by john | Jul 15, 2011 | Theatre
We take a break from our regularly scheduled discussions of writing and promotion to talk about my imminent return to the stage. On a lark, I auditioned for a role in the upcoming play The Irish Curse, directed by an old friend of mine. There were a couple of factors that made me want to audition. I’ve known the director for ten years or more, and we used to run a theatre company together, so he knows I can act a little. So it was a stress-free audition on that front. There were two roles that I thought would fit my type, which is becoming increasingly rare as I get older and fatter. And then there were the magical words in the audition announcement – “all roles will be compensated.”
You see, I’ve spent more than twenty years in theatre in some form or another. I’ve designed, directed, produced, performed and done almost everything that there is to be done in a piece of theatre. For the record, the list of jobs I haven’t held is – Musician, Musical Director, Choreographer, Dancer, Props Designer, Dresser and Dramaturg. I think I’ve done everything else that has a name, including Costume Designer, Makeup Artist and Poster Designer to name just a few. And I’ve been compensated fairly well for some of those things.
But I’ve never been paid to act. I’ve been paid to speak in front of crowds, and I’ve been paid to perform poetry for an audience and cameras, but I’ve never been paid to be an actor. And that’s always bugged me a little. I haven’t auditioned much (not in years), but it always felt a little off that I’ve never done anything as an actor that garnered me any cash.
So I auditioned. I have no idea how many guys came out that fit the part, but I got it. And having been on the other side of the audition room, I know that there are a lot of things that go into casting. Being friends with the director helps. Being easy to work with helps a lot. Having a proven capacity for learning my lines and not tripping over the furniture doesn’t hurt, either.
So I was cast as Father Kevin in The Irish Curse. The cast so far has been great to work with, and it’s a lot of fun working with Glenn (the director) again after all these years. But I’m working muscles that haven’t seen much use lately, so to speak, and it’s an adjustment. I haven’t been onstage since 2008, and that was only a few lines. I haven’t had a major role since 2007, and haven’t performed any contemporary shows in even longer. So I’m trying to remember how to learn lines, how to learn blocking, and still trying to fit writing in amongst all that. It’s a challenge, to say the least.
But it’s a lot of fun, and it’s reminding me why I decided to do this all those years ago. The friendships, the fun of working hard for a good show, the magic of theatre. If you’re around in August, stop by the show. It’ll be a fun ride.
by john | May 18, 2011 | Theatre, Writing
Rent is up, and it’s fantastic. If you’re in the Charlotte area anytime in the next two weeks, and can get a ticket (several performances are already sold out), you should come see this show. It’s one of the best casts I’ve worked with, very even from ensemble to leads, and the voices are amazing! They have a ton of energy, a ton of devotion to the show, and they leave everything they’ve got out on the stage every night. They hold nothing back, which is fantastic. It might be tough this Saturday night when they have two shows, but for everything else, it’s awesome! I’ll link to some photos and videos eventually, I was really happy with the way the show turned out, and a couple of folks have said that it’s probably the best thing they’ve seen me do.
I tend to agree, I think this is the best show I’ve ever lit. I’ve done well over a hundred shows, from musicals to straight plays, comedy to drama, and this one tops them all. There was one moment last week when I watched a scene unfold, the song finished up and I thought “I don’t know if I can do that any better.” Which is why I’m quitting.
I’m retiring as a lighting designer, at least for the near future. I’ve done what I can do in this market, with the available resources, and this is a great show to end my run on. Now this might end up being a Ric Flair-type retirement, that happens every couple of years until I die, but if I don’t ever do another show, I can be very happy with the body of work I’ve presented to the world. And with RENT being a show that I wanted to do for more than a decade, it’s fitting to call it done with this one.
Because I have this other career that is taking off. You know, the one that you are probably here to read about. The one that has me toodling around the internets for the next couple of weeks checking in at different blogs all over the place, doing interviews and guest posts and giveaways, oh my! So the tour continues, and today I’m over at Urban Fantasy Investigations giving an interview, so swing by and say hello!
by john | Aug 22, 2010 | Real Life, Theatre, Writing
Well, kinda, I guess. From time to time I’ve led workshops on all sorts of things over the years, almost all of them having to do with theatre in one way or another. As all of you know, I enjoy the sound of my voice, and with an ego like mine, I can’t help but think that my pearls of wisdom will do the peasants before me some good in their lives. Unfortunately for those of you who want to tame my ridiculous self-image, other people keep feeding that delusion.
This week the company I work for hosted a Lighting for Worship workshop in Atlanta. We had 18 attendees from a dozen or so churches listen to a day-long series of lectures on experts in the worship lighting field. We’ve done this twice before, and I think this was the best attendance we’ve had. It’s also the largest city we’ve done one in, so that stands to reason. We’re doing it again in Greensboro next month, so that should break even more attendance records. We brought in in real experts (and me) from all over the country for this thing, and imparted some great information to the attendees, and did some good PR for us and the vendors that showed up. So I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday in work mode, focusing on what I was teaching and how to fine-tune the delivery.
Then yesterday I shifted gears entirely and worked with the newbies in the cast of the Renaissance Festival on character development. I spent an hour with them on physicality, paying attention to their surroundings, creating a backstory for their character, the difference between their role (the job) and their character (the person they’re trying to create). The goal was to get the newbies into mid-season form at the beginning of the season, to make for a better experience for the customers. I had a lot of fun and got some great compliments on my workshop, which is good since I’m already signed on for two other weekends of more advanced instruction.
Then this coming Thursday I shift into another mode entirely as I spend the evening at a local Mont Blanc pen store reading Mark Twain for a literary festival they have each year. They wanted somebody to read Twain for the people at the reception, and they agreed to pay me a little bit, so I’ll be reading selections from Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and some of Twain’s short stories while people look at pens that cost more than my entire wardrobe.
Book sales are picking up, word of mouth is starting to spread a little and Otis pimped my book on his blog, which always helps. I’ve gotten a few responses from folks that will let me do a blog tour stop on their site, so I’ll be kicking that off in September. Probably after Annie opens, because that’s going to tie up a lot of my time in the coming weeks. But feel free to hustle on over to my Lulu storefront and buy your copy now, because the free shipping offer ends Monday, August 23rd.
by john | Aug 4, 2010 | Theatre
And I don’t just mean two blog posts in the same month, although that might qualify as well.
Last night, after a production meeting for Annie (funny the kind of shows we’ll accept when we have to pay for a new roof, isn’t it?) I headed over to the auditions that my buddy Jimmy was having for his company’s season. Jimmy was auditioning a bunch of stuff throughout the year, and I basically put on my audition form that my schedule was retarded but we’d work something out if he needed me. I like Jimmy as a person, and respect the hell out of him as an artist, so I’ll work for him in bit parts and for no money just to be around the kind of energy he has going.
But after I’d read a couple of things for him, something odd happened – he asked me if I was going to sing. I don’t sing. Well, I do, but I’ve been told (repeatedly) that I don’t do it well. At all. But here was a guy with more parts than actors making it a welcoming experience to audition for his musical. And since it’s Cannibal: the Musical, it might be okay to be a little off-key to go with the off-color. So I went out back of the bar (auditions were in a dive bar on the back patio) with Mimi, the musical director, and sang an audition.
Let’s be clear – I have NO musical training. Like, none. So when she said, let’s sing your range, I barely had any idea what she was talking about. But she was patient, and apparently I matched notes with the keyboard well enough for her to get an idea of what I can (or more likely can’t) do musically, and it was a good experience.
But the new part, or at least the part where I was reminded of what it’s like for most people, was the vulnerability I felt auditioning. I haven’t really auditioned for anything for a couple years, and even then it wasn’t a big deal. I put myself in positions where I’m either one of the best people in the audition pool, or at least one of the best people for the role, or I’m pre-cast without auditioning because I run the company, or I audition on a lark and don’t really care if I don’t get a part. It’s been a long time since I actually felt like a real actor feels when I’ve auditioned. Like I wanted to do well, and had no idea if I was doing well or not. It brought back a lot of those early-actor fears and insecurities and wonders and newness and was overall very, very cool. I still don’t know if my schedule will let me do the show even if they do want me, but after going through that, I kinda really want to do the show now. It feels like it would be really interesting to go back to something so far outside my comfort zone and try to master it.
by john | Feb 18, 2010 | Poetry, Poker, Theatre
So I’m not counting running one of my own poems in Red Dirt Review as an acceptance, since I happen to be the editor, but you should go over there and check it out regardless. There are some great writers from all over featured this month, and as long as I can stay relatively sober I’ll publish that one a quarterly basis.
But I have had another poem run in The Deuce Coupe this week, and I’m really glad they picked it up, because I felt like I really nailed this one. Sometimes I feel really good about something I’ve written, and sometimes I’m just “meh” about it. This one I really liked right off the bat, but I knew because of some of the imagery I’d have issues getting it picked up. So I was really pleased when it found a home so quickly.
Tonight it’s off to dinner and then Reservoir Dogs, directed by a friend of mine and featuring several others. I’m reviewing it, so I’ll let you know when the review runs. And I had a great recording session last night with Special K, we got two more episodes of the Gambling Tales Podcast in the can and ready to go, so now we can take our time planning the next few. It’s picking up steam, but slowly, so spread the word!
by john | Sep 1, 2009 | Theatre
All I been thinking about lately is Seuss, and Gone with the Wind. If that seems a strange pairing, well, that’s my life kids. I’m smack in the middle of theatre-world again, after continuing to think I’d escaped it. I guess I steered the ship too close to the vortex, and now I’ve been drawn back in, at least for a few more weeks.
The next eight days are all about Dr. Seuss for me. I’m designing lights for Seussical! The Musical (exclamation point not mine) for Theatre Charlotte, which almost goes without saying, since that’s about the only place I’ve designed for a couple of years now. It’s a fun little show melding a bunch of Dr. Seuss stories into a moderately cohesive plot. There’s a Grinch, Horton the Elephant, Green Eggs and Ham, Whos, and of course, the Cat in the Hat.
When the director first contacted me about doing the show, I only had one demand: time. The shows that people want to hire me for are more flashy, more rock-show type lighting. That means I bring in a lot of technology for the shows. A LOT of technology. There’s about $50K worth of lighting equipment in the air for this show, and a new lighting control console as well. That level of tech is a little more complicated than the typical show (in Charlotte) and requires a lot more programming. So I asked for, and got, a full day of programming time dedicated just to little ol’ me in the theatre. So I signed up for a vacation day this Friday and I’ll spend it in a darkened theatre making lights move and go blinky-blink.
One reason I agreed to do the show (in addition to the fact that my fee, after I pay my assistant, will be about equal to the price of two round-trip tickets to Vegas) is because I could take a look at a lot of new LED technology in real-world applications. LEDs are a real hot topic in stage lighting right now, and I wanted to see what we could really accomplish with them. So I can use this show as a sales tool as well as just a show, bringing customers through the venue during the day and showing off the rig to designers, engineers and architects. So I can bring the work world and the hobby world together a little. It should be a pretty good-looking show, I’ll try to post some photos here whenever I get a chance. If you’re around and wanna come see it, let me know.
And in yet more theatrical news, I’m directing a play called Moonlight & Magnolias for another local community theatre. It’s a comedy about the frantic period in film when David Selznick shut down production on Gone with the Wind and fired both the director and the screenplay. The play is set over five days wit Selznick, Victor Fleming and Ben Hecht crammed in a little office rewriting the book into a screenplay at a fever pitch. It’s pretty funny, and I have a decent cast, it’s just a challenge to me to direct something so small after the past few years of only doing Shakespeare.
So I’m back into theatre for a little while before I retire again. I know, me and Favre. But I’m pretty sure I’m done lighting shows after this. I’m tired of taking my weekends and evenings to do theatre when I could be working on my writing or hanging with the wife, who is currently remodeling the upstairs bathroom while I try to make enough money to pay for it. I need to find her a cheaper hobby.
So that’s life here for the next couple weeks, if you need me, I’ll be in a theatre. Somewhere.
