Spring & Summer Update

I hope you know that my lack of posting anything of substance on this blog is because I am busy. Very busy. This blog and website as a whole was created to market myself and fortunately I haven't needed to do that very much as of late. Here's a bit on what I've been up to:

The spring semester was jam packed with four more amazing classes; Rapier & Dagger, Mastering the Dance Call, Text Analysis, and Scene Study. All of these had their disparities and their triumphs. I discovered that I can, when forced, dance. I don't consider myself a dancer but the dance class I took covered so many styles I was able to find out my strengths, not just weaknesses.  I also discovered that I struggle sword fighting those half my size, objective driven acting is such a simple concept yet incredibly difficult to master, and analysing text according to Freudian conceptualization makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

I was the lead in my first film this semester. It was an amazing experience. The project was called Drained and I played a young completely burnt out pastor addicted to pills. Film is quickly becoming my new favorite toy; I only want to do that right now and I'm practically begging the film students here to put me in their movies because I want as much experience as possible.  The film tuned out great, hopefully I can put a link up somewhere for you all to see.

I concluded my first year of grad school with Godspell.  This show was also an amazing experience and a definite lesson in humility. Opening weekend I realized that I was performing for the largest house I've ever performed solo for, just shy of 700 people. Well, the first Saturday night performance I fell on stage; completely face planted during Babel and nearly took at the band in the process. So embarrassing. Babel, if you don't know is the first song of the show, so it wasn't until intermission that I realized I'd cut my ankle really bad and was bleeding all over the place. Bruised emotionally and physically, the show went on and I went home and put my foot up as the pain was pretty bad. The next day I came in ready to do the show again. The director was ready to adjust things if need be but I said it wasn't necessary and went on as normal; completely jacked on pain meds. Well I don't know if it was the pain meds or just some sick turn of fate but I fell again...in the exact same way, in the exact same spot in the show during Babel. However this time it hurt, bad. I went running off stage and for a good 30 seconds was fairly certain I wasn't going to be able to go back on stage as I was humiliated and felt like my ankle had been severed. I finished the show. Didn't enjoy it...and couldn't wait for the run to end. I had to wear so many braces and things just to keep my self from injuring my leg worse. Two months and $900 in medical bills later, there was nothing wrong with me. The doc sent me to get ultra sounds on my legs to determine if there were any babies in my legs, gave me some meds for the infection that I received from not getting stitches right away, and sent me on my way. I have some scars but that's about it.

It's sad because I've always heard the experience of doing Godspell is a spiritual one that is to be treasured. It was less than that for me. However, sitting in church these days, I have amazing visuals in my head to go along with the words of Jesus spoken from the pulpit. The show as a whole was a success, Steven Schwartz was actually made aware of it because our concept was so good I guess. So that's cool...

The summer started off so relaxing. At first I hated it. Now I miss it. I was cast in my first professional credit on the east coast. I am currently doing the one man show, The Wreck of the Dictator. It's basically a half hour monologue about a ship wreck. True story, very emotional, lots of characters, so much to memorize. The process was hard but I feel it will be very rewarding after a two month run. I'm sure I'll have way more to write about it after I close at the end of the summer.

I also taught acting for a Jr. high camp here at Regent. I love teaching and can't wait to do it with students who are little older. It was a challenge to take Lugering's physical properties and dumb them down into pre-teen speak. Most people would say that I put too much thought into the stuff that I taught them, and I was beginning to think so as well, seeing all the blank stares I was getting, until the last day of class when I asked what they had learned and all of them raised their hand and recited back all the stuff I'd taught. Awesome feeling.

My fellow cohort member and staff member of the camp has vowed with me to keep the other from committing to so many projects in one summer. Next summer will be researching my thesis...and doing nothing else!!! I expect all 12 of your who are following this blog to keep me accountable on that. Got it?  Good.

I'm looking forward to the school year ahead. I was accepted into the directing concentration here at Regent which only a select few are asked to participate in.  What that means is, of all the people that actually wanted to do it were accepted and now I have more classwork to do. But my degree at the end will say Master of Fine Arts in Acting with an emphasis in Directing, in other words, I'll be an educated and trained actor who directs...booya.