Thanksgiving 2009

I'm thankful for many things today. First and foremost, the cats are fed, the litter boxes are scooped and the kitchen is clean, including a freshly clean load in the dishwasher. Second and fivemost, Carmen is cooking her famous honey-mint carrots to take to somebody else's house for dinner. Who knew she had a famous dish in her tiny cooking repertoire?

Four years ago I heard an advertisement on the radio for a live theatrical production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the Wang Theatre in Boston. We bought tickets for the Christmas Eve performance. I had some trepidation about it. I was sure they would have rewritten the movie (which has been on our Favorite Christmas Movies List for over twenty years) to adapt it to the stage. Would they ruin it? Our favorite moment is when Phil and Judy dance their way out into the Florida sunset for "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing." That had better be good! And there were some awkward things in the movie that I would have deleted if it were me rewriting the script. We went and were blown away. The basic story is the same, but the awkward stuff WAS deleted, the story details are better than the movie, the production numbers were spectacular, and it was better than my wildest hopes.

So Bob and Phil go to Jimmy's Back Room to see the Haines Sisters. The set is small and intimate, in the center of the stage way down front. After the "Sisters" number, all four sit at a table and talk for a few minutes, then Phil and Judy get up to dance. As soon as they're off the set, it splits in two and leaves the stage to both sides, leaving the stage empty with a sparkling star drape across the back and sides. Fog blows in, and there they are, Phil and Judy, with the whole stage a dream world where the best things can happen while they're dancing. Then, at the end of a beautiful and exciting dance routine, they dance their way front and center, the set moves back into place, and they sit down again with Bob and Betty. Double you oh double you!

The next day after we saw it (some folks would call it Christmas Day) I was online ordering a ticket in the balcony for New Year's Eve. I had a big head in front of me the first time around, and missed some scenery changes. It came to pass, however, that I couldn't make it that night, the closing night of the show.

Two years ago I heard an advertisement on the radio that White Christmas was coming back. We got four seats in the balcony and went with our friends Misty Dawn and Jenna. I was able to see everything, and during the two years in between, I had worked on a couple of Show Motion projects with automated scenery technology, so I even knew the mechanics of all of the magic onstage. This knowledge would spoil the effect for some (including Carmen) but it just gets me excited to know that I am capable of creating that same magic.

So now we fast forward to October, 2009. I walk into the scene shop at Albuquerque Little Theatre. Colby Landers, the Technical Director, is cautiously hopeful about my coming. Once Sleepy Hollow is staged, he has to build eleven sets for Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and here I am, a huge fan of the show and a professional scenic carpenter unemployed in Albuquerque.

It's almost enough to make me think there might be a god.

NAAAAAAAAH.

But it does make me thankful that all these insignificant elements of the universe found their way to this happy union. And tomorrow I can pick up my check. For that I'm very thankful.