State Day 2 - Lockport Cheer

always so proud.  This is my highschool cheer squad...still killing it after all these years.  so proud to have been a member of this squad.

Rehearsal payoff

Ahhh so it has been a little time since I posted. I think my last post was singing the praises of someone who had little rehearsal. Now to the flip side of that, there is my rehearsal process for Simaba on the Lion King. It's coming along very well, on fact next week I get to run the show for my BOSSES, AND FELLOW CAST MEMBERS.... Whew so yes all eyes will be on my every move, step and note. On the other had it makes me a little sad. Why? Because I love to rehearse. Most love to get on stage in front of an audience and get praises etc. Me? I love the process of discovering and creating and learning. The trying new things and looking at me angles etc.. I spoke about this briefly to a dear friend of mine, a visual artist, and he found my point of view shocking. I said. Think of my Craft as a photo or painting. You need the right idea, subject,lighting, shadow, medium etc... So in my mind I am constantly playing with these variables in rehearsal and that's the fun of what I do. There is a scene where I say " Timon, you could have died..." 4x's. Each time of course is different, but 4 ways isn't enough. In rehearsal I get to try it 100 ways and see what that feels like. T me that is EXCITING... Am I boring you yet??? I'm sending this post via my iPad and for some reason it won't let melts a rehearsal photo...I'll try and add some later

OMG..... This chick is fierce

Well finally the new website is up and running. The feedback has been amazing to say the least. That makes me very happy. Here's to hoping that it continues to be received so well. Today on pride rock (our nickname for lion king) we had a cast member return to the cast. She left for a little over a year to work on the mega hit Book of Mormon. I fell in love with her awesome talent and fell in l e all over again today. After a year of. Or doing this show she returned today. The original plan was for her to watch the show and have a reversal to get her feet wet again. It's live theatre and the show MUST go on. Just before the show started we for d out that indeed we were short a few females. Our brilliant dance captain grabbed this performer, quickly reviews the show... Rehearsed whatever needed to be reversed... And in a matter of minutes this brilliant performer was ready, focused, and back onstage by the time the curtain went up. So the next time you see dance captain next to a cast member, you now know that they are always working to make the show happen for you. I get asked all the time what I had to do as a Dance Captain when I was in the cast of Hair.... Oh so many stories to,tell. Once I had to combine 4 roles into one and one of them was a female who sang very high. Ugh I survives but it wasn't easy. Who knew I could sing so high..... Act II is about to begin so I have to run. Just wanted to share a little joy from the Pridelands with you....

An Opening for the History Books

So It has been a long while since I wrote anything here oin this blog.  I am not exactly sure why I let it go, but I am very clear on why I am picking it up again.  You will find out the numerous reason why as you continue to read and follow.   OK so now that all the symantocs are out of the way I can officially begin.... well begin again....  wait...begin again, again!!! 

So Last night I was invite to attend the opening of a play.  The play was called The End Of The Rainbow.   Yes you are correct it does sound like a quote about the death of the legendary Judy Garland.  You are correct because it was indeed about that very subject.  IN short I will say the show was the BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN.  I could ramble for pages and pages about the brilliance I saw onstage.  INstead Ill let you eaither catch the show or read the reviews.  

For me the more important part of the evening was being able to watch excellence onstage.  Being able to see this craft we call performing being executed in such a way.  I was speechless for most of the show, hand over my mouth and I kept saying to myself "how does she do it, shes so good....amazing.  How does one know they are even capable of such an impossible feat?"  The questions went on and on and on.  I then paused for a moment grabbed on to the person next to me and started crying.  Not because I was sad, but I was excited to dig back into the craft of acting and grow as a performer.   I thank the evening for that and that alone is one of the reasons I am running back to this blog to share.

Today I woke up and I was excited to get to work at The Lion King on Broadway and begin trying to translate what I saw onstage into my own performances....  If you have not been motivated in such a way recently...I hope you get to experience it soon.  I do feel my life is changed in an instant. That sounds like a song title.   "Changed In An Instant"  anyone know of any?? let me know and Ill record it

Revelation

I recently had the opportunity to join the Broadway Cast of Hair. Now, normally, getting a new gig would not spark such a need for discussion or sharing. That being said this past month really opene dmy eyes to a lot of things. Don't worry i wont bore you with most of them. The main thing is that being a part of this show really restored my faith in humanity. Sometimes we can et so caught up in our own lives, problems, and issues that we forget to look at the big picture. For years I wondered if my generation would stand for something. In looking back i see that we will stand for a lot of things.

Prop 8 really brought this generation together and motivated us to stand, protest, march, and strive to make a change. I thin now we see more young Americans really pumped and excited about our nation and politics.

Being a part of Hair opene dmy eyes to this and also showed me that I too can do so much more. I am using this moment as a personal plea to everyone to help create change in our nation. hair, a show form so many years ago, that stood for something much larger than it is today is still moving and changing lives.

Every night for a little over a month, I got to go out and make a difference, or spark a conversation, or open an eye. Now I want to be able to do this on a daily basis. No! I'm not becoming so activist that will raise hell across America, but from this monet forward, everything will make a difference or at least be a building block to do so.

Thanks for listening...

Late Entry ( Travel Drama)

OK i think i am officially the travel sloth of the world. I found myself having to fly out of Chicago on Sunday to be in in NYC for auditions all day Monday and Tuesday. This seemed like a great plan since a snow storm would roll into Chicago on Monday morning.

Well, Sunday after my matinee we get slammed with the biggest sleet storm I had ever seen i my life followed by snow the seemed to never let up. After the evening show I head right to the Airport for a 9:15 flight. After hours and hours of changing gates and trying to locate a pilot and treating wings for Ice etc..... we finally pulled out of the gate just after midnight. I got home after 4 in the morning to simply jump up and head out to auditions all day.

The Wiz auditiotn went very well and they asked me to come back the following day with more material etc... blah blah blah and we like your work etc etc.... you know... the usual.

Ill talk more about the auditions later, but to add more stress to my travel plans..... I get to the airport Wednesday Morning and the sky's are clear. My flight is on time etc. I'm a little stressed because i have to make it back to Chicago in time for a matinee..

I'm at the gate and my flight leaves at 9:50 boarding begins at 9:20. Well, at 9:20 all of a sudden the flight to Chicago is no longer on the board and no further information is available. I run to the Departures board and my flight is no where to be found. This cannot happen since I have a 30 minute window to get through issues before I'm late for work. UGH!!!! I call my stage manager freaked out.. and I tell him the news. he stays calm.... THANK GOD!!! I panic and call the airline. They tell me my flight has done final boarding and will be taking off soon. I guess no one on my flight knew that since we are ALL in the terminal confused and waiting for the same flight to board.

Well finally the flight leaves about an hour and a half late. I make it back to Chicago with only 30 minutes to spare before having to be at work. I just want to know what the airline Gods forsake me thus!!!

My agent just called and said I need to fly in again for the DreamGirls Tour.... ugh Please Airline Gods... please have pity on me and my nerves!!!!!!

Starting Over

I'll actually keep this first new entry kind of short. Someone suggested that I add a blog to my website or to ways of contacting me. At first I ignore it because I had a blog way back in the day..... It was a bit annoying to keep up with. I have learned or noticed that I do indeed miss it. Not because anyone cares about what I'm doing or gonna do, but it was a cool way for me to remember stuff that has happened... and also to vent little.

Don't worry I'm not gonna vent to the point that you wanna jup off a bridge or a cliff. Perhaps you may run in front of a moving buss but at least that quick and easy.. a little messy but easy. That all was a joke so please don't take any of that seriously.... well maybe the cliff part but the rest is all fabricated for my own enjoyment.

So just so we have a starting place as far as auditions go. I was recently seen by the Goodman Theatre (great auditions and we will see what happens) I felt really good about it.

I am currenlty at the Marriott Lincolnshire Thetare doing Joseph. While here I was seen for their upcoming production of Hairspray. LOL interesting. I never felt Old and fat/Skinny all at the same time. I gave a solid confident audition, but looke dmore the the fater of the others in the final call instead of a brother or buddy. So Humm too old to do that one lol..... I think its all DownHill from here.

Upcoming auditions: Dream Girls Final Call, The Wiz Final Call, Steppenwolf Season Auditions, and hopefully thats all for now.....

Recent Auditions: Hairspray ( Marriott), Animal Crackers (Goodman), Goodman Season General, Miss Saigon, Joseph, Hairspray....


If you want to see my old blog you can find it here