Diamond Jubilee Year/Bob's Motel

Happy New Year, Rugg.

Shelley and Grace and I will have a meeting on Sunday to finalize plans to surprise you. At this writing there are more than seventy of your old pals and their families who will fete you on January 24th.

It'll be great to see the look on your face when you arrive at the theater. You'll get to hear some anecdotes!

This is Bob's Motel.. Okay, Bob? Bob's your uncle?

Happy Birthday, Rugg!

Max Ten

Merry Christmas!!

Thought you might like to know that Rugg and some of his family will be performing at The Electric Lodge in Venice on Monday, January 5th at about 7:30.

Tickets are ten bucks. The ten pieces, each ten minutes long are eclectic and mostly experimental. They've had some pretty amazing work in the past.


http://www.electriclodge.org/arts/events/max10.cfm for more info.

If you do decide to come down to the Electric Lodge, just say that you heard about it from Shelley or me.

Happy New Year, too.

Gifts?

Shelley hasn't said so, but it seems that the appropriate gift, should you wish to come up with one, would be a contribution to the Kenneth Rugg Scholarship Fund. I've sent a check and hope that the CSULB Fund will wind up with a substantial amount. Don't know how it'll be administered, but certainly it'll be helpful to a worthy theatre student who will put it to good use.

I went to dinner with Rugg and Grace recently and got this shot of him. Thought I'd share it with you and have it for him to see when we tell him about this blog.

Evite? Yikes!

http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=RQOHTFFMCWGNXAOSVXOT&li=iq&src=email
Okay!! Hope this one works.
Addendum: Shelley has had a hard time with this url to the evite. I copied the whole address by double clicking on the link and pasted it into a new tab and it came up for me. There's Good Old Ruggala in Krapp's Last Tape.. So.. keep watching this blog for any updates. My email address is coded in a previous entry. Send me a note and I'll figure out a way to get you to the evite if my suggestion here doesn't work. Thanks!

I've had a hard time getting this evite address to show up in this blog. If you can connect with the site, you'll be able to see who has already RSVP'd and sign in.

Shelley has gotten the Rugg Scholarship Fund going. This is double info, but just in case, if you want to make a contribution to the Fund, please send a check payable to:
CSULB Foundation with a note that it's for the Kenneth Rugg Scholarship Fund.
Their address is:
CSULB Foundation
Attention: Kenneth Rugg Scholarship
6300 State University Drive
Suite 332
Long Beach, CA 90815-4669

Stories about Ken will be in a segment called 'In the Actors Studio' for about an hour from 4:30 'til 5:30. Festivities will continue with music by SHAKE, Shelley's band (well, she's a member of the band!!) until 8:30.

Hope the URL shows up this time. Leave a note here if it doesn't connect.

About sixty friends have RSVP'd so far! Looking forward to seeing old pals.. and everyone!

If you love great poetry, Sharon Doubiago (that's her photo) has a new book out: Love on the Streets from University of Pittsburgh Press www.upress.pitt.edu She has nothing to do with Rugg's birthday but I really like her! Google her for some pithy stuff.

Timing

Rugg is planning to have a diamond celebration with his old friend, Vaughan Hitchcock, for their mutual birthdays. If Hitchcock is reading this, hope that he will be sure to not plan anything for 1/24/09.

I tried a phone number for David Stiver in Folsom, CA, but got a fax tone. Not sure he is Mary Lou's son, but will try some other moves soon.

Evite

To help Shelley keep track of RSVPs, please go to this link and sign up:

http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?inviteId=RQOHTFFMCWGNXAOSVXOT&li=iq&src=email

The best way to do this is to copy the address and then paste it into a new tab. You can see who has already RSVP'd and I think you may leave comments. If you want to tell a story about Rugg at the party, you can sign up there.

Thanks!

Volunteers?

Shelley has just let me know that Linda Woolverton will attend the party! She's one of Ken's prize students who has gone on to do good work as a writer. Currently, she's working on a film with Tim Burton! Heady stuff. I wanted to get her address from Ken to make sure she knew about the celebration. So.. now, KEN.. you know why I was trying to write to her! Ya poop, ya.

I've entitled this entry 'Volunteers' to solicit help for the event. If you are following this blog and have ideas to share, please do. If you are distant and want to leave a note for Ken, do that, too. I'll make sure he has access to it after the celebration.

If you know other students, friends or colleagues who would like to come to the party, please pass the information along and use my yahoolaotzu41 address to RSVP.

Howdies?

I just had a thought. For those of you who may not make it to Long Beach on 1/24, you can easily leave messages for Ken here by making a comment. He won't know about this blog until after the gathering. So.. here you go.

Final plans for Rugg's celebration are in full swing.

Guests are asked to arrive at the Studio Theatre on the Long Beach campus at 4PM on Saturday, January 24th. Everyone is asked to bring something to share to eat.. pot luck finger type food as well as a beverage.. wine, six pack of beer or soda. Shelley will arrive with Ken at 4:30. Please be on time. We'll figure out the format for the program as we go along. I think that Shelley's evite asks guests to sign up for a brief memory or anecdote that relates to Ken.

I'm not sure about parking in the parking lot on Saturdays. Check back here for more information about that. Not sure how long things will go on. Guess it all depends on how many show up.

Several years ago Ken, The Hawk and I went to Medieval Times (or was it that Western Show next door in Buena Park??) for someone's birthday. This image somehow got Photoshopped.

Old Friends

This is one of Rugg's photos of our production of Pierre Patelin. The woman playing my wife.. Lou... gosh.. what's her last name? We had a great time doing this in parks. Michael Lyman was in this one, too, playing a judge.

Over the past couple of days I've learned again what an amazng resource the internet is. Through an art gallery in New York City I was able to contact Iris Rose, an artist I met in the summer session at Long Beach in about 1970. She lives in Manhattan, but was in Oregon when she got my message. A couple of days later I got a note from her saying that she was visiting with Jeanne Gallo in San Francisco, another friend from those days in Long Beach.

Today, in Sun City, Arizona, I contacted Madelyn Rusthoven who was also a student then. Jaye Johnson should be able to round up Richard Gray, who may be in touch with others from the sixties/seventies at Long Beach State.

I've also contacted a former student of mine, Linda Tyler (now Valenti) who was part of the original Merrie Masquers group.

I've no idea how many others may be following this blog. Hope it's fun for Rugg to read after the party!

Michael

The Birthday Boy!

I thought that I'd share this video image that Rugg sent to me the other day. What a smile! His computer faces out towards the living room. That drawing on the wall is one of a series that Shelley did for her Masters Degree. The drawing is of her grandmother, Margaret Rugg.

Moving Right Along...

Grace has found an actor who has, in turn, sent a list of former students/actors. She says that responses are now coming in! We've set a deadline for responses by about the middle of December, but if we do this pot luck idea, then it seems to me that it'll be a wonderful free for all.

I like the idea of brainstorming what to do for the evening with all who are into making suggestions. We discussed the idea of having Ken sit on a 'throne' center stage or in the middle of the space and just have him sit and listen as we all tell favorite anecdotes about our experiences with him.

Please forward ideas and additional email addresses to Grace and/or Shelly. I won't publish anyone's address here. If you send info to me at laotzu (then 41) and then A T yahooooooo daught calm, I can forward the information to the ladies if you don't have their addresses. Remember when doing an email address there are no spaces. Hope this code isn't too confusing. I've heard there are auto systems that cruise the net looking for email addresses to spam.

News about the scholarship fund as it rolls in. Questions? Please post questions and comments here.


Michael

BIG BIRTHDAY!

Shelley Rugg has an idea. She wants us all to help celebrate her dad's Diamond Jubilee.

Yep, Ken Rugg is turning 75 and if all goes well, lots of old theatre friends and others will assemble for a big surprise party on the CSULB campus. It's a surprise, so as you connect with us here and in email, please make sure you don't cc to Ken.

Shelley has begun a Kenneth Rugg Scholarship Fund that will aid theatre students at CSULB. Donations to the Fund are welcome. How to do that will be known soon.

If you've studied with Ken, been on faculty with him, worked in theatre with him, gone to school with him or in anyway have an association, please leave a note here.

Also, all ideas for the celebration starting the afternoon of Saturday, January 24, 2009, are solicited and most welcome. Currently, we hope to surprise Ken in the Studio Theatre and either have folks come together with performances or presentations. Another idea is to just have folks recount memories of our associations with Ken.

Check this site for updates. We hope to have confirmed guests by about December 15th to plan for food and drink.

Please, pass the word. Which, of course.. is "Mummmm!"..

Michael Sheehan