Life Goals

I have a new one, post-Kooza: Wheel of Death. I'm convinced I could do this and do it well. Now to find some place to give me some good ol' fashioned Wheel of Death schooling.

Ah, the 4th. I enjoyed a healthy dose of Freedom via BBQ this weekend but also lost my best friend and roommate for the past year to NYC. (NY'ers, there's a new theatre artist in town, but this one comes highly Rekk-ommended(!), so keep an eye open for Lloyd Mulvey. He's cool beans and infinitely talented and driven.) So that was sad.

It also makes me feel as if, as I close in on my third anniversary, I am finally a full-blooded Chicagoan. Lloyd was the only person I knew in the city when I moved to Chicago. I had zero connections, zero names to drop, zero knowledge of anybody, place, or thing in the Chicago theatre scene. I've spent the last three years making lots of friends and one or two enemies, doing some really good and some really shitty work, and generally making myself a home. I've gradually built a really good foundation and surrounded myself with a truly amazing base of friends and Chicago family, be it through Signal, clowning, or blogging. And now, in a period of one week, I've lost the ritual comfort of my apartment, my job, and Lloyd, my original tie to the city and the guy who has served as my daily sounding board, confidant, and partner in crime since then.

So what's a guy to do? A guy is to go to his original home for a week and a half and reset, then return to his new home and reset. And a guy is to take those ideas that have been sounded and confided and criminally partnered and make them reality. And a guy is to never forget, but a guy is also to walk with his face forward rather than over his shoulder. There are big, big plans in store, some formulated, some still abstract, some long-term, some spontaneous. And now is go.

I'll be embarking on some more detail-sharing post-reset, but I've been laying groundwork for a massive (massive as in 2 1/2 year) project that will serve to lay down the blueprints of theatre as it exists for Paul Rekk in one fell swoop. It's coming; keep your eyes open.

I'm excited that Lloyd is in New York -- it's where he wants and needs to be as an artist. And I'm excited that I'm in Chicago. It's home.

And hey, speaking of which, I leave for Iowa on Thursday morning... isn't that cool? Contrary to popular belief, the webbernet does extend to the IA, so I will be checking in from time to time. I'm probably not posting anything until after I get back on July 20th, but feel free to bask in my omniprescence. T'ain't no time for slacking though: I'm also heading to Victory Gardens for Relatively Close on Wednesday night.

Seriously, though -- Rekk-ommended? It just came to me. I'm so cool.

P.Rekk
2008

"In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind and dreaming ahead." -Tony Kushner

R.I.P., 1503