After spending a hectic week with play rehearsals, in which one actor for the part of Boone up and quit on us, and another actor got grounded for the second time in two weeks, I was fed up and frustrated.

But last night, I dropped by Connor’s house, the lead vocalist and song writer for Dodging Bullets. He did an excellent job of learning the instrumental parts of Stairway to Heaven.  He and the band are going to play the song for the intros and the closing of the play. They’ll do just fine!

My other actors have done an exceptional job of learning and delivering their lines. We kind of wing it as we go, because as a director goes, I’m fairly relaxed. So the cast comes up with their own take on how to add to the physical aspects of “playing” around. We’ve come up with some pretty cool little add-ons to kick the action into gear.

Sunday evening found me calling all the old gang from Havelock. I know I should have started with Wendy as she put together quite a list of nearly one hundred people three years ago for the Havelock Reunion we held in Greenwood. It was blast seeing all the kids-now-grown who used to pass beneath the moonlit pines of the park. I spent many a night planted in the stone shelter there, talking or singing to the kids who came down there to party or just to hang out.

As it was, last night, I only put in one call. It was to Jennifer, a teacher in Omaha’s Blackburn school for suspended kids. Jennifer shared with me that the six kids who have joined her Book Club are reading 8-Ball, and what’s more, they are discussing the questions I pose in my Student Workbook! Jennifer claims it becomes like a group therapy session as kids relate to not only my book, but also to the questions that relate to their own lives!

So all is well in my Book World.

Ah, ’tis been nearly a week since I tried to book the Dodging Bullets band for the play at the Joyo.  They are busy fellows, but alas, Connor, lead vocalist and song writer, e-mailed me with a big YES, so the show goes on!

Folks who attend will be impressed with these guys! They all attend Middle School but man, are they talented! It will be a good match, for the topics of my books are all youth-related. I think kids who attend will be able to relate to the Bullets and they will put on a great show!

The pitfalls in working with kids! Thursday night rehearsals went well, but we missed Brandon/Vince as he was grounded! Bummer! If he would have only stayed in the assembly without skipping!

Denny had an amazing thing happen Friday. He was reading his lines for Detective Shepherd, and just coming to the part about the narc, Kelly, and her relationship to private invesitgator Quinn. Denny received a call from a lady named Quinn Kelly! Coincidence? Meant to be moment? Or just a crazy fluke!