9/30/98 a review from backstage/drama-logue (thanks kristin).

alright, i'm off to portland & seattle, be back saturday.

La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Michael Greif, perhaps best known as the director of Broadway's Rent, will leave the nonprofit theatre in southern California after its 1999 season, it was announced Sept. 28.

The official reason for his departure, expected at the end of the May-to-November 1999 season, is "his desire to return to the East Coast to be closer to his family and loved ones," La Jolla board of trustees president Geri Ann Warnke said in a statement. Greif, 39, who will plan and create the 1999 season, will have served as artistic director for five years.

Greif is a graduate of University of California San Diego's Department of Theatre and Dance, where he studied in the graduate directing program. He assisted former Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff with the Playhouse staging of Big River (1984) and directed What the Butler Saw and Therese
Raquin, among others, before starting as artistic director in 1995. His work as artistic director included directing Tony Kushner's Slavs!, Randy Newman's Faust, and the West Coast premiere of Rent. His current project at the Playhouse is a commissioned new play by Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters, running through Oct. 11.

Greif's wish to leave the Playhouse has been known internally since early spring, when he told the board he wished to be closer to family back east. A search committee was formed April 22, 1998, but the public announcement was delayed. Playhouse spokesman Josh Ellis told Playbill On-Line (Sept. 29) the new artistic director will likely be named by early 1999, pending search results, so "there will be a long overlap period for an easy transition; the new artistic director will plan the 2000 season."

Among those working in an advisory capacity with the committee are Playhouse managing director Terrence Dwyer, Playhouse director-in residence Des McAnuff, and Greif himself.

Greif (rhymes with "wife") leaves the theatre without a deficit and a with a Five Year Plan projecting a "growth structure" for the organization, founded 51 years ago, but revived in its current structure in 1983. Greif said in a statement he hopes his successor will hire him as a free-lance director.
9/29/98 i'm starting to feel better, yay!  just in time to hop on another plane tomorrow to go see the show (after the work part of course :-)  then i'll be back at the last session on sunday - yay again!

do not forget tonite is the season premiere of buffy.   w00!

since you couldn't read that angel tour ad i put up yesterday, i typed it up.

this is way random but i'm serious.  whatever happened to axel rose?  i was listening to "sweet child of mine" last nite, and, um, where'd they go?

i have more pictures but no time to scan them right now.  anyone want to contribute already scanned pics?   rent?  last session?  send 'em to me!

and send me the answer about guns 'n roses too.

9/28/98 did you see it?  the ad for the angel tour?  tickets go on sale friday, and they're doing another one of those "sing for your tickets" deals friday at the shubert.

cool ad for the last session   :-)  and if you're planning to go closing day, you better get your tickets now, it's selling out!

still
   .
   .
   .
   .
sick

9/27/98 i added grand rapids to the tourdates section, altho i'm unsure of those dates.  i know may 30th is confirmed.

got this yesterday - "i ran into adam and jesse yesterday. they say "hi".  heh heh.

still sick.
9/26/98 wow, i leave for a couple of days and all kinds of stuff comes out.  i'm kind of surprised everyone is so shocked at andy leaving, he told us in costa mesa he was going - remember?

but daphne going to the angel cast and carla taking over as maureen on broadway was totally out of left field to me too - whoa! (and yay! :-)

and big congrats to paul stovall on his jeff award nomination.  w00!

here's at least one thing the benny cast has been doing in seattle (since we're hearing so little from the fans up there).

and here's another rave review of "the last session" (altho i think this writer's a moron - fighting words?)

i'm sick {whine}.   feel sorry for me  :-)
9/23/98 just in case you *possibly* missed it on the board, there's more pictures of y'all in steve's diary :-)  i wrote to michael greif yesterday asking him to come up to laguna and see "the last session".  i want to spark *lots* of interest in this show - maybe next year at the la jolla playhouse, eh?  and then the national tour!  w00!

it's official, anthony is definitely doing charlie brown.

remember that discussion we were having on the mailing list about pat robertson blaming the fires in florida on all the gays there?  my friend wrote me last nite about the hurricane that's bearing down on florida and said "and pat robertson thought we could only do fires! HA!".   LOLOLOL!

ok, i'm outta here till friday night, carry on  :-)

9/22/98 i put up a few more pictures of scott in the scott section (don't forget to click on the thumbnails).

and tina made another postcard :-)

i'm gettin' ready to head out of town for the rest of the week, then back to "the last session" for the weekend.   check out steve's new diary entries, you're in there :-)
9/21/98 bye hallie!  we love you and we'll miss you!

short and very sweet:  tina, lori, carol, shemeka, karen, charmi, eliabeth & i spent the evening at "the last session" - it was even better last night than friday night.  again, if you're anywhere close enough to get to this show - go - it will blow you away.  you can order the cd here.   thank you all, it was fantastic.
9/20/98



happy birthday andy

another blast from the past - erica just sent me these pictures from providence. thanks erica :-)

ernest sent me this - it's going on katie's site cuz she's got that tongue thing goin' on over there ya know :-)  now tell me this isn't a buffyprey picture!  LOL!

here's the first of my pictures from "the last session", and a great review from the times.  it only plays in laguna until the 11th - go!

9/19/98 wow!   i *loved* "the last session", i *must* go again (and again).  amber, karen, lisa, thisa, charmi, tina, donna and i went - this thing kicked my butt :-)  i've never cried as much at any show, ever.  or laughed as much either :-)  and of course, being rentheads, we descended on steve, jim and the cast and made them sign everything we could think of, and take pictures and, well you know the drill :-)

steve, jim, bob, joey, p.m., maisey & amy - thank you for such a wonderful, wonderful show and for being so terrific - i can't wait to see it and all of you again. much love.
9/18/98 just in case you missed the london article yesterday, here 'tis.

i updated the ft. worth theater info (includes the link to the theater).

new pictures, both barnes & noble and costa mesa.

i want to know what pierre & andy are looking at in this picture :-).

tonites the night for "the last session".  wednesday there were *no* walk outs and they sold every single cd in the theater.  w00!  do not let me leave the house tonite without kleenex, anyone!  email me, remind me!

west coast:  mike shapiro is supposed to be on the cover of 'the advocate' this week - anyone seen it yet?  he's still off cruising the caribbean in europe :-)

kristin understudies both leigh and julia.  wow.

omg i'm so on crack, i can't believe i wrote that, i know that's not true - LOL!  kristin doesn't understudy leigh, just julia.  thanks for keeping me honest ;-)
9/17/98 yes, i know this is a rent site, but this is s00 related, trust me.  here's an article from the times yesterday on "the last session".

fun chat last nite :-)

random:   i have a new credit card that expires 01/00. 

9/16/98 how about a little max (380KB).  yes, this is *our* max (feudalism!) as seymour in "little shop of horrors".  love ya maxie :-)

here's some more costa mesa pictures - tina, you'll like this one of andy :-)

damn, big enough picture?  this thing is wallpaper unto itself :-)

you cast members reading this today, i got a nice letter from asfoc (aids services foundation orange county) thanking you all for the signed t-shirts and posters and stuff.  they plan to auction them off to raise money for the foundation.  i also gave them a bunch of tattoos and dog tags to raffle off at their weekly group.  anyway, thank you from them and me :-)
9/15/98 the statistics on sanity are that one out of every four americans suffer from some form of mental illness.  think of your three best friends. if they're ok, then its you.   hahahathanksalotdahnahahaha! :-)

so i'm really pushing this show you guys - the last session.   i've been listening to the music, there are songs on here i can't get through without crying.   particularly "the group" and the line "and i had water".   kills me. i can't wait to see it friday, and hopefully sunday too.  and yes roberta, when you're ready to go, i'll go with you too :-)

jasmine's last is the weekend i'll be in seattle (first weekend in october), glad i'll get to say goodbye :-)

9/14/98 ok, here's some more pictures from costa mesa, and another from barnes & noble.

kristin mcdonald is hallie's replacement.

lucy just posted on the other board that anthony's last performance in london will be october 7th.  i haven't talked to him but i assume that means he took 'charlie brown'.

i can't even express how this message makes me feel (start with kicked in the stomach).  if you've been thinking "it's over", think again:

I apologise in advance if I seem sarcastic or cynical this week (somehow, I think I do). I'm having an emotionally trying week.

After a couple of years of seeing people generally do well on the drug "cocktails", I'm starting to get "those" calls again.

They go something like this: "Dick, I'm sick and I went to the hosptial and they couldn't help me. So I called my doctor and he's out of town...and nobody from his office or medical group has called me back. And I think I'm really in trouble, and I need your help."

It happened three times this week. With people I really care about. Some in my support groups, and some not. And I know where all this is going, because I've been down this road before. And I know all the doctors involved very well. (I've had some pretty hefty "doctor's needs vs. patient's needs" debates with some of them - both publicly and privately.)

The bottom line is: I'm seeing a sudden upswing in AIDS relapses - the meds are failing a lot of people.

I don't know whether I'm seeing it because I'm known in the community as a "resource of last resort", or whether it's the beginning of a general failure of meds in the community overall.

I get home from a support group I facilitate where one of the members has just announced he's on his way back to the hospital because something is REALLY wrong, and my sister calls me to tell me that my mother has ceased chemotherapy to treat her cancer because it hasn't worked.  And I'm not well enough to make the long trip to visit her.

And somewhere along the line I forget to look after myself emotionally, so I take it out on other people, I guess.

Or, as one friend has often said to me after I spend about a half an hour telling him how worried I am about the people I know: "And how are YOU today, Dick?"

Heartbroken, I guess.


9/13/98 i loved romeo & juliet last nite, i love this production.  it's all about neil, emily, scott f. and scott p. - excellent :-)  it was renthead nite:  me, charmi, bryan,   amber, laura, stacey, tina, lindsey, lori, karen, tammy, dave, jennifer & amy were all there.

i'm totally immersed in this diary of steve's, written over the last few years as 'the last session' was being demoed, workshopped and put into production (you may need to try the link intermittently throughout the day, they seem to be having a server problem today).  what a wonderfully terrific human being.  we're going to see it friday nite, anyone who wants to can come along :-)

9/12/98 so i thought the work week was over.  wrong.  i gotta go in today too.

did you check out that new australian RENT site?  from the site:

"After seven-months of auditions and recalls, the 18 who make up the Australia and New Zealand contingent of the cast were selected. They will be joined by three cast members from America."

so who's going?  i know kye talked about it at one point...

here's a little (really little) review from seattle.

okay, see that guy?  no not that guy, that's jesse (and yes, i still love jesse, i can't help myself) but anyway - that other guy in the white hat and long poncho thingy?  that's rob (rowb) in the alley in london.   they were all singing "thinkin' about freedom" and just rockin' out, it was way c00l.

going to see romeo & juliet tonite.

from siteforrent (2 separate albuquerque dates?)

September 11th
Tickets on sale in Memphis		 Call (901) 525-1515
September 12th
Tickets on sale in Albuquerque		 Call (505) 851-5050
September 13th
Tickets on sale in Tuscon		 Call (520) 621-3341
September 14th
Tickets on sale in Reno		 Call (800) 714-5331
September 18th
Tickets on sale in Albuquerque		 Call (760) 340-ARTS
September 20th
Tickets on sale in Denver		 Call (303) 893-4100
9/11/98 thank God this week is over, i'm burnt.

more costa mesa.

um, here's the seattle weekly's little RENT contribution to the internet.

so everyone wants to try the chat next week.  wednesday at 8:30 right?

look what i found yesterday.     ewwwwwwwwwwww!


hey, you guys know about don't you?   just in case you're a newhoo, it's where we've been putting up alot of the RENT links.  check it out.
9/10/98 damn this is a good picture!  just go look :-)

yes, palm desert tickets now go on sale on monday at 9am.  they were having trouble with details of some other show yesterday so decided to wait until monday.

here's a few more of marie-reine's pictures from costa mesa.

and work has decided that i *must* go to the northwest at the end of the month, so hey hey hey, i love it when they send me where RENT is playing.  thank you suzanne for rushing for me that weekend!

people keep asking, so do we want to reinstitute the wednesday night chat?  it kinda died during the costa mesa run.   let me know.... 

9/9/98 man, work is just heatin' up, no time, here's a few from costa mesa and one from barnes & noble.

palm desert tickets go on sale today if you're planning to buy instead of rush.
9/8/98

bye adrian!  we've loved having you here (so come back when you're done "over there"  :-)  mwah!

and bye rachel!  have a fantastic time and regale us with stories :-)

here's that article on 'romeo & juliet' from the times yesterday.

i figured out some things about the search engine, and how to make it work better.   you should be able to find just about everything with it now.

here's a few new pictures from costa mesa, and some from barnes & noble.

where the heck are all the northwest RENT fans?

9/7/98 'kay, i finally got the beginnings of the peter section up.

and that's about it.  i went to the movies to drown my sorrows in popcorn (with extra, extra butter :-)

9/6/98 Rent   =  ripped apart.

goodbye d'.

goodbye mark.

we'll miss you in our cast more than you'll ever know.

9/5/98 thank God for 3-day weekends - hope you all have a great one!  me?  i'm sleeping!

here's another review from seattle, i like this one, and this little blurb too :-)

and a few more pictures from costa mesa.  i still have alot to put up so i've split the barnes & noble pictures off onto another page.  it's linked from the bottom of the main costa mesa page.

i keep remembering things from london.  like the way anthony *doesn't* laugh after "pookie! you never call me pookie!".  he looks at joanne with great empathy & sadness instead.  it sets a whole different tone.

9/4/98 this has to be short today, those 99 intranet projects are kicking into gear :-)

here's the first review from seattle - i think this person just likes RENT, he/she just keeps writing about it   :-)

more romeo & juliet:

"Rent" star Neil Patrick Harris and Emily Bergl headline as the tragic young lovers in an under- the-stars production of Shakespeare's passionate, poetic classic, "Romeo and Juliet," directed by Daniel Sullivan in a darker Renaissance setting than usual--rough and earthy images, a la Brueghel or Bosch. "Romeo and Juliet," Old Globe Theatre's outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, San Diego.  Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 10. $23-$39. (619) 239-2255.
9/3/98 so *this* is what real jetlag is - god i'm s0000 tired.

here's two more seattle articles - andy & julia are still newcomers?

another bit of london flotsom - adam had on the same blue nailpolish i did.

here's a couple of costa mesa pics - this "two rogers" is one of my favorites.

check this out, this is what i do for a living folks (pl@net btw, is the name of our intranet :-)

9/2/98 london rocked guys, anthony & adam were wonderful, and i'm a new fan of rob's (but he's leaving soon).  rob.  i wish you could hear the way sarah says his name in her brithish accent - rowb - heh heh, it's very cool  :-)

and i do love the way krysten does "i got a cold", she gets real insecure at that line and sort of hugs herself, it's cool. 

here's a seattle article, look, she used the word mitigate, i like that :-)

this is a transcript of the live aol chat from last year.  tina spent the night a couple of weeks ago transcribing the whole thing.  thanks tina, good job :-)

mandy wins the name that tune contest - yes, it's from "side show" and if you've never seen andy & pierre do "i will never leave you" from the show, you're missing out!  your london stuff is on the way mandy :-)

did you see those dolls brett made in costa mesa?  they were really cute, she did a good job - here's julia & andy with their dolls and with brett :-)  and a cute picture of adrian & tammy.

9/1/98

so hi  :-) 

i'm home from london, but my head doesn't know yet what day or time it is and i can barely see.  we had a wonderful time - thank you sarah, bex, ann & calvin, you all rock!

more later, i'm glad to be home  :-)


 

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