Packing It In…?

I was going to point out that theatre blog heavyweight George Hunka was throwing in the towel, only to see that he’s posted a new entry on his “Superfluities” blog this morning. His announcement of packing it in may be akin to Stephen King’s announcements of retirement every so often, only to publish three novels within the year.

Suffice it to say, I do understand Mr. Hunka’s dilemma. Daily posting on a blog can drain any motivation for playwriting. There have been many times when my posting on Jamespeak has hamstrung me with writing my latest play (and vice versa). This becomes particularly true when you feel less of a creative person when blogging and more like a critic/pundit/armchair-thinker. When you write a play, you have to abandon (or at least ease up on) some of the critic/pundit/armchair-thinker mindset, lest your latest play read like a term/position paper.

(Sarah Hepola recently wrote an article in Slate on why she had to shut down her blog. Some reasons for her decision to call it a day coincide with Mr. Hunka’s.)

At any rate, Mr. Hunka strikes me as a more than reasonably intelligent person. He’ll know what to do and how to proceed. Most of this gig is finding the right balance for what to focus your time and attention on and by how much.

(I’m finding this to be especially true now that Jamespeak has adopted the official blogging format, which encourages more frequent posting, yet demands posts to be shorter in length than I’m used to. It’ll take me a little while to strike the new balance with this format, although I no longer feel the need to have each entry be a minimum of 1,000 words.)

I wish Mr. Hunka the best in his future endeavors and encourage you to read his earlier posts.

* * *

This three-day weekend was pretty amazing.

In addition to attending the obligatory Memorial Day barbeque and catching the latest X-Men movie, I had some time to do absolutely nothing. Sunday and Monday were days off from rehearsal, which I think the cast & crew were (are) grateful for, considering we’ll now be rehearsing every day until The Adventures of Nervous Boy opens (which is in a little over a week as I write this).

Anyway, break time’s over. Time for us Nosedivians to kick it into high gear and get ready for the final stretch before I can no longer speak about this show in the hypothetical and future tense.

Is it really that obvious that I can’t wait for this show to open?

Hopping up and down like an idiot,

James “Eager Beaver” Comtois