20 years ago, as a freshman at Cornell, I started a chapter of the stage combat group I’d trained with back in high school. This April, alumni from several generations of the group gathered for a reunion, and got to cross blades with each other as well as some of the current club members. We’ve…
My wife and I are (finally, slowly) watching Breaking Bad. While we’re enjoying the show, I’m struck by how the main character, Walter White, justifies increasingly immoral actions under the guise of “providing for his family.” As a parent presently freelancing, I can relate to his concern; I stress about finding my next project in…
This Summer, Ithaca Shakespeare is doing a single show: Comedy of Errors, which they did in 2020, but were forced to take virtual. The director, Beth Harris, is a lovely human being, and I will be choreographing the fights/slapstick. Performers will receive a small stipend at the end of the run. Auditions are via Zoom,…
My wife returned to full-time work in early December, and since we were only able to find half-time childcare for our two-year-old, I’ve been working freelance part-time and spending my afternoons as the primary parent. It’s been exhausting, rewarding, terrifying, and exhilarating. A quick summary of my experience thus far follows.Financially: I earned less on…
Toddler: “Mom, Mom! I want to tell you a joke!” My wife: “Okay, honey, what’s the joke?” Toddler: “Dad!” Me:
TL;DR: If you can’t trust your employees with 24 hours’ access to email to say their goodbyes after you let them know they’re being laid off, you have a major problem with your hiring, firing, and/or internal communications. In the first season of Game of Thrones, we get an immediate sense of Ned Stark’s basic…
I have just made both the scariest and, I believe, best decision of my professional life. My wife just returned to the workforce after having parented our daughter full-time since her birth in 2020. Our daughter is enrolled in half-time daycare, so for the immediate future, at least, I am taking care of her from…
For those in the Ithaca area, Jen and I will be performing Thursday evening at Sacred Root Kava Bar as visual entertainment for Jenn Taiga, Krauhl, Notule, and Avoidance’s dungeon synth show. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/5521184401309539 Hope to see a full house there!
The Ithaca Shakespeare company has been performing outdoor summer theater for 20 years, and I’ve been fortunate to be a part of it for many of them. First, through friends (and students) of mine who choreographed their fights beginning around 2006, and more recently, choreographing, training their actors, and occasionally performing since 2016. Community theater…
I recently decided to purchase more life insurance. We are a single-income household, and while my wife could go back to work in the event of something horrific happening to me, I wanted to make sure that she and our daughter would have ample time to grieve and decide what made sense for them. I…
Jacob K. Lehman 