So in case you didn’t know, Dan-Pelletier.com is now 100% live! The website came out better than I could have imagined, and I would like to once again thank my life long friend Tommy McCarthy for helping me put it together. It still needs a few updates, but nothing major. Thing that made me kinda chuckle was the day after we go live, I’m scrolling facebook between reps at the gym, and I see an article on “Backstage.com” entitled: “7 Items for a Successful Actor Website.” I open the article, look over the check list, and I already met every one of their criteria for a good site! With a few minor tweaks, this page will be the ideal model for an actor’s website. Yay us!

My “The Taming of the Shrew” light plot is due tomorrow, and after a few hours of sketching it out, I’m very pleased with how it turned out. The space the show is taking place in is not the easiest to light, and we will be cramming 28 lights on a 30 foot truss, with a few other lights on off stage booms, but the plot is actually very clean and I didn’t have to sacrifice any lights due to physical limitations. My ambitious color usage should look beautiful on Sam’s set, and I’m eager to start the next phase: making all the cues. This one is a little nerve racking, as everything I’ve designed to this point has been manual cues with sliders, and we will be using programmed cues. I signed on to this project to get experience creating much more complicated designs than anything I’ve done before, so I can’t wait to get started.

Last night, for no apparent reason, I really couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t feel like reading either of the books I’ve been working on (Taking Stock or Superman:Birthright) but did want to read something, so I grabbed off my shelf the famous Uta Hagen text Respect for Acting. I purchased it back in May, but had not gotten around to reading this quintessential theatre text, and now I regret it. I plowed through the first fifty pages of this book without blinking. Every thing she had to say about her passion and respect for the craft of acting and the broader world of theater spoke to me on so many levels. I think between innings of tonight’s Red Sox’s game, I’ll look to read even more, and hopefully finish it before the weekend.

I hate to drag on longer than three paragraphs, so I’ll wrap up with a teaser for my next big announcement. I have currently signed on for a project like I haven’t worked on in many years. All I’ll say for now is that I will be getting to share my craft with those who would most likely never consider themselves theater people.  To find out who, you’ll have to check back next week!