The Prodigal Hubby

It's difficult to sit down and write an account of where I am and what I've been doing for the past few weeks. How exactly does one begin to write a preamble explaining and justifying that one has come home to Canada earlier than anticipated because there was a great theatre opportunity offered by an old director friend? Oh . . . I guess that was the preamble. That wasn't so bad.

The director is a great guy, and I've worked with him before. In fact, his Christmas show two years ago was the last major production I did before the wedding. Brianne and I knew it was a great chance for a fun show, plus a way to see family and friends sooner than originally planned. We accepted the separation as a part of the actor's life (hi diddly dee) and though we miss each other A LOT, we know we're both doing what we're meant to do.

My show is called The Office Christmas Party, and was written by the director. It is a collection of four vignettes with very different characters taking place at four very different work-related holiday shindigs. It's a very funny and entertaining show, with plenty of witty banter and farcical slapstick. I play three different characters, which made for a very interesting task of memorization. First, there's Sean, who uses a false moustache to try to apply to be his own assistant. He's actually a lot smarter than this scheme would indicate.
Kevin the director knows his audience well, and it includes a great many little old ladies. Erego, if there is an opportunity to have his leading men onstage without pants, he takes it. My second character is Lil' Andy the Beauty Consultant. Draw whatever conclusions you wish about him, you'll probably be right.
Last is Randy, the smarmy salesman who thinks that he's just won the lottery and can tell his boss exactly what he thinks of her in his own elequent way.
The cast is very talented, and we've had some great reception from the audiences we've played to. Some people have even hung around after the show until the cast came out in order to tell us how much they enjoyed it, which is the ultimate compliment and very gratifying to know.

The show is a dinner theatre production put on at a Days Inn in Leamington, Ontario, which is about a half hour from Windsor. We're paid and given room and board to come down from Toronto (or Niagara Falls in my case) every other weekend to perform for a mix of local families and office groups. We had a bunch from the local Royal Bank come see us last week, so we altered a few lines to make reference to them. They ate it up. The Days Inn has very comfortable rooms which look inwards to a central courtyard where the pool and waterslides are!

The play only runs alternate weekends, so the rest of the time I am back at the Hodwitz family homestead in Niagara Falls. Mom and Dad are delighted to have me around . . . there is a good list of chores that's been piling up in my absence. Plus, my sister Kat is home for the holidays, and it's been SO long since we've had any extended time together. Good quality time with the family, whether it's checking out the sights of town, running errands, doing yardwork, cooking, or just watching episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I had looked into the possibility of getting a part-time job while I was here, but my unusual schedule made the pickings rather slim.

The coming weeks will include a trip to Kirkland Lake with my Uncle Richard to see my Dziadiu (Polish for "grandpa"), day trips to Toronto, and hopefully catching up with family friends I've not seen much of since the wedding. After the play finishes up on the 20th of December, I'll have a couple of days before hopping my flight to Ottawa to meet up with Brianne when she lands on the 23rd to spend Christmas with the Tuckers. That, my friends, will be an AWESOME Christmas present.