I've been rather quiet about Tracing Sonny on this here blog. Well, I've been rather quiet in general on this here blog. Facebook and Twitter have become my more mainline attack on the internet, and I just haven't felt the same need to blog. (And maybe I feel a little guilty that nearly half the year is over and I still haven't finished my "Top 10 Entertainment Experiences of 2008" post. Yikes!)

Opening weekend has come and gone for Tracing Sonny, with three weeks left in the run. I would have been happier with a longer run, but the economics of doing theatre on the small scale is an ass-kicker. We need to wrap up our IRS tax-exempt paperwork posthaste, so we can begin reeling in juicy grants and sponsorships. The silver-lining to taking our time is that we've amassed an incredible body of work over the past year and a half that we can point to when applying for the big bucks. The list is impressive:

Theatre Unleashed - "mainstage" productions since founding:

1. What We Should Have Said: An Evening of One Acts for Los Angeles
2. The Tempest
3. Pin-Up Girls
4. The Way of the World
5. Tales of an Unsettled City: Beginnings
6. Tracing Sonny
7. Tales of an Unsettled City: Encounters

We've also done sketch comedy shows, variety shows, fundraisers and performance art:

1. Theatre Unleashed Presents: Theatre Unleashed! Featuring Theatre Unleashed
2. Dead Beat Poet Society: 80's Night
3. The Holidays Unleashed!
4. Die Gruppe in "Last Night's Appetizers"
5. Attraction/Logic
6. Die Gruppe in "Kiss My Butt"
7. Acting Our Age
8. The World's Smallest Renaissance Faire

Still yet to come this year, five, count 'em FIVE more "mainstage" shows (two of which are originals penned by company members):

1. All in the Timing
2. 4.48 Psychosis
3. Landscaping the Den of Saints
4. Tales of an Unsettled City: [to be named]
5. Friends Like These

And that's not all! An animated short fest later this week, and another performance art event. Also, we're likely to do another winter variety show fundraiser. And a Halloween meta-event:

1. Something Awesome Animated Short Fest
2. Metamorphose
3. Untitled Halloween event
4. Untitled Winter fundraiser

Friends, that's 24 major events completed, ongoing and scheduled in the first two years of our existence as a company. That's one major event a month, if you break it down that way, but we typically do more than one thing at a time. It saves on space rental. Not taken into account is the incredible amount of promotional and marketing work we do for each event, including the production of web videos and an enormous amount of wed marketing spearheaded by our webmaster.

I'm reminded of that episode of the Simpsons, where the yellow-skinned family is trodding through Africa and Bart and Lisa keep repeating, "Are we insane yet? Are we insane yet? Are we insane yet?" in a sing-song, "Are we there yet?" fashion.

Fairly insane, yes.