It won't be long before the lights come up on our new Heart-A-Rama (HAR) home -the Two Rivers Community House. With about three weeks to go, everyone is in high gear, getting ready for this much anticipated show. Since I do a bit of directing, I suspect the next few blogs might be random thoughts, and some inside scoops on what's happening in our world of "shameless exploitation for the good of others."If you've dropped by this blog while surfing, let me clue you in. HAR is an all volunteer fund-raiser for the American Heart Association. Basically, we write a variety show loaded with local humor. About two hundred volunteers step up each year to help write, perform, wait tables, build scenery...you name it, there is a job for everyone. Years ago, a group of friends organized this awesome event, and can certainly stand tall knowing that thirty-eight years later, the solid foundation they established has grown into what it is today. Last year, we donated about $110,000.00. All of the money stays right here in Wisconsin for research and education.
This year's theme is "HAR Goes Exploring" so all the sketches revolve around that idea. Indiana Jones will no doubt show up, along with a myriad of historic explorers. I've been rehearsing four small skits, most with music, so there has been a lot of singing and dancing filling the basement of the dental clinic where we practice. Yes, we can sometime hear that zhhhh-zhhhhh-zzzhhhh from the drill, and then everyone sings a little louder or tap dances a little faster. All in all, it's good fun, for a great cause.
Here are Brad and Rhonda after the last performance of HAR '07. We knew that Rhonda was moving to Rochester, New York the very next day. In the big thirty-eight year scheme, they are relatively new to the organization. These two have been friends since high school and have gone on to do many shows together. Rhonda is coming home for two weeks to do this year's show. This is a show, a cause and, and a family of friends that is hard to walk away from. Several of the originators continue to work on the show each year. They've seen their show grow from two nights to nine. They've witnessed the changes in the types of humor, and variety of entertainment in the show, and they've watched new people begin to take on leadership roles in the organization. I often wonder if, after that very first opening night, they sat back and marveled at what they had created, and dreamed about what it would be in the future.What am I reading? Nothing. I'm waffling between Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock, and The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt.
I flipped though a little coffee table book called I'll Wait in the Car...charming pictures of dogs waiting for their masters!
