2003- My Year in Review (Updated 12/30/2003)

Well, it's hard for me to think about this year and not focus on what happened the last three months of it. October, November and December have been nerve-wracking and soul-confirming, frustrating and energizing, painful and joyous. First, the Sheep lost one member, but added two, as well as put up our own show at a theater other than WNEP... more on that later. Then, the Playground FINALLY had it's elections; Doug and I decided not to run for our positions, but rather wanted to see some new blood take more ownership of the theater. Things were relatively contentious at first when we were trying to hash all this election stuff out, especially between Doug and myself. It's no secret that our relationship had become strained as of late. Still, with elections looming, Doug and I sat down at dinner and put our differences aside to see what we could come up with... and we also talked through a lot of our differences. So that was good.

Then came November 21, 2003... a day that will live in Chicago theater infamy. The Department of Revenue "raided" 20 theaters, primarily on the North side of town. Six of us ended up getting shut down; five for not having a PPA (Public Place of Amusement) license, and one (WNEP Theater, where I had formerly been the Chairman of their Board of Directors) for having a "counterfeit" licencse. Around 10:30pm that night, I got a call at home from Zach Ward that the city had stopped by in the form of six policemen, and that the person working the box office for Zach's show had been served with a "cease and desist" order. I ran over to the theater, where we had an impromptu emergency meeting, and we shut the theater down for the weekend. We had a pretty good idea then that we probably wouldn't be opening the doors at that location again.

While I was at the Playground, I got a call on my cell phone that WNEP had been shut down, as well... with the caveat that they had until Monday to cease and desist. The upshot to that was that the Black Sheep still had our last show at WNEP Sunday night. So we now have the distinction of being the last renter from WNEP at their location at 3209 N. Halsted.

So now both WNEP, where I was on the Board, and the Playground, where I was a member, were dark. Doug, Matt Barberra, myself and a couple of highly specialized volunteers began working through the thicket of red-tape. Meanwhile, I was working on a plan to try and keep WNEP fiscally solvent until THEY could get their PPA troubles worked out... they were in a different situation, though... they had HAD a viable PPA in the past; it had somehow lapsed in the interim. How, no one could say. So I met with Don Hall and proposed that the Playground rent out half their time through the end of their current lease, by which time they should be back on their feet. That would also give the Playground time to find a viable space of our own, while still keeping our players on stage and committed to the co-op. To sweeten the pot, I had also planned to donate enough money to WNEP that they would be able to pay a sizable amount of back-rent that they owed. All in all, I thought it a sound plan; a plan that could conceivably save two theaters at once.

The only problem with my proposal is that WNEP had to choose to accept it; they did not. They chose to instead go itinerant and find a sublease to take over their theater at 3209 N. Halsted. Fortunately, Don and I had talked through that scenario as well... I had had a feeling that Don didn't want to fight to save that space. It had been nearly impossible for WNEP to break even there; ComedySportz, the previous tenanants, had done great, but they weren't putting up cutting-edge theater. The space was far more amenable to a group like the Playground. So I began initial inquiries to see if we could take over that space the morning after WNEP decided to vacate it.

After numerous meetings with people at several departments of City Hall, as well as numerous meetings with the landlords of 3209 N. Halsted, we felt like we had come to an understanding. Finally, we took it to the Playground membership for a vote. Doug, Matt and I were nervous... the news that we were leaving the space on Lincoln had hit our members pretty hard. It had been a great home for nearly five years. Hell, I'm STILL in mourning... I designed that space and built much of it myself. I could walk that space in the dark and not hit anything, I know it that well. And honestly, if we felt that if we didn't take that space on Halsted, and we ended up being dark for four or more months, we may very well have gone under. Our membership wouldn't hold, we thought. Dan Izzo put it well; we have a lot of talented people involved with the Playground...and talented people drift away if they're not involved in something concrete. Anyhow, the meeting began, Doug laid out the case for leaving, the various posibilities were discussed, and then we voted. And the vote was unanimous... we would pursue a lease at 3209 N. Halsted. The Playground would be moving.

All in all, it was very energizing and exciting, that meeting. There was new energy in the room; an energy the like of which I hadn't felt in years at the Playground. And it seemed fitting that Doug and I would be working so closely together on this, along with Matt. Doug and I were moving aside; riding off into the sunset, so to speak. This was our last conquest. Doug had built the organization, and I had built the theater. Now we were working to safe-guard all that we had built, and Matt was there to shepherd the Playground into the next era.

December 20 we actually began moving items from the old space to the new space. It was sad to take down the curtains and the lights; to remove the lightboard, dimmer packs and sound equipment from the lightbooth. My lightbooth. I was in a shitty mood the entire time we were there. But then we began to unload into the new space, and to hook up the sound system. I bought everyone that was still around lunch, and John Eiberger flipped the switch, and music played in our new space. And THAT, my friends, was really, really cool.

We're going to have one more bash at the old space January 3rd, 2004... then it's pretty much "adios, Lincoln Avenue." I'm going to miss that space like HELL, but I'm looking forward to walking the new stage the first time it's actually time for one of OUR shows.

So 2003 is, in my mind, the year we said good-bye. 2004, we'll be starting that off with a huge new hello. And THAT'S something to look foward to.

Black Sheep update (Updated 12/30/2003)

The last update about the Sheep talked about our run of "Black Sheep: The Shearing" at WNEP Theater. It fit the mold of not fitting any one description that the rest of my improv life did at the end of the year. It was frustrating in that pretty much NO ONE came and saw the show. Seriously, no one. I lost my ass producing that show. And if was frustrating in that some of my fellow Sheep couldn't get any of their family or friends to come see the show. Not that I could blame them; hell, my own family blanked me at the show. Not one family member came to see me. Several friends did; a couple of co-workers... but no family. Still and all, though, the show was a blast. Even though we drew like shit, we had fun, and the group really solidified.

The thing about "The Shearing" was that Todd Edwards, our director, basically dared us to do the show... he wanted us to step up and get out of our comfort zone. So fine, I stepped up and said I'd put up the money if my fellow Sheep put up the effort. And they all agreed. Well, the ink hadn't even dried on our contract with WNEP before Ed O'Rourke was backing out of the group because he'd taken a part in a show. And honestly, good for him. I'm glad he decided to spread his wings. I just wish he'd been more up-front with us, because we might not have done the show if he had stepped up and said he couldn't commit. Or maybe we would have anyway, but then folks in the group wouldn't have felt burned when he stepped down later. Either way, it would have been nice to have had it come up, because the truth of the matter is that I had an opportunity to do another show myself, but I put the Sheep show first, because we had all committed. That meant I couldn't do this other project, which turned out to be a pretty good show, one that I really would have enjoyed doing. But c'est la vie.

The bottom line is that Ed decided he wanted to go on hiatus right as the rest of the group was trying to figure out what we wanted to do with ourselves going forward. We had already talked about drafting in the Incubator auditions, so the discussion then became whether or not to draft someone who would work well with us AND Ed, or someone who would ultimately replace Ed. And we discussed. And we discussed. When the discussion had ended, we had decided to take the group in another direction; a direction that would include festivals and traveling at some point, as well as continuing to put up our own shows. Since Ed had told us before that festivals weren't something he was interested in, and since we weren't sure when Ed would be coming back, we decided to not only draft one person at the Incubators, but to look for another person as well. We were looking to bring on one more male and one more female, and boost our membership to seven, a number we hadn't had in over two years.

When the Incubators came around, an improv veteran of several years experience showed up in the form of Johnny Costello Jr., and we snatched him up. We were also in the midst of our Thursday night run of shows at the Playground with several Incubator groups, and we kept an eye out for talent of the female persuasion. Elizabeth Urello stood out right away as a poised, intelligent performer, so we asked her to start sitting in with us at rehearsals. By the middle of December, we decided we wanted her to be a full member of the group, so we brought her on board as well.

The best part of our line-up is that none of us has energies that similiar... we really are seven distinct styles working together. Rehearsals have been a blast, and we were really starting to gel before the theater got shut down and the holidays hit. We even had a Black Sheep holiday party with everyone getting way too drunk and a couple of people not remembering when they left or how they got home. Now we're all just chomping at the bit, waiting for the Playground to get back up and running.

Boy, are the Holidays a pain in the ass (Updated 12/30/2003)

Yeah, so I've been dealing with this BITCH of a head-cold, and it decided to blind-side me going right into the Christmas holidays. First, Megan and I went to dinner with my dad and step-mother... a late dinner at a Greek restaurant in Oak Park... on Christmas Eve. It was great and all (up until me and my Dad fought over the check... I won because I'm still young and agile, but Dad and Betty were PISSED!), but the Greek food mixed with cold medicine made my gut funky like nobody's business. We made an early exit, and got home in time for me to melt the paint on the bathroom walls. Christmas Eve in seperate bedrooms, HOORAH!

Christmas Day was nice, except for the cold moving in nice and strong. Still, I loaded up on the cold medicine, and Megan and I went to the 1pm showing of LOTR:ROTK. Thank God we got to the theater around 12:20, because it was already filling up. We got some decent seats, then spent the majority of Christmas Day locked in a movie theater. The movie was great, we're leaving the theater around 4:30, and we see the lobby is FILLED with people waiting for the 5pm and 6pm shows. Apparently, ALL the shows except for ours and then noon showing were sold out. So Megan and I headed home, and I cooked Christmas Dinner consisting of roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, Ceasar Salad and hot dinner rolls. And we opened gifts; Megan gave me a fantastic print of the first Playboy cover, featuring Marilyn Monroe, signed and numbered by Hugh Hefner himself, and it now hangs over the television in our living room. Megan wasn't surprised by my gift to her; she told me exactly what to get her... a Viking Huskystar sewing machine with automatic threader and one-step button-holer. Still, she's very happy with it, and began sewing on it today... my domestic goddess!

The day after Christmas, we went out to my Mom's house in Crown Point for the Last Christmas Ever in Indiana... Mom and Dad are moving down to North Carolina this summer. I really wanted it to go well, because it was the last one. Mom was stressed out the minute we got there, and people were showing up late. We were supposed to start opening gifts around 2pm, then have dinner around 3pm. Well, one of my siblings was unavoidably detained, and that threw everything off. The thing is, I think Mom knew that that was going to happen, but instead of just telling us to show up later, she tried to stick with the game plan. The upshot was that I was coming down HARD with this head-cold, and the longer the day went, the worse I felt. By 4pm, I felt like I was burning up, so I started to hassle Mom to just get the gift portion over with so I could go home and die. Meanwhile, she's still trying to keep people in the house as long as possible. You can see how this was putting us at loggerheads; the whole family is sitting with gifts in front of them in the living room, while Mom's still futzing around with the roast in the kitchen. I finally got pissy and barked at my mom; I feel horrible about it now. But at the time, I was feeling so shitty that I was ready to tell everyone to just put my gifts in a bag and I'd open them later, thankyouverymuch.

Ah, well. It's over for another year... thank God.