“Here we are, and there is was… that Basin Street Station, The Delta Express!!! Stand back and watch the people come to Storyville!!”

Now that Storyville is done, and I finally have a free day to sit down and write a little bit, I can just say in reflection of the Storyville experience – I really am extremely lucky to have such supportive friends and family. It is always an absolute pleasure to see familiar faces in the audience and after the show. Someone asked me one time if I’m the kind of actor who doesn’t want to know when someone is in the audience to see me, and I responded, “absolutely not.” I make it a challenge to see if I can make that particular show something uniquely special for whoever is there to see it. So that when people compare stories to different shows they’ve seen, they find that they aren’t sharing any redundancy. As per the cast, creative team, and York Theatre tech personnel – what an amazing little core we set up in our short time together. It was a very rocky ride to opening night (we didn’t get nearly as much rehearsal in as we wanted, and thusly were forced to make additions, subtractions, and adjustments during preview week, pretty much on the fly), but every one stayed focused despite shaky composures and netted a great New York Times review, which is never an easy accomplishment. Every week the show got more and more vibrant, and as Jim (our producer) would always say to donors who asked what the future of the show will be, “your donation of a mere 6 million dollars will find this show on a Broadway stage.”… While that is a distant future in a land of money sprouting from oak trees, the only rumor I’m happy to spread is that word got to the Mayor of New Orleans that our show was inspiring and he called our producer personally to discuss the possibilities of a New Orleans show. What those discussions yield is for time to tell… For me, it’s back to auditions and “che sará, sará.”

Continue reading

Well hello everyone!!! I know it has been quite a while, a few months, in fact. To start, I’m still alive and breathing oxygen and managing to pay my rent and eating decently healthy food. I’d call that doing pretty damn well in the book of life, lol… And therein lies my inspiration for today’s post. This isn’t an uncommon question, but for anyone out there who may want a little more clarity on the topic, WHAT IS AN ACTOR WHEN THEY’RE NOT ACTING?… and I don’t mean that in the mega-Hollywood actor sense, but the every day actor whose just trying to book a professional gig.

Continue reading

Hey everyone!!

So over the last two weeks I had the wonderful opportunity to play Roberto Clemente in a developing musical called 21 by Alki Steriopolous. It was an absolute whirlwind of an experience that left me so exhausted when I was finally done, that I got home and could barely move, hahaha. It was only a reading of the musical which I’ll explain more about in a minute, but I really hope that I made a good enough impression to be considered again if the musical finds more monetary backing.

Continue reading

Hey everyone!

So as promised on my Facebook page, I am going to attempt to express the “interesting”-ness that was this Robert Wilson audition I had about two weeks ago… But first, quick update… Lombardi has been a really fun show to be a part of. It’s simple, quick, to the point, and I feel it’s been perfect for our market in Smithtown because most of the audience members were actually alive during that time period and the jokes are really resonating with them. Rehearsal for Charlie Brown started last week, which means that I’m now on the train for three hours total EVERY DAY. I’m getting real tired of it, but then I remember that my mom (and thousands of other Northern Virginians) make the trip from Woodbridge and beyond to DC everyday for decades, so then I stop complaining like a whiny actor, hahaha. Last but not least, I get to play Roberto Clemente in the upcoming workshop presentation of a new musical called “21” in November. This job has more potential than even In The Heights did, only because we’ll be presenting the show to new investors in NYC (as opposed to Heights where, yea we were on tour, but noone in NYC could’ve given a crap, lol). As long as I make sure to put my A game out there, it will lead to this being a wonderful marketing opportunity for me. This being my first workshop, I’ll share whatever I’m legally allowed to share to fill everyone in on how this process operates; it’ll be a learning experience for all of us!!

Hey everybody!!… First off, if you are the type of person,  just have a tiny moment of silence in reflection for everyone battling cancer, we lost my best friend’s mom this week and most everyone knows someone these days who is battling this ever-evolving disease… (moment)…

Alright, It’s been a while since I wrote anything, and that’s because I have literally been working my butt off, trying to play catch up with the competition that’s in New York.

Since moving to NYC on July 1st, the most important thing I can say is… This IS NOT LA. I had myself mentally prepared for the move, but now that I’m here, I see just how much more competitive, not just the acting world is, but the entire city itself. In Los Angeles, everyone is hustling, but with the understanding of.. “oh, hey, if it doesn’t work out today, it’ll work out tomorrow… I’m late 5 minutes to my meeting? it’s all good, the other person’s probably late too, traffic on the 101 is real bad today.”… In NYC, it’s straight Darwin! Survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten; and it’s not just the other actors your jockeying for position with, it’s everywhere… on the subway, in line at Starbucks, playing pick-up bball in the park, crossing the street… everyone is trying to fit 36 hours into a 24 hour day, and if you’re not moving that fast, you WILL get left behind!!

I LOVE IT!!! I’ll take that challenge NYC, lol

Continue reading

Well ladies and gentleman, the tour has been over for a week now and I’m finally starting to wake up in the morning and remember that I don’t have a show to do, hahaha

In reflecting on the tour experience, I have to thank the University of Notre Dame with providing me every tool I’ve needed thus far in my short career to navigate the rough seas of the theater world. If you don’t know anything about Notre Dame, it’s a private-catholic-liberal arts university and when speaking to all my freinds that went to other schools; it is a truly unique experience. It’s a school that takes extreme pride in its dedication to Catholicism, but allows you complete freedom in shaping your educational experience. If you never want to see the inside of a church at Notre Dame, or take a class with a priest or nun, you don’t have to. If you want your experience to further your understanding of the Catholic faith and want to immerse yourself in its history, you’ve also chose the right place. And if you’re like me and want to learn about every possible thing you can, they support you too, and because of that I’ve never found myself in a position where lack of experience puts me at a disadvantage. It is in fact an advantage for me because my education showed me how to apply the principles of every other industry to what I’m doing now, and it makes me look more intelligent and I comprehend challenges faster than my competition. That right there, is quite a valuable asset to have.

Enough of promoting Notre Dame (but seriously, if you have a teenager, truly have them consider applying to Notre Dame, and if they get a scholarship, then hell you’ve saved money anyway)… Now, I want you to choose your favorite reality TV show and then combine it with your workplace, and come up with the craziest possible TV show hilarity combination, and I’m not exaggerating… we went through it.

Power outages – check… broken down in the middle of nowhere – check… so lost you in the middle of Texas that you end up at George H.W. Bush’s future resting place in the woods – check… broken relationships – check… poor management decisions from your boss – definitely check… hirings, firings, quittings, cheating, leaving in the middle of the show, cat fights, crying, being so loud you’re asked to leave, considering going on strike, complaining, rejoicing, grand theft, and even murder and mayhem (remember the time our crew got stuck because some one was murdered outside the stage door, cuz I do!!!)

Continue reading