Yes, I know. It's been a while, but I've been busy. Very busy. The new season has begun and the 12 hour days have become 16 hour days. The heat is on, but I'm trying to stay cool. Today was the last day of my "probation." I'm now official in this position. My boss told me this evening that I'll be getting a raise. This is a good thing. Tomorrow night, one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Namoli Brennet, will be taking my stage for the first time ever. I'm exhausted, but feeling pretty zen right about now. So, with wine glass in hand, I sat my naked ass down and pondered the next word on my list. "Theatre." Heh. Perfect.

This word is loaded, and I wonder if Melissa has any idea… It means so many things to me. Not surprising, considering where I find myself, these days. I never really imagined myself managing an historic landmark like the Rio Grande Theatre, but here I am. It consumes my life, but I have no real complaints. The challenges are immense, but I don’t really feel daunted. I can honestly say that I have never felt so appreciated by the people I work for. It’s both a pleasure and an honor to have been so charged. In terms of the “word,” however, it barely scratches the surface.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been referred to as “theatrical.” Not in the melodramatic sort of way some people are theatrical. I’m not now, nor have I ever been, a limelight personality. Though I find myself comfortable on a stage, I’d rather be behind the scenes, pulling the strings, if you will, in a very Machiavellian way. I just happen to be very fond of stagecraft. Performance, whether it be acting, singing, lecturing or any other form of storytelling, from a stage area, fascinates me. It’s like magic.

I attribute this fascination to the fact that, as a child, I had a terrible stutter. The stutter seemed to vanish, however, when I read aloud from other sources. My mother, being a reading teacher, discovered this fact early on and made me read aloud at every opportunity. This led to my composing and memorizing my words in advance and speaking them back before whatever audience I found myself. Memorization took the pressure off my poor brain and taught me how to slow down, compose my thoughts and speak them clearly, rather than in a rush and tumble of painfully stillborn sentences. It was only natural that I would join the drama club in high school. Everything changed dramatically, if you’ll forgive the pun, after that.

As already mentioned, I wrote a play while in high school and had it drag me all the way to national championships in New York City. I was a junior in high school at the time. I still don’t think the play was very good, but others seemed to like it. As a result, I was offered a drama scholarship to New Mexico State University. College was a notion I’d never even entertained, up until that point. It got me out of Tularosa and completely changed my life. The “career” didn’t last long, as I was ejected from the drama program by the dean, when he found out that I was tricking with one of his married professors. Shit happens. I moved into the writing program.

Over the years that passed, I kept finding myself dragged back into theatre. I did summer stock in Silver City, New Mexico, way back in 1982 and it was there that I met the first real love of my life. Years later, I wrote a play about the ghosts haunting me after that first love’s suicide. Before it was ever produced, I wrote and saw staged a handful of short, one acts. I continued acting, here and there, in a variety of productions, mostly alternative, some requiring nudity. I founded a theatre troupe in Phoenix and, eventually, had my ghost play produced in 2007. It was on stage, a year later in a production of Psycho Beach Party, that I met Donny, the man who taught me what true love is all about.

And here I find myself coming full circle. I’m back where I started on this little journey. Difference is, I’m not a theatre student this time around. Now I’m the guy in charge. I’m master of my own destiny. I’m managing the hottest entertainment venue in town and I have the hottest partner, another one of those “theatrical” types. Still, the word “theatre” fits. Without my ever really realizing it, that word has helped shape me. It continues to direct me. It’s a part of my destiny, it seems. And really, who am I to complain? If all the world is a stage, I've got pretty choice billing.