This is just precious. RIP Maurice Sendak - and thankyou for giving us the joy of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Thankyou: My response to lies, rumours and negativity…..
“Is this “start a false rumour about Harvest Rain” week and nobody told me? I’ve heard 3 stupid rumours so far & it’s only Tuesday…”
I tweeted that yesterday. It was just one of those days at Harvest Rain where it seemed all the negativity in the world was being focussed in our general direction. Over the years, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s part of my job to deal with people in the industry talking about the decisions I make, my casting choices, the way I run the company, the style of work we produce and things like that, and some of the time that type of discussion is fairly negative, sometimes slanderous, occasionally hurtful and frequently based on false information. People think we don’t read the comments on YouTube, or see what gets posted on Facebook, or hear the whispers in crowded foyers……but we do. I do. We read the good stuff that is said about us, and we read the bad. Most of the time I’m pretty good at blocking out the negative stuff and focussing on the positive, but yesterday for some reason hearing three false negative rumours about the company in one day just really bothered me. It’s truly shocking to me the sort of lies people will make up just to tear someone else down. I don’t like to take on other people’s negativity, but yesterday I did and it made for a bad day!
I said to someone yesterday that one day I’m going to list all of the negative rumours I’ve heard about me and Harvest Rain and respond to them one by one in a lengthy blog, but frankly I’m not interested in giving negativity that much of my attention. So what I’m going to do instead is start making a point of thanking the people who bring positivity into my life, and thanking them publicly. For every negative rumour I hear that is designed to tear me down, I’m going to tweet my gratitude to the various people in my life who go out of their way to build me up with their friendship, loyalty, love and support.
So there will be no blog to deal with the negative rumours. But there will be many #thankyou tweets. Because when it comes down to it I have so much to be grateful for and so many people to thank. Let the haters hate. What I’m going to focus on is the love.
So brace yourself - here come a whole swag of daily #thankyou tweets. Why not join me in thanking the people that bring positivity into your life? The #thankyou hashtag is free for all to use…..
Setting the record straight about THAT fight……
Today, the Courier Mail ran a story about an incident that occurred during the fight scene in Saturday night’s performance of THE NEVERENDING STORY at QPAC. The article didn’t really get all the details of what occurred completely correct, and I’ve had concerned people tweeting me about it all day, so I thought it might be best to set the record straight about exactly what happened.
Basically, the fight was going as planned (and it is very tightly planned and rehearsed let me assure you!) until the Auryn necklace that Dan Venz wears as Atreyu flicked up and hit him in the teeth. So, yes he was “struck in the face” as the article suggests, but not by another actor - he was struck in the face by a piece of jewellery (of all things the Auryn, which in the story is supposed to protect Atreyu - obviously wasn’t working on Saturday night!). During the fight, Ron Kelly also injured his thumb when one of the fight moves was unfortunately misplaced. Both actors were absolute troopers and carried on to the very end of the show until they could be seen to by the medical team at QPAC. Ron made a trip to the medical centre after the show to have his thumb properly checked out, but by the end of the night he text me to say it was “painful, stretched, strained, sprained, bruised but ready for another show on Tuesday night”.
Both Dan and Ron are absolute troopers who have worked tirelessly to make that fight scene as intense and thrilling as it is, but they’ve also worked hard in conjunction with our incredibly gifted fight director Niki-J Price to ensure that the fight is always as SAFE as it can be. Whenever weapons are used on stage or actors are required to fight each other, it’s important that an experienced and qualified fight director be involved from the start of the process, and this is exactly what happened. Unfortunately, even with all of that planning and strict safety procedures in place, sometimes accidents can occur (and jewellery can attack!). I want to express my gratitude to Ron and Dan for the way they handled the whole situation, and to Niki-J for her skill in devising such a safe and clever fight sequence in the first place. It’s great to know that both Ron and Dan have recovered and are ready to go into our final week of shows at QPAC.
So that’s the story. Glad to be able to set the record straight before rumours start doing the rounds! If you haven’t seen the show yet, there are 8 shows left this week in which you can go and check out this fantastic fight sequence! Get to it - tickets at www.harvestrain.com.au
I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.
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| — | E. V. Lucas |
After the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dressers and all the pomp and fanfare has faded, the enduring things that are left are the dedication to excellence, the dedication to victory, and the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place in which to live.
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| — | Vince Lombardi |
