Meet my delightfully dramatic family:

• Aresa is in her 3rd year as a Writing for Screen & Television Major at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. (Try saying that three times fast) She’s basically one rewrite away from turning our family into a limited series or a musical.

• Alex (yes, that’s me!): Attempting to live vicariously through my talented offspring, but mostly just working in my home office, talking to my dog. Who is deaf. So really, it’s just me doing a one-man show to an audience of zero. Critics say: “Bold but smells like peanut butter.”

• Heather, my wife of 26 years (and counting, she hasn’t fired me yet!), runs the show as the Director of Operations at Village Theatre. We both grew up there, and now she’s the boss of an organization full of jazz hands and tech cues. Yes, I married the stage manager—now my chaos has a run sheet.

• Eliot, our lovable black sheep. He sings, he dances, he has jazz hands—but plot twist! He’s now a Bio-Tech major at Gonzaga University. That’s right: while the rest of us are quoting Sondheim, he’s out there pipetting things and saying words like “CRISPR.”  

• Henry, (not pictured, not listening), our deaf Jack Russell and seasoned escape artist. He roams the neighborhood like a snack-fueled outlaw—lured home only by peanut butter and regret.