Well, ladies and gentelmen, we are on the road again!
Currently, we are en route to the midwest for the first leg of our cross-country tour. WARNING: This post is about to get honest and possibly emotional. As we drive, I tend to get very pensive and, on occasion, depressed. I believe I suffer from what I term OMOS (odd man out syndrome) where even when I am involved and included in anything from dinner with friends to a party or most social situations I automatically feel like the odd-man out. If I am to be honest, I have felt like this since I was a child. I partly atribute this to my many negative medical experiences. I mean, when you become a "regular" at the Mayo Clinic's ER, it really makes you feel odd. I felt like I had to grow up so quickly in order to cope with the possibility that I could have a strong allergic reaction and never come back from it. Unless I am feeling extremely confident in myself and my surroundings, I feel very insecure and fear that I will make some kind of social blunder. I think that this is part of the reason I use humor so much in everyday conversation. As an actor, I know how to use and hone my emotions. As a human with depression, off stage my emotions have a tendancy to use me. As one who suffers from OMOS in addition to depression and being an actor, I gotta be honest with all of you, I am not sure how I function. Somehow, I do. However, this is a challenge I have been dealing with but never propperly addressing. I wanted to express my thoughts to you as I sit pensively in our cast van today.
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Greetings everyone!
I hope everyone had an amazing holiday season! Now that 2017 has begun, I am excited to share about the second part of my A Year With Frog and Toad adventure: Our National Tour!!! Below is a list of dates and location where our show will be. While we are not in every city in the counrty (budgets and whatnot), we are hitting up a good portion of the counrty. Several of our shows are weekday school matinees, so check with each theatre about tickets. I would put links to every theatre, but it would take too long. January: 12-14 Des Moines, IA 15 & 17 Fairfield, IA 18 Washington, IA 20 & 21 Dayton, OH 24 Hartford, WI 26 Decora, IA 29 La Crosse, WI 31 Rolla, MO February 1 Rolla, MO 2 Joplin, MO 3-8 Florissant, MO 9 Paducah, KY 14 Long Island City, NY 16 Burlington, VT 17 & 18 Potsdam, NY 22-25 Newark, NJ 26 & 27 Tribecca, NY 28 Elmira, NY March 1 Geneva, NY 2 Purchase, NY 3 Westhampton Beach, NY 4 Princeton, NJ 5 & 6 Greenvale, NY 7 Lewisberg, PA 9 Wilmington, DE 14 Amherst, MA 16 Frederick, MD 18 Allentown, PA 19 & 20 University Park, PA 23 Lakeland, FL 26 & 27 Baton Rouge, LA April 1 Aspen, CO 2 & 3 Sheridan, WY 4 Billings, MT 6 Avon, CO 9 & 10 Santa Rosa, CA 11 Chico, CA 12 & 13 Modesto, CA A Year with Frog and Toad got its origins at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, one of my former homes. This touching show about two friends (correct, Frog and Toad), and the adventures and occasional misadventures they have throughout their year. Based upon the classic children's stories by Arnold Lobel, A Year with Frog and Toad celebrates what it means to have real and honest friendship. Flying kites, swimming (even if slowly), sledding, and eating too many cookies are just some of the shenanigans these amphibious partners get into. Why am I sharing this all with you? Well, I will be actually performing in this production! I will be playing Toad at the amazing Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth Texas. We open in Texas on September 30th (the day after my birthday!), and play through mid-October. This is then followed by a brief tour, then the holidays off, then we tour January through April across the country. For those of you who are in the Minnesota area, I will sadly not be in MN, ND, or SD. However, Iowa and Wisconsin are on the list. Places like Des Moines, Fairfield, and La Crosse. For my NYC pals, were are in several surrounding cities and in New York city herself! Tickets are available at all of these locations now. Just click on the links and you'll be set. I'm going to be keeping updates happening as often as possible. I cannot begin to say how excited I am to begin this process and bring this story of love and friendship to life. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or submit through the contact page. Many greetings and salutations! Or, as the applicable meme states, "Hello from the otter slide!!!!" I have made it through the journey that was known as new Hampshire and working with Shakespeare in the Valley. It was indeed quite the month with many ups and downs along the way. Rather than focusing on the downs, this is going to be an oppressively upbeat blog post about the tribulations of my summer and not the trials. Let's start with New Hampshire herself. Most of my summer was spent in the small resort town on Waterville Valley, NH, the self-proclaimed home of free-style skiing. Based upon the sheer number of mountains in the area, I don't deny the potential that this claim was very true. This small town, whose population of permanent was less than 300 in the last census, was simply adorable. Nestled within a national park, with mountains surrounding it, and very friendly people, I would highly recommend visiting this little gem. We had the privilege of living with one of the locals and her adorable dogs in a beautiful home about a 30 minute walk from our main rehearsal and performance space. A lovely kitchen in which to cook, a 1920s grand piano on which to play, and a Roku with which to watch plenty of Netflix, the whole cast loved living together with our amazing Margaret! Now, we didn't just hangout in Waterville, we had a little bit of a touring show. WV was our home base, but we took the show to Bethlehem, Manchester, Plymouth, and the Mount Washington hotel. We had the opportunity to manipulate the show to fit the demands of each particular location. Bethlehem, we performed in an old church that was currently being converted into a private residence. The acoustics were truly divine. In Manchester, one of my personal favorite spaces, we were on a children's playground complete with platforms, slides, and ladders. Plymouth, we performed in a more traditional amphitheater, with a lake as our backdrop. Everyone's overall favorite location was the Mount Washington Omni Hotel. LOOK IT UP!!! Some of the rooms were interior locations of The Shining, but don't let that through you off. The resort was truly a marvel to perform at, and a great place for a post show cocktail. I had the privilege to play three different characters, Don Armado, The Musketeer Porthos, and Cardinal Richelieu. In addition to that, I re-taught myself somewhat how to play the ukulele! We had a couple of songs in Loves Labors Lost that I accompanied. The cast was filled with amazing performer whom I am delighted to call friends. Some of them are still in college, but all of them were consummate professionals. After the main shows were finished and strike was accomplished, some parted ways while the rest took a few days off before we started a workshop of a new musical. In my time off, I regained my face from the beard that was dominating it, I got a much needed hair cut, and then two of my company and I went on a day trip to Portland Maine. It was amazing! We did a two hour sailboat ride (a sailboat which was built in 1912 and is still in amazing condition), had some fresh lobster rolls, and belted show tunes in the car like nobody's business. The workshop was a week of singing, singing, laughing at ourselves, and even more singing. I can't say too much as the whole thing is still in early development, but I hope we did indeed help in the process. And that is that. A lot of work, a lot of fun, and a lot of sun. Stay tuned, I have some more updates coming soon. In the mean time, catch my new video reel in the media tab. Talk to y'all later!!! Hello everyone!!!
To quoth Glinda, "It is good to see me, isn't is?" Here are some updates. I will be in New Hampshire for the summer performing in three productions with Theatre Under the Stars/Shakespeare in the Valley. I will be Don Armando in Love's Labors Lost, Porthos and Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers, and Old MacDonald in the kids production of Sugar Coated Shakespeare: Barnyard Bard. I have my work cut out for me in terms of memorization, but I am excited to rise to this challenge. Currently, I am sporting a beard and long hair for the upcoming shows. I have been contracted to let it grow until I arrive, then they will sculpt me as they deem fit. I have my fingers crossed for a goatee, but we'll see. Additionally, I have been attending auditions as often as possible. This week I'll be attending one for the Connecticut rep theatre. They are doing Shrek: The Musical, and I have been dying to play that role since the show opened. Anna has been keeping busy too. She will be also doing some Shake's this summer with a production of Julius Caesar here in NYC. We'll have to separated for a couple of months while we perform in different cities, but it is not the first nor is it the last time this will happen. There are other things that I will be sharing in the coming weeks. For now, I would just like to wrap up with saying congratulations to everyone involved with the Tony awards last night. James Cordon, I will be stealing your career soon. :) I know I have not posted in two months (eek!). However, I have valid reasons. Auditions up the wazoo, having an amazing commercial Agent with Take 3 Talent, more auditions, letting time get the best of me, getting sick, getting cast in a summer Shake's production in New Hampshire (details to come), and falling back in love with Buffy the Vapire Salyer.
(I think Joss Whedon should make a pre-quil about Giles' pre-watcher life and call it "Ripper." After another 50lbs, I would like to play Giles.) Anna and I have officially surpassed our one-year mark of being in NYC. We still have yet to run away with our tails between our legs! And now that I have accross-the-board representation, bigger and better gigs are just around the corner. I promise that more updates will be coming soon. For now, enjoy life and have a glass of vino! (I work at a wine shop, so I encourage this kind of activity. :) Gotta love it.) I am please to announce that I am now signed with The Talent Express, whose managers will help me guide my career along the right path, and with Generation, whose fantastic legit agent will help me get into the auditions that I belong. With their guidance, and with some new digital media soon to be added to my Actors Access and Casting Networks pages, I can safely say I am now a workin' actor in this big city. I am anticipating receiving contact from a commercial agent within the week as well. By the time February is over, I should be represented across the board. I firmly believe that it is only a matter of time before I can announce on here some of the most amazing projects of my future career!
For the last month, I spent nearly every day with these crazy kids. We were the TAP NYC sketch comedy troupe for the latest season. Together, along side our colleagues from the singers troupe as well as a plethora of talented monologues from amazing performers, we made TAP's latest season was a rousing success! For those of you who didn't get to attend or view our first ever live-streamed broadcast of the showcases, you missed some fun stuff. I was thrilled to be featured in some measure in all five of our sketches. I was playing a British gentleman with a penchant for poison and passionate kissing, a murderer who would rather sing than go to sing-sing, an assistant director who was too over his job, a mother and a father to two different children, and a friend willing to dress as a nun to help his pal score. I am proud to say that several of my troupe colleagues have been contacted by various managers and agents over the past week, and I am confident that they will hear from more people in the days to come. As for me, so far I have two meeting set up for this week with various industry reps. I am confident that these meeting will go swimmingly. Many TAP members have also asked that I partake in their upcoming web-series', and once those come to fruition, be on the lookout for those links!!! I am truly honored and humbled to have been part of this kick-ass crew. I am confident that the six of us will keep working together in the days to come. It was nice to find a team where I was comfortable to be myself, just like I had back in Minnesota. I think, ladies and gentlemen, that I have found the beginnings of my NYC tribe. It is time! Beginning Monday, TAP NYC presents their week of industry showcases. I am thrilled that I will be featured in the Sketch Comedy troupe in all five of the showcases! My goal is to attain a legit agent, a commercial agent, and a talent manager. If I play my cards right (and kick ass at the performances...which I plan to), I will land the representation I hope for. I am beyond excited to be in this team with these amazingly talented actors. The six of us in the sketch team have gotten very close over the course of our rehearsals together, and I am honored to be working with these talented performers. Again, our shows begin this Monday and we perform the whole week at the lovely June Havoc Theatre, part of the Abington Theatre Group. If you are at all interested in attending the shows, get your tickets ASAP because they are selling out like hotcakes. Monday is nearly sold out, some tickets remain for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday is totally sold out! If you are planning ahead, online sales are $25 per ticket. If you are a last minute decision maker, tickets can be purchased at the door for $30 (cash or check only!). Doors open at 7:00pm, show starts at 7:20 (7:30 if we need to hold), and they are only 90 minutes long. A quick jaunt of some amazing comic monologues, songs, and sketch comedy. This year, we are also live-streaming each of the shows. You do still have to pay for the streaming service (again, $25), but it is gonna be worth it. All details on tickets, live-streaming, and TAP in general can be found by clicking here. I hope you can make it out to this incredible showcase. If you cannot, your support and "Break a leg" well wishes will be most appreciated. Can you believe that Anna and I have been in NYC for 9 Months now!?!?! We've celebrated every major holiday of 2015 (most of them at work, but we need the money...it's New York!) and now we are ready for 2016 to be a terrific year! Let's quickly look back on some of the highlights of last year. I started it off with closing up A Hunting Shack Christmas with amazing people at Yellow Tree Theatre, I performed my Twin Cities Swan Song with Into the Woods at Lyric Arts (just recently named the best community theatre in the cities), we drove for two days in April to get to NYC! We moved into Bushwick, then to Washington Heights. I had two jobs before I found my current one, I joined TAP NYC, I auditioned for a bunch of shows and got several callbacks (including for Broadway!). And throughout all of this, my dearest Anna has been by my side supporting me and being the best spouse I could ask for. How are things now? Great! I am in the midst of rehearsals for TAP NYC's latest showcase series. I have been cast in the prestigious Troupe 10, the Sketch Comedy Troupe. The company's main goal is to help their members land professional representation and in general they have a 75% success rate. Troupe 10 has a 100% success rate! So I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be signed by the end of the month of February. I am sure that they will see something that they like in me! A few other auditions are on the horizon, but this is where most of my time and energy is going to at the moment. I was not the most diligent at the end of last year in terms of updates and blog posts, but I will be sending more out into the digital ether this year. Sending everyone positive vibes! |
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