28 April 2010

CAFE LE MONDE opened last weekend to great response! We play until May 29, so go here to reserve your tickets now!

Here's the poster I designed for the show. The image is from Godard's BANDE A PART.

1 April 2010

The Bad News: Won't be able to be a part of the Hollywood Fringe this year due to scheduling conflicts.

THE AMAZING NEWS: I will be a part of the WORLD PREMIERE of Charles Mee's "Cafe le Monde" at the Ark Theatre in downtown LA. We're a week and a half into rehearsals and this is an incredibly exciting project!

I'm a huge fan of Chuck Mee's and to be a part of a premiere is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Details to come. We open in mid-April and will play though the beginning of June.

10 February 2010

The first annual Hollywood Fringe Festival will take place this June, and I'm hoping to be a part of it with a show called NOBODY MOVE AND NOBODY GETS HURT!!!

This is a revival (of sorts) of a play I created a few years ago. Very hopeful and excited that this will be amazing.

Check out the idea on the Hollywood Fringe website here.

9 April 2009

I was going through some old papers and found some rehearsal notes from various productions over the last few years. I have a very specific recollection of what some of these meant - others are pretty vague - but mostly I'm amused at what they look like out of context. For your reading pleasure and bafflement:

- Remember: I really AM an entertainment.

- Overlap the smell of oranges.

- I LOVE to hear the sound of my own voice.

- Now see here you --> JOEY BANANAS (quicker)

- NOT SO DRUNK IN THE BODY

- It's not a traffic sign you idiot.

- Jump up there jump up there jump up there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- You kind of violated the cardinal rule: swooping for the bread DURING the vomit. Remember, ONE EVENT AT A TIME ALWAYS.

- BULLS: When you kneel, it is as though you are being pushed to the ground. Star Trek style, against your will. Like maybe holding your throats or something.

- Is there a the in there at all?

- The first act kind of seriously fell apart.

- "CHERIE MILLER!!!"

- Why do I have to do this?

16 February 2009

From KRAKEN:

I remember one afternoon before the banks closed

I was cleaning the bathroom and I heard a sound

That I could not immediately identify.

It was a building sound something like rushing water

And it lasted for some time. It seemed to be coming from outside

And it gradually became louder and louder.

When the rushing water sound lasted for a few seconds longer

than the amount of time with which I was comfortable

My mind began to race with ideas of what I was hearing.

This is it I thought.

A tidal wave is going to cover my whole city and we'll all be drowned

Or is it the sound of a wave of fire following an atomic blast.

Or perhaps an enormous swarm of insects or aliens from outer space.

Anyway something outside is really happening.

Now I understand that this may seem riduculous right now

And that it sounds like it may have been a frightening feeling

But that is because you were not there.

It was neither ridiculous or frightening.

In those moments

I attained a lucidity I had never before experienced.

I seemed to see things for what they were.

It was a garbage truck

And the feeling went away but I have not forgotten it.

I find that I am praying for more garbage trucks

These days.

11 February 2009

Excerpts from KRAKEN:

It’s a message from the dead or the supernatural or from god and it’s repeating for whoever can hear or whoever can listen or whoever has ears, but its coming through the noise and it’s not easy.  Even the message is not clear but it repeats and it repeats until its almost unbearable and then it keeps going a little longer and then bang the feedback stops and the message stops and the pulsing stops and the strobe stops and in an instant the house lights come up and a sign is quickly lowered from the flies that says “Thanks for coming!” or “The End!” or maybe a stage hand or a few stage hands bring it out and it’s all business and it’s just taking care of the stage and upbeat but sort of old timey intermission music comes on and suddenly it’s all gone, everything has changed and you’ve almost instantly forgotten what you just experienced and and and the effect is that of waking up from the most vivid dream or maybe the dream where you’re going to die but you wake up right before or maybe the dream where you’re about to kill or do something unthinkable or unbearable it’s the dream right before you die and then you wake up.  Or maybe it starts all over again.  It’s circular.  It’s an endless loop it’s a mobius strip and we literally just keep on going and do the whole play again or maybe we get a couple minutes of it and it fades away like pop songs used to and we get the effect of going on forever forever forver because the play just keeps going.  The play has just begun.

26 January 2009

This whole "news" thing is terribly hard to keep up with. It's clearly been pathetically long since I've updated it, yet life goes on... The new play being worked on has a title. Are you ready? Here it is:

KRAKEN

That's the new title. Coming to a theatre near you. Sometime. Hopefully. If you live in Southern California.

The image of a single horrible arm or tentacle emerging from the surface of the water has been in my mind for a long, long time. To me, the image is terrifying because the tentacle itself is something other, something alien, dangerous, and exciting, that we can't understand - and because the little bit we do see refers to the enormous, incomprehensible monster it belongs to, unseen, under the surface, barely able to be imagined.

The play isn't about a sea monster.

10 April 2008

Our final curtain call...

We had a fantastic run of Argonautika at the huge (1,100 seats!) McCarter Theatre in Princeton and closed last week. What an amazing experience. I'm sad to see it go but also very excited to be home and moving on to the next project! More photos from the McCarter show are on their way...

I'm back in Southern California!

Onward!

4 March 2008

We just closed our very successful run of Argonautika at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC and are ready to move on to the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey next.

Check out the show!

And check out the terrific new photos I recently added from the DC production...

9 December 2007

Huge news. Huge.

As of December 18, you can see me in Argonautika, directed by Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman at Berkeley Rep.

Here's the breakdown for Argonautika's run:

Berkeley Rep in Berkeley, CA from December 18 - 23

The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC from January 15 - March 2

The McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ from March 16 though April 6

Needless to say, I am incredibly excited and honored to work on this brilliant prouction. If you'd like more information on Argonautika, Berkeley Rep has a great overview with some excellent photos right here.

Here's a little taste.

21 November 2007

So, I'm clearly way behind on the updates here.

Showcase went astoundingly well. I ended up performing in one scene that we adapted from the novel The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. In the other scene, I played a bee. Like with little antennae coming out of my head and a stinger, like a bee.

It was my greatest acting challenge to date.

A few weeks afterward I signed with CESD Commercial Talent and have been with them since!

Did another run of Woof, Daddy at FringeNYC, which was a brilliant experience. Got to spend a little time back in New York and the show received some great notices! I think that's the only show I've come back to so many times. It's such a unique experience to perform a show, take a break, and then come back to it. I've done that three times with Woof, Daddy and I find new nuances and shades in it each time. Richard is a fascinating character.

I'm currently working on writing a new play. It's untitled, so far.

22 March 2007

Check out our newly completed UCI MFA SHOWCASE WEBSITE!

We're playing at:

The Coronet Theater in Los Angeles on April 16 and 17

and

The West Bank Cafe in New York on April 24.

Oh, it's going to be good.

17 March 2007

11:11 pm. I just came home from closing night of Sunday in the Park with George. My last performance in a play at UC Irvine. I've been in eleven productions during my three years here. And I'm finished. It's a rather meaningful moment. The last lines of the play seem especially relevant right now:

"White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities."

22 January 2007

Going into tech week for THE MUSIC MAN directed by Bill Rauch! Can't wait to perform this one. I think we've really found the heart of the piece. I've always liked it, but never knew how remarkably intricate and well-written it is. Tickets are all sold out and there's nothing like playing to a full house! We're also working on compiling scenes for our NYC/LA showcase. Already have a couple excellent scenes chosen. Onward!

14 October 2006

Busy...

My third and final year of graduate studies at UCI is well underway with lots of performances to come! This year, I'll be working on The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune by Robert Schenkken, Under Construction by Charles Mee, Sunday In the Park With George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, and Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, directed by Bill Rauch. Plus, we'll be performing our Graduate Actor Showcase with Harvard/A.R.T. in New York and LA next Spring. So, lots going on. I'll be sure to post more news and photos as things progress.

Also, check out the production schedule and get your tickets soon!

28 August 2006

We performed two previews of Woof, Daddy at UCI this weekend and received terrific responses from our audience. Working out the kinks and getting ready to take the show on the road. I'm really proud of this one. As you can see from the above photo, we use blue light to great dramatic effect. If that's not reason enough for you to see the show, then what is?

19 August 2006

Just a couple weeks until the San Francisco Fringe!

Woof, Daddy.

Get your tickets now.

Some rehearsal photos to whet your appetite.

22 July 2006

Check out the San Francisco Fringe Festival page for Woof, Daddy. Pictured in the poster is Mercedes Manning, who plays Sparkles.

21 June 2006

Just finished performing in a very cool workshop production of Les Jeux Sont Faits, adapted from the novel by Jean-Paul Sartre and directed by Annie Loui. It was a very rough (in the Peter Brook sense of the word), movement-based show, incredibly elegant in its simplicity. Those are so often the best kind. Also finished teaching/taking classes last week. It's been a successful year.

13 May 2006

Welcome! The big news is that I have a website, at last. How exciting! A site of one's own. Be sure to check out the gallery!

My next production will be in September. I'm doing a play called WOOF, DADDY by Bryan Reynolds. The plan is to do a short run in Irvine and then take it to the San Francisco Fringe Festival and hopefully to Edgefest in LA. I can't tell you much, but I can tell you this: There will be duck hunting. More info to come...

Rock!