Grapes!

So filming this weekend for A Discussion on the American Landscape was a blast! Being my first film I was a little nervous going in but it ended up being so fun. The cast and crew are so great and really helped me feel comfortable. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be with for my first film. I'm going to feel much more confident in my next film gig.

Discussion will be premiering next year at some yet-to-be-determined film festivals around the Twin Cities. I can't wait to see the finished product! Loocis, the director, has some really great and creative ideas. I'll keep you posted as to how the process is going.

Filming Starts On Discussion

I start filming for A Discussion on the American Landscape this weekend! They've been filming since Labor Day weekend but they haven't needed me until now. I'm so excited! I've been going over my lines and doing a little character work so I can be as prepared as possible. I'm happy with what I've come up with for my character's backstory. The script itself doesn't delve too deeply into Albert and why he is the way he is but that doesn't mean I haven't fleshed him out! Here's a few places Albert might like to hang out:

 It's going to be a great weekend and I'm so excited to be a part of this project!

A Discussion on the American Landscape

I've been cast in my first film! It's an independent film from Eruption Productions in Minneapolis. Not only is this my first film but it is also my first professional acting job. That's right, I am getting paid to do this. As my friend Jamie used to say, "Money in the bank!"

The film is called A Discussion on the American Landscape and it's about a teenage girl and her boyfriend trying to find a better life. As the dissatisfaction with their droll lives grow they turn to desperate measures in an attempt to get rich quick.

I play the cousin of the boyfriend who is an unknowing cohort to the couple's plan. I'm very excited and can't wait for filming to start! My role is a minor one but I've got a number of lines and something to put under "Film Experience" on my resume. You've got to start somewhere.

Those Who Eat Together

I was lucky enough to be able to perform in this summer's Minnesota Fringe Festival. Along with Kayla, I choreographed and danced in a piece called "Those Who Eat Together." It was part of a collection of four pieces entitled Family. Here's a link to clips of the whole collection, ours is the last piece:

Family - Presented at the Minnesota Fringe Festival

Our piece centered around the idea of the family dinner table and how eating together is healthy for family relationships. We wanted to explore how the function of the dinner table has transformed over time and how that has affected the family unit. It was a great experience. The Fringe is such a wonderful place for new artists, such as myself, to present their work and start to get their name out there.

Arts-In!

Well, I've just finished a week of directing a 4-H program known as Arts-In. Arts-In is a thirty-minute musical that is rehearsed over a 4 day encampment and then performed at the county fair. It is intense, hard work but it is so much fun! As one of the directors, I got to help write the show which was a blast. This year's show is called Five Flags and is about a failing amusement park that needs some creativity and imagination to bring it back to life. The employees need to work together and accept each others' ideas in order to turn the park around. We had sixty 4-Hers participate in this show and I couldn't ask for a better cast and crew! They were amazing. As you can tell, we had a lot of fun playing games, rehearsing, and just having a good time!

 

Everybody cut Footloose!

Back in April I was in a production of Footloose: The Musical at Ashland Productions. This was the first musical I have been in since I played Tommy Djilas in The Music Man. It was so much fun! I've always been a big fan of the movie and when I heard that Ashland was producing Footloose I had to audition. I ended up landing a part in the teen ensemble and I wouldn't have traded it for anything! I learned so much from the singing and dancing in the show. Since Footloose is a dance show all the numbers were intense and full of energy. This video gives an idea of the fun and energy of this show.

 

This was also my first show after graduating from Hillsdale and I couldn't ask for a better group of people to start out my professional career with. I hope I continue to get the opportunity to work with such incredible and talented people.

Three Sisters

 I had the great pleasure of seeing one of my fellow Hillsdale Alumni perform in a production of Chekhov's brilliant play Three Sisters. Anton Chekhov is one of my favorite playwrights and he holds a place close to my heart because we did scenes from Uncle Vanya for our Acting II class at Hillsdale. This production of Three Sisters was put on by the Bouyant Theatre Collective and I absolutely loved it! The performance space was in an old storage area or warehouse. The whole cast did an excellent job with some outstanding performances. My friend, Abigail Nones, shined in her role as the youngest of the three sisters, Irina. Other actors whose performances I really enjoyed were those playing the roles of Andrey, Kulygin, Ivan Romanovich, Masha, and Olga.

Andrey (Luke Weber) contemplates an intellectual career

 As with Chekhov's other full-length plays, Three Sisters centers around the decline of a wealthy, noble family in Russia. At the beginning of the play, the three sisters and their brother have recently lost their father. As children, they lived in Moscow but now reside at a country estate outside a small village. They all dream of the day they get to move back to Moscow but as the play moves on that dream becomes less and less achievable. Their brother gets into gambling trouble and ends up mortgaging the house without the permission of his sisters. Eventually, the soldiers who were stationed at the small village and who provided much of the amusement in the little town are moved to a new location. The sisters had developed strong relationships with many of the soldiers and their departure left the sisters feeling empty and alone. While the end of the play is bleak, there is a ray of hope in their determination to start their lives anew working for a better life.

This Year's ACTF

It is that time of year again. Yes, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: Region III was about a week ago and here I am to tell you about my wonderful experience. As always, ACTF provides a great opportunity to expand your skills within theatre through attending workshops, seeing plays, and showcasing your talent whether that be as a performer or a designer. This year's crop of shows was a lot of fun. As always, there's at least one show that simply does not impress. Of course, there are also plenty of amazing shows that make up for that one bad play. The shows I got to see this year include: Rent; The Beaux Stratagem; Risata, Sciocco . . . Risata!; Gone Missing; Master Harald . . . and the Boys; and The Circus in Winter. What a great variety of shows to see! I think I both laughed out loud and shed a tear during each one of these shows.

The show I appreciated the least was Rent. I think the biggest problem the show had was its staging. There were some really odd blocking choices that muddled the storytelling. Their use of their amazing set was also somewhat confusing. It was sometimes hard to tell which space the stage was suppose to represent because they didn't keep the entrances/use of space consistent. There were also video projections in the background which worked some of the time during the show but I don't think they should have been running when they weren't the primary focus. All that said, you've got to remember that this show is being performed in a completely different space than where it was meant to be performed and it is often difficult to transfer everything without a hitch. Still, Rent was not all I thought it was going to be.

My favorite show of this year's ACTF was the student written The Circus in Winter. Students from Ball State University collaborated to write this adaption of the Cathy Day novel of the same name. It tells the story of a simple Indiana stable-owner during the late nineteenth century and his experiences in attempting to bring a dying circus back to life. The show was visually stunning and musically incredible.

The magnificent set design depicted the interior of a round barn. The stairways moved to help suggest the different places the characters found themselves in. The costumes were colorful, exciting, and realistic. What was the most impressive about the show, however, was a life size elephant puppet! The design, construction, and puppeteering of the elephant took my breath away. You didn't have to imagine much as the elephant boomed onto the stage! What I appreciated most about this show was its unique use of folk music. Being one of my favorite genres of music, this instantly caused me to fall in love with the show as soon as they started strumming that guitar and picking that mandolin.

ACTF is always an eye-opening, talent stretching experience and this year was no different. So much theatre packed into one week is both exhausting and filled with pleasures. I greatly regret that this is the last ACTF I will attend as a student. I will miss the amazing shows, the great workshops, the beautiful design projects, and, of course, the fascinating people you meet who have just as much a passion for theatre as you do. So long, ACTF. You will be missed.

Lighting the Importance of Being Earnest

There is another aspect of theatre that I love being a part of but haven't had a chance to talk about as much. Besides performing, one of my favorite areas to work with is lighting. At Hillsdale I am one of the Lighting Assistants and for The Tower Players production of The Importance of Being Earnest I was lucky enough to be the Assistant Lighting Designer. I helped Michael Beyer, our Head Lighting Designer, draw the light plot and pick color for the show. Color and lighting are a couple of the most fascinating concepts that go into producing a play. There is so much that lighting can either give to or take from a show. The color and lights set the mood, they provide visual interest and dimension, and they light the actors' beautiful faces. I've loved the process of designing lights for The Importance of Being Earnest and I hope I get to design lights for another show soon!

Waiting for Godot

The Tower Players first show of the season was the modern classic Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Beckett works against conventional storytelling in this play where two characters literally sit on-stage and wait. It has been described as a play in which nothing happens but you want to watch every second of it. I had the honor of playing Estragon, one of the two main characters. With his friend Vladimir, Estragon waits near a tree/shrub/bush for the mysterious gentleman called Godot. In the process two other gentlemen stumble upon the waiting pair and cause some diversion, if only for a short while.

 

I loved every second of being in this incredible show. Waiting for Godot accomplishes everything I think a show should. It makes us take a look at what we believe and why we believe it. While it brings up doubts in humanity, I think in the end it serves to strengthen the belief that there is something at the end of the road and that the waiting will be worth it.

Catching Up

So I've been neglecting my lovely blog for a little too long. I know my plethora of readers are disappointed in me. I can only beg your forgiveness and promise that in the future you will be promptly informed of any theatre happenings in my life. With that said, the next few posts should catch all of you up to speed on my experiences in the last six months or so. Enjoy!

Shake in a Day

This summer I'll be working with Theatre Terra Firma in the Twin Cities and I'm stoked. We'll be doing three 24 hour productions of Shakespeare. Yes that's right, we'll pick the show, design it, rehearse it, and perform it all in one day! Crazy right? It's going to be so much fun and I am really looking forward to it. Shake in a Day performances will be taking place at Horton Park in St. Paul on Sundays June 19, June 26, and July 3 at 7:00pm. Come on by and get your Shakespeare on!

Fuente Ovejuna Did It!

So this is a little bit of a belated update as we've been done with Fuente Ovejuna for about two weeks now but with last minute projects, papers, and exams going on I think I'm justified. Anyway, The Tower Players' production of Fuente Ovejuna was phenomenal and was a huge success with our audience. Great student designs, amazing directing, and wonderful performances brought the little town of Fuente Ovejuna right into the black box. The intimate nature of the space put things right in the audience's face so they couldn't escape the strong emotions surrounding the story.

Miriam Poole's thorough research and hard work resulted in a realistic depiction of a small Spanish village with a menacing castle. The stark lighting from Cory Drewry left no question of the moods of the play. The student designs helped move the story forward and added that punch that subconsciously coaxes the viewer into the plot without them knowing.

The villagers were incredible. Stunning performances from Kirsty Sadler, Caitlyn Hubbard, Stephan Godleski, Daniel Racke, and Pat D'Amato aroused sympathy from the audience and set up the jovial everyday life of Fuente Ovejuna.

As Commander Guzmán, I had the pleasure of performing with some equally villainous actors. The Knights of Calatrava benefited from performances by Trevor Freudenburg, Ryan Black, Josh Dygert, and James Allen. I had such a great time with this show! Lope de Vega is a brilliant playwright and I am honored to have been a part of a theatrical tradition that has existed for four centuries.

A Little Town in the Mountains

We are about a week away from our performance of Fuente Ovejuna! Rehearsals have been coming along smoothly and we're all excited to see the end product. Exploring the character of Commander Guzmán has been such a crazy experience! His arrogance and confidence has actually helped me become a more confident actor. Guzmán just is what he is and he doesn't let anyone get in his way. Since this show will be in the Black Box, the audience will really get to feel the intensity of this show. They will be mystified by the swords, armor, banners, and music that makes this show so epic. It's all coming together and it's bound to make you laugh, cry, and everything in between!

The Worst Villain in History

Fuente Ovejuna has been cast and I play the evil Commander Guzmán! This will be new ground for me as I'm typically cast in the awkward lover roles. Both George Gibbs and Christy Mahon are shy, lovable characters; Guzmán couldn't be further from that type. His arrogant, corrupt, and dishonorable personality manifests in his abuse of power and in how he takes advantage of the humble village of Fuente Ovejuna. It's in his nature to disrupt the balance and turn order on its head just to entertain himself. I am really looking forward to stretching my abilities as an actor with the role of Commander Fernán Gómez de Guzmán; a true villain.

The Rakatá Theatre Company's production of Fuenteovejuna

The King Stag in Performance

Well, the performances came and went. Yesterday was our last performance of The King Stag and it was a bittersweet end. It all came together and all our hard work paid off. The show was magical, epic, fun, and colorful. We really created a wonderful fairytale world that our audiences believed and thoroughly enjoyed. Of our five performances, three were sold out, including a Sunday matinee! And since we promoted it as a kid's show there were usually a substantial number of children in the audience which only made performing more fun. The shrieks of delight when the big bear puppet comes out and the uncontrollable giggling at the slapstick of Smeraldina and Truffaldino only added to the performance.

One of the funniest scenes of the play was this scene between the comic Smeraldina, King Deramo, and his magical bust:

 

You can see the vibrant colors used in the set by our set designer, Dave Griffiths, and the amazing costume designs by senior Rachael Erichsen.

And then of course, there were the puppets. They became one of the most admired parts of the show. The puppets literally did wonders for The King Stag. Of course I might be biased, but the King Stag was pretty awesome. Even though I had to wear a unitard for the role I was proud to operate the King Stag.

 

Pretty cool, right? Well, it's all over now and so we look forward to the Tower Players' next production: Fuente Ovejuna. Auditions are tonight and tomorrow! We really don't waste any time, do we? More on Fuente soon!

King Stag Rehearsals

So rehearsals have been going on for quite a while now and things are looking great! It's all still very skeletal right now: chairs representing trees, wire bodied puppets, rolling boxes in place of pillars, but you can really imagine how grand the show's going to look finished. Things with my King stag puppet are going fairly well. I'm having trouble keeping my puppet from bouncing ridiculously as I run away from the hunters. Despite that, I'm optimistic as to how things will turn out. This really is going to be a fantastic show!

Cast List for The King Stag is Up!

The director has made his decisions and the auditioners huddle around the cast list in apprehension. With a cast of 27 actors and puppeteers, The King Stag is going to be massive, at least for the Tower Players. I've been cast to puppeteer the King Stag! I'm very excited about this as I've never done any puppeteering before and I get to learn using an elegant and graceful stag puppet. The other casting decisions look excellent; I'm looking forward to working with everyone on this production. It will be full of fun, magic, and downright hilarity!

The King Stag Auditions

The next production of the Tower Players is The King Stag by Carlo Gozzi. I'm really excited about it! It's a fairytale story full of everything that should be in a fairytale: love, betrayal, heroes, villains, forests, castles, magic, and illusion! Our production is going to be a very big, very epic, and hopefully, very magical show. Auditions are this coming Wednesday and Thursday and I'm nervous and excited to see how things go. No matter what, this show is going to be a lot of fun!

A picture from Boston College's production of The King Stag

KCACTF Region III

So, my most recent activity in the acting world was my involvement at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: Region III. It took place from January 4th to the 8th and it was a blast. I was nominated to compete for the Irene Ryan Scholarship because of my role as Posthumus Leonatus in Cymbeline. My scene partner, Paul Rezzo, and I didn't make it past the first round but it was fun none the less and I thought our scene was strong. Luckily, the Irene Ryan competition is not the only activity going on at ACTF. There's shows from other schools being put on, workshops in acting, design, and play writing being taught, design expositions on display, and various other events to tickle your theatrical fancy. And all of it is highly educational. Over the course of the Festival, I saw several shows including Unser Zuverlassiges Haus; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Art; Real Girls Can't Win; My Soldiers; Almost, Maine; and The Drowsy Chaperone. Some of these shows were good, some not so good but all were entertaining in one form or another. Of these shows, Real Girls Can't Win ended up way at the bottom of my list.

 

 It was full of technical difficulties, cliché plot devices, and bad story telling. I can forgive the technical problems in knowing that it is difficult to move a show into an unfamiliar space, however, the story proved weak and laughable. This would be alright if it were supposed to be a comedy but Real Girls Can't Win is trying to send a message about how women see themselves and how they don't need to take their clothes off in order to get attention. It's a prevalent theme and is worth addressing but this production goes about it in the wrong way and just ends up being pathetic. It tries to be shocking when it doesn't need to be. Its attempts to raise the stakes just come off as unrealistic and over-the-top. The acting was actually decent but it didn't do much to redeem the show either. Oh well, all I can say is better luck next time.

Now, it's always hard to pick a favorite as there were so many good shows over the week but I think I've narrowed it down. My most favorite ACTF show this year (well, at least the most fun) was The Drowsy Chaperone.

 

 Set in the outrageous era of the Roarin' 20s, this show follows the ridiculous wedding preparations for a well known and talented chorus girl. What makes this show really great is that it is narrated and presented by a nostalgic old-timer remembering the good-ol' days of Broadway. The show starts off with the narrator sharing his love of the old, simple, entertaining musicals giving The Drowsy Chaperone as an example. He puts on his old record of the show and we are catapulted into the story. The music was fantastic, the dancing was fun, and the meta-theatre was hilarious. An absolutely lovable show with lovable characters, I would see The Drowsy Chaperone again in a heartbeat.

Whew! This was a long post. And I told myself I was going to try and keep things concise! It's okay, though; ACTF kind of deserves a little more space. Besides, I hardly scratched the surface of what goes on there. What I will say is that I had a ton of fun, learned a lot, and loved every minute of it.