From the Inside Out

I’m happy to report that Gary and I were cast in the upcoming production of “Leaving Iowa” presented by Imaginary Inc. After auditioning last week, we received a call from one of the Producers on Saturday, and they offered both of us roles in the production!

I’m excited and a little nervous. We only have only four weeks until opening night, so the next few weeks are going to be very hectic. They want all actors to be off book (have all lines memorized) as soon as possible. I’m hoping I can keep up with everything — work, Saturday Night Life, church, family, travel, and Leaving Iowa rehearsals — without completely stressing out.

We met the other cast members tonight and had our first read through of the script. There are a total of six actors (3 men and 3 women) in the play, including me and Gary. The script is great. It’s a comical and sometimes touching story about the classic family road trip. Here’s a brief synopsis:

Leaving Iowa is the story of Don Browning, a middle-aged writer, who returns home and decides to finally take his father’s ashes to his childhood home, as requested. But when Don discovers Grandma’s house is now a grocery store, he begins traveling across Iowa searching for a proper resting place. This road trip shifts smoothly from the present to Don’s memories of the annual, torturous vacations of his childhood. Leaving Iowa is a postcard to anyone who has ever found himself or herself driving alone on a road, revisiting fond memories of youth.

Performances will be held on September 1-4 and 8-10 at the Courtyard Theatre in downtown Plano. Tickets will be available soon. The website should go live tomorrow.

We held auditions for our annual comedy show this evening, and we saw some great talent tonight. Some of the actors had us laughing hysterically during their performances. They really let go and had fun with it which makes for a very entertaining audition process.

The hard work begins when all of the actors have departed and the casting directors are left to decide which actors will be assigned to each role. It’s so difficult to choose, especially when you have such great options. Eventually, we narrowed it down to a cast of 15 actors. It’s a larger number than I had originally wanted, but we can make it work. This cast gives us a nice mix of existing talent, core “ALC Drama Players,” and newcomers.

The show will be held on Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9 at 7:30 pm in the main auditorium at Abundant Life Church (ALC). The guest host this year will be ALC’s Greg Bailey, and Jacob Lowery will be returning from Nashville as our special musical guest. It’s going to be a fantastic show!

Mark your calendar now, and don’t miss out on a fun night of laughs, surprises, and entertaining performances.

I just completed my 32-mile Tour de Cure cycling journey so what’s next? Well, I’m seriously considering participation in the annual City of Richardson Corporate Challenge. It’s an 8-week Olympic style competition involving 22 athletic and non-athletic events. Participants are comprised of employees, spouses, managers, retirees and volunteers from the Richardson-area business community. The Corporate Challenge kicks-off with an opening ceremony and then continues with competitions in physical events ranging from softball, cycling, basketball and flag football, to the more sedentary events including darts, billiards and miniature golf. The Challenge wraps up with a closing ceremony in October.

I’m thinking about participating in the 9-mile bike race in September. This would be unlike anything I’ve ever done before. Instead of focusing on distance, this competition focuses on speed. The cycling teams work together to help their lead riders get the fastest course times, and then the top two male and female riders combine their times for ranking among companies. In past years, the Cisco team has medaled in this event. It would be really fun to participate.

Gary and I are going to try the qualifying route this weekend to see if our speeds are up to par. The good news for me is that they desperately need female riders, especially competitive ones. I’m not sure how fast I am, but I think I might be able to do it. Besides, I still have a few weeks to train and get faster. It’ll be fun to try, and if I can’t do it, I can still participate in the recreational ride to help support the team and give them more points.

I’ll keep everyone posted and let you know how it goes. In the mean time, here are a few more pictures from our Tour de Cure ride this weekend.

The “early” riders from the Cisco Team. I’m the short one in the back waving.

The 32, 15, and 5-milers from the Cisco team posing with our banner.

Now for the crazy fun shot!

Me and Gary with a couple of Team Cisco riders at the first rest stop.

After work on Friday, Gary and I traveled to Ft. Worth to begin our “Tour de Cure” weekend. Tour de Cure is a series of cycling events held in 43 states nationwide to benefit the American Diabetes Association. The North Texas cycling event was being held this year at the Texas Motor Speedway. We decided to spend the night nearby at the Marriott Hotel & Golf Club at Champions Circle so we wouldn’t have a long drive early in the morning. Tour de Cure registration started at 6 am, and our ride was scheduled to begin at 7 am.

After getting a few hours of sleep, we got up around 5:30 am and made our way to the track a few minutes after 6:00. Riders were already there getting prepped for their journey. We joined them and met up with the rest of our group in the “Team Cisco” tent near the starting line. Team Cisco was comprised of 18 riders — each riding various distances. Routes ranged from a minimum of 5 miles and a maximum of 100 miles. I rode the 32-mile course, and Gary rode the 64-mile course.

At 7 am, our team lined up at the start of the course. All riders began with a lap on the Texas Motor Speedway track with a pace car leading the way. It was a blast being able to ride on the actual Speedway track. Below is a picture of the starting line.

Ready for the ride to start!

The first rest stop was at the 10-mile mark. It’s a great place to take a quick break and stock up on snacks or water/gatorade.

A look back at the route we traveled to arrive at the first rest stop. After leaving the speedway, most of the course was comprised of small country roads.

A quick picture of me and Gary before starting the next leg of the course.

We came across the second rest stop about six miles later. It was a nice, shady area with more water, healthy snacks, and mechanics (in case you needed assistance with your bike). This was the turn around point for riders following the 32-mile route.

Gary got ready to depart for the 60-mile course as I turned back to follow the 32-mile path.

I finished the 32-mile course a little after 10 am. Volunteers were cheering for everyone at the finish line. It felt great to be done! At the end of the ride, I joined back up with other Team Cisco riders at the tent to share ride stories and get some much needed rest. Also, because Cisco raised over 13K, we were eligible for free massages. After resting, I journeyed over to the massage tent and took advantage of a nice chair massage — just what my aching muscles needed after a long ride!

The Tour de Cure event also had a number of other fun activities at the finish line — live band, free pizza, sponsor tents with give aways, free GMC test drives, Humane Society exhibit, and various snacks/drinks. It was a fun, festive atmosphere. It also provided some good entertainment while I was waiting for Gary to finish his long ride.

The Cisco team hung out together, cheered riders crossing the finish line and took some group pictures towards the end of the event. I’ll share those later when I get copies. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera. I was using my iPhone so I didn’t take a large number of pics today.

All in all, it was a fantastic day! I had a great time at the event. It was well organized and benefited a fantastic cause. I hope to be able to do it again next year. For now though, I’m recuperating — and resting my sore, tired body!

We held our first writer’s meeting for Saturday Night Life this evening. Each year, we gather a small team of brilliant writers that make the magic (and the laughs) happen. This year is no exception.

Kick-off meetings always start with the writers pitching out sketch ideas, which in turn spawns other ideas, and eventually we find ourselves with a good number of potential sketches for the show. The most popular ideas are assigned to writers who work them into fully developed outlines. The outlines are then presented during the next meeting, and that’s when the fun really begins. We have to select the sketch outlines that are good enough to make it into the show. Narrowing down all of the options into a list of 12-13 sketches and 4-5 videos is not an easy process!

Once we have a final schedule, the script writing process begins. Our writers have about two weeks to finish their scripts before going into casting and rehearsals. It’s an aggressive schedule, but it works flawlessly.

I won’t give away any of the ideas at this early stage, but I will share the dates/times of when you can see the results of our efforts. This year’s Saturday Night Life show will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 8-9 at 7:30 pm at Abundant Life Church. Mark your calendar now, so you don’t miss the fun!