Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Well, it’s my birthday. I turned 51 today. It is a strange feeling, knowing that I am a half century old but feeling like I’m living my best life right now. It’s been almost a year since my last blog post. I began this blog in Fall 2022 as a way of chronicling my Oxford Study Abroad ramble along the Thames River. Last summer I returned to the blog because I wanted to capture in words what it was like to return to live theatre after a 30-year hiatus. So much has happened over the past year! Tara and I are officially empty-nesters for the first time. It’s a strange feeling, a mixture of excitement and wistfulness at how quickly our kids have grown into young adults who no longer depend on us. With my mother’s passing last February, my dad is acclimating to his new life in Abilene living in a home right behind ours. It has been a blessing having dad so close. He’s grieving but is beginning to find community for himself in Abilene.

With regards to my career as a university professor, the last year has brought its own share of excitement and change. Late last summer I was appointed by ACU’s university president to serve as our university’s Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR). Every NCAA institution has one. In addition to my teaching responsibilities at ACU, these days I spend a lot of time as a liaison between the athletic and academic arms of our university. It’s time intensive, but deeply rewarding. Student athletes are awesome. These are very uncertain times in collegiate athletics, with monumental shifts happening in power conferences that are rippling down to smaller D1 institutions like ours. Working in our athletics department this year has given me a deep appreciation for the challenging behind-the-scenes work happening on campuses across the country. Among our athletics administrators, I see men and women who are striving to ensure that we remain true to the promise we make to every student athlete who arrives on campus: we promise you a good education that will sustain you after your athletic career is over. Cultivating excellence on the field and the classroom is a difficult, thankless task.

Life at home and work has been rewarding as of late, but this last year has revived in me a feeling I haven’t had since college: the joy of live performance. On this front, so much has happened over the last year:

• In the Summer of 2023 I performed the title role in the Abilene Paramount Theatre production of Sweeney Todd. Over 5 performances our cast performed in front of 2200+ attendees. It was a dream come true, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a role that has been on my bucket list for 30 years.
• In October, I performed in the Cabaret Under the Stars! at the Paramount. The theme of the show was “30 Years! 30 Musicals!” with performers singing songs from musicals performed at the Paramount over the last 3 decades. In addition to performing a song from Sweeney, I performed a song from The Producers and ticked off another bucket list item, singing a song from The Music Man.
• In the Fall I joined a local pop acapella group, Backbeat. Every Tuesday night I’m practicing with 17 other adult performers, singing acapella covers of pop songs. It has been a blast singing again and forming new friendships with other talented singers. I look forward to every Tuesday rehearsal.
• In the Spring I decided that I need to be doing more to improve my performing skills so that I don’t feel so intimidated by the college theatre students I’m hanging around.
  This semester I began taking voice lessons with a musical theatre professor at ACU. Since January I’ve been practicing from 6-8 hours per week on my own after work and during my lunch hour. I’ve got a 30-track-and-growing Broadway karaoke playlist on Youtube with songs and vocal exercises that I am using for rehearsal. I’m planning to take an acting class at ACU this Fall. I’m so excited. If my job would permit me, I’d spend all of my time in the practice rooms at ACU. Alas, my real job beckons…

As for future performing plans, I don’t have any announcements to make just yet, but stay tuned! I may have some information to share very soon. Best wishes to family and friends who are reading this update. I may be posting more on the blog this summer.