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Rob's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/15/00 -------------------- 11/7/00 11/1/00 10/25/00 10/10/00 10/4/00 9/25/00 9/19/00 9/13/00 9/6/00 8/29/00 8/23/00 8/16/00 8/8/00 8/7/00 8/1/00 7/26/00 7/19/00 7/12/00 7/5/00 6/26/00 6/15/00 6/8/00 5/25/00 5/22/00 -------------------- Rob's Introduction

July 19, 2000

I cleaned out my classroom today. I showed my chairperson where all the vital equipment was stored, carried out my things in a couple of boxes and gave the principal my keys. We talked for a while about the theatre department and about what to look for in my replacement, and then I took the same drive home I've taken for the last four years.

In clearing out my desk I discovered all kinds of small items I had thought I lost. There were books and notes that I need, stored in my file cabinet, that I had completely forgotten were there. And then there were lots of pieces to things whose other pieces remain lost, and those I left for my successor. I also tried to cull through the school files and dump irrelevant stuff while making the important things a little easier to find.

I said a little easier. I haven't alphabetized those files since 1997 and I'm certainly not going to do it now. Good luck to the next tech director at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. Good luck also to the faculty and the students. I'll miss the students most of all, but soon everyone who remembers me well will graduate, and I hope to be teaching a new group of students somewhere in the Dallas area. I don't know where I'll be teaching next, but I'm looking for a position right now.

I'll miss my friends much more. "True Tales From Unreliable Sources" is the last show I'll be doing with them for a while. (Strictly speaking, that's not true. They are producing the world premiere of my play, "The Dogs," this fall, so we'll be in contact a lot. I hope I'll get up for the opening, but on a daily basis, we'll be living in different states.)

"True Tales" is wild, by the way. We have a great seminar on catching demons for fun and profit, followed by a fable concerning the use of demons for domestic tasks (it's a risky business), and finally the tale of Spearfinger. Spearfinger lived in our neighborhood, and we swear it's true. By the time this posts, the show will be open, so come by the Broadway Armory at Broadway and Thorndale on Chicago's north side, Fridays and Saturdays in August at 8:00 p.m.

We have an invited dress rehearsal tonight that I'm going to, but I actually haven't been to rehearsal in a couple of days. It's been nice having time with my family in the evening, and this move to Texas is largely intended to facilitate a shift in focus toward my family. For now though, I am looking forward to seeing all my friends in the Billy Goat Experiment and seeing the show again after a few days away. A remarkable thing about a live performance is the way it grows and changes.

I know this entry hardly even refers to Rowan, but I won't see her much today. I can't spend all my time away from her pining and whining now, can I?