An Actor is...Really Behind in Blogging!!!
Post by Billy Christopher Maupin
I just slept about 14 hours which might explain why! It's been a crazy, crazy week! And now there are so many things to talk about. I thought about writing three successive posts, but perhaps I'll throw it all into one!
I promised pictures when I got into the office, but alas a gazillion other projects awaited at the office, but hopefully I'll have them up this evening.
The "preview performance" Friday morning went very well. It was a school matinee so lots and
lots of elementary and middle school students. It's been quite a while since I've done a theatre for young audiences show. With the exception of one day of The True Story of Pocahontas on tour when David Janeski was sick and I filled in for him on-book, my last performance of such a production was as the title role in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Theatreworks/USA in New York in early May of 2005 (pictured to the 
right is an offstage picture [in costume] of Sloan [Tom Sawyer], Ben [Huck's Father], and me [Huck]). I really had forgotten the utter joy of bringing live theatre to children. It was so incredibly moving. And continues to be with each performance. Especially with the ending of the show when a little
secret is revealed in the plot (which I won't give away here, because Dawn, Bob, and so many others would probably have my head) I get very misty-eyed and have to try to not shed the tears onstage...which I haven't yet been successful in doing. Hahaha.
I just slept about 14 hours which might explain why! It's been a crazy, crazy week! And now there are so many things to talk about. I thought about writing three successive posts, but perhaps I'll throw it all into one!I promised pictures when I got into the office, but alas a gazillion other projects awaited at the office, but hopefully I'll have them up this evening.
The "preview performance" Friday morning went very well. It was a school matinee so lots and
lots of elementary and middle school students. It's been quite a while since I've done a theatre for young audiences show. With the exception of one day of The True Story of Pocahontas on tour when David Janeski was sick and I filled in for him on-book, my last performance of such a production was as the title role in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Theatreworks/USA in New York in early May of 2005 (pictured to the 
right is an offstage picture [in costume] of Sloan [Tom Sawyer], Ben [Huck's Father], and me [Huck]). I really had forgotten the utter joy of bringing live theatre to children. It was so incredibly moving. And continues to be with each performance. Especially with the ending of the show when a little
secret is revealed in the plot (which I won't give away here, because Dawn, Bob, and so many others would probably have my head) I get very misty-eyed and have to try to not shed the tears onstage...which I haven't yet been successful in doing. Hahaha.Then we opened Friday night! People loved it! It was fantastic! So much fun! Then Theatre IV had an opening night reception, which was also great fun, so we were there for a while.
Then several of us went over to Comfort (a nearby restaurant) and hung out with Dawn since she started vacation with a 4AM flight on Saturday (which I'm told was quite turbulent) and is now enjoying some ski slopes 
with her husband, Carl, and daughter, Sydney. We had a blast! Mary Burruss came on opening night which was really exciting. I don't think STYLE is going to have an opportunity to run a review of the show, but when I ran into Mary at Pet Shop Days at the Firehouse the Friday before, I told her she had to come anyway. She wrote a really fabulous blog about the show on Dave T's blog at http://www.richmondvatheater.blogspot.com/. So you should definitely check that out.
Two shows yesterday, Saturday. The first at 10AM!!! Wow, that's early. The morning audience seemed relatively quiet, but really enjoyed the show. The afternoon audience was very vocal, which is always fun.
Oh, oh, oh. There is a "Meet and Greet" following each public performance where the audience
gets to meet the cast and get their playbills autographed and all that fun stuff. While I was signing a child's program, the woman with the child says, "You write the blog, right?" YAY! It was so exciting! I realize that the TIV blog has a less frequent readership that the Barksdale blog which is sometimes a bit discouraging, even though there are tons of factors that play into that. Anyway...her incredibly wonderful comments about the blog really made my day.
I think I should stop now. On to the hunt for breakfast!
with her husband, Carl, and daughter, Sydney. We had a blast! Mary Burruss came on opening night which was really exciting. I don't think STYLE is going to have an opportunity to run a review of the show, but when I ran into Mary at Pet Shop Days at the Firehouse the Friday before, I told her she had to come anyway. She wrote a really fabulous blog about the show on Dave T's blog at http://www.richmondvatheater.blogspot.com/. So you should definitely check that out.Two shows yesterday, Saturday. The first at 10AM!!! Wow, that's early. The morning audience seemed relatively quiet, but really enjoyed the show. The afternoon audience was very vocal, which is always fun.
Oh, oh, oh. There is a "Meet and Greet" following each public performance where the audience
gets to meet the cast and get their playbills autographed and all that fun stuff. While I was signing a child's program, the woman with the child says, "You write the blog, right?" YAY! It was so exciting! I realize that the TIV blog has a less frequent readership that the Barksdale blog which is sometimes a bit discouraging, even though there are tons of factors that play into that. Anyway...her incredibly wonderful comments about the blog really made my day.I think I should stop now. On to the hunt for breakfast!
Labels: BC Maupin, D Timberline, D Westbrook, Empire, M Burruss, Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter, STYLE, Theatre IV
posted by Billy Blogopher at
9:17 AM
2 Comments:
So happy to have made your day! Bur seriously, the blog here is a great resource. My little theatre fanatic loves when I can read up and give her some inside information on things.
Perhaps part of the readership issue here is that for awhile, there didn't seem to be posts here that weren't also at the Barksdale blog.
You have certainly remedied that.
I actually recommended the blog to some other people waiting for autographs Friday.
Keep it up!
Great show, great blog!
Stacy
I read your blog! I worked at Theatre IV a gazillion years ago as an assistant for development. I absolutely loved working at Theatre IV and I'm so happy that you have a blog. Theatre IV has really grown over the years. Your posts are interesting and fun to read! Thanks for keeping us all posted!
Caroline
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