How many Secretaries of State have you met?

Yesterday, I had the honor of meeting Colin Powell. As mentioned, his daughter, Linda (a talented actress and wonderful person to be around in her own right) is Hermione in "The Winter's Tale". He and his wife came to see the show yesterday afternoon, and after the show, he came into the green room to meet the cast. After he greeted all the men, Linda introduced Megan, Rebecca and I to him, and he shook our hands and congratulated us on the show. After meeting the cast and crew, he was trying to figure out how to get back to the highway, and Linda asked my advice on the matter, and I got to give the former Secretary of State driving directions. Bitchin'.

More "Winter's Tale" reviews

Independent Press
The Princeton Packet
Home News Tribune
TalkinBroadway.com
the NY Times review has been sent to staff, but it has not been posted on the internet yet, when it is, I'll post the link here. Some of the actors may read my blog, and so I don't want to post the review here in case they read it accidentally.

UPDATE:
The NY Times Review is now online. Note the cute blonde :)

"Please take care, there's a bear, and the play..."

"...is a crazy Tale of Winter" (with apologies to Simon, but not so much to Garfunkel)

Preview article from the front page of Playbill.com last Friday (note the cute blonde in the pic at the bottom:))
The reviews are also in from:
Curtain Up, Wall Street Journal, Newark Star-Ledger, and the Daily Record
They're all good, because the show is. Great cast, great performances, great set, great lighting, great bear. Ending my tenure here on a high note is good, because there's been so many lows this season. I highly recommend you come out to the show. Mom, Dad and Elissa (and her bf) will be in town for Friday's show. Can't wait :)

Hooray invited dress!

So my reason for lack of posts for the last ever has been load-in/Thanksgiving/tech.
Today is invited dress for "The Winter's Tale" and tonight is first preview. Spirits are high and the mood is comfortable. The cast is a wonderful and friendly bunch and there has been very little drama and things have gone smoothly. At least until the turntable issues last night that prevented the invited dress being run last night. Those problems were fixed by production staff (Scenic/Props, Production, Chuck, Karla, and Ruggaber, the designer) quite efficiently.
I must now go to my place back left, but I will post actual posts more often now that tech is wrapping up.

Exit, pursued by a bear.

STNJ presents a BCrowe Joint:
Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale
I will be run crew for the show, as well as a certain ursine beast in the world's best known stage direction. I've been building the bear for the past 2 weeks. I'm now on break from attaching the fur to the skeletal structure. I kind of HAVE to be the Bear, as I don't think any of the other crew members or non-Equity cast can carry it. It's big and heavy.
Oh, and btw, who is in this cast? you ask?
Kristen Kittel as Mopsa/First Lady. That's right, the lovely actress who I'm dating is making her mainstage debut and earning her first Equity points.
Jesse Easterling, Kelly's adorable little rapscallion son will also be making his mainstage debut.
Also, appearing are Greg Jackson and Scott Whitehurst, two of my favorite people on the planet, as well as David Faubert, Jack Moran, and Rob Gomes, all 3 are truly gentlemen and scholars. Also, Hermione is being portrayed by the daughter of Colin Powell. That's right, THE Colin Powell.
And of course, it wouldn't be an STNJ show if it didn't include an appearance by the one and only Jon Barker.
I must get back to work now, this bear can't go onstage naked. More details to come.