As I ate breakfast this morning, perusing the news outlets, I started to make a list of the movies I want to see soon: movies like Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, and Shopgirl. And when I told my girlfriend that I wanted to see them, I didn’t stop there. Oh no. I told her I want to see them in the theater and support them with my box office dollars.

See, I’m afraid that if I don’t see them in the theater (and contribute to their box office take) then my "vote" doesn’t count in getting more movies like these made.

Are we really at that point? Do our dollars spent at movie houses really mimic votes in an election of content? I don’t know. But they might just.

#—

I started highlighting my script for The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder (one of the one-act plays I will be performing this December). I am playing the role of Charles, who ages from twelve years old to nearly seventy in the course of the play (which will run about half an hour or less). It will be a challenge, and will involve a lot of physical behavior that I am anticipating with relish#–I love exploring the physical qualities of the characters I am creating, and this should be a real treat.

The second play will be a mostly improvised modern day retelling of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. I have to read the book this weekend and am looking for an inexpensive paperback tome this afternoon#–the director wants to meet with each of the cast members on Monday to touch base on how the project will commence, and how we view our characters. This will be a new experience for me#–improvisation is something that scares me mightily.