🎼 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.

❤️

🎼Hot Summer Streets & The Pavements Are Burning, I Sit Around. Trying To Smile, But The Air Is So Heavy & Dry🎶

Hello Gentle Reader,

OMG I have tried to complete the post about Kinky Boots for the last 2 months and by this time, I can’t add any of the photos that I want to now that the writing was finally finished. But then I went back and read it, and it was trash. There was no flow to the post and the thread of thought that I initially had doesn’t work because I literally spent 52 days trying to add to it to get all my thoughts out but it was a jumbled mess.

So I am scrapping that post altogether and just moving forward. 😵

The newest project is a fun little farce that is a great way to wrap up a really fun summer! Although, I have to say that I think unless I am rehearsing in an air conditioned hall/space, I don’t think summer shows are going to be for me going forward. 😄

I thought my big ass was gonna pass out with the heat we were dealing with here. Several days in the triple digits when my optimal functioning temperature has a max high of 75 degrees 🤭 made me feel like a polar bear in the middle of the dessert. All I wanted to find was a fridge to crawl inside.

This next project is Ken Ludwig’s Comedy of Tenors. Not exactly a sequel to the hilarious Lend Me A Tenor, but could be considered as one since 4 of the 7 characters are the same just older. With that being said, please note that one is not dependent on the other. And to make it even better is that this is my 6th team up with director Allie B! I may be more of a nuisance to her at this point. She is probably thinking “Why do I keep bringing this fool into my projects?!” as she shakes a fist to the sky. 😂

Of course, Sweet Reader, I am saying all of this in jest. At this point, she is a dear friend and I enjoy the shorthand that we have accumulated over the course of these projects. Nearly a decade ago, I was lucky enough to play Max in Lend Me however, Allie was not the director of that project. As a matter of fact, I have a post about it. It was a great lesson that I learned doing that show. It was one of those things where I was so sure that my way was the right way but found that I can keep my intentions the same but add different actions and the stage picture would be what the director was aiming for.

That lesson has helped me in so many ways. It has given me the courage to ask for clarification when I need it if something isn’t clear right away so that I don’t build up frustration. Not only does it build and feed the collaborative spirit but it really makes me feel like I am freer to try creative choices. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t but being able to feel the impulse and adjust your intentions to it in the moment really lets me live in the world on stage.

Opening night is just a few sleeps away, Kind Reader and we are getting into costumes and mics the next few rehearsals. I wish I still had the glasses that I wore for this character last time, but alas, the frames bent at some point and I could never get them back to the same shape they were before.

Interestingly enough, that is the same feeling that I get when I think back about Max. Being much older and a little wiser, I know that the way I am revisiting this fellow isn’t quite the same. Granted, the character has also done some growing up. So maybe not having the glasses is a good thing. One can still see that squirrely, tense, ambitious dreamer that he used to be but time has altered the shape of his world a little with a balancing act of artist and husband. It is a very interesting emotional arc that I get to play with and shape and I hope that the way I am playing it will pay off for that beautiful ending that this play has.

Well, Dear Reader, I thank you for once again, taking a few minutes of your life to entertain the ramblings of a vagabond actor looking for ways to make sense of this human experience called life. Before I sign off though, I am curious if any of you have looked back and examined where you are now versus where you were 5 or 10 years ago? Have you grown in the areas that you have wanted to? I hope you have accomplished what you have wanted. I know that Max has some unfinished work. As do I.

Until the next time, stay safe and aware. Take care of yourself and those around you.

It Has Been A Wild Ride…

Brushes and Bars — This is a view from one of the windows in the Gilroy Arts Alliance. Wonderful little place and home to the fabulous Limelight Actor’s Theater.

Dear Gentle Reader,

I have been trying to write this post for the last week and couldn’t quite figure out how to say what I want to in the shortest way. So “Delete” has been my BFF for a while now. 😄 In a way, I felt a prisoner to my desire to live in the world of theatre as much as possible. I spent hours upon hours in commutes up and down the Bay Area from San Francisco to Hollister and many places in between.

At the beginning of the year, I was tapped to do the “Tango Tragique” for She Loves Me at Foothill Music Theatre, which opened in February. I ain’t never done a tango before. Not only that, my partner and I had to build this S & M-esque relationship with each other and the music for the number to be seen in the right way. Luckily, I had a wonderful partner and choreographer to show me all of the movement, but creating that relationship was a little more challenging because the two of us dancing this number were big ol’ goofballs. There was so much giggling or “oh, shit! Sorry”s cuz one of us would do something that wasn’t quite right. It was way fun, but too short. LOL! Of course it didn’t hurt that the show has some great numbers brought to life by a fabulous cast.

In March, I opened The Subject Is Love, and I wrote all about that here, so if you’d like to read more about that one, just click the link. I will say that I loved that little show and thought we could have easily went on to do another 2 weekends.

In April, I was asked to jump into a role for the western regional premier of The Boy From Oz as Chris Allen. He was the other half of The Allen Brothers with Peter Allen. I had to destroy an Australian accent. Wait, I had to use an accent. Destroy is just what ended up happening to it. HA! It was an interesting experience? There were some good things but many things that didn’t go as planned. The first was being added to many numbers that I wasn’t originally supposed to do. Not that I minded, but I had to add those things on top of the stuff I was supposed to learn. I had 5, (5!) rehearsals to get everything down, and never actually got to run the entire show until preview, which started 2 hours late because that theatre was friggin’ haunted. That’s my story and I am stickin’ to it. There were a LOT of unfortunate mishaps during the run of the production, but the cast was always solid. I will say that the one thing I learned from the experience was to look into the company. See what the reputation is before jumping in. It is a lesson I wish I had learned sooner, but had that been the case, I would not be friends with some truly amazing performers.

May brought the opening of Cahoots! I know, I know. WTF is Cahoots? Trust, kids, I said the same thing. It is the story of a dinner party gone wrong. For the first time, I got to play someone that wasn’t cheery or upbeat. My character (Al) was on a mission at trying to get people to buy into what some would call a paranoid mindset because his brother was murdered nearly a year ago. Al has this huge monologue addressing this perceived threat and baits the others into a debate that ends badly for poor Al. I loved the audience’s response to Al. They wanted to hate him, but couldn’t completely because they understood that under this need was still unresolved sorrow and his desperation stems from the belief that no one is taking him seriously. In an unexpected turn, the company’s season ticket holders voted Al Best Supporting Character. So (according to one theatre goer) “this charming A-hole” was totally worth playing. Bonus points: no accent. 😂

So, this brings us to good old June! The beginning of Summer, my least favorite season. I am sure that I mentioned somewhere that the Sun and I have a hate/hate relationship. But… let’s talk about that some other time.

June… I open as Max in Lend Me A Tenor! This was the craziest part of the whole ride. Not only was it a wonderful feeling to be a part of a fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, but it was incredibly challenging. I mean incredibly. Now bear in mind: this is just my ego talking here. Every show an actor goes into requires preparation. Who is this person you are portraying? Why are they doing that (pretty much every action they do in the show)? What is underneath that reason? As the rehearsals progressed, I found myself becoming frustrated. I felt like my prep was pointless as I kept hearing “don’t do that” or “say it like this” more than I thought was possible. Now, this was just because the directors had a very clear idea of what they wanted and I was off the mark. I try to be as trusting as possible with all the people I work on a project with, because A. you are all striving to create the best thing; and B. no one likes creating in an uncomfortable environment. Besides, it is always the right thing to do. After the third or fourth week though, I had to simply stop saying, “sure, no problem” or “sounds good” so that I can ask “why.” It wasn’t just that I needed clarification of why I wasn’t allowed to do something, but so I had a chance to explain why I was and if my motivation wasn’t clear then maybe I would be offered suggestions. Everyone does something for a reason, now let me explain why I think Max would do this motion. Now, every person has a different interpretation of a role based on their life. My Max wasn’t going to be the same as anyone else’s and I kept feeling like I was being allowed less and less to be my Max. By opening night, I just wanted to complete my job then go straight home. While I had time to sort through all of the events leading up to that night, I realized that I was failing to do my best for these wonderful people with whom I get to share the stage. So the next performance, I said “fuck it all” and let go of all the personal feelings I was having and just focus on playing with the cast. I did what I was asked to do. That’s when the show began to solidify for me. I was disappointed in myself that it took so long for me to be able to understand this. No show was ever the same exactly. New small things were tried every night, mostly in the line delivery. Not only was the cast a heaping ton of fun on stage but they were just as awesome backstage too. The overall experience was great as usual, but it was still a challenge. And of course, one only grows by such challenges. Behind the scenes, the producers were spectacular. By the way, Italian accent needed and it was ok. Not great, but ok. And I was ok with that. Because Max wasn’t Italian, just pretending to be.

Having thrown myself into so many productions that were constantly overlapping, I found it exhilarating. Now that things have calmed back down, I feel that the realization of being able to juggle this number of projects has opened me up to new ideas about myself. I will have to think on them a bit more before I can fully write about them.

In the mean time, I still have one more show to complete before the year is out: ASSASSINS.

Have you ever pushed yourself further than you thought you could? Was it something you loved? What did you find out? Maybe you can help me put into words what I am feeling.

Until next time, dear reader, I hope you continue to find things that you enjoy and do them with love. I promise I won’t forget to write much sooner next time.