Where's Ange Hamm? Random Thoughts...

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, y'all. Here's what's been up in the Land o' Ange:

• Cynde Liffick and I spent three weeks in Virginia Beach teaching Shakespeare workshops at the Kemp's Landing Magnet School. Great kids, a great facility, and agreat fun. They start Shakespeare in the sixth grade! Is that cool, or what? The sixth graders read Much Ado About Nothing, the seventh graders study As You Like It, and the eighth graders work on The Taming of the Shrew. Very ambitious. By the time we were done, we had seen every single student in the school. By the end of three weeks, we couldn't walk down the hall without kids calling out, "Thou knavish ill-nurtured hugger-mugger!" or "Thou reeky pox-marked rabbit-sucker!"
• We spent the last week at Boushall Middle School in Richmond doing a combination Shakespeare and Conflict Resolution workshop using Romeo and Juliet. Mad props to our friends from the Richmond Peace Education Center for their help on Thursday and Friday.
• We're three weeks into rehearsals for the Richmond Shakespeare Festival production of The Taming of the Shrew. I'm playing Hortensio and serving as Master of Music, which is a very tricky juggling act. But there are a bunch of actors in the show whom I've wanted to work with for a long ime, like Foster Solomon, Susan Sanford, Scott Wichmann, Liz Blake, Freddie Kaufmann, Matt Polson, and, well, everyone. Anthony Luciano is a very gifted director, and the show is going to be very special.
• T-Bone Burnett has just released The True False Identity, his first new album in 18 years.
• In a related note, I think Jay Belarose is my favorite drummer ever.
• Speaking of my favorite drummers, the Genesis reunion may be on after all. According to Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel's commitments are keeping him unavailable through 2007, but scuttlebutt is that the classic five Genesis Members (Tony Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford) will be re-forming not for a new album but for a short series of performances of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, to be filmed and released on home video. I'll keep you posted.

That's it for now. I need to go to my neice Catherine's graduation from the VCU Theatre department. Congratulations to the class of '06!