New Year's Resolution?

We enjoyed a wonderful visit from theVirginia Chelaks for New Years. When they arrived we discovered some of our happy party were dressed for the holidays.

Clint, Harrison, Marjorie, and Joe dressed in their holiday colors.

Our time together was very enjoyable. We relaxed, and played lots of games and enjoyed each other's company. Bananagrams is a favorite.

Family names - including our four legged members - done with Bananagram tiles.

We took our "almost annual" height picture. Grrr. I'm on the short end now.


It was fun to have Harrison with us for three weeks, but I think he was homesick for Utah. He kept trying to call "home."

We did a great photo shoot with his "Core Four" friends. This is one of our favorites.

Harrison and I challenged each other to reach our fitness goals. I started today by walking 3 miles in freezing weather.

So that's the update from the SC Chelak household.
Love you all.

Whew! If anyone has tips on formatting a blog it would be appreciated. Every time I inserted a photo it would put it at the top of the blog, and I had a hard time moving it to where I wanted it to be. At this rate I would update even less often than I do. JethRobyn, you seem to be the expert at this. What am I doing wrong?

Annie and Beyond

We just closed our production of Annie and it was a rousing success by all standards. We had 9 performances and all of them were nearly or completely sold out. The response has been terrific. People came from all over the state and even Georgia to see the show. Best of all, it got a buzz in Greenville, and the snobby Greenville theatre people came to see the show and were genuinely impressed. See Easley, we can be great.

I had the distinct pleasure of playing Ms. Hannigan opposite some pretty fantastic actors. Meredith as Lily and Kenny as Rooster were so much fun to be bad guys with. I had a blast. And the orphans were terrific. I grew especially fond of McKenna Crosby as Molly and Stevie as Annie. They were so good!

Next up on our stage is our outlandish comedy, They Came From Mars and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church in Time for the Townswomen's Guild's Coffee Morning. I'm not directly involved, but I'm sure I will be around a good bit.

Summer and Smoke part deux

Here is a slide show from our production of Summer and Smoke. It really turned out well, and although the audiences have been small so far, I am glad we did this show. I think we all learned from the experience.

For those of you that don't know anything about it, it is a Tennessee Williams play. The following is our press copy. A lonely minister's daughter, Alma Winemiller, is a spinster living in a rural Mississippi town. She finds her only solace in a secret lifelong love for the boy next door, now grown into a handsome ladies' man. Eventually, Alma is tortured by her unrequited love and begins to make desperate attempts to get his attention. But her repressed nature clashes with his wanton ways, leading to a climactic battle of wills that changes both of them forever. Riveting and intense, this sultry production transports you to the oppressive and sweltering world of Tennessee Williams in this classic piece of American theater.

Summer and Smoke

I haven't posted for quite a while, but those of you that follow would already know that. I have been quite busy as always with school, work, family, and the theatre, and I sometimes wonder if I will ever not feel sleepy again, but it's all good, and I am actively working towards paring down a few of the activities in my life so I can breathe.

I finished my second semester at Clemson with another 4.0, which I'm proud of considering I mounted 2 1/2 shows at the theatre during the course of the semester, with the other 1/2 show going up now. I start summer semester next week with 3 classes, two of them are online classes, and the other I have to go to twice a week, so I don't have much of a break. In addition, we open the play Summer and Smoke on Friday, which is just two days away. Not only am I acting in it as the crazy Mrs. Winemiller, but I have been painting and decorating the set, and I am quite proud of what it looks like.

Here is a picture of the angel I sculpted for the set. She is about 6 1/2 feet tall to the tops of the wings. I made her by building an armature of wood and window screening, and then using muslin dipped in a mixture of glue and paint I sculpted the rest. I am really pleased with how it turned out. You can't really see in the photo, but the fountain has real running water in the basin at the bottom. Austin and Alexis are sitting on the "stone" steps which are made out of foam insulation scored to look like stone and faced with the muslin and glue/paint mixture. It has been labor intensive, but it really looks neat. I am currently looking for greenery to add to it to make it look more like a park. I will post more photos of the completed set when I am able.

Limited Language Skills

As I am finishing my third day without a voice I have had time - and inclination - to consider what our voice does for us. We take our voice completely for granted until it's gone, but it is our instrument, our connection, even our person. The quality of our voice defines us; it's like our fingerprint of sound. We remember people by their voices, and we know all the shades and tones of our loved ones voices.
When one has lost ones voice and can only whisper, the nuance of meaning is lost. And forget about the squawk. One can't get meaning across with that at all. What makes it worse is that it hurts to speak, yet I end up having to repeat everything I say because nobody can understand me. And I have the sneaking suspicion that my family thinks I'm doing this on purpose!
What if we were only given a finite number of words to use in a lifetime and I've already used mine up? If we knew that we only had so many words available wouldn't we use them more wisely? I know I sometimes talk to hear myself talk, so if I have only been given a certain number of words then I'm probably doomed to whisper for the rest of my life.

Thoughts from a crazy woman

As I sit in the box office, yet again, waiting for the Young Actor's Workshop class 1 to end and class 2 to begin, I thought I would update my blog. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of other things to do to while a way a minute, but this sounds the most fun right now.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. We had the comedian James Gregory, with Keith Alberstadt at our theatre last Saturday for a show, (I would put his caricature on, but , quite frankly, I am sick of it), and this Saturday we have casting director Kelly Tippens teaching workshops for aspiring young actors. At the same time we are mounting Charlotte's Web, and planning a mystery dinner show for the South Carolina Waste and Recycling convention in March. We do stay busy around here.

At the same time I am still in school, though I try not to think about it. I am supposed to write a 5 page essay about Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Glen Ross before Tuesday, and several response papers about plays I've seen, as well as write a grant proposal before Wednesday. I will get them done, but procrastination is a problem with me - thus the blog entry. Maybe if I start writing I will get the juices flowing.

The kids are great. Mckenzie auditioned for the Fine Arts Center in Greenville. If she makes it she will attend a different high school for at least half the day next year, and maybe transfer entirely if it makes more sense transportation wise. I am so proud of how well she is doing with her oboe. She really plays beautifully. Both her and Clint will be doing Region band this next week, and that is always a great opportunity. Their All-County band concert was amazing.

I am also so proud of Austin. He auditioned for NYU, and it sounds like his audition went well. He is so amazingly talented, and I really hope he finds a program that can help him shine. However, he should feel good about the fact that he went and auditioned at all. There are many others who talk about it but never do.

College Life

Some days I feel more like a college student than other days. Today was one of those days when I stumbled out of bed at 5:30 to get ready for my 8:00 class. I soon realized I had nothing to wear because my laundry hasn't been done in...oh, I can't remember when, and I had to (stop reading here if you are squeamish), get some jeans out of the hamper so I could get dressed. I actually sniffed them to make sure they weren't too offensive. ugh. I figured if I kept my long coat on the whole time nobody would notice the tell-tale wrinkles. I won't say I've never done this before, but it usually doesn't get quite that bad around here...ok, so those of you that have lived with me will disagree...but I seriously do try most of the time to keep a semblance of order. I am home now, and do you think I will do some laundry? Well, I'll think about it - if I can fit it into my schedule.