Right from the start, you could tell today was going to be a great day. The brilliant morning sun shining through the cottage windows, the sweet smell of daffodils carried in the warm air... ah, it finally feels like Spring.

After breakfast and my morning coffee, I had a great talk with the folks at Indiepool about the manufacturing of my upcoming CD, "Taking The Wheel". We talked about the number of CDs to produce, the design of the CD liner, the mastering, the timeline ... all the details that still need to be done.

Then, I had a great meeting with photographer David Cooper. He and I knocked around details for shooting the photos for my CD liner and website, jeffmadden.ca. I am quite lucky to have David onboard. He is an incredible photographer, and has shot the program photos for Shaw Festival productions for years, as well as many other arts institutions across North America.

Then Christine and Sydney arrived from Oakville, and we all had a great lunch together before I ran to my preview of "Mack and Mabel". Yesterday, we played to an audience of about 80%, and it was great to have such a full house. Today, however, we had more like a 20% house, and at first it seemed like the show was going to be tough. But, to our surprise, this was one of our best audiences, always attentive, listening, laughing, and eventually giving us a standing ovation. It goes to show you, never judge a book by its cover.

Then, a fellow cast member and I were asked to take part in a post-show chat with a group of High School students from Barrie. They were a nice group of teenage girls, who asked some pretty interesting questions about the show, the rehearsal process, the audition process, etc. But, I have to hand it to their teachers, who no doubt had to convince their principal to give these girls the day off, drive them 230 kms to the Shaw to expose them to some world-class theatre, and hopefully have them learn something along the way. And, it felt great, knowing that I might have had a positive influence on a budding performer in this group. (Way to go, Madden, just what the world needs -- another actor!)

Then, after feeding and playing with Syndey for a bit, Christine and I enjoyed a lovely dinner of rainbow trout, wild rice and broccoli, with some 70% cocoa chocolate for dessert. And just as Sydney was getting tired and ready for bed, a beautiful pink sunset hung over the tree line to the west. A lovely end to a great day.

How was your day today? Do you find that you feel better when it's sunny and warm? Do you sometimes wish you could just pick up and move to Miami or LA or Hawaii? I'd love to hear...

Jeff
:)