I read the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch recently… not nearly as morose or sad as you’d expect a speech from a dying man to be. In fact, it’s surprisingly light and borderline forgetful considering it mostly chronicles his own accomplishments and emphasizes “achieving your childhood dreams”. (Personally, I have already achieved my childhood dreams… to eat candy for breakfast. I didn’t set the bar particularly high.)A

Anyway, one of the few things that really stuck with me about the book was the author's belief that Luck is where Preparation meets Opportunity. I really like that theory... it totally makes sense to me. That pilot guy Captain Sully Whatsisname saving that plane full of people in New York is a perfect example. In fact, it's true in my own life. I often feel so Lucky to be living my dream life right now. But in fact, haven’t I been Preparing myself for this? I mean, there has been a “plan” to what I’m doing, albeit a loose one. I have been more particular about the theatrical projects I have chosen over the last 5 years or so. Generally it involved working with as many talented people as I could, hoping to absorb as much as I can observe. I also have been conscious of visibility, choosing things that are more likely to get noticed and draw some attention. I was thinking that someday it might be nice to quit my day-job, but I had no immediate plans to do so. Losing my day job was the Opportunity that was presented to me. So far it’s been working for me thank goodness. So, this has become my mantra lately. Another one I find I often repeat to myself: Easy is Difficult with Practice. What are your mantras?

Just had a snack – some those Lance “Toast-Chee” crackers. Aside from the possibly-offensive-Asian-product-name, I particularly love the variety with the cheese-flavored crackers with peanut butter in them. Because when I’m hungry, I can’t think of a more tantalizing taste combination than that of peanut butter and cheese together. Wow. I mean, why don’t they make a Reese’s peanut butter cup with cheese in it? Folks would eat it up, based on the popularity of this puzzling cracker snack.

Sweeney Todd opens this week. Working with Faith Prince and Davis Gaines has been a blast. I love the other leads to death. And I had the joy of being reunited with so many of my Mad Cow favorites when the ensemble joined us. There were only 2 folks there whom I hadn’t met (Rob Anderson and Lucy Carney). The rest were folks I had already worked with (Jenny Weaver, Jonathan Lang, Becky Lane, Elizabeth Takacs, Melissa Mason, Janine Papin, Betsy Bauer, Rod Cathey) and people whom I know and have always wanted to share the stage with (Hilda Cathey, Eddy Coppens, Kevin Zepf, Keith Kirkwood, Kevin Kelly). Just gloriously wonderful to be among friends for this special, though unfortunately brief, experience.

The celebrity dish? They are both absolutely wonderful. Davis is extremely warm and he goes out of his way to greet me, pat me on the back, and he always calls me by name. Plus he’s been complimenting my performance, which is so SO thrilling. Faith is also fun, very sassy, and friendly. She is not as familiar with the show as Davis, so she has been understandably more stressed trying to absorb and remember the voluminous amounts of material and music she needs to have ready. It’s just incredible to be surrounded by this much talent. I just want to do well, and feel that in performance my own talents are worthy of this production...it is very nerve-wracking working with a full orchestra and a conductor, but everything has been going well. We aren't going to peak too soon, but we are gonna kick some serious ass by Friday night.

And I haven’t even talked about Amadeus… another amazing cast and a production that is going to knock your socks off. Philip Nolen was OFF BOOK as Salieri at the first rehearsal. Brown-nosing hack. David Knoell and Sarah Lockard are so cute as Mozart and Constanze… and Chad Gneiting and I are having a BLAST being the Venticelli. I look forward to giving this show my full energy and attention since I have been so tied up with Laughing Wild and Sweeney these last few weeks.

To be an actor saying I’m overwhelmed with too much work going on… that makes me feel pretty Lucky.

OK, enough, gotta pimp my shows some more. Please consider coming to one of Sleuths' offerings. $10 people, you can't get a better deal than that!