Counting down to the French Revelution and a Homecoming!

LES MISERABLES

A publicity still for Les Miserables.

Tomorrow night, Les Miserables opens to the public by  Theatre Bristol at The Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, TN. Xander (pictured at right holding the flag) has been putting in a lot of late nights getting ready for his role as Gavroche. He is sharing the role with another actor. Xander gets Friday night and Sunday matinee performances while Zaiah Gray performs the role for tonight's Gala Fundraising event and Saturday night shows. My wife has the soundtrack on CD and once he heard a kid performing a solo he declared, "If there is ever a performance nearby, I have to try out." He did and he got it. I knew he was serious when he found out taking the role would mean taking his name out of consideration for baseball All-Stars. He made the team last year and this year he not only improved his batting average by over 200 points but emerged as the most accurate pitcher on the team registering the lowest percentage of walks among our pitchers. It was a big shock that my little catcher spent more time on the mound than behind the plate. Xander has been involved with troupe at his school and performed last year at Lamplight Theatre's production of "G.L.O.W.: Go Light Our World" so he is no novice to the stage but Theatre Bristol is really stepping up to put on such an ambitious show. Even when he is not there he is constantly singing tunes from the Boublil & Schonberg epic. It's good that it came around when it did, since his first chance to play the role will likely be his last as I have noticed his voice starting to deepen. I hope anyone who comes enjoys the performance as much as he has been enjoying the preparation. He really loves the role, and he should. How many roles are there for kids where they get a solo and (warning: spoiler ahead) a death scene? If you are in the area and have an itch that only a three hour epic musical about the French Revolution can scratch, you can find out more about the showtimes and purchase tickets at www.theparamountcenter.com.


ROB-CON

I'll be making my third appearance at Rob-Con this year August 1st and 2nd at Viking Hall in Bristol, TN. Rob-Con is like a homecoming for me. I made my first personal appearance there and debuted my Convention Exclusive of Jigsaw World (the black and while mature readers edition) as well as the first print copy of Adventures in Pulp #1 (featuring Dick Ruby and the Case of the Little Green Men and Hawk and A Handsaw). This year my illustrator, Matthew Childers, and I were hoping to have the collected edition of Adventures in Pulp available but alas we are still a couple of weeks away from wrapping our final short story Ashes of the Immortals, and have not even started the Kickstarter funding. With a month to go we MIGHT be able to get Adventures in Pulp #2 back from the printers in time to have it available (it will feature The Four Horsemen and Ashes of the Immortals) as well as a full color final-edit edition of Jigsaw World #1. It will be close but I REALLY hope we can get it done. I'll probably be sitting in on several panels. I have been invited to attend a writers panel and possibly a self publishing panel as well as Matt Shaffer's Comic Book Movie panel. Robert Pilk puts on a great show and this year it will be expanding to two days. I'm glad it's going well for him. He is the owner of one of the first comic shops in the area (Mountain Empire Comics) and I got most of my books there as a kid and still get pay a visit every week picking up books for myself and my son. So he really is a multi-generational dealer in the arts and family entertainment. I hope I can make a few announcements by then, but we will see.  Nothing is for sure in the entertainment business until you put a signature on a page. If you are at the show, please come by and say "hi," especially if you are an artist. While Matt is a talented guy, he has a full plate and I am always looking for other artists to partner with on submissions to the major and minor publishers. In fact, don't feel you have to wait until the convention e-mail me or contact me via twitter @BrettTHarris.