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I went up to Wisconsin for a week with my girlfriend last week. We went to a cottage on Little St. Germain Lake waaaay the heck up in northern Wisconsin. We cooked a bunch, took a row boat and paddle boat on the lake a few times, watched some movies, worked on a dance we performed on Friday night at the Hot House, and just chilled. Our view and the weather was gorgeous, so it made for a nice week.

But here we were waaay up in the northwoods, and we weren’t sure if we’d be able to check e-mail or anything. So I go up to Mark, the dude who owned the little “resort” we were at, and asked him “this might a bit of an off question, but do you know any place around here where we’d be able to access the internet?” And what does he say? “Well, if you’ve got a laptop with wireless, I’ve got my office set up on wireless, so you can probably just connect right off my network.” Are you serious? Sure enough, we were able to get on the net for like an hour and check our e-mail.

What did I find out when i checked my e-mail? Holy crap. I just about crapped my pants when I read it. The e-mail I saw read:

“RASAKA THEATRE COMPANY, Chicago’s first South Asian ensemble, received 3 nominations for Citation Awards for it’s inaugural production of “The Masrayana” by William Kovacsik!

The 3 nominations are for Best New Work (William Kovaksik), Best Choreography (Alka Nayyar) and Best Original Incidental Music (Nikhil Trivedi)

GO TEAM!! (www.rasakatheatre.org)”

WHAT??! I saw the e-mail, I was like ‘that’s freaking awesome, The Masrayana, the theatre production I played sitar for in the fall, got nominated for THREE Jeff Awards.’

(Side note, the Jeff Awards are like Oscar awards, but for Chicago professional theater. From their website:

“The Jeff Awards are given annually by The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee to honor excellence in professional theatre produced in the immediate Chicago area. Organized in 1968, the committee is composed of approximately 45 theatre professionals and experienced theatregoers who evaluate approximately 250 productions and hold two awards ceremonies each year.”)

I read on, and found out one of them was DIRECTLY FOR ME. Holy crap. I didn’t even know there was a technical name for the contribution I made to the show, let alone enough of it to call for a full category at an awards ceremony. And hot damn, ME being nominated??? That’s CRAZY!!! I was completely shocked, completely floored, and completely speechless, and still freakin am. I don’t even know what to say. That’s FREAKING AWESOME!!!