"Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy."
- Nora Ephron

Well I'll be. Fidel Casto retired this morning.

And that's not a euphemism for "he died." He's still kickin'. His brother Raul's been bumped from "here, hold this a sec" to "here, have this" as the new dictator. We'll see where this goes.

From the article:

Ordinary Cubans have wondered whether a change in power in Cuba will lead to lower food prices, higher salaries and more freedom to travel.

In Miami, Florida, the news came as no surprise to Janisset Rivero, the executive director of Cuban Democratic Directorate, a group that works with dissidents in Cuba.

"I think there have been preparations taking place for quite a while to assure the crowning of Raúl Castro," she said Tuesday morning. "It doesn't mean any change to the system. It doesn't mean there will be freedom for the Cubans. One big dictator is replacing the other.

"It will be a big deal when political prisoners are released, when political parties are allowed to organize, when the country stops being ruled by a single party."

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Rocky rehearsal last night. Lines I've known since the first audition/read-thru were just totally gone. I'd open my mouth and NOTHING would come out. Hurried, frantic brain scan results: Nada. I started to freak out. I've got two more days to get this right. I was on a roll mem-wise and then yesterday? Bam! Gone! Freakin' out a little bit.

The worst will be to put in the time and the work and to enjoy it so much and to get all psyched about doing the show, and then to have no one show up because it's a new company and no one knows where it is.

We talked at the very beginning of the process about switching to a Thurs-Sat run and dropping Sunday all together, or pushing Sunday shows back to the evening, or doing two on Saturdays. We just didn't know what people might be more likely to come to since Sundays are historically ill-attended there. It's just not an area many theatre-goers *happen to be* on a Sunday afternoon at 4:30, you know?

It was 7 degrees last night when I pulled up to the theatre and there were these three or four older teens huddling in the doorway to Spiral to wait for their bus. They asked me what the space was for but before I could answer the door had been unlocked and I was being ushered in quickly to keep the open door from cooling the whole place off.

Our SM did have time to answer them when she arrived. She told them it was a "theatre company."

Their response?

"You guys build theatres in there??"

Hence: little to no passerby walk-in ticket purchases.

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It's currently 1 degree and sunny. High today of 12, wind chill of -10. I love it here. I really do. But sometimes I really do wonder how we survive this c-c-c-cold...

Spent an unfortunately large amount of my morning thinking things like: "Do I walk up close to the building or away from it? Sun warmth vs. wind break..." Ahhh errands in winter. Yum yum yum.

In spite of last night's crappy rehearsal (for me; Ryan, Sandra, and Josh were great!!!) I'm getting kinda sorta excitedish for Friday night. And Ben P. from high school may be attending the show at some point, which would be totally cool. :)

I just had half of a medium Coke from Subway. I feel like I just replace by esophagus with hollowed out, semi-flexible sugar cane. Ugh...