First Semester

There’s a reason I haven’t posted all semester long. I did enough writing and was busy enough with other things. It was to be expected.  A lot happened this semester but the long and short of it all is summed up in McDonald’s current jingle; I’m lovin’ it.

 Despite how happy I am with what I’ve been doing, the opportunities I’ve had, and all that I’ve learned this semester, there has been a lot of heart ache. I have discovered that we don’t get anything in life without a sort of cost. Yes, I am extremely happy and loving every second of what I get to do everyday but my better half, Emily, is not. Her job is not at all what she would like to be doing and it is hard.  She has sacrificed so much for me so that I could follow this dream, she deserves to have a job that can pay the bills and not be depressing.

 The second disheartening thing about this semester was in October when I came to the realization that there was just no financially responsible way to go home to Idaho for Christmas. This was my family’s year for Christmas and it’s the one time per year I get to see my parents and the one time every two years I get to see my niece and nephew who live in Canada. Yeah, we could have charged he whole trip but we just couldn’t do it with the way our finances were working.  It put me in to quite the depression for close to a month until we learned that my in-laws were flying to Virginia to spend Christmas with us.

 So I learned that even when God opens amazing doors for you and you go through them, it means other doors close, sometimes right in other peoples faces.

 Luckily I am blessed with an amazing wife and family who are supportive and are willing to put up with a crappy job and Jeffless Christmas while I attempt to pursue my dreams.

 Regent is a lot like Vanguard in their season structure of three shows a semester, a musical to cap it off. I was cast in the second show the year, Dancing at Lughnasa, as Michael and got to work with Marianne Savell again. It was the perfect way to begin here. The cast was brilliant and we sold out nearly every show.

 The classes here were also fantastic. I took four; Research and Aesthetics, Stage Combat, Meisner I, and Theatre Movement. All of these classes were offered and an intense but practical pace, except for Meisner, the purpose of the class what to lay a very thick foundation of the basic principles of the Meisner Technique. So it was a slow grind but a good one.

 My favorite class was by far Movement. I learned so much about my physicality on stage and how to fully integrate my body, breath, voice and mind while I act. We studies the Lugering method which attempts to establish a vocabulary to acting similar to how dance and music have certain terminology to describe different aspects of the art.

 The other part of this semester that is noteworthy is that I learned that film acting is indeed hard. At least good film acting is.  The camera don’t lie. The whole department was asked to go audition for Studio Center here, a local casting agency. My headshot and not my acting got me one call from them that lead me to believe I as “signed” with them, however I haven’t actually signed anything for them. Anyway the audition for a small industry film didn’t pan out. But I did get cast in what I will call a Christian Horror Flick called Silenced, directed by Caleb Stern. When I saw the screening of the film it wasn’t finished so I can’t say much about the finished product. The process was very educational for me however. There was only a few moments that I remember really doing honest truthful work. The other times were so distracting with keeping track of camera logistics, shot consistency, having knives being wielded at me, and standing with my legs spread awkwardly as I tore apart a thawing and bloody marinara sauce covered chicken. As hard as that shoot was, it was blast and I have the bug now. I want to do so much more so I can learn more, etc. So if you’re a film director and your reading this, cast me in something…please.

 The next semester is shaping to be another amazing one.  This is the first time in my entire life that I am completely stoked to start school on Monday as opposed to dreading it. I’m taking Scene Study with the same professor who taught Movement so the overlap should be amazing to experience. I will be wielding weapons is Rapier and Dagger, and ripping apart famous literature in Textual Analysis.  I’m also taking a dance class called Mastering the Dance Call…should be interesting.

 I was cast in the first production of the semester, Elephant Man.  I play five different characters and I’ll have to master three different dialects; French, Standard British, and Cockney. I love playing multiple characters in one production.  It becomes a fun challenge to see how drastically different I can make each of them.

 I was also cast in Godspell, and the director has promised we will take full advantage of the improvisational rehearsal process that comes with this show. To the point that I don’t even know what songs I’m singing yet; we’re going to discover that through the process. The casting process for this show was exhilarating however. There are two other guys here that are my type so is was quite the brawl for the part of Jesus and Judus. I didn’t get either in the end, but I’m still very content and feel honored to be in the show; I know I gave them a run for the money. J

 So this was long, but there was so much more that happened that I just don’t have the time to write about, and I’m sure you don’t have the energy to read. So I’ll stop here and hopefully I’ll be better at writing this semester.  I should have fewer papers to write and more memorizing instead. Anyway, thank you for reading all this, if you made it this far.

Happy New Year!