And what a year it's been.

How do you measure a year? In (female) playwrights, in non-nude scandals, in taking issue with other reviews and long stretches without posting. That's right, Storefront Rebellion is one year old tomorrow, and if StatCounter can be trusted, I should get my 35,000th visitor right around then as well. So I decided to spruce the place up a bit.

Zac Thompson tagged me with this meme. One of the laws of blogging is that you must comply when meme-tagged. Even though I break that law all the time, I like this one. The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

I'm writing this from the office, where the first book on my shelf is longtime Tribune critic Richard Christiansen's A Theater of Our Own: A History and a Memoir of 1,001 Nights in Chicago. Sentences five through seven of page 123:

The key event in realizing this theater of our own was the opening of Hull House Theater in 1963, when into the vacuum of local theater came a whirlwind named Bob Sickinger. At thirty-five, Sickinger already had attracted attention for his direction of dozens of plays in several Philadelphia area theaters, presenting new works by the young playwright Edward Albee, among others, and working with aspiring actors like Peter Boyle and Robert Prosky and the lighting designer Jules Fisher, who was eighteen and still in high school when he hung lights for the director. Paul Jans, director of the Lighthouse Settlement social agency in Philadelphia and newly appointed director of Hull House in Chicago, knew Sickinger's work and asked him to come to Chicago to reinvigorate the theater program that had once been a highlight of Hull House activity.

Christiansen's book is highly recommended if you haven't read it.

You know what else is highly recommended? Speech and Debate at American Theater Company. It only runs for three weeks, so get on it. Mary Warren and Teenage Abe Lincoln would love to see you there.

Comments

[dianna]

::looks around::
I like what you've done with the place....

[Mark Jeffries]

However, the link to the TOC blog theater posts leads back to your home page and the link to TOC's theater page 404s.

Helluva way to treat your employers. :)

[Kris Vire]

Thanks for pointing that out, Mark. The links are fixed.

[Francis]

Congratulations Kris and happy first birthday! It's quite a milestone, eh? Thanks for being always the voice of reason and clearly thought-out logic, regardless of which side of the continental divide we end up in (now, what about another non-nude scandal this year....:)). And I love the new look!