Thank you insomnia! Seems strange right? I'm not usually grateful for sleepless nights. However, during one particularly long insomnia night, I took to the internet. At this point, I can't remember exactly what I was doing or what my purpose was. It's unusual for me to just scroll through the internet. But somehow I came across these images of a play with really amazing shadow puppets. It was so artistic that it grabbed me right away. I went down the rabbit hole and kept clicking to see what I could see. I came across some music, I came across a few videos, then I found the licensing company (one I wasn't familiar with nor had worked with before) and they happened to have 80% of the play available to read as a perusal. I read as much as I could that insomnia night and just new I had found a treasure! TOMATOM, as we fondly call it around here, was conceived and created by 7 really good friends who all happened to be in school together at Carnegie Mellon University. One night, they all went camping and were being silly in the tent and creating shadow puppet stories. That turned into one story, that turned into an idea for a project together, that turned into writing music together, that turned into an off-Broadway production. It is incredibly fun, creative, imaginative, magical, and full of heart! All the things I love in a show. This one just spoke to me!

Covid has made so many things challenging this year. It seems performing arts have been particularly hard hit! As we tried to plan what this year could possibly look like, we decided to try something new; a whole production in a class. I've never done more than one-act plays in class before. We scrapped everything we had planned for the year and I thought this little treasure of a show might be the PERFECT fit for one strange, strange year. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. I found myself trying to adapt to this new rehearsal process, our new circumstances, all the new policies and saying over and over "We needed to start this little shindig ages ago!" In all honestly, a few days ago, I really wasn't sure if we were going to make it here! I have enough experience to know that things come together the last week of a production when they feel like a big, hot mess. However, I've never directed a show under these circumstances, so I could no longer rely on that intuition that told me it was going to be all right. Then, I tried really hard to continually remind myself that the act of creation at this current moment IS the important thing, rather than the relative polish of a show. I tried to just lean in to the creation of this piece for that experience alone, but IT WAS HARD! Then, somehow, a miracle occurred at our final dress rehearsal and I found my eyes stinging just a bit because there was a really creative, beautiful show under all those obstacles and hiccups, and bumps in the road, and inconsistency, and never feeling like we had enough time for rehearsals. Somehow we made it; just like the Old Man does! We have been uprooted from what we know and we're on a journey together! This is SUCH AN AMAZING GROUP OF KIDS! Throughout all the struggles, they stayed optimistic, they had courage to dare that we would actually be able to perform something this year, they dug in to all my constant instruction, and the changing circumstances, and the quarantines....I AM SO SO SO SO PROUD OF THEM AND WHAT THEY HAVE ACCOMPLISHED!!! I hope you can see all the hard work and appreciate it as much as I do! I would be remiss if I did not also say a special thanks to Courtney Christison; drama teacher extraordinaire, brilliant artist and technician, fantastic work wife, other half of my brain. We definitely would not have made it here to this opening without her relentless help and support. And, to the other performing arts teachers at Fremont (Geoff, Amber, Jacob, and Jon). They are truly, truly, truly one in a million and I'm grateful everyday to work with them!! We hope you enjoy this show as much as we do!

Aubrey Obray, Director