The Feed

There's something very Gilmore Girls about being back in San Luis Obispo. You run into Target for one thing, just one thing, and somehow 45 minutes later you've seen your third former cast member, a parent from a show you directed ten years ago, someone you worked with at a theater, and a person who asks, "Wait... are you still doing productions?" In a bigger city, you can disappear into a crowd. In SLO, a quick trip to Target turns into a reunion tour. It's funny how a place

Today I had lunch with one of my favorite people in the world, Sandy Schwarer. There are some people who come into your life and make it better simply by being themselves, and Sandy is one of those people. I absolutely adore this woman. She has always been so kind, supportive, thoughtful, and full of wisdom. Spending time with her is like getting a warm hug for your soul. She's like a grandmother to me, and I treasure every conversation, every laugh, and every moment we get t

Well, apparently at some point while working at the scene shop, I stepped on a nail. I could barely walk last night and was convinced I was headed for some sort of dramatic medical emergency. This morning, however, we're staging choreography for Oliver! and, as they say, the show must go on. Several people immediately told me I needed to get a tetanus shot. I was preparing for a full blown crisis, except my mother, the former ICU nurse who somehow still knows everything, remi

We've built the cast, started rehearsals, learned music, blocked scenes, painted scenery, created schedules, and poured countless hours into bringing OLIVER! to life. The show is shaping up to be something really special, but now comes the part that every producer worries about: raising the money to pay for it all. The reality is that ticket sales cover less than half of the production costs, and without sponsors, donations, and program advertisers, all of this wonderful craz

I'm going to be honest: I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by OLIVER! right now. Producing a show of this size is a massive undertaking, and there are moments when it feels like I'm carrying the weight of a lot of people and a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders. Between rehearsals, schedules, fundraising, sponsorships, sets, costumes, emails, and a thousand other details that nobody ever sees, I'm tired. Really tired. The funny thing is that I absolutely believe in this prod

Tonight I'm having Jordan choreograph "Be Back Soon" for OLIVER!, and honestly, I couldn't be happier about it. One of the most important lessons I've learned over the years is that you don't have to do everything yourself. Jordan is incredibly talented, has great instincts, and I know whatever he creates will be better than anything I would have come up with on my own. Sometimes leadership isn't about holding on to every responsibility—it's about trusting the people around y

Today my mom and I took a drive all the way up to San Simeon. It's funny because I grew up on the Central Coast, have driven past Hearst Castle countless times, and somehow had never stopped to see the elephant seals before. First of all, San Simeon is a lot farther away than I remember. Second, after all these years, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Hundreds of giant elephant seals sprawled across the beach? Sure. What I didn't expect was that most of them looked comple

My Bayou Buddies group chat suddenly came back to life yesterday after months of relative silence. At first I thought someone had accidentally sat on their phone or discovered a long-lost alligator in their backyard. Nope. Turns out SeaWorld announced auditions for Howl-O-Scream already. Already?! I feel like we just finished last season. The messages started flying immediately. Who's auditioning? Who's coming back? What's the theme? Who's ready to spend another season wander

I was convinced today was finally going to be the day I got Firestone. I even grabbed my mom and headed downtown with visions of tri-tip sandwiches dancing in my head. Unfortunately, so did half of San Luis Obispo. The line was so long that by the time we found parking and saw the crowd, we decided to abort the mission and head down the street to The Habit instead. Now, The Habit is one of those places you can find almost anywhere, so it wasn't exactly the exciting local food

I got a text from my mom today saying she was coming to San Luis Obispo. Now, that may not sound particularly exciting, but my mom almost never comes to SLO anymore, so it definitely caught me by surprise. My first thought was, "Wait... why?" As it turns out, she's making the trip to help her friend Mitch's mom. I found that kind of interesting. In a world where everyone seems so busy, there's something really nice about someone driving several hours simply to help a friend a

There’s something about this moment that feels bigger than logistics, bigger than timing, bigger than the practical “can I make this work” conversations. I’ve been thinking a lot about why Oliver showed up right now, right when life already feels in motion in a dozen different directions. And honestly, I don’t think it’s random. It feels like one of those rare commitments that pulls you out of your own head and drops you into something communal, something alive, something tha

Not in the greatest mood today because the Oliver! schedule is currently held together with Scotch tape, prayer, and passive aggression. Kristina suddenly has another appointment even though music was originally on her placeholder, and somehow Korey and I are now trying to rework an entire evening while 50-plus people are showing up tonight expecting organized theater. Adorable. Also I drove all the way to Atascadero in the rain to pick up scripts, which if you know me at all

Today was chaos from beginning to end. I drove all the way to San Luis Obispo waiting for scripts that were supposed to be dropped off in Atascadero, which is somehow always farther away than you remember. I sat around all morning thinking they were coming and eventually realized absolutely nobody was showing up. Thankfully Larry came through and printed emergency copies because at that point we were basically producing Oliver! through prayer and office supplies. Then I got t

I am officially exhausted by being broke. Like aggressively broke. Like “let’s split a soda because capitalism is cruel” broke. Today Sheila took me to see The Devil Wears Ratatouille, which sounds like a fake movie Kirk would produce in Stars Hollow for twelve dollars and a panini. She bought popcorn and we split a drink that was half Cherry Pepsi and half Diet Coke, which honestly tasted way better than it had any right to. The movie itself was fine. Like airplane entertain

Well today was Memorial Day and somehow it felt like we traveled across the state of California fourteen times for absolutely no reason. We took drinks to Sheila’s daughter Isabella, who’s house-sitting, and drove all the way to her apartment, which was actually really cute. We were finally about to leave for the beach when suddenly Isabella didn’t feel well, and instead of just saying “okay maybe another time,” we somehow ended up driving all the way back to the valley first

Going into Sound of Music merchandise madness today because the manager is panicking that she’s missing an entire week of inventory, except today is closing day so now everything has to be packed up at the end too. Both shows are sold out, which is amazing except it also means I probably won’t get to actually watch the show at all, which kind of sucks because by closing you finally get sentimental and start acting like the Von Trapps are your actual relatives. So today’s agen

Drove all the way back to LA tonight after kid rehearsal and watching a production of Bringing It On performed by children who were approximately the age of small woodland creatures. Now listen, it was cute. Very cute. Adorable even. But there are certain lines in that show where you suddenly remember, “Oh right, these characters are supposed to be in high school,” and meanwhile little Madison on stage still believes in the Tooth Fairy. Some of them genuinely looked like they

Yesterday was a DAY. I spent hours calling the cast, sending emails, organizing everything, and yes… dealing with some parents. Listen, theater is competitive. Sometimes you don’t make the cast. Sometimes you get a smaller role than you hoped for. That’s life. Be disappointed for a minute if you need to, but then either move forward or be grateful for the opportunity you WERE given. PERIOD. There were enough talented people to cast this show several times over, and every deci

We had the first Oliver! rehearsal today and honestly the energy in the room was great. Tons of people, lots of excitement, everybody ready to jump in and get started. Unfortunately the scripts did not arrive, which is a pretty important part of doing a musical. So we basically spent the evening fake-marking music, explaining things out loud, and pretending we were way more organized than we actually were. Somehow it still worked and everybody had a good time. Honestly commun

Opera SLO letting us use the scene shop for Oliver! is honestly amazing because now we can actually build things without balancing flats in parking lots like traveling pirates. Apparently they had to do a ton of repairs around the building, including clearing out all the weeds and landscaping, and instead of hiring a normal gardening company they hired some guy who clearly charged about nineteen dollars and a Monster Energy drink. Half the time he didn’t even show up, and whe