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Today was our second day off from the tour, we have played about five shows, and each one has brought its own special experience.  We loaded into Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington Ma, and used a pre focused dance plot, this gave me a chance to make sure I was comfortable calling the show, and it was an opportunity to play with color choices.  After our MA performance the snow began to fall and we pushed off to Albany NY.  In Albany we had a great union crew and I got to spread my wings on the full lighting package.  Naturally we hit most of the technical problems at this venue.  We learned some of the crew hired to build the show was not as skilled résumés led us to believe, and some of the aspects where built incorrectly.  Clay came to see this show, which was the first moving light show, and we danced on the stage after the house was cleared.  I sussed out many of the technical issues made a plan, and then pushed off for Albany.  IT was as Albany we decided that the show needed to be cleaned up, I made a plan with the local at Virginia Beach to help de loom the rig and I went from 4 cable trunks to 1.

Our bus is our own little home, and the people have been great to get along with.  We are all very mindful of personal space and property, and we bring war stories, laughs, songs, and dances to the table.  Every day we try to learn a new word of Russian from our to Ruski Costumer’s

At night the bus pulls out and we usually drive for about 10 hours, right now we are waiting for warren to come back and begin the push to Tulsa OK.  The sound of the engine and the geni lull most of us to sleep and the 10 of us get whisked across state lines.  Two days ago I woke up to a bay, and this morning I woke up to the great Cowpocalypse of 2011…

Luckily we had to pull off the road to fix a headlight and it put us about 5 mins behind a major big rig accident in which cows escaped a trailer and got in the way of trucks…   We passed the flaming wreckage of big rigs and the smoldering carcasses of cows and each of us grew quiet as we contemplated how lucky we had been.   We literally sat in a stand still for 4.5 hours while the crew cleaned the road up.

I have been cooking and going out with the crew and staying up late on our leather couches and I am having a blast.

Seacoast Is moving forward, and I trust that Erik is putting that show in with confidence and expertise.

I look forward to telling you more soon!

Love – me

Ok my avid readers lets dish.

I am coming to you from the king sized bed in our bed room, wrapped up in a white cabled turtle neck sweater and newspaper leggings, hiding under a pile of blankets and afghans.   The October snow on our porch roof is almost all melted and a soft scented candle from Ikea is burning on the desk.   I have my old laptop sitting next to me on its side playing Lady Gaga’s poker face off of an internet dance station, and I am popping vitamin C like its my job!

In the past few months I have been all over the New England Region, I have become the Resident Lighting Designer For Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth Newhampshire, I landed the East Coast Lighting Design position for the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker, I have designed about 10 weddings and I have programmed my schedule through Dec of 2012, in case you haven’t been following me on twitter https://twitter.com/#!/MichaelCWonson that’s a whole lot of stuff happening to me.  I have been living in Boston, Northampton and NYC, and I am very humbled by the generosity of my partner putting up with my crazy schedule, my friends for giving me beds, kitchens, and everybody’s abundant supply of unending support and love.

I am looking forward to hitting the world class theatres which are in front of me (im told, “some of the best in the nation”) and turning out a mean show every day.   Talking about every day, we are in a new city every day!  That’s two months of tour bus living people!   With that in mind I am looking around my house and thinking about the minimal things I could want to make this new living experience work.  On the list are my special soap, my pillow, popcorn, coffee, computer, headphones, cell charger, poufy jacket, and 7 days worth of clothes.  Feel free to comment and let me know if I should add anything to the list.  I am very excited to set foot on our bus and tweet out to all of you my best Lady Gaga move…

I am also looking forward to Erik Fox taking my paper designs and implementing them in two theatres while I’m on the road.   It’s humbling to know that while I am away entertaining thousands of people a night my name, ideas, and aesthetics will be going up around Boston and New Hampshire.  I am very grateful to Erik’s friendship.  Erik and I met years ago when I decided to leave grad school, and he decided to apply at North Shore Music Theatre.  We both collided and he Master Electricianed 3 of my shows, and from that moment on we have been inseparable helping each other lift to the next level of our design experience.

I am looking forward to vacationing with Clay at the end of the tour, and returning home to continue to fill the small gaps in my production schedule..  I am still trying to branch out in the Five College Region and I would love to land an Opera for next year.

Well kids that’s all he wrote for the moment, I really need to go finish a light plot, some paper work, and mail out color to Erik…

I am looking ahead to sending you weekly updates, so please stay tuned for all the crazy fun…

<3

~anon

ps,

see if i am coming to your city and please come and visit me… or send me trinkets

http://www.nutcracker.com/your-city

I am sitting in the living room, with the sounds of peepers peeping at me as I recline in a towel at my new apartment In Northampton Ma. The cool fall air is whispering through the window as I reflect on where my life and company have gone over the past year. I have set up bases in NYC, Boston, and Western Ma, and have begun to expand my regional grasp. Since last we spoke I decided to end my residency at the company theatre in Norwell MA. I had become artistically stagnant and realized I needed to challenge myself to expand my career. I am grateful to the time I spent there, the relationships I formed, and the lessons I learned. I have done a few shows in NYC and I am looking forward to more in early fall.

I am particularly excited about being considered to tour with a company on a two month North American tour. If this materializes I will tell you more about it. Suffice to say, I am calling in a few favors to try and tip the scales in my favor. I am very excited about the truck and bus aspect, the pay is good, and id be able to use units that are not normally available to me.

Its thrilling to be invited back to Manhattan to work on a festival which I first applied for a few years ago. It seems to me that many of my good friends, myself included are starting to click and find our stride. New works are being written, shows are being produced, and great art is being experienced, for this I am so grateful.

This month I will be opening Cabaret at Sea Coast Repertory Theatre, Ill be lighting a few weddings, and hopefully a fashion show. I hooked up with an amazing scenic designer, and opera director. I am hoping that as the years go on this relationship will strengthen and we will continue to produce stunning breath taking works. I think what I find most exciting and thrilling about the space I am in right now is that I am starting to see so many diamonds in the rough. Diamonds which I want to gently unearth and polish until they are the envy of the artistic world.

That’s all for the moment, it will take me some time to get back into the swing of writing to you, but I hope you stand by me as I come back to the blogosphere.

Three months ago I was heading to NYC to visit with some family, and share the town with a close friend. When I am in the city I also feel super charged, I reinvest in a promise I made to myself as a young child when I first set eyes on central park. I find a new part of the city, quietly look within, and say to myself, yes I will come back here, I will be back. For the first time in a long while I had no agenda and went purely for pleasure. I was able to focus a lot of my researching eye on the lighting and store it away for use in my production of RENT.

I just mounted Spelling Bee and RENT. This experience was so rich for me, as both shows where touchstones for my creative process. Spelling Bee was one of the first shows in which I saw movers used with subtle stunning grace. Rent has always been with me, it helped to define a generation of artists. We all know its melodies, and words.

Rock climbing amazingly has stuck with me. I am hanging tough on over hangs, and learning how to use my body. I feel that this sport has made me more comfortable balancing like a tightrope walker on top of truss and scaffolding.

I am also on the road with Boston Lyric Operas production or The Barber of Seville. It’s a powerful experience bringing opera to so many new ears and eyes. I have to say I had a really smooth process with this production. I was able to take the lessons from last year and apply them to my advantage this season.

I have worked at a host of rock and roll venues in the city, and am dipping my fingers now into event production, and art installation.

All in all a very busy opening to my season.

I look forward to being more creative with you as the spring buds.

<3

Anon

So my fellow readers, it is now a glorious 2010 and how are you doing? The new decade was ushered in with a traditional kiss which was silhouetted against a sky of fireworks and a horizon line of ocean. Champagne, dinner, groceries, and flurries; I watched as the world moved past me. People trying to shake off 2009 like a wet wool sweater.

I personally have been very thrilled with the past year. I saw my company double its business, I hired two new employees, I diversified my industry, and I networked like a pro. Looking ahead I am thrilled with the designs and positions I have secured for 2010. Going into the New Year I have already signed 8 gigs spanning musicals, rock, and opera.

I have also begun to dip my creative fingers into listening for new music. Over the past year I have been working on a professional connection to the music industry, and when I hear something I like I pass it on. Hopefully something strong can grow out of this relationship which could further my creative and design based process.

Closing up 2009 I invited one of my Grad School class mates to come up to Boston and work with me on the nutcracker. I had a really enjoyable experience and it was wonderful to see her again. We were able to catch up, share work stratagems, have harrowing driving experiences “thanks to me” and invent new cocktails for post work relaxation.

I have begun rock climbing, and all I can say is climbing a cliff is a lot different than climbing truss or a boom. My arms hurt so much, but thankfully my dignity is still secure as I am trying to take to the sport like a duck to water. I am thankful that Boston has so many rock wall options available to the public. It makes my new hobby accessible.

I have met a new interesting individual, a true neuroscientist, and I have been enjoying taking my time and getting to know this person. In the upcoming weeks I will mount Footloose, Spelling Bee, Barber of Seville, and RENT. There will also be a few rock gigs spattered amongst the shows.

I am really excited with the few months ahead, and will have to close this entry with that. I am finding myself pulled in many positive directions, and all of these forces are making it difficult to write at the moment. When I touch ground again I will get in contact with you.

As for tonight I am about to slap on my Aldo’s and rock over to the house of blues foundation room to do a mixer for Adam Ezra. Then I will be whisked off to his concert, and hopefully do a little networking. New York City is on the horizon, and I am looking forward to seeing all of my friends.

Peace Love and Jell-O

M

Snow begins to settle into our minds as the first white, wispy, wonders fall through the sky and collect on my door step. The clear, crispy, cadence, a “pit a pat” on the street gently reminds me to pull up my collar and to push my mittens on.

I recently took some time to reflect back on the past two years, and take my show bibles down from their dusty covered exile on the top shelf of the closet. With the rustling of ansi-e sized paper I look back at my designs, plots, and drafting’s. I am looking at my thought process, and hoping for inspiration to spark me into my next throws of creative passion.

I will be lighting my second band in the upcoming weeks, details to follow…

I am really excited to listen to this bands material, and seeing where we might be able to go together. I think I might pass the scenic charge onto a friend and see what his mind is able to come up with.

Things have begun to firm up with the cohabit-tator. Perhaps the seeds of a something are now rooting in the soil of cut up cardboard, rusty exacto blades, and carpet scraps. I have a hopeful body and mind as I move forward into the darkening days to come.  Esp. because i know I will get my life back shortly.  Now that schools have disbursed their fundage’s the cohabit-tator will be able to freely move around and firm up his life.  The experiment in generosity and kindness has not only been humbling and educational, but also enjoyable..  He will be flying back to his home, finding his graduate experience to be too much to handle… I honestly can symphatize with him…

So judging by the costume material I pulled, I might be being some drag queen or madam… “or maybe army theme?”  or perhaps traditional sexy vampire!

More to come soon!

Light

M

First of all, happy national coming out day to all of my GLBTQ friends out in the inter-verse, I do truly believe equality will find itself to America, and a day is dawning where we all can be free to have the same protections and allocations under the law. As a resident of the fine state of Massachusetts I already have seen this change happen. Every day we blaze a trail weather how we interact with a neighbor or a person on a bus, too taking cases of discrimination to the Supreme Court. Our actions are felt around the country. I have always been active in the GLBTQ community and I find its innovation, grace, and stamina to be un-daunting and inspiring. So I wanted to take this moment to not only recommit myself to all of my friends, and those whom I have yet to meet, but also to myself. I commit to seeing a world where hate has no place, and where segregation even from aspects of the law is abolished.

So tonight the frigid fingers of winter will drop a pristine white fluffy blanket of snow on top of Mt Washington in New Hampshire, and in Massachusetts the thermometer will dip down to a balmy 36 degrees, and I will pull my comforter up and over my head in order to soldier on. All the trees have begun to join the earlier prom goers of a few weeks ago, when I open my back door I am inundated with orange’s and yellow’s and green’s and red’s.

I have opened arsenic and old lace at the company, and I am feeling more accomplished than my last update left you hanging. I am evaluating and beginning to formulate a plan to stay residential in the Boston area for the next three to five years. Seeing where my connections and life can take me within this great city, as I have always known I am within stabbing distance of Chicago and NYC so really I have nothing to complain about. While working at the Company I ran into an actor who is going to try to help me out with taking a swing at the next level of my global plans. So in all honesty I need to remind myself that life is fluid, and things which are great can obviously turn bad, and things that seam hopeless can resurrect into the light.

Also cohabitation is still going well for those of you whom are interested. I have no complaints as a hybrid state of styles and concepts are beginning to manifest and swirl themselves around in the room. I feel that I am really able to sit in my stillness now and appreciate it which is a new found comfort. I have Halloween to look forward to. It will mark the date of my two best friends union. Honestly I have to say, how freaking fun is this going to be!!! I will be traversing 93, and route 3, with the cohabiter to pick up some costumes from a graciously giving costume house.

In true theatrical style, almost like miss Lady Gaga, we will be going in formal attire, with garment bags in the back seat, and then costume changing into the festivities outfits. Allowing the final moment to be quite surprising… I am yet to know the final theme but once I do be sure I will inform you all….

In closing I noticed in the past couple of days bee’s hovering around the fall flowers, and I thought to myself whilst I was feeling down. If these bee’s can comeback from the massive hive decolonization that plagued us last year, perhaps my life is not really in that bad of shape. So as I watched the little worker hover around I smiled and realized that I am going to be ok.

Well fall has gripped me, with a chill that is unmistakable. Smoking a clove lying out on my back porch looking at the veiled moonlight I feel more and more like Emily Dickenson, save I am not a shut in, and my lap top is my pen and papers. Still I feel somewhat as if I am locked away in a far off attic watching life move around me. The delicious darkness that is winter spreads its Eire blanket over me, and I am ready to open Arsenic and Old lace.

I am having I suppose a moment of weakness. I am very comfortable right now, but I wonder what is ahead of me. Where is my career going? I am thankful for the business I have, and yet, a voice inside me says, Michael what will you be doing in two years. Should I be moving, should I be looking harder, should I relax and travel with what I have?

Also I am pining, I suppose that is all I will say on that matter, but the waters of my life although from the outside appear peaceful and glass like are filled with rouge waves, and uncharted expanses.  I suppose tho, that this is the fun in life’s journey.  The unknowing, the uncertainties, the surprises, and the bouts of survey.

Truly in the end or in a week, I will be peaceful again, happy with the blessings with which I have.

Perhaps I need a week away from New England.

The lovely rainy time that is the change of guards from summer to winner. As the drizzle sets in I unloaded a truck with Erik and Joel. We moved the parts of the beast into the theatre. Hung 55 fixtures, cabled, colored, and wrung out the system in less than seven hours. So we did roughly a light every 7 minutes. My show has loaded into the black box, and I sit and wait to see if the actors will have as smooth a transition as I did. While programming the light console, I stopped to think about the interconnection of the micro processor. We designed a piece of technology which operates as one being, but cannot survive without the sum of its whole. In a way, my electrics team was like the semi conductors in that micro processor.

I also just finished reading Arsenic and Old lace which I will be working next week. The script is adorable, and brings forth a lot of humor which I did not formally give the 1940’s credit for possessing. I have decided to do my own electrics work at this theatre till the end of the quarter to foster a good rainy day fund. The thought does shake me slightly as doing my own electrical work is not my forte’.

I am pleased to say the co-habitation experiment is going well. I have recently discovered a small passion for cooking, and link it to the feeling I get as a designer. I feel that anyone who can create something in this society is like a modern day magician. So the gifts we have, be it singing, cooking, painting, or designing are special and inherently sacred.

I feel that my current life is very fostering of this energy, and I find myself barreling forward and It makes me laugh, as I dance home through the city streets at night with my mp3 player in my hand.

I have made it into my new apartment, along the way there were a lot of things I cast off just like the trees which are shaking the orange flecked plumage that once made them so tall and proud. Moving for me turned into a wonderful game of precious not precious, I was able to part with many items I had been carrying with me for years! Items, images, and thingamabobers strun across the floor, I felt briefly that I was drowning in my own collection of randomness.

Subsequently I have now arrived, a few blocks from the now quiet and dormant townhouse I sit in a cream colored room with my blue bed and full star curtain surround. Human compassion is such a wonderful thing. I have taken a friend in for the time being. We are learning to cohabitate and work around each other, both designing our own secret worlds.

I have been signed to do, Producers, Spelling Bee, and RENT; so im sure you can assume that I am THRILLED!!!!… I also recently thanks to my friend Adam, was able to design at the beautiful Wilbur theatre in boston. I Designed Yo LA Tengo, and it was an amazing experience. The rig was all pars, and I really enjoyed using the seachangers to create color effects…

So whats up next? Fall is in the air..

I will write to you soon when the muse moves me…

Untill then

Be GOOD

Michael