First rehearsals always get me excited. I love stepping into the building and knowing I’m about to meet actors of amazing caliber, directors with vision, and designers who create astonishingly beautiful worlds for us as audience members to escape to. It’s exciting…and a bit like the first day of school.

This morning we began rehearsals for our special season add-on of VENUS IN FUR, and let me say, this one is going to be spectacular, risque and thought-provoking. For a start, it’s a meta-theatrical look into gender roles, and if that doesn’t get your attention, there’s also a healthy dose of masochism. Sounds fun, right? Our actors have arrived ready to roll (role?) and they are already making me think, laugh and thank the theater gods that I work in this business. Although VENUS IN FUR may not be a subject matter of interest to everyone, it is certainly intriguing, well-written and uninhibitedly performed. Who can say no to that?

So, today I’m feeling lucky. Lucky to be in sometimes-sunny Florida. Lucky to live in beautiful Naples. Lucky to work in the professional arts. And exceptionally lucky to be at Gulfshore Playhouse on a first rehearsal day.