least a week in advance with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create materials accordingly.
They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct,, implement technology, document attendance, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades,, complete report cards, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.
They must also supervise recess and monitor hallways. In addition, they will complete drills for fire and tornadoes.
They must take time our of their mornings (when they could be preparing for class) to attend faculty meetings.
They must also take time after school to tutor those students who are behind.
Most will be asked to give up any after-school prep time to serve as a school coach.
If they are sick or having a bad day, they must not let it show. If they are sick, they have to do twice as much work to prepare the substitute to take over the classroom.
Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into their lesson planning.
They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment at all times.
The business people will only have access to the golf course on the weekends, but on their new salary they will not be able to afford it anyway.
There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch at a nice restaurant. They either have to bring a sack lunch or eat the cafeteria food. Lunch will be limited to 20 minutes, and they have to eat their lunch in the cafeteria with the students.
There will be no climate controlled environment during recess duty: it will be cold in the winter, and hot in the spring and fall. On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival candidate is supervising their class.
They will be provided with two, 40-minute planning periods per week while their students are at another class. If the copier is working, they may make copies of necessary materials at this time, otherwise, they have to use their own time before or after school, in the evening, or during the weekend, or all of the above.
The business people must continually advance their education on their own time, and pay for this advanced training themselves. This can be accomplished by moonlighting at a second job or marrying someone with money.
The winner will be allowed to return to his or her cushy job at the office.

+ John Paul II +

Today the Holy Father, John Paul II, died. This is NOT a joke! He was the our leader of the Catholic Church for 27 years. I was in college when he first became pope. Actually I was working at Camp Don Bosco when Paul VI died, and at first we thought it was a sick joke when we heard the news. Then John Paul I was elected pope and 30 days later he died. Again, we thought this was an even sicker joke. And then we heard days/weeks later that a new pope was elected and he was Polish. Again NOT a joke!
But today we mourn the loss of a great man and spiritual leader. We cannot begin to measure the effect he has had on our world. No matter what your opinion is of the clergy sexual abuse scandal here in the United States, you must respect his courage and strength of personal integrity. Yes he was conservative, but he spoke out against injustice and spoke for those who are less fortunate and have no voice.
When I was in the seminary. we went up to Chicago to see the Holy Father and somewhere I still have a "pope button" I bought outside the mass area. I remember how outraged we were when we realized that HareKrishna followers had put on wigs and were selling souvenirs. Ok we laughed at the wigs and we bought the pins anyway. I didn't bring a camera because I thought we would be so far away. It was actually the opposite. We got to the park so early in the morning we were able to stand in the grass fairly close to the main altar area. Not that we could touch him but we could clearly see him as he celebrated mass.
The next time I saw him in person was when he came here to St. Louis. I watched the papal parade on TV and on a webcast on the internet, as well as the Youth Rally downtown. I got up early in the morning in January and went to the mass downtown. I remember how dark it was and how long we were down there and how late we got back to the arena. This time we were far away and up in the "nose-bleed" section, but that was okay. Mom got to see him at mass and that made her very happy.
In Chicago I saw the pope as church leader. In St. Louis I saw as a human servant of God.
He will be missed. He did touch our lives. He did touch my life. He now shares in the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eternal life grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen.