🎼 And I’ll Take With Me The Memories, To Be My Sunshine After The Rain…🎶

Hello Gentle Reader,

I have been unfortunate to find this sad news in a multitude of ways. First, a phone call, then an email, and in my mailbox today, I found a letter. The sad news in question, dear friend, is that the place that I have called my theatre home has announce that after 60 years, they would be closing the doors.

This is devastatingly sad information to find out. And as hard as it is for me, I can only imagine how it must feel for the board of directors and some amazing friends who have given so much time, energy and love to this endeavor.

I have been so incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to experience so many firsts with this incredible non-profit. Before I get in to any of that… buckle up, this is gonna be a little long.

Dear WVLO,

When I walked in to my first audition with you, I could never have guessed that for the last 33 years I would get to play so many incredible characters on that Saratoga stage under your banner.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to WVLO for being a safe space to play, grow, learn, experiment and connect. I learned so much with this company and many of those things that have made my life so much better and more complete. This was the first space that I felt safe enough to try new things but most importantly, was allowed to try them. I don’t know that I would have had that chance in other places.

My first show should have been King & I back in 1993. The production had just started rehearsals and I was a late addition. At this time, I was heavy into competitive dance. It was an all boys group and we had won seven championships for our category. One of those wins got us into a national competition that was going to be at the event center right by Disneyland. The only down side was that this occurred during the tech week and opening weekend of the show. It was decided that maybe this wasn’t the right time to try and be in a show since I was committed to this event. I was bummed but it made sense. I didn’t know what “tech week” was at that time or how much of a commitment that alone is.

However, I met Nancy and the Hand family at that time. I also met the Pincus’ and I am pretty sure, their daughter Judy. I never would have guessed that these people whom I have come to adore, we be so gracious to welcome me back to work as part of the stage hand crew for Meet Me In St. Louis. I had a worry that there would be some sort of hesitation to have me work on another show. Silly thought.

MMISL is where I got hands on experience being part of the group that works on the physical transition of the stage into a new look between scenes, or helps hand out props to the actors and sometimes assists with a quick change, just to name a few tasks. Without a stage crew, a show would be impossible to happen. At this time, I was still in high school and my drama teacher was directing the show. Since I was still competing, I knew that I most likely couldn’t be on stage. I spoke to my teacher about it and he made the suggestion of stage hand. I was able to compete and miss a weekend of shows so that worked out really well. It was a lot of fun and I had learned a new part of the theater world. Up until this point, I had only been a performer. Having the chance to do backstage tasks, helped me to learn how each job in the project was super important. It wasn’t just about the actors on stage.

It was this point that I truly fell in love with the world of the theatre.

In 1995, I had given up competitive dance, mostly because I wanted a job so I had a little spending money of my own and found that my drama teacher was once again directing for WVLO, so I auditioned for West Side Story. As part of the ensemble, I was so jealous at how much dance there was in the show but that I didn’t get to do. I would jokingly say this show should have been called Jet Boys and Shark Girls. And even though I was envious of the dances that I wasn’t a part of, I still got to dance quite a bit and it was SO much fun. The team of John Healy and Debbie Norris always put on a great production.

Then, later that year, I was cast as Tulsa in Gypsy. My first featured role that was outside of a school setting. From there, it has become a lot of featured roles and an occasional choreography gig and then a directography gig, the only thing I didn’t do with WVLO was strictly a director’s gig.

Since that time in 1993 as a stage hand, I have always tried to make a point of helping other areas of a production if I was able. Whenever I am an actor, I always offer help to costumes. And when I am just doing choreography. Ok, pretty much every show I offer help to costumes. 🤭

While learning a lot of this stuff in school and conservatory is great, I only really ever got the chance to be hands on when working at WVLO. My learning was focused on performing, so all the other aspect of theatre was really just reading and talking with people maybe seeing that person at work. Never actually touching a lighting board to see how to blend color or creating a sound cue.

I am really going to miss this place. I feel truly lucky that I was invited to be a part of the Diamond cast for the 60th anniversary celebration. But even more lucky that I got to be on stage as two dear friends, Nancy Hand and Judy Pincus actually got to take that bow that they so very richly have deserved.

With my entire heart, thank you to WVLO for being such a massive part of my life and for everything you have offered to me. I thank you for every person that I have ever had the chance to share that stage with. I thank you for the incredible people that I have had the chance to learn so much from behind the scenes. I thank you for the billions of times that I have laughed so hard I lost my breath. I thank you for the hundreds of dance steps I got to make. I thank you for the chance to play characters that took me out of my regular life and let me figure out someone else’s story while I was trying to figure out my own.

But most importantly, thank you for the amount of love you poured in to me. I would not be who I am without that and I am so sad that I will never get to repay it. – j.

Thank you, Kind Reader, for letting me share that little story. It has been stuck in my chest all week. I have been trying to think of ways to save this place. I am sure that the group has already thought of these things a million times. Hoping against everything that there is a way, and I am sure there is. I would love to be the person to revive this brand. I have some ideas and I have some insight where the struggles are, now it is just a matter of how to get these dots connected.

I am sure that I have mentioned at some point in the last 20 years of writing, that I would love to have my own theatre company. I don’t think that will actually happen, but what if I could help to reestablish one?

Do you have any place that means a lot to you that helped you grow? Or maybe some nonprofit that you love because of the mission? Let me know what are some of the reasons you love those places.

As always, Dear Reader, stay safe and alert. Take care of yourself and those around you. Until the next time our paths cross… ❤️

🎼 When The Lights Go Down In The City, And The Sun Shines On The Bay…🎶

Hello Gentle Reader!

Well, Sunday marked my final performance for a while, but it was anything but uneventful. 😂 I get to the theatre that afternoon with the mindset that we are going to have a start time of 2pm and I would be back home and in my pajamas relaxing the rest of the night away before chaos week at my survival job. First, I think I have to note that the temperatures were easily in the 100 degree range and possibly hotter. Once you start broiling though, you can’t really tell if it has gotten hotter.

5 minutes to curtain and my casemates get into their places for a reveal that happens shortly after we begin. The “Places” call is made and I head over to spot where I catch a pair of pants that are thrown to me offstage. The curtain speech is made and the main curtain is pulled open and I listen… waiting for my cue to enter.

Up to this point, you could hear this group of people is ready to laugh. They had some good vocalizations while the first actor is giving his exposition speech. I hear my cue “they’d eat the linoleum off the floor if it had a vinaigrette on it”

With that, I am on stage. I get to say, “Maybe his plane is late.” Then slowly, the lights flickered out. Or maybe it felt slow. 2 minutes into the play, the power dies! My cast mate and I stood patiently waiting for a minute or so, in the hopes that it would be a quick little blink of the lights.

And there we stood for what felt like 10 minutes, but was more like a minute in reality. I finally turn to the audience and said, “so how are you doing today?” We had a laugh, but I wanted to keep people in a cheery mood, so I kept talking…

I recall saying “believe it or not, this isn’t the first time I have been in this predicament.” I told them a short story about when I was in White Christmas there was one performance that the lights went out due to winds from an upcoming rainy night that was expected. While we had 2 flood lights at the back of the theatre, they weren’t powerful enough to light the stage safely enough to complete the show. Instead, we offered conversation and the cast gathered on the stage and we sang some carols with the audience. It was really quite a lovely moment to be a part of.

Very kindly, many of the people offered to use their phone lights to keep the stage lit, but I said, you don’t want to drain your battery! Especially if we are in a true power outage.

One of the people asked me to recount the time that I was in Lend Me A Tenor (which was the whole reason why I wanted to be in this show) and how it is to take on the role of Max again. I know I had written about my experience and as I am sure you know, Dear Reader, I am terrible at marketing myself. Instead of saying that I had a whole blog post about it and they could read it on TheActorvist.com, my face hole said “I can’t fully remember the details. But I have a reason why…” then spouted (like some sort of snob) that I was in several shows that year that rolled into each other that it was hard to recall all the details. Only after someone from our stage crew gave us the hook did I think about trying to recount the blog post itself.

UGH!!! I could kick myself. LOL

I feel very lucky that even though it was only a small majority of the audience would come back for the postponed start time, they were a lively bunch. What a way to end a super fun run! The cast and staff were absolutely wonderful and the rehearsal period was short as was the run. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Even with all of our oopsies. 😂 Or would a plural of oopsies be oopsieses?

What out of the ordinary thing has happened to you in a theatre? Did I tell you about the time that someone was breathing oddly and unresponsive during a show? Wait this isn’t about my stories 😳 I want to know more about YOU!

Thank you again, Kind Reader for your time and until next time… Stay safe and alert and take care of yourself and those you care about.

❤️

Catch Me Success Rate = 100%, So Far…

Don't Break the Rules — Photo Credit: Edmond Kwong of ImageWurx

Hello Gentle Reader!

So far, I’ve “caught” him every show! LOL!

Let’s talk about CMIYC. 🎭

This has been a great experience overall. I know that wasn’t what you were expecting me to say. Yes, it did have its struggles like all rehearsals do and I will get into that in just a sec.

This has been so much fun to play Carl Hanratty. 😜 I have begun to love the end of this show so much. “Goodbye” is such a great song to tie the two men’s lives together. This begins with Agents Cod and Branton mocking the hotel room mess left by Frank Jr. as Hanratty’s. Then, the realization that it could be true is in “Man Inside the Clues.” 😱

The great thing about Carl, though, is that he has this arc in the show where he goes from strictly seeing right or wrong to having some doubts about whether things are as simple as that.

Dear Reader, do you recall last year when I spoke of having a hard time with the rehearsal process of Lend Me A Tenor because I wasn’t understanding what was being asked of me. 💀 I wasn’t asking the right questions to get what I needed so in the end, I just had to let it all go and focus on the mechanics. And that helped. But I learned that I needed to work on MY communication. In this process, I would hit points where I wasn’t understanding how A and B connected, but knowing what I knew now, I was able get what I needed to give the director what she was asking for. That experience itself ended up not only being super fun but it was one of the greatest lessons I learned.💖 I will be forever grateful that I was a part of it.

The one area that freaked me out the most was that they respected our time a little too much, I felt. 😳LOL! 😂I had almost two weeks off in the middle while they worked on other scenes I wasn’t needed for. It was cool and all, but when it came to putting all together, I was in panic mode trying to make sure that I was synced up with everyone in the scenes we had together. However, in the end, through all the stress and panic, the show quickly smoothed itself out and the nitpicking got to happen almost right away when it came to full run-throughs.

The time moved so fast that our first time on the set through to Opening Night felt like a blur. It is incredible to think that this show is already nearing the end of its run. It also makes me a little sad to think about. I have had such a great time working with these folks that I know I will be bawling in my dressing room while Rachelle Abbey sings the hell out of “Fly, Fly Away” on closing night. 🎶

Gentle Reader, this has unexpectedly become a favorite role in my list of credits for sure. Have you ever had an activity or event that you weren’t certain about that ended up being one of the best things you’ve ever done? What made you nervous about it? How did you handle it? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, Dear Reader, have a wonderful day!