"I had as lief the Town Crier spoke my lines" Hamlet

.....It has been a long, long time since I sat down at this typewriter to entertain myself (who reads this anyway?) with what I am doing, what I've done, and what I am going to do.  What I am doing at the moment is trying to get over the voice of Susan Boyle that I just heard on Utube.  I only heard her once before and that was when she sang on Britain Has Talent--or some such show.  Well, she blew me away then, and she just blew me away once more with her renditions of "Wild Horses" and "Memories" (Cats).  It simply goes to show, as Hamlet said, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophies, Horatio."  Think Holocaust and how in the six million there may have been one who could have, would have, developed a cure for cancer.  See what I mean?  That is, no one has discovered me yet, except me--and what do I know?

.....Another venture that I have been very, very, busy with is the writing of a musical tor a performance in our 603 seat Theatre of the Performing Arts at the end of March. And you might be curious enough to wonder why I am writing such a thing that I have never attempted before and for which I figured I have very little experience or talent.  I decided to try to imitate Rogers and Hammerstein--or perhaps just Hammerstein, but then as I ruminated, I thought that what I might produce could turn out to be too professional for our theatre and audience...seniors...most of whom fall asleep during performances.  Ah! But I decided to employ some jokes in my script, and everyone would stay awake anxious to hear the next one. 

.....For the past 30 years, there has always been what is called here, an "in-house" show; that is, one produced by the residents, as opposed to a "book show"---one that was performed on B'way.  I've been involved in both types; "HMS Pinafore", "Show Boat," "Music Man," "Fiddler," etc. And also performed in several nondescript in-house shows written by a resident or two or three.  Ah, but this year, no show had been approved by the Board and to everyone's horror--no show!  Well, after having one kind of show or the other for 30 years it has become a tradition, and seeing some performers champing at the bit, I decided to write a musical fit for way off B'way.  And I did.  I just finished it, and after at least a dozen changes, I came up with a 20 page script that attempted to re-create a WWII USO concert.  The songs all came from that era, and the title I gave it was "43!" 

.....I was scheduled to be not only the writer, but also the director.  However, after only a few rehearsals, there was mumbling and grumbling about the direction and how the director (me) would not accept changes, ideas, suggestions, and etc. from the cast.  If my name was to appear as the writer I did not care to accept changes or additions or subtractions I decided it was not worth getting up at 7:30 a.m. three times a week.