tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87242446113491421392024-03-05T00:27:38.821-05:00The State of My ArtThe latest news and a little bit more from
James BeamanJamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.comBlogger130125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-57566398246508581372022-07-24T10:04:00.003-04:002022-07-24T10:19:41.736-04:00Well, All Right!<p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzpBMt_f1VdmCHplMaa4HqW76XtFkruNvwC28eQRn0kC5GckRVUFlpSOmg0X-F8aYlcZ-mSW7MBsRhJx6vTuJGctuxDB-EZYL4LfGD8pBc380XVHQ6kG5HfWBEOg3zTyyDbAUdgWaCxnB945Bcyw4__7n7U9KUvCkwrhL9LVRxK3Jm1Ax33WyZW85P/s300/download.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzpBMt_f1VdmCHplMaa4HqW76XtFkruNvwC28eQRn0kC5GckRVUFlpSOmg0X-F8aYlcZ-mSW7MBsRhJx6vTuJGctuxDB-EZYL4LfGD8pBc380XVHQ6kG5HfWBEOg3zTyyDbAUdgWaCxnB945Bcyw4__7n7U9KUvCkwrhL9LVRxK3Jm1Ax33WyZW85P/w326-h183/download.jpg" width="326" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Yes, friends and fans, despite enduring possibly the worst two and a half years of my life, and despite the rather melancholy tone of my last blog post so many months ago..</span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><b>I'M BAAAAAAACK!!!!!</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;">When the work you've done for 32 years is taken from one, it's difficult to find one's way back. I am happy and grateful to announce that my hometown theatre, <a href="http://nsmt.org" target="_blank">North Shore Music Theatre</a>, has offered me my first stage role in 29 months: Texas DJ and wise mentor, "Hipockets" Duncan in the spectacularly successful </span><i style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;"><b>The Buddy Holly Story.</b></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmNyb1CnUaFh_QZdap2TB6cZh1JijpbbG7VaYUR1dZ_w9wExoZSPtqMs6MMdhwtjgL6qREO332Plht89UpDEFVjbgNeXIpsCzHWpUTL-2HyHoIn3Z-RPmOye-cNKI1PWwM2CuMfme-E0iU9KC_iH8e93YCaQYisaqZAhm468lQ1Nn3wDGw8-M4rjZ/s735/995974_612008015508539_1132239271_n.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="735" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmNyb1CnUaFh_QZdap2TB6cZh1JijpbbG7VaYUR1dZ_w9wExoZSPtqMs6MMdhwtjgL6qREO332Plht89UpDEFVjbgNeXIpsCzHWpUTL-2HyHoIn3Z-RPmOye-cNKI1PWwM2CuMfme-E0iU9KC_iH8e93YCaQYisaqZAhm468lQ1Nn3wDGw8-M4rjZ/w320-h229/995974_612008015508539_1132239271_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">as Hipockets, with Kurt Jenkins as Buddy</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />You might recall that I played Hipockets before: in my first co-production with The Gateway and Ogunquit Playhouse, in 2013--nearly a decade ago. I am so looking forward to the joy of bringing this bittersweet story of a musical genius to the glorious arena in the round at North Shore.</span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This production will be my fifth at this wonderful venue, and my time in Beverly, MA will be a great opportunity to connect with friends and family. I was on the north shore not long ago, in June, for the memorial celebration of life for my beloved mother, Mickey Coburn, who left us on Mother's Day, May 8 of this year. After so much grief, it will be a joy to return home to do the work I love. The work she taught me to love from childhood.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So I am back, folks. I continue to slowly build my coaching business, <a href="https://www.theworkwithjamesbeaman.com/" target="_blank">The Work with James Beaman</a>, and I am directing three--count 'em, three!--cabaret acts for singers Goldie Dver, Alexandra De Suze, and Becca Kidwell, all premiering this fall in NYC. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My screenwriting continues, with my TV pilot, <b style="font-style: italic;">Wisenheimer</b>, earning three laurels in recent months, including the top prize, First Place Golden Winner in the <a href="https://nyisa.com/" target="_blank">New York International Screenplay Awards!</a> The script continues to make the rounds and I am optimistic about its future.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, watch this space! I promise to blog more than once a year. Stay strong, mask up, get vaxxed! And let's move bravely forward into this next chapter of our journey.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-24538586322190221812021-12-28T09:33:00.003-05:002021-12-28T18:00:18.132-05:00Twenty One Months Later<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3pUMYXeFFQPwFF-lgrr1AL65oeuuFiBammN-d6k966lGnmwcIToFJNmjAff3j9SQFiEFfLmlsIyk-c-kZcjYNYsG78ZX6H2Li50oV8iEsx3FK-dyPVD-ATwD6SYXQWQhS6rnVdDJ0mX9xWaaa90JezMKDP3DEglJ2s4_kSN17IZ5BMv7GqFAyrgNC=s2576" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="2576" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3pUMYXeFFQPwFF-lgrr1AL65oeuuFiBammN-d6k966lGnmwcIToFJNmjAff3j9SQFiEFfLmlsIyk-c-kZcjYNYsG78ZX6H2Li50oV8iEsx3FK-dyPVD-ATwD6SYXQWQhS6rnVdDJ0mX9xWaaa90JezMKDP3DEglJ2s4_kSN17IZ5BMv7GqFAyrgNC=w550-h259" width="550" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span>2021 was a lost year.</span></b> </span><span>Sitting here, it feels like a blink.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Almost like it didn’t happen. But it did.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">2021 was a year of grief.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It was prolonged and intensified by my avoidance of that grief; my fear that it would destroy me, subsume me. February 23, 2022 will mark a year since my mother entered the nursing home. The anniversary of the worst day of my life. The day I had to concoct a story, a lie, to get my mother into the car and to the doors of the home, where I left her in the hands of strangers (great strangers, in the best of all possible nursing homes).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The lie was that she was going home. She will never—except perhaps in a scrap of dislodged memory, in some silent, private moment I will never witness—go home again.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span>Nor will I.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, the only way to keep grief from destroying one is to risk feeling it. Because all of one's avoidance tactics are more damaging, more toxic than that pain could be, and they leave one weakened and less and less able to sit with the grief.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ironically, then, these tactics succeed as they debilitate. Like chemotherapy, the treatment kills as it seeks to heal.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Add to 2021 the isolation of living in a frightened, nasty-spirited social media addicted world that was, and is still, riddled with highly transmissible disease. Disease that can sicken you regardless of your vaccination status. Disease that has us going through the motions of KN-95 masks and protocols and vaccination cards--and correcting each others' pantomimes, like children in a school play. For me, the lack of work as an actor, combined with the pressure to sidestep covid-19 at all costs--knowing that I would not be permitted to see my mother if I were to test positive—created the perfect excuse to hunker down in my apartment and isolate.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I watched hour after hour after hour of films and series and documentaries and stand-up comics, and reality shows… anything to fill the SILENCE of my cave, which of course wasn’t silent at all. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My mother was once the ideal person to be the messenger of any news of a terrible loss. She held herself together. She told you what you needed to know, and she stood by quietly on the phone while you lost it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My father and sister died within two years of each other, and when both of these seismic losses occurred, I was in rehearsal.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My Dad passed a few days before tech began on “Les Misérables,” in which I was playing a dream role—Thénardier. My sister died a few days before Thanksgiving in 2016 when I was juggling two productions: a thesis project at Columbia, and an Off-Broadway evening of one acts by Thornton Wilder.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And in both instances, Mom told me to stay and do the work and be there for the company, and we’d grieve together later.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>She was right, and she was wrong.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the moment, throwing myself into the work was the best thing for me, but that just meant the grief—not to be denied, as certain as death itself—would come and get me when I least expected it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And boy, did it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> Joan Didion wrote, "Grief, when it comes, is nothing we expect it to be." Mere weeks after burying my Dad, I</span> showed up for rehearsals for “Peter and the Starcatcher” at Pioneer Theatre Co. in Utah, and was suddenly engulfed by relentless, agonizing grief and anger.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was beat up for it, in front of my fellow actors, by a member of the creative team whom I still haven’t forgiven.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When my sister passed two years later… well, there’s something staggering about experiencing the loss of a sibling whilst doing plays by Wilder, the king of existential longing. Unfortunately, my catharsis came in front of a sold out audience when I was supposed to be “asleep” as The Middle Aged Doctor, in the shadows upstage in “Pullman Car Hiawatha.” Stifling sobs, I tried to stay "asleep."</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Covid-19 left me enveloped by grief without my familiar refuge: my work.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I tried to overcome the problem by creating a business plan for my work as a coach; registering the business, announcing it on social media, and paying a designer to create a website announcing this amazing new project. An amazing new project which has gone (so far) exactly nowhere.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I channeled my pain and isolation and sense of the absurd (because life, defying all our attempts to give it shape and purpose, <i>is absurd</i>) into a TV series called “Wisenheimer.” I wrote the pilot, then the characters decided they wanted more. So I wrote six episodes; the entire first season.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And it’s darn good. I'm fully prepared for it never to do anything nor go anywhere.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Don’t misunderstand me—I'm not negative nor pessimistic. I just no longer have expectations: another word for <i>dreams</i>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I don’t dream anymore. I think it’s a good thing.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Dreaming of my great, inevitable, future stardom on Broadway helped me survive a brutal childhood, and a bullying set of sadistic undergraduate acting teachers, and some real a**hole colleagues. But it set me up for disillusionment and rage. </span>I showed up for my biggest job to date—starring as Sir Robin in the first national tour of “Spamalot”—like eager, upbeat Peggy Sawyer fresh from Allentown--to be greeted by a company of privileged theatre folk making six figure incomes, four-walling 3000-seat theaters, many of whom were bitter, jaded, passive-aggressive and in some cases, downright cruel.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-space">Billie Holiday once said, "There's no damn business like show business. You have to smile to keep from throwing up." </span>I thought the tour would open the door for me to Broadway—it would all be worth it because I would make it to Broadway AT LAST.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I didn’t.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> That was a dozen years ago now.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what about the dream?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>George Carlin’s stinging indictment of the American Dream was that “it’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> The past year, </span>I tried to stay asleep. I used streaming networks, substances, sex, food, self pity, avoidance of all things healthy that might raise my endorphin levels, and</span> yes, sleep.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lily Tomlin (via Jane Wagner) once said, "What is reality, anyway? Just a collective hunch."</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I face the first day of 2022---which is only the first day of 2022 because we’ve all collectively agreed it is; really it’s just another day, and a day is only a day because we’ve all collectively agreed on what a day is, etc.— I am facing this turning of the year <i>AWAKE</i>. I’ve decided to stay awake and deal with the pain. Because there’s one alternative. And, as Peggy Lee once purred, “I’m not ready for that final disappointment.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I don’t have dreams. I don’t even have plans. Plans will form. Eventually.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Dreams? Dreams are for children.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Let them dream. Until the day some adult answers truthfully, "No, Virginia..."</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I am a confirmed atheist. If I ever indulge in a fantasy of what an afterlife might be like, it’s a place where I can be with my mother again <i>as she was</i>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The mentor, teacher, cheerleader, nurturer, inspiration, friend—all the things she was. Like Emily in “Our Town,” I imagine what those few moments of "going back" would be like. My Mom, arms outstretched, coffee brewing in her kitchen and one of her amazing pies warming in the oven, asking me to tell her about my work and my life. The best listener ever.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don’t know what 2022 will bring. Or take away. I have no resolutions, no grand schemes--and no dreams. I face this “new” year alone, with grief as a constant but ever quieting companion, with a mother across the river from me, who remembers little, yet, thankfully, still remembers me each time she sees me. For now.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Graphik; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I no longer expect to be a star. I’ve been luckier than most. I've worked. I’ve made mistakes, been too outspoken, held grudges, tried too hard to make broken things work. I’ve always tried to do my best. But my best was never enough for <i>me</i>. I needed to be perfect. Talk about chasing a dream. Awake now, if I have one hope, it's to rediscover what “my best” is. Maybe 2022 will be the year of doing the best I can.</span></p>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-16509971222254110292020-03-03T08:09:00.000-05:002020-03-03T10:46:46.276-05:00We Are What We Are<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Albin/Zaza, with James Patterson as Georges</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">La Cage Aux Folles </i>can be enjoyed purely as a frothy farce, a glamorous spectacle, a bubble of a musical comedy. And it is all of these things. But if we look beyond the laughs and the glitter, there are deeper messages for us and our time--which is why the piece is a timeless classic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the surface, we are greeted with all the elements of classic farce: a flamboyant, openly gay couple run a drag club on the fringe of the Mediterranean resort town they live in. Their son announces his betrothal to the daughter of a homophobic politician determined to shut down all the gay clubs in St. Tropez. Hilarity ensues. But, in the hands of Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman, this story of worlds colliding takes on greater dimensions, inviting us to open our minds and hearts to a story of acceptance, self empowerment and love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 1983, when the show premiered on Broadway, I was a freshman in college. I had not come out yet as a gay man, and the times were not hospitable. A rising tide of conservatism had overtaken the country; the Religious Right was cutting its teeth, and gay people were a prime target of their venom. Famous people were being outed, their careers destroyed. AIDS had just begun to decimate the gay community and our government was doing nothing to stem the tide of what would become a global pandemic. In response, LGBT people activated, and groups like Act Up and Queer Nation demanded equality and action to save the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS. It was a time of great fear but also of great empowerment.... and I came out in the midst of it all. Taking a stand for how I love and live despite these pressures--good preparation for one day playing Albin!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original cast of "La Cage Aux Folles"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>La Cage Aux Folles </i>was a bold and risky choice for that season on Broadway--chorus dancers in full drag, a central love story of two men raising a child together, and a repudiation of the kind of bigoted politicking that was taking root in our culture. And yet, it was a massive hit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fast forward nearly 40 years, to the America we live in today. A rising tide of conservatism has again taken hold in our government and our culture. Loud voices of bigotry and discrimination abound. It's a time of division and fear. And here comes <i>La Cage Aux Folles</i> again, with its exuberant celebration of gay culture, its glitter and glamour, and its message of inclusion, tolerance and empowerment--all encapsulated in the show's timeless anthem, "I Am What I Am."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As we've been rehearsing here at Riverside Theatre these past couple weeks, another dangerous virus has started spreading throughout the world--the Coronavirus--threatening to become a deadly pandemic. I've watched officials trying to stem the panic, and people worldwide scrambling to keep themselves safe from this highly infectious disease. It is in such moments that we are reminded that regardless of race, color, creed, gender or orientation, we are all <i>human: </i>we are all vulnerable, we are all mortal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I prepare to play Albin--a man who, even by today's standards, is living outside what most consider "normal"--who has to plead with his loved ones and his world to accept him as he is... I remember that human beings in times of crisis, when existential threats begin to close in, reach beyond their differences. They find common ground in the name of survival. I was in New York City during 9/11 and I remember, in the wake of that horror, the way communities reached out to each other to help, to comfort, to commune and to carry on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After all, <i>we are what we are</i>, and what we are is a human family. It shouldn't take a terrorist attack or a deadly pandemic to remind us that at our core, we all are human beings; we all want the same things--love, acceptance, a family, a future, and the freedom to live a happy, healthy life. <i>La Cage Aux Folles</i> isn't a "gay story," it's a human story. The message we are left with as we brush the glitter off our sleeves and walk out into the world smiling and humming Herman's fabulous tunes, is that we are not so different, we humans. We all want to be happy, safe, loved. We want to make this time The Best of Times, and live and love as hard as we know how. <a href="https://www.riversidetheatre.com/la-cage-aux-folles" target="_blank">Join us March 10-29 at beautiful Riverside Theatre</a>, and feel the love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-57597350673681662022020-01-01T07:50:00.000-05:002020-01-01T08:21:58.761-05:00A Little More Mascara<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_alD_11WbAp6lxG3fdV6Ub1c02JUzdMCOhAqVloQ8TY4YLRK9aC_FUTNRmuQaMhwKxqfL_SBgIFUa0sWjEutwf0v1Nwo56KvZDKr_LsSNDrQIdvdMlfzxIMgGI81awgmMTMBLIzcrLsc/s1600/LaCage-tile-600px-v1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_alD_11WbAp6lxG3fdV6Ub1c02JUzdMCOhAqVloQ8TY4YLRK9aC_FUTNRmuQaMhwKxqfL_SBgIFUa0sWjEutwf0v1Nwo56KvZDKr_LsSNDrQIdvdMlfzxIMgGI81awgmMTMBLIzcrLsc/s1600/LaCage-tile-600px-v1.png" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">La Cage Aux Folles </i>has worked a sort of magic in my life--twice--setting me on new paths of experience and professional advancement. It's a story of family, of love, of personal authenticity, decorated with sequins and infused with heart. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first time I stepped into t-straps and entered the glittering world of <i>La Cage</i> was in 1990. I did a small, low budget production at a long defunct theatre in Framingham, MA, which was attended by two wonderful producers, Armand Marchand and George Charbonneau, who were about to launch the <a href="https://nbfestivaltheatre.com/" target="_blank">New Bedford Festival Theatre</a> at the grand old Zeiterion. <i>La Cage Aux Folles </i>would be their inaugural production, with a full orchestra and the Broadway costumes and sets. Armand and George swept me up to reprise my role as the notorious and dangerous Cagelle (with an attitude), Mercedes.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer love: with Damien in New Bedford</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was in New Bedford that I met the man who would become my partner for 16 years. My one and only ever "showmance." Damien played Francis, the stage manager, in <i>La Cage</i> and during those brief three weeks of the show, we fell in love, and moved in together not long after. This musical farce of drag and family drama had changed the course of my life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ironically, it was right after the end of my relationship with Damien that <i>La Cage </i>came unexpectedly back into my world. The year after our breakup in 2006, I spent a season performing Shakespeare's "War of the Roses" plays at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Five months of sword wielding and verse speaking. Right after that, I joined my friends Marcus Kyd and Lise Bruneau in DC to be part of their fledgling company, Taffety Punk's, first ever Bootleg Shakespeare production: <i>Cymbeline. </i>I played the tormented lover, Posthumus Leonatus, and returned to New York from the one day marathon of Bootleg, flushed with creative joy and hoarse as heck from the vocal challenge of Posthumus's ranting!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The evening I got back I got a call from casting director Stuart Howard (who cast the original Broadway production of <i>La Cage)</i> telling me that Ogunquit Playhouse was doing the show and that they had lost the name actor who was to play the lead role of Albin. They started rehearsal in less than a week and had been unable to find a replacement. He insisted I go and audition. With absolutely no clue if I'd be able to sing the show's anthem, "I Am What I Am," after my vocal exertions in the Shakespeare, I nevertheless showed up the next morning at 9AM. I somehow found the voice to sing the song, and director BT McNicholl and choreographer Barry McNabb hired me on the spot. Five days later, I plunged into rehearsals with my co-star, handsome heartthrob Maxwell Caulfield.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Albin, with Maxwell Caulfield as Georges</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It'd take much more than a blog post to relate to you the many wonders of that production; the brilliant folks I worked with on it. Ogunquit's <i>La Cage</i> brought me lasting friendships, and challenged me to step into my own as a star musical theatre performer. Albin is the male equivalent of Jerry Herman's great leading lady parts like Dolly Levi and Auntie Mame. It takes enormous confidence, skill and endurance to deliver Albin's journey and that of his dazzling alter ego, ZaZa. Playing the part transformed the entire way I viewed myself as a performer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And... as fate would have it, BT McNicholl went immediately from our production to become Mike Nichols' assistant director on the Tony-Winning Best Musical <i>Spamalot. </i>BT helped me get in front of the show's casting director, Tara Rubin, and, come that fall, I was cast as Sir Robin in the First National Tour. And if you have been following this blog you know just how monumental that opportunity was for me and my career.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, here we are, 12 years later, and I have been invited by wonderful <a href="https://www.riversidetheatre.com/" target="_blank">Riverside Theatre</a> in Vero Beach, FL--one of my favorite theatres--to lead their production of <i>La Cage Aux Folles </i>as Albin in 2020! I am thrilled to take on this glittering and fabulous role again, and to be directed by cherished collaborator DJ Salisbury. With the recent passing of the great Jerry Herman, it is truly an honor to begin the '20s performing this life affirming classic. Will this new <i>La Cage</i> lead to yet another magical breakthrough in my love life or career? Who knows. All I feel right now is excitement!-- and gratitude for having this opportunity before me as the new year dawns. Truly, playing Albin IS the best of times.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>La Cage Aux Folles</i> plays March 10-29 at beautiful Riverside Theatre.</b></span></div>
Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-58173414214020103362019-12-29T09:07:00.002-05:002019-12-29T09:33:56.783-05:00Berlin: 1999<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As we near the end of another decade, I am reminded that it was 20 years ago this month that I saw in the Millennium in the fascinating city of Berlin, and in the guise of one of Berlin's most famous native daughters: Marlene Dietrich.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black Market Marlene</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had been impersonating Dietrich for about five years at that point. My first act, <i>Queen of the World: Marlene Dietrich in Concert, </i>had been followed by <i>Black Market Marlene: a Dietrich Cabaret, </i>my most successful endeavor with the screen siren. The act had been commissioned by the late impresario, Erv Raible, who invited me to create an original show for his legendary club, Eighty Eights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I conceived a sung-through piece presenting Marlene in her gender-bending signature look of top hat and tails, incorporating pieces she sang in male drag as well as lots of her early film and recorded songs in German, French and English. Accompanied by brilliant musical director and arranger David Maiocco, accordionist Tony Lauria and drummer Mary Rodriquez, I insinuated myself through the intimate club, weaving an illusion of a bygone Berlin cabaret suffused with smoke and mystery. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tblkSE7Lyic&t=46s" target="_blank">For a glimpse of my Dietrich work at that time, enjoy Rick McKay's short film on me, <i>Illusions.</i></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The show was a big success, garnering rave reviews and launching a series of tour dates in cities like New Orleans and San Francisco, as well as gay hot spots Fire Island and Provincetown. A Berlin cabaret promoter, Klaus "Mabel" Ascheneller, who represented several drag acts which he'd had success with in Germany (including drag opera diva Shequida), saw the piece and decided to pitch it to the BKA, an edgy cabaret venue. Impressed with my rave New York reviews, and the images of me as Marlene, the BKA booked me to perform through the '99 Christmas season, the Millennium festivities and into 2000. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank heaven David Maiocco was hired to come with me, and off we flew to Berlin. To call the first few days we were </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a whirlwind would be an understatement. The producers at BKA barely spoke any English, and neither David nor I spoke enough German to get by. We were introduced to our two musicians, neither of whom had much if any English: a female French classical accordionist and a German drummer. David spoke the language of music to these talented musicians, and set to work getting them up to speed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meantime my schedule had been arranged for me, with interviews and press events, culminating in a segment for Berlin Public Television which had me followed around the city by a camera crew to various places significant to Dietrich, including her grave site. There was a controversy over the giant posters of me plastered all over town: the Dietrich Estate, administered by Marlene's daughter, Maria Riva, insisted that the photo of me used on the posters was of the actual Dietrich and was being used without license. Staving off their cease-and-desist order, my German agent had to put them in touch with my NYC photographer, Stephen Mosher, who provided proof that the shot was of me. It was rather flattering in a way, but added to the overall stress of the situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Public TV segment was shot the day of my opening performance. The concept of preview performances was unknown to the BKA, and unbeknownst to us, they'd invited every television and radio station in Berlin, as well as the national press, to cover my first performance. Despite the Germans' ambivalent attitude toward Dietrich (she's rather like Joan Crawford to them--simultaneously reviled and celebrated), an American drag performer playing the siren garnered a great deal of interest.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To add to the pressure of the moment, the camera crew whisking me around Berlin got me to the club without enough time for me to do the 90 minutes of makeup required to transform into Marlene. This meant that my performance went up 45 minutes late. By the time I emerged on stage to begin the show, a cranky full house of dignitaries and Berlin <i>cognoscenti</i> had been smoking (and fuming) for over an hour. My first entrance was like something out of Fellini. The room was thick with cigarette smoke. A row of television cameras in the back was staring me in the face. In the front row, Germany's top drag performers, in full regalia, were seated alongside the German Minister of Culture. Arms folded, they peered at this drag <i>arriviste</i> American with all the warmth of a firing squad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The performance happened. At the end, the audience stamped its feet and demanded encores. I learned afterward that Germans are very persnickety about <i>genre.</i> My show was promoted as a cabaret, but the German idea of what a cabaret was bore little resemblance to what I was doing--they expected political humor, satire, improvisation, riffing off the audience. I was doing a sung-through art piece with virtually no patter. To them, this was a <i>concert</i> and they were going to teach this upstart American a lesson. My show incorporated no encores. The audience applauded and stamped until I was forced to roll out three encores of songs I had already performed. Finally, sweating and exhausted, I was allowed to leave the stage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next day, the press lambasted me. From the national newspaper Die Welt on down, the reviews were in and they were vicious. You see, also unbeknownst to me, there had just been a highly successful Berlin run of Pam Gems' play <i>Marlene</i> starring a famous German television star, who had received raves. I didn't realize that my engagement was a thumb in the eye of this lady's success--and by a Yank, no less! The press sharpened their knives and drew blood. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With brilliant musical director, David Maiocco</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Funnily enough--although my producers were freaking out, and I was devastated by the notices--I learned another perverse thing about the German public: they love controversy. Far from dissuading people from coming to the show, the bad reviews made them want to see for themselves and make up their own minds about it. The run sold out. Audiences loved it. People from Marlene's past started showing up and greeting me after performances-- including a little old lady in a babushka who threw herself, weeping, into my arms. She'd been Marlene's dresser in the early 60s when she'd brought her act to Berlin, amidst controversy far more dramatic than what I was experiencing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The BKA contracted me to host their New Year's Eve event, a varieté program--sort of like a vaudeville--with me as Marlene doing a few numbers and introducing the various acts, which included a belly dancer, a snake charmer, and my partner Damien--who was a dancer with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo--performing The Dying Swan, <i>en pointe</i>. It was surreal and sublime to find myself in this strange Weimar-style fun house as the 90s came to a close.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We toasted each other with champagne as midnight struck, people taking to the streets firing guns into the air, as fireworks exploded over the Siegessäule. David Maiocco dubbed our Berlin adventure The Marlennium Tour. It certainly was a trip. Twenty years ago. Seems like another life, and certainly another career. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...</i></span><br />
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-77160261561229841782019-12-23T11:40:00.000-05:002019-12-23T11:40:32.531-05:00A New Decade Approaches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, here we are, about to start a new decade. One thing I know for sure--the older I get, the faster time seems to fly. Having already posted a sort of recap of my various ventures and creative projects of the year, I am taking this opportunity to reflect on the decade past and some home truths I have come to embrace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've been cobbling together ideas and notes for a memoir I am considering writing. For inspiration, I recently read the wonderful and hilarious autobiography of Eric Idle, "Always Look On the Bright Side of Life." It reminded me that the decade that is coming to a close started for me with the finale of the First National Tour of Eric and John DuPrez's Tony-winning Best Musical <i>Spamalot.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was my most prestigious and most lucrative acting job to date. In October 2009, we gave our last show in Costa Mesa, CA. By then I had been on the road for 22 months, played 62 city stops in North America, and turned in over 680 performances as Sir Robin. I had starred opposite my idol Gary Beach, as well as greats Richard Chamberlain, Jonathan Hadary, and John O'Hurley.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't deny that I expected, as I returned to New York with a nice bank account, fancy LA head shots and a brand new agent, that my next step would be: BROADWAY. From the age of 11, my dearest held aspiration, The Great White Way. And having played a leading role in a hugely successful tour, I hoped and anticipated that doors in that hallowed echelon of the business would open for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, a decade has passed and Broadway remains elusive. Virtually every other principal actor I worked with on the tour has done multiple Broadway shows and made big inroads into film and television in the past ten years. While I often counsel my coaching clients and acting students not to compare their relative success and failure to that of others, it is sometimes impossible not to go down that rabbit hole of doubt and self-pity myself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">As I've been putting together anecdotes about those halcyon days on the road, one story continues to creep up on me and rankles like no other. <i>Spamalot</i> was directed by Mike Nichols and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. This was certainly the show that put Casey on the map as a major force. <i>The Book of Mormon</i> and his many other successes were yet to come, and of course now he is, arguably, the most significant director on Broadway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Casey came to see the tour in February of 2008 when we were playing Huntsville, AL. It was the first time I had met him; I had already been in the show for well over a year. At our note session, Casey was over the moon about my performance and gave me nothing but positive feedback. I was elated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">A month later, we were in Wilmington, DE rehearsing John O'Hurley into our company in anticipation of our West Coast tour, which would take us to San Francisco for two months and then to LA and the Ahmanson Theatre for nine weeks. Casey came to see the show and, knowing he was in the house, I was probably pushing a bit in my performance; the overall mandate for <i>Spamalot</i> was a very low key, almost deadpan performance style. Anyway, the next day we had a work session with Casey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Everyone gathered on stage and Casey arrived to begin rehearsal. To my surprise, he singled me out and began to dress me down, demanding to know what had happened to me and how my work could have become so awful--and that I had ruined the previous night's performance. To this day, I find it hard to believe that in just a few short weeks I could have gone from brilliant in his estimation to ruining the show. But in the moment, I was stunned. And the worst thing you can do to a person who was ridiculed, bullied and brutalized for the first 10 years of his life in public school is to ridicule and bully him in front of his peers. Casey could have taken me privately aside and told me I had been pushing and I needed to pull my performance back. But he didn't. And so, feeling attacked, I stood up for myself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">What transpired was a heated five minute squabble between me and Casey, witnessed by all, which left me shaking and furious. But I took his notes, gave a better performance that night, and was told by his assistant that Casey left Wilmington happy with my work. But the bad taste remained with me. One of the dysfunctions of show business is that things happen, or don't happen, in one's career and one never knows why (or why not). I have always wondered if that five minutes in which I quarreled with Casey hurt my chances of making inroads into Broadway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">But, of course, this way madness lies. I will say that a year later, I got into an elevator at 42nd Street Studios in New York and stood right next to Casey. I said hi, and he acted like he didn't know me. My mind reeled. As I said: madness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Which brings me back to Eric. Because these stories we hold on to--particularly the negative ones, the moments we actors think ruined forever our dreams of success and fame--can overshadow the really affirming, amazing moments we've experienced. So, in the aftermath of this negative moment with Casey, we made our way out west.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">One night, at the Ahmanson in LA, I was doing my big number, "You Won't Succeed on Broadway," and I looked out and there was Eric Idle sitting in the third row along with his gorgeous wife Tania, and next to them, Billy Crystal and his wife Janice. Throughout my song, Billy was howling with laughter and having the time of his life. It was surreal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">After the show, I'm leaving my dressing room and heading home. I open the door, and who is standing outside my room waiting for me to come out but Eric, Tania, Janice, and Billy--who points at me and shouts: "YOU!! YOU ARE HILARIOUS!" He then leaps forward and takes me into a huge embrace, lifting me off the floor. Eric steps forward and pats me on the back and says to Billy, "Didn't I tell you he was great?" I'm thinking--<i>what is happening here? Whose life is this? </i>I spent the next ten minutes with these two comedy legends as they and their wives gushed over me. I only wish in 2009 we'd had phones equipped with cameras and video. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, you see where I'm going with this? The most important director-to-be on Broadway gave me a negative set of notes in front of my fellow actors and I thought my career irreparably damaged... and a few weeks later, the show's writer, one of the Pythons, the entire reason for <i>Spamalot </i>existing, the ORIGINAL Sir Robin-- and his buddy, one of the greatest and most successful actor/comedians of all time-- told me I was brilliant. What better vote of confidence could I have?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">And yeah... Broadway hasn't happened. Yet. But I've learned that holding on so strongly and desperately to a desired goal can make one unappreciative--almost unaware-- of the great things one is already achieving and has achieved. So, no, the decade past didn't bring my Broadway debut. What did it bring? Relatively consistent employment as an actor at some of our finest theaters, and more and more great parts. I've gotten to play a handful of my all time dream roles: Thénardier, John Adams, Nathan Detroit, Captain Hook. I've developed new musicals and worked with more legends: Jerry Lewis, Marvin Hamlisch, Sally Struthers, Valerie Harper. I've developed great relationships with directors and theaters who've invited me back numerous times. I've broken through with small bits on great TV shows: </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Law & Order: SVU </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> and </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Succession. </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">So, have I achieved my ultimate dream? Not yet. But I have probably achieved the ultimate dreams of many in my profession who continue to strive toward opportunities I have been fortunate enough to have had. As 2020 approaches, I have concluded that no matter what the future brings, we must embrace the good in our lives, give ourselves credit for our hard work, and just keep moving forward with as much optimism as possible.</span><br />
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-90531551063918261862019-10-26T12:19:00.000-04:002019-10-26T12:19:19.421-04:00Birthday Reflections<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Taking stock of what I have and what I haven't...</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The things I've got will keep me satisfied.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Checking up on what I have and what I haven't...</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>A healthy balance on the credit side.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another birthday is here and I find myself in the midst of that awkward, silent time that precedes the start of a new gig. In less than a week, I will go to Vermont and spend the holidays playing wonderful Max Detweiler in <a href="https://northernstage.org/sound-of-music/" target="_blank">"The Sound of Music."</a> It's a return to a role I love; to New England, where I spent the first half of my life... and most importantly, it places me two hours' drive from my Mom--which means we get to do Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah, and Christmas together, and even see in 2020. Blessings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have been doing a look back over this 54th year of my life and it's been a time of some real struggle--financially, professionally, personally-- but also a period of growth and achievement, highlighted by a new trend of diversification in my work.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Writing</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Big Apple Film Festival Award</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A year ago, the Big Apple Film Festival awarded me Third Place Winner in their Short Screenplay Competition for my script, "T." This intense, surreal story of addiction also won Best Short Screenplay in the HollywoodJust4Shorts Competition. My feature screenplay, "The Girl in Green," placed in the top 10% in the coveted Academy Nicholl Fellowship Competition and finished as quarterfinalist in the WeScreenplay Feature Competition.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob8czOrh1u5ohsAU-mTeSrwNtHTWMBMzzF2kpTkJFc1-BQdC7ztRvk34T1QWwtkpRGBh6kwCPUVaCFuD_oXbKS6jQ9M9xoZ5UbmeyyRy7rKikK9r1b_cT8Bg_PkgwrbIZ81MthdipYSM/s1600/SVU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="960" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjob8czOrh1u5ohsAU-mTeSrwNtHTWMBMzzF2kpTkJFc1-BQdC7ztRvk34T1QWwtkpRGBh6kwCPUVaCFuD_oXbKS6jQ9M9xoZ5UbmeyyRy7rKikK9r1b_cT8Bg_PkgwrbIZ81MthdipYSM/s320/SVU.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last fall, I made my primetime TV debut in a tiny part on "Law & Order: SVU." It felt like a huge achievement to finally join the "Law & Order" family--a rite of passage for a New York actor. Since then, I have appeared in an episode of the HBO blockbuster "Succession." Other interesting opportunities have come my way, including a super fun commercial shoot for the moonshine brand, <a href="https://saintlunaspirits.com/" target="_blank">Saint Luna</a>--as the hipster bartender, I found myself featured as part of the branding for the company!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Coaching and Teaching</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My private coaching business has been growing by leaps and bounds and in the best way possible: by word of mouth. My talented and successful clients have been very generous, sending referrals my way and helping to build my business. In the past year my clients have booked Broadway, national tours, television and film roles. I've had amazing opportunities to work with folks like <a href="https://www.zachjames.com/about" target="_blank">Zachary James</a> on his Metropolitan Opera debut in "Akhnaten" and Josh Raff on his one man show, <a href="https://www.joshrafflive.com/love-love" target="_blank">"Love-Love."</a></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coaching young stars at Goodspeed Musicals</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodspeed.org/" target="_blank">Goodspeed Musicals</a> invited me back to lead a master class in audition technique for young people. Always great to return to East Haddam, where Goodspeed continues to set the standard for musical theatre production and education. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also launched a new venture with my teaching partner, Andrew Parks--a professional intensive for musical theatre performers called Rep Book Excellence. This new approach to the selection and performance of audition repertoire had a great first round of classes and we are looking forward to bringing it back in 2020.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Returning to the world of cabaret as a director has been enormously gratifying and creatively exciting. Crafting and directing <a href="http://www.sierrarein.com/" target="_blank">Sierra Rein</a>'s solo debut act, "Running in Place," in collaboration with musical director Bill Zeffiro was a joy, and Sierra swept the awards this past year, winning both the Bistro Award and the MAC Award. This spring, my dear friend Goldie Dver made her comeback after a ten year absence from cabaret with the show we created together, "Back in Mama's Arms." The piece, an inspiring story of survival and optimism, has been universally embraced by the cabaret community and press and Goldie has confidently reclaimed her place on the cabaret scene.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>New Works</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Readings and workshops of new plays and musicals are something I try to be a part of as often as I can--one never knows what piece will go on to have a life. I am fortunate that writers and directors have invited me to the party a few times this past year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In January, Bill Zeffiro asked me to be in a reading of his musical "Houdini Among the Spirits," with stars Robert Cuccioli and Nick Wyman. This summer I had a great feature in the reading of the immersive speakeasy musical "Whisper Darkly," co-written and directed by talented DJ Salisbury; and wonderful playwright Gordon Penn invited me to read the bombastic comic lead of President Juraslob in his play "Black Garden" at the Roundabout.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>Theatre</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Two wonderful regional theatre productions highlighted this 54th year of my life and my 29th year in show business. I escaped the winter and returned to one my favorite companies, <a href="https://www.riversidetheatre.com/" target="_blank">Riverside Theatre</a>, to play the delicious cameo of Hungarian charlatan Zoltan Karpathy in "My Fair Lady." Superb production directed by Jimmy Brennan and starring husband and wife Higgins and Eliza Jimmy and Kristin Beth Ludwig.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drag antics with Max Falls and Brandon Curry </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With a week's turnaround following my time in Vero Beach, I flew off to <a href="https://www.theatre2.org/" target="_blank">TheatreSquared</a> in Fayetteville, Arkansas to play drag diva Miss Tracy Mills in Matthew Lopez's "The Legend of Georgia McBride." A play with such heart, directed with heart by Bruce Warren--and a company of such lovely actors with whom I became fast friends. We are slated to remount our production in 2020 at Virginia Stage Company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looking back, it's been quite a year and I feel really grateful, even while I struggle to make the bills, and line up work in a business that is precarious even in its best moments. I've been pretty much single for 13 years and I wonder if love will ever find me again. Getting older makes one think about things like stability, savings, retirement... but in this business, to quote a song lyric by friend and collaborator Bill Zeffiro: "I'll retire when I'm dead." Welcome 55th year--let's see what you have in store...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-87304000699878017602019-10-08T14:12:00.003-04:002019-10-08T14:12:40.717-04:00Second Chances<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mea culpa, dear friends.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As can often happen in life... life intervened, and the past few months since I closed "The Legend of Georgia McBride" in Arkansas have been, well, challenging--on personal and professional fronts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, the show business gods have smiled, and I will have the good fortune of seeing out 2019 not only doing the work I love--but doing a role I love. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think all actors have a list of dream parts--a list we often keep close and secret, for fear of either jinxing ourselves, or wanting those plum roles too much; in a profession full of rejection, the chances of those parts passing us by are all too likely. I have been luckier than most, and have been given some ultimate dream parts to play. But to play one more than once?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Max, with Jacquelynne Fontaine as Elsa</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, for the first time in my nearly 30 year career, lightning has struck twice! I will be spending the holidays in Vermont playing the delicious role of Max in <b>"The Sound of Music"</b> at <a href="https://northernstage.org/" target="_blank">Northern Stage.</a> I had the good fortune of playing dear "Uncle Max" at North Shore Music Theatre in 2013--my first role at my hometown theatre, and my first production of many with brilliant director Jimmy Brennan. For my work, I was nominated for the IRNE Award, and I have to say it was one of my favorite shows to date.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max Detweiler is a splendid flight of Oscar Hammerstein's fancy, placed in the midst of the true story of the Von Trapp Family. Loosely based on a real life family friend--a clergyman and choral group promoter--Max serves many purposes in the plot of "The Sound of Music." He is the urbane and witty friend of the Captain and confident to his love interest, the Baroness Elsa Schrader; he also provides the crucial connection for Maria and the singing Von Trapp children to the folk festival which serves as their way out when the family must escape the Nazis. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Haydn as Max and Eleanor Parker as Elsa</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max also serves another purpose--one lost in the film version of the musical which removed most of the politics of pre-fascist Austria and, along with them, Max's two songs: "How Can Love Survive?" and "No Way To Stop It." The latter is a stinging indictment of the complacency and self-interest that allows fascist regimes to take root and thrive. Max, whose interests are purely mercenary, nevertheless works with the Nazis--until he is faced with the reality that his good friends are under threat from his fascist friends. That realization provides an immensely satisfying dramatic transition for an actor and I look forward to assaying it again.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Claude Rains</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, I am inspired by great actors and great performances of the past. For Max, I have always thought of Claude Rains and his rascally performance as Louis in "Casablanca." Charming, unscrupulous, unapologetically venal-- nevertheless, when it really counts, Louis does the right thing and begins his "beautiful friendship" with Rick, fighting the Nazi menace.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Solange in "The Maids"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's rather fun to note that Northern Stage, in the little town of White River Junction, Vermont, produces in its beautiful new venue, the Barrette Center for the Arts, on the site of what once was the Briggs Opera House. In the early 1990s, I spent a Fall in this little whistle stop town, doing an ambitious rep of Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw" with Jean Genet's "The Maids" as part of White River Theatre Festival--I think it was their one full season ever! Northern Stage has become an artistic force, and the area has come a long way since that far away Autumn. I am looking forward to seeing what it has become, and to being part of bringing the "hills alive" once more with <a href="https://northernstage.org/sound-of-music/" target="_blank">"The Sound of Music," which plays at Northern Stage November 20 through January 5.</a></span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-34786852846697783622019-05-16T15:54:00.001-04:002019-05-16T15:54:27.207-04:00The Little Theatre That Could--and Did<div class="quotation" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: 10px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #660000;"><i>There is pretty strong characters down there in Arkansas. You can't redeem 'em, you just join 'em.</i> ~Will Rogers</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finale of "The Legend of Georgia McBride"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, from Fayetteville, AR where we are halfway through the third week of our five week run with <b>"The Legend of Georgia McBride."</b> When I booked this gig, the common reaction from friends up north was: "A drag play? IN ARKANSAS?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This incredulity is understandable given what most of us know about Arkansas. But most of us don't know <i>Fayetteville</i>. Like Austin, TX or Asheville, NC, Fayetteville is an oasis of liberalism and culture in a rabidly "red" state. Home to the University of Arkansas (Woo Pig Sooie!), this town is the hub of all things NWA (Northwest Arkansas). Here, folks are proud to be inclusive, broad minded... <i>different</i>. People are friendly, welcoming, easy to get to know, and the town virtually hums with contentment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this environment, the arts thrive... and for the past 14 years, <b>TheatreSquared</b> has brought challenging, vibrant theatre to its black box home at Nadine Baum Studios, part of Walton Arts Center. And the audience has embraced it with incredible enthusiasm and support--you feel it from the stage. It's an audience that's vocal, excited and genuinely proud to be there. For an actor, what could be better?</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Design of the new T2--it looks just like this!! AMAZING</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Given the support Fayetteville has given TheatreSquared, it's probably not surprising that they are almost near completion of their 50,000 square foot state of the art home, with two performance spaces, rehearsal studios, offices and a beautiful gathering space in its airy, modern, ground floor lobby. Additionally, they've built eight gorgeous apartments for visiting artists (and lucky us--we are the first actors to occupy the new housing). I wish you could see what they've created and feel the excitement building here toward the grand opening. Check out all the gorgeous images and ambitious plans at the <a href="https://ournextstage.org/" target="_blank">T2 website</a>. The theatre industry should take note of the work TheatreSquared is doing--and it WILL. I for one would be thrilled to return here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, my love affair with Fayetteville continues, as we bring the sequins and the joy to TheatreSquared's founding venue. This town is rich with whimsical and interesting local businesses, fantastic food and drink, live music and culture, the best used bookstore EVER (Dickson Street Books) and my favorite farmer's market of all time every week. Not to mention the stunning art museum <a href="https://crystalbridges.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx7f8lOeg4gIVmbXACh1iEQ0EEAAYASAAEgI4TPD_BwE" target="_blank">Crystal Bridges</a> just a stone's throw from Fayetteville. But one doesn't fall in love with a town without falling for its people. I walk around this place with no eyebrows and lavender nail polish in my off-hours and I am accepted and welcomed. I've made friends with local business owners and staff members at T2 and their loved ones... and man, what a team at the theatre--led by the generous and openhearted Artistic Director, Bob Ford, and Executive Director Martin Miller. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The girls of Cleo's! Tracy, Georgia, Rexy.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And to top it all off... I am in love with my fellow actors on this show. It is a rare thing for a group to come together as strangers and a month later be close and affectionate <i>friends. </i>We relish our time on stage so much; but more, we spend our free time together too-- just enjoying the hell out of each other. I am so grateful for this experience and I know the joy we all feel being here at TheatreSquared, in this life affirming play, as the theatre moves on to its exciting next chapter--is felt by each and every person who comes to see <a href="https://www.theatre2.org/georgia-mcbride" target="_blank">"The Legend of Georgia McBride."</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't miss out! Be one of those lucky people--and join us before we close on June 2.</span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-76377337706111960612019-04-26T11:17:00.000-04:002019-04-26T11:17:56.552-04:00Forward in High Heels<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Drag is a protest. Drag is a raised fist inside a sequined glove. Drag is a lot of things, baby, but drag is not for sissies.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~Matthew Lopez, "The Legend of Georgia McBride"</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Maxwell Caulfield in "La Cage Aux Folles"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last time I performed in drag was 12 years ago. I was lucky enough to be cast as Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles"--a last minute replacement--at Ogunquit Playhouse. It was my debut with the company and my third production of the show, and I played opposite handsome Maxwell Caulfield (best known as "Cool Rider" in <i>Grease 2</i>). Having recently graduated from the Academy for Classical Acting, a drag role was not something I expected to tackle at that time... but the show led to my getting seen for, and cast as, Sir Robin in the First National Tour of "Spamalot" and changed my life forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That return to heels and bugle beads was a big deal for me. Six years earlier, I had publicly retired my drag act as Marlene Dietrich with a gala performance on what would have been the siren's 100th birthday. After eight years of impersonating Dietrich and Lauren Bacall... a MAC Award and Bistro Award... and numerous great drag parts in shows like "The Mystery of Irma Vep" and "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom," I felt I had hit a dead end. Female impersonation was something I chose to do to prove my versatility and transformational talents... and I couldn't seem to get away from it. A definitive break was required. Many of my fans and colleagues were shocked, some even felt betrayed. How could I just drop it and move on...?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>In order to GROW.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so, 12 years since I raised my fist in a lavender glove and sang "I Am What I Am," here I am again, donning wigs and lashes and enduring the aches and pains of corseting and high heels... to bring to life Miss Tracy Mills, the wise and magical "fairy godmother" who teaches young Elvis impersonator Casey not only how to be a "woman," but also how to be a better man--in Matthew Lopez's comedy with heart, "The Legend of Georgia McBride."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was not prepared for how challenging this drag role would be, nor how intensely it would touch my mind and heart. Lopez brings such reverence and appreciation to the art of drag in this play, and to the history of drag performers and their important role in the Gay Rights Movement. Drag performers have been on the front lines of the cultural war against LGBTQ people for decades, centuries. Challenging our limited notions of gender and championing the voices of the marginalized, drag is now mainstream, with the success of <i>RuPaul's Drag Race.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lopez has created in Miss Tracy and her alter ego Bobby someone of great optimism and wisdom... a survivor who indeed, in the words of Jerry Herman, faces life "with a little guts and lots of glitter." It is an honor to play her and I have been filled with so many emotions since beginning this process three weeks ago. I am reminded of how empowering it can be to transform so completely and submerge myself into a character. I am reminded of how challenging this kind of performance is physically! But mostly, I am reminded of the legacy of drag and female impersonation that I was a beneficiary of, and through my work, that I helped to perpetuate and pass on. It truly is a received tradition, and I would never have achieved what I did as a female impersonator had it not been for the artists who generously offered me advice and guidance and who were great examples for me---artists like Craig Russell and Jimmy James... the great drag queens I worked with while in the world famous La Cage Revue, like Angel Sheridan and Jesse Volt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am dedicating my Miss Tracy to the performer who took me under his wing when I was just starting in drag, creating my act as Lauren Bacall. His name was Randy Allen, and in the early 90s he was one of our top drag performers, who went mainstream with his spot-on and hilarious show, "P.S. Bette Davis" (the "p.s." standing for "post stroke"). Randy was a finely trained actor who was also a superb makeup artist. He transformed himself into a wizened, cranky old Bette with such finesse and artfulness. I saw Randy perform at the Crown and Anchor in Provincetown when I was there doing my act at The Post Office Cafe. He blew me away with his mimicry, his physical work, his writing and his makeup artistry. Randy returned the favor and came to see my show... afterward he offered to help me perfect my look and invited me to his dressing room where he not only taught me makeup techniques I still use today... but also instilled in me a sense of responsibility--to the lady I am impersonating, but also to the audience--bringing them something of quality and nuance that strives to be more than a burlesque sketch of a woman, but a living, breathing female <i>being.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Randy changed everything for me... and he did it generously, selflessly, because he saw my talent and potential, and, like nearly all the great drag artists I've gotten to know--from Charles Busch to John Epperson--because he believed that if we all did the best work we could as drag performers--it would be good for all of us and for the art form itself. I shall never forget Randy. At the end of his life, cut short tragically by AIDS, Randy starred Off-Broadway in a two person play called "Me and Jezebel" based on a true story about an elderly Bette Davis. To promote the show, they held a Bette Davis lookalike contest at The Ballroom in New York and Randy asked me to participate. The press coverage was amazing. Not only did we get the first page of the New York Times Styles section, but CNN featured the publicity stunt. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H615S9nUi00" target="_blank"> See this video clip</a> and you may recognize me in a sensible suit and pillbox hat (I won the contest by the way).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the play went into production, Randy was declining rapidly and he called me and asked me to come and be his understudy in the event he was too ill to perform. I did... and sadly, Randy passed away before the show even opened. I was honored to know him and to have had his confidence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is this confidence that Miss Tracy Mills passes along to young, straight, fledgling drag artist Casey in our play. Not only the confidence to be a great performer, but the confidence to be true to himself, to be a person of integrity and honesty, of commitment and love. Our director Bruce Warren has mined out of what could be a campy drag comedy a strong, powerful message of love and acceptance which will move the audiences here at Theatre Squared as much as the spectacular drag looks of Bryce Huey Turgeon (Haus of D'Lee) dazzle their eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The Legend of Georgia McBride" runs May 1 through June 2 at Theatre Squared in Fayetteville, Arkansas. <a href="https://www.theatre2.org/" target="_blank">Visit the website </a>for tickets and more information.</span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-62288093625982223842019-03-28T12:28:00.001-04:002019-03-28T12:28:46.254-04:00I Said I'd Make a Woman, and Indeed I Did<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes there's an odd cosmic confluence that happens along the creative path... themes seem to emerge and seemingly unrelated projects start resonating with each other in, well, magical ways.</span><div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Karpathy, with James Ludwig as Higgins</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've spent a glorious six weeks in beautiful Vero Beach, doing my "drive-by" cameo as Hungarian swindler Zoltan Karpathy in <b>"My Fair Lady"</b> here at <a href="https://www.riversidetheatre.com/" target="_blank">Riverside Theatre</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we head toward closing, I've already begun the memorizing and preparatory work for my next role: drag veteran Miss Tracy Mills in Matthew Lopez's <b>"The Legend of Georgia McBride."</b> As I've dug deep into the play it's become clear: I am about to play a drag Henry Higgins!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wendy Hiller as Eliza and Leslie Howard as Higgins</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"My Fair Lady" is definitely one of the ultimate makeover stories: Higgins picks up grubby flower girl Eliza and, through the power of speech therapy, transforms her into a "duchess." But, of course, the transformation is more than superficial... the true Eliza emerges: confident, independent, her "own woman."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In "The Legend of Georgia McBride," down-on-his-luck Elvis impersonator Casey finds himself thrown, by circumstance, into a whole new world: the glittering world of drag. The story of a straight man who discovers he's got a real talent for female impersonation is a fascinating journey, and Casey's guide and mentor is Miss Tracy. She's an elegant, scrappy queen who has been there, done that, and who literally pushes Casey on to his new career as "Georgia."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Along the way, Tracy teaches Casey how to lip-sync, how to dress, walk, move, and shine as a woman--much the same way Higgins teaches Eliza the elegant graces and rounded tones of great lady. And like Higgins and Eliza, Casey and Tracy find themselves at a crossroads where student and teacher confront a major life lesson. Casey's has to confront his own homophobia and embrace the feminine strength within him; and Tracy is his drag "Yoda," challenging him to get out of his own way and be the man he knows he can be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am loving marinating in the wonderful thematic overlaps of these two pieces--one, a classic story over a hundred years old; the other a contemporary tale that tussles with our own prejudices and limitations. Miss Tracy even says at one point, "By George, he's got it!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"The Legend of Georgia McBride"</b> plays May 1 through June 2 at <a href="https://www.theatre2.org/" target="_blank">TheatreSquared</a> in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Join us for the fabulous!</span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-19030695960095060172019-01-20T16:46:00.000-05:002019-01-20T16:46:16.166-05:00That Hairy Hound from Budapest<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> who follow my blog or my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/james.beaman.581" target="_blank">Facebook</a> know that I have a passion for acting as my own dramaturge with each role I assay, and adore researching the origins of my character--and, in the case of revivals--the actors who played the role before me. Not only does this research provide context for, and texture to my performance, it also gives me a greater appreciation for the originating </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This February, I return to one of my favorite theaters in one of my favorite spots: Riverside Theatre in Vero Beach, Florida, to play the delicious cameo role of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zoltan Karpathy in one of the greatest of all musicals, <b>"My Fair Lady."</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This top notch regional theatre, lovingly supported by an enthusiastic snowbird community, brings beautiful productions to the stage each season. My debut there was as another Hungarian, impresario Bela Zangler in "Crazy For You," directed by the wonderful James Brennan; I returned two seasons later to play headwaiter Rudolph Reisenweber in "Hello, Dolly!," also directed by Jimmy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have long been a lover of the works of George Bernard Shaw, and "Pygmalion," upon which "My Fair Lady" is based, is one of my favorites of his plays. I also adore the film version, produced in 1938 with the participation of Shaw, who won the Oscar for his screenplay. The film starred Leslie Howard and the incomparable Wendy Hiller, who was Shaw's choice for the role of Eliza Doolittle. Alan Jay Lerner's book for the musical is based upon the "Pygmalion" screenplay, which is why Zoltan Karpathy--who is not in the original play--appears in "My Fair Lady."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The reason audiences of the original play never met Karpathy is that the scene at the Embassy Ball, where Eliza dazzles high society with her poise and elocution, was only added to "Pygmalion" for the 1938 film. There's some fun dramaturgy behind how this character came to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hungarian-born Gabriel Pascal, who was also a long time friend of Shaw's, was the producer of many of the great writer's plays, including "Pygmalion," which was a huge international hit. After failing to persuade Shaw in the '30s to allow a musical adaptation of the play (!), he did convince him to collaborate on the film version. The movie medium allowed for much more freedom of location, and the Embassy Ball sequence was added--along with Karpathy. I can't help but see this Hungarian fop as an in-joke between Shaw and Pascal!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shaw wrote the part specially for actor Esmé Percy. Trained as an actor by the divine Sarah Bernhardt, Percy had been a big star of the English stage and something of a matinee idol, and had originated several of Shaw's leading men. He even played Henry Higgins at one point, opposite the original Eliza Doolittle Mrs. Patrick Campbell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the 1930s, Percy had lost his good looks (as well as an eye, in an accident involving a Great Dane--he had a glass one for the rest of his life) and had become an established character man on the screen. For him, the delectable Karpathy (originally "Count Aristide Karpathy") was created. The character is a former student of Professor Higgins, who took his knowledge of phonetics and languages to the courts of Europe, making it his business to unmask social climbers and aristocratic frauds. He of course poses a big threat to Higgins and his "Galatea," Eliza... but ultimately, he concludes that her English is so good she has to be foreign born; and her manners so impeccable he concludes she is a Hungarian princess in disguise!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theodore Bikel as Karpathy<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The part of Karpathy (now with the first name of Zoltan) in "My Fair Lady" on Broadway was played by Christopher Hewett, best known for his brilliant portrayal of Roger DeBris in the original film of Mel Brooks' "The Producers." When the musical was brought to the screen by legendary director George Cukor, the part was played by Theodore Bikel. Bikel was another stage leading man who had become a character actor. He was the original Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music." Bikel was a guitarist and folk singer and the song "Edelweiss" (incidentally the last song Oscar Hammerstein wrote) was composed for him, to maximize on these talents. By the time "My Fair Lady" came along, he had become known for his virtuosity with dialects--on screen he played German, Russian, French--even a redneck sheriff from the deep South. Who better to prance through the Hungarian affectations of Karpathy?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I take pride in having evolved into something of a "chameleon" and I enjoy submerging myself into delicious characters with crazy dialect challenges. Karpathy is another great cameo to add to the pantheon of characters I've been fortunate to play. Oh, let's face it! I am incredibly blessed not only to work with Jimmy Brennan again, and to do this great musical, but to return to the genteel and sunny environs of Vero Beach once more in the dead of a New York winter. "My Fair Lady" runs March 12-31. For tickets, and more information, visit the <a href="https://www.riversidetheatre.com/" target="_blank">Riverside Theatre website.</a></span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-2727601574695571052018-12-31T13:02:00.001-05:002018-12-31T13:02:34.978-05:00My End of the Year Letter 2018<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>2018: Feast or Famine</b></i></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSb3nhGLEZNIThx3HQCieGYEZAR-YeP2aieENljjYGun4txoP2UuwoacvMylvitHHmJVirzYPn7gjAd74Y7oAGbcmvGiWZr4hh3ZVXAyuJ5-34HWAeHRNaD_bLUNsKh7U68fJuC49ndk/s1600/pesok-more-volny-pliazh-leto-summer-beach-sea-blue-sand-wa-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="596" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSb3nhGLEZNIThx3HQCieGYEZAR-YeP2aieENljjYGun4txoP2UuwoacvMylvitHHmJVirzYPn7gjAd74Y7oAGbcmvGiWZr4hh3ZVXAyuJ5-34HWAeHRNaD_bLUNsKh7U68fJuC49ndk/s400/pesok-more-volny-pliazh-leto-summer-beach-sea-blue-sand-wa-3.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's that time again: the time to reflect back on the year past, take stock and set new goals for the year to come.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first thing to celebrate, I suppose, is having survived year two of the Trump presidency. We are still here! I can't deny that, like many Americans, I find his oppressive omnipresence stressful and exhausting. Sleep does not come easily these days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the same time, I see all the chaos in our government and the tension in our society as a spur to create what good I can, and to continue to pursue my goals and dreams. In addition to generating more theatre work, I continue to branch out into other areas: writing, directing, coaching and teaching, and TV and film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>My Year in "England"</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looking at the season past, I realized that every show I did this year was set in England (with a detour to Neverland!). </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Feste, with the company of "Twelfth Night"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I enjoyed a Florida winter happily immersed in the challenging rep season at <a href="http://orlandoshakes.org/" target="_blank">Orlando Shakespeare Theatre</a>, where I played Mr. Fennyman in <b>"Shakespeare in Love"</b> and Feste in <b>"Twelfth Night."</b> The latter was a landmark production: the first EVER American professional production of a Shakespeare play with an all-male cast performing original Elizabethan stage practices and in original pronunciation! We were blessed to be instructed and coached in the Elizabethan dialect by acknowledged master David Crystal and dialectician Paul Meier. I also got to sing my Feste songs with a consort playing Elizabethan instruments. What a thrill, and a rare opportunity to perform Shakespeare as it might have been done 400 years ago. Audiences adored it.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Captain Hook, "Peter Pan," NSMT</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Summer brought me another of my ultimate dream roles: the dual part of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in the classic musical, <b>"Peter Pan." </b> Director Bob Richard and choreographer Diane Laurenson gave me complete freedom to chew the scenery apart as this hammy, flamboyant and delicious ultimate villain. I was also so fortunate to work opposite a young woman who is destined for stardom: Elena Ricardo as Peter. <a href="https://www.nsmt.org/" target="_blank">North Shore Music Theatre </a>mounted a truly unique and magical production and it will forever be one of my favorite things I've done.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greeting the audience at the Folger Theatre with the T-Punks</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the midst of our brief run of "Peter Pan," crazy me flew down on a day off and performed my seventh Bootleg Shakespeare with my brilliant friends of <a href="http://www.taffetypunk.com/new/index.html" target="_blank">Taffety Punk Theatre Company</a>. This was the third play in the War of the Roses saga, <b>"Henry VI, Part 3"</b> and I again took on the role of Warwick. In this play, Warwick is the driving force, and memorizing 300 lines of Shakespeare while learning Captain Hook was a test of the old brain cells. But, as always, Bootleg was terrifying, exhilarating and unforgettable. I love going to DC and throwing myself headlong into this one day theatrical stunt.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPTIGJPFUeB6PaFFcO2jTgvKGl0swRob5dbOUQIzMyLn4EitBS4zBWe_8tW__saVvKSbbqINrFLp5nsqSYi-WFUMDyMbdBdaG1j37-kxDV_KuvJQ0F6ZZJ4St4hE5YcIqBYqnI8fMDHI/s1600/the-wrong-box-image-by-christopher-michaels_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1100" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPTIGJPFUeB6PaFFcO2jTgvKGl0swRob5dbOUQIzMyLn4EitBS4zBWe_8tW__saVvKSbbqINrFLp5nsqSYi-WFUMDyMbdBdaG1j37-kxDV_KuvJQ0F6ZZJ4St4hE5YcIqBYqnI8fMDHI/s320/the-wrong-box-image-by-christopher-michaels_orig.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I returned to New York in time for busy audition season. Many appointments and callbacks but nothing clicked... until I was invited to take part in a first full production of a zany new musical, <a href="http://www.thewrongboxmusical.com/" target="_blank"><b>"The Wrong Box,"</b></a> as part of Theatre for the New City's annual Dream Up Festival. The show, an English black comedy based on a Robert Lewis Stevenson novella, and written by clever Kit Goldstein Grant, was one of those grass roots, micro-budget, fast and furious labors of love, and I got to play a handful of silly characters. It's always a pleasure to be a part of the development of new work and contribute to its growth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>The "Write Stuff"</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Screenwriting has become an exciting and creatively fulfilling path for me, and this year one of my scripts was honored with an award. "T," my 10 page short script about a man coping with addiction, was recognized as Third Place Winner at the <a href="https://www.bigapplefilmfestival.com/" target="_blank">Big Apple Film Festival</a> here in New York. Attending the festival screenings and events and receiving my award was a huge boost to my writer's ego! "T" is now in the ScreenCraft Fund grant competition, and it is my hope that I will win the money to produce the film!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My other two scripts--my feature, "The Girl in Green," and my short, "In Helen's Room," are entered in multiple competitions and my producing partners at <a href="http://changingfilmproductions.com/" target="_blank">Changing Film</a> are working diligently with me to get them in front of production companies and potential talent to move the projects forward in 2019. To check out my log lines and synopses, visit my <a href="https://filmfreeway.com/JamesBeaman" target="_blank">FilmFreeway profile</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"SVU and Me"</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a theatre actor, it can be difficult to break into film and TV. The catch-22? You can't get an audition for film and TV without footage of you acting in film and TV... but you can't get the footage without the film or TV project! This year, by good fortune and the efforts of my agents at <a href="http://www.avalonartists.com/" target="_blank">Avalon Artists Group</a>, I auditioned for a speaking role on <b>"Law & Order: SVU"</b> and BOOKED IT! I played Oscar, an intellectual at a book signing, in the teaser opening of Episode 10 of the 20th season, entitled "Alta Kockers." What a thrill to work on that set and to see myself on TV, on a show of which I am a genuine fan. This small appearance, and my scene in the indie film <b>"Till We Meet Again,"</b> now comprise my demo reel, which I hope will bring more opportunities in the new year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I also got to do some commercial shoots and concept videos this year for various products and creative ventures. These have been great fun, and I am excited to do more. I've become defined as a "Silver Fox" and wear the label proudly!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Director/Mentor/Coach</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial", "helvetica", sans-serif;">Directing the debut solo act of the wondrous Sierra Rein, <a href="http://sierrarein.com/running/" target="_blank">"Running in Place,"</a> was one of the highlights of the year. Sierra KILLED IT in her two engagements this year at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, garnering glowing press and a nomination for a Broadway World Award. The show will have a reprise performance at Don't Tell Mama on March 6, just in time for MAC Award voting. Don't miss it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Sierra's musical director Bill Zeffiro and I have become a really strong creative team </span><span style="font-family: "arial", "helvetica", sans-serif;">and</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> we are collaborating with my dear friend, Goldie Dver, on her comeback cabaret. Goldie is a brilliant singer with whom I have done numerous projects, including our MAC Award winning show, "Crazy World: Songs of Leslie Bricusse." Look for Goldie's show in late spring/early summer 2019.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I continue to coach auditions for talented actors, who've booked everything from Broadway to TV to film projects this year with my input and mentorship. I love working with actors and bringing out their best! Visit my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JamesBeamanCoaching/" target="_blank">Facebook Coaching Page</a> for more info and to book a session! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>The Year Ahead</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2019 will start with a reading of a new musical, <b>"Houdini Among the Spirits,"</b> with music by Bill Zeffiro, starring Bob Cuccioli as Houdini and Nick Wyman as Arthur Conan Doyle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In February I fly south to Vero Beach, Florida and one of my favorite venues, <a href="https://www.riversidetheatre.com/" target="_blank">Riverside Theatre</a>, to play the Hungarian charlatan Zoltan Karpathy in <b>"My Fair Lady."</b> This will be my third production at Riverside, and my sixth collaboration with brilliant director Jimmy Brennan.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial", "helvetica", sans-serif;">After that, I will play drag diva Miss Tracy Mills in Matthew Lopez's <b>"The Legend of Georgia McBride"</b> at <a href="https://www.theatre2.org/" target="_blank">Theatre Squared</a> in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Bruce Warren, with whom I performed years back at the York Theatre Company in "The Road to Qatar!" is directing this play about an Elvis impersonator who transforms into a drag sensation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">There is nothing for an actor quite as empowering as starting a new year knowing that there's work booked! Wishing you and yours a </span><span style="font-family: "arial", "helvetica", sans-serif;">powerful</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> 2019 full of opportunity!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-14111459635297883792018-10-19T16:53:00.001-04:002018-10-19T16:53:24.062-04:00Another Birthday Approaches<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mea culpa, dear reader.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have been a negligent blogger since the wonderful rush of playing Captain Hook this summer. These periods of uncertainty and flux are always a challenge for us actors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A week from now will bring the occasion of my 53rd birthday, falling in my 25th year in New York City. It feels like a moment to regroup, reassess, and look to the horizon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hit the city at the end of July, still buzzing from my adventures in Neverland, and launched into audition season. There were quite a few opportunities, but nothing really clicked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I did, however, get to enjoy taking part in the first full production of Kit Goldstein Grant's <a href="http://www.thewrongboxmusical.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">"The Wrong Box." </span></a> This rollicking musical black comedy was part of the Dream Up Festival at Theatre for the New City and it was a grass roots affair--shoestring budget, wild and woolly festival atmosphere--but a delightful group of artists and a smart and clever director in Michael Chase Gosselin.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cast of "The Wrong Box." (photo: Jeremy Daniel)<br />
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<i><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif;">"A plot that is dark and comical but not necessarily funny, with characters who are wacky and unpredictable but all who become very familiar, "</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;">The Wrong Box"</span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> is an incredibly clever piece of theater that definitely gives the audience a run for its money (pun intended)." ~Kristen Morale, BroadwayWorld</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #171717; font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8;"><span style="color: #171717;">With the merry hi-jinks of "The Wrong Box" over, I embarked on a series of fascinating short term jobs: Emcee of an event to launch the new line of Harry Winston jewelry at The Rainbow Room; Speaking to the </span><a href="https://www.goodspeed.org/audition-boot-camp" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Audition Bootcamp</span></a><span style="color: #171717;"> participants from Goodspeed Musicals; performing in a concept video for a spectacular new show for a European resort. I launched my new </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/JamesBeamanCoaching/" target="_blank">Facebook audition coaching page</a>,</span><span style="color: #171717;"> boosting my visibility and attracting talented new clientele. </span></span></span></div>
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My screenwriting took on a new dimension when I completed work on a new short film script, "T," which explores the shadow life of a gay man getting hooked on crystal meth and sex. The script has been awarded 3rd Place Winner in the </span><a href="https://www.bigapplefilmfestival.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">2018 Big Apple Film Festival</span></a><span style="color: #171717;"> Short Screenplay Competition! Awards take place November 3. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #171717; font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8;"><span style="color: #171717;">I continue to submit my feature, "The Girl in Green," to various contests and work with my producing partners at </span><a href="http://changingfilmproductions.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Changing Film</span></a><span style="color: #171717;"> to move it toward next steps. The screenplay finished in the top 10% for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, the industry's most prestigious screenwriting fellowship.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #171717; font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8;">Diversification. Creativity. And good old fashioned survival skills. The order of the day as I embark on my 54th year on this old planet. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "montserrat" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8;"><span style="color: #171717;">One last thing: </span><span style="color: blue;">PLEASE VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6!</span><span style="color: #171717;"> So much is at stake for all of us. </span></span></span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-47047791730486804762018-06-30T20:16:00.001-04:002018-06-30T20:16:42.560-04:00Do You Believe?<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Children separated from their parents. A land in turmoil. Indigenous people under attack. A theatrical and lawless tyrant run amok. Sound familiar?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the state of affairs in Neverland.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi27izkL0Gj3ecZF10IqgnLqYHg7o9VeeAAaeak9HLOjZGkUxABx71-ddf1R5JydkJLcXoLpbG9ePBAZOzw47nSPDCkDuUzhcYmxTxUnVtQ_24tjIj1nrpg-3OZKTrxBnZjHXQP800_aIM/s1600/peter-pan-poster-med_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi27izkL0Gj3ecZF10IqgnLqYHg7o9VeeAAaeak9HLOjZGkUxABx71-ddf1R5JydkJLcXoLpbG9ePBAZOzw47nSPDCkDuUzhcYmxTxUnVtQ_24tjIj1nrpg-3OZKTrxBnZjHXQP800_aIM/s320/peter-pan-poster-med_orig.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I am not trying to be cute. Nor am I trying to impose dark and political significances on to "Peter Pan." But, as I have been rehearsing this first whirlwind week at <a href="https://www.nsmt.org/peterpan.html" target="_blank">North Shore Music Theatre</a>, I have been continually moved by the way this bittersweet children's classic has resonated with me, in light of the increasingly tense and frightening reality of American life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An actor friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that he feels our work--namely, entertaining audiences through live theatre--is frivolous, useless and almost an insult in light of the grave challenges that face our nation. But I disagree. Theatre, and art in general, are here to lift us up in times of darkness, and to remind us of our common humanity: the experiences of being human that we all share. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What experience could be more universal than the experience of childhood? "Peter Pan," more than perhaps any other fairy tale, speaks to us from the deep recesses of a time when we were all wide-eyed, innocent youngsters. It isn't all sunshine and treacle; the story vibrates with other, deeper themes: the fears of parents that they might not be able to protect their children... the terror of growing up and growing old... the possibility that magic can't save everyone, even the most magical of creatures, Tinkerbell. Yet, there is one panacea that pierces all darkness, and that can bring fairies back to life: <i>our belief.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some might define the opposite of Fear as Courage. Others might define it as Safety. Or Acceptance. I think the opposite of Fear might be... <i>Wonder. </i>I've heard Fear being described as an acronym: F.E.A.R. False Events Appearing Real. And in a way, our Fear is often more Dread than anything... the fear of <i>the unknown</i>. And Wonder is our ability to remain curious, open and playful... to believe that magic exists even if everything in our adult lives tells us it's fantasy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wonder is what J.M. Barrie wanted to tap into with "Peter Pan." When Tinkerbell is at death's door (after drinking Peter's medicine--poisoned by Captain Hook--in order to save him), Peter tells us to clap if we believe in fairies. Our applause, indicating our willingness to declare our belief, brings Tink back to life. Of course, Tinkerbell is a flickering light... Peter is a woman dressed as a little boy, who flies through the ",magic" of machinery, and wires, and stagehands. And yet... young and old... we clap. We clap because we believe. We clap because we want Tinkerbell to live... we want her to be real. We clap because we all want to be children once more and to have that natural, effortless, and thrilling experience of <i>wonder </i>again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think our country and our world need theatre more than ever. We need to commune as humans from different walks of life, from different experiences of the world... to gather together in the dark, and return to that time when everything was magic. To see with the eyes of a child and to believe in innocence, in hope, and in possibility. When we do this, we discover our common shared experience as human beings and we reinvest in our hearts and our sense of tenderness and compassion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe with all my heart that our production of "Peter Pan," so exquisitely crafted by director Bob Richard and choreographer Diane Laurenson with honesty and soul, devoid of sentimentality and falseness, will take our audiences, young and old, back to that sense of wonder. I am so proud to be a part of this show, at the venue where I as a small child had my first wide-eyed experiences of theatre--including seeing my first "Peter Pan." I hope it softens hearts and opens minds, and brings home to people that children are the purest and best of what makes us human. They deserve to be cherished and to be safe and secure.. with their parents, free of fear, enveloped by love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Peter Pan" runs July 10-22 at <a href="https://www.nsmt.org/peterpan.html" target="_blank">North Shore Music Theatre</a> in Beverly, MA. Come fly with us!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-79690908859707115562018-06-05T17:33:00.000-04:002018-06-05T17:39:01.810-04:00Hooked!<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"The man is not wholly evil; he has a thesaurus in his cabin."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you follow me on social media, you gotta know by now: I AM PLAYING CAPTAIN HOOK. So geeky am I about it, I have been posting biweekly photos and profiles on Facebook of all the great actors who've played the character over the years. </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am now blogging about it. </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But those friends of mine not irritated by the overkill will attest to two things: this is one of my dream parts--and I am only sharing my enthusiasm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In an industry where material benefits are rare, and fame is for the lucky few, one thing we can pursue and sometimes land is our dream parts. The parts you want one crack at before you go. The parts that you spend years planning your glorious interpretations of. And of course, those parts are <i>the same parts every other actor dreams of doing.</i> The line forms to the left. So to get even one shot at a John Adams, a Thénardier, a Nathan Detroit.... well, you TAKE IT. And I have been blessed to do all of the roles listed, and more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So yes, indeed, I am playing the dual role of Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in the musical classic "Peter Pan" at North Shore Music Theatre in my hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts. This will be my fourth production for North Shore, and how I love the special energy and challenges of this in-the-round arena. And having my close family living a few miles from the theatre is pretty fantastic, too. So, there's a full circle story that's kind of magic about my doing this particular role at this particular theatre...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George Rose as Hook with Sandy Duncan on Broadway</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As a kid, our school field trips would occasionally be to a show at North Shore. And in 1978, my twelve year old self saw "Peter Pan" with Tovah Feldshuh as Peter and the great George Rose as Hook. I remember seeing this show so vividly, but all I remember is Rose and how brilliant and shameless and colorful he was. Seeing him perform struck me like I was a tuning fork.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was one of the moments I determined to be an actor! So to return to North Shore Music Theatre 40 years later to play Hook myself? Wow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Captain Hook is the greatest of all stage villains (except perhaps Richard III) and he is everything you'd ever want to be to chew the scenery down with over the top zeal. He's vain, petty, ferocious, melodramatic, prone to operatic depths of melancholy, and the snarling, cackling embodiment of evil any ham actor could wish for--all wrapped up in velvet, ostrich plumes and black Charles I ringlets. I am tickled to pieces to get to play Hook and I know I am in for a workout. It's an epic role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Peter Pan" runs July 10-22 at <a href="https://www.nsmt.org/" target="_blank">North Shore Music Theatre,</a> directed by Bob Richard. Bob has shared some of the designs and concepts for this production and I gotta tell you--it's gonna be spectacular. </span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-86623442110824837492018-03-03T15:16:00.001-05:002018-03-03T15:16:31.457-05:00A Shakespearean Season<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', serif; font-size: 18px;">Thankfully, it’s easy to find the words to describe Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s “Shakespeare in Love”: Romantic, sprightly, joyous, heartfelt. In short, it’s a delight. ~<i>Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to own up: I am a very lax blogger. My last post was before the holidays, a lapse of more than three months. Mea culpa, dear reader. 2018 got off to such an intense start I haven't had a chance to put my thoughts down. On New Year's Day I flew to <a href="http://www.orlandoshakes.org/" target="_blank">Orlando Shakespeare Theater</a> to begin work on the repertory season-- <b>"Shakespeare in Love" </b>and <b>"Twelfth Night."</b> The two plays rehearsed simultaneously, and, having not done a rep season in many years, I found it quite the whirlwind! But what a joy to spend the winter in sunny Florida, fully immersed in the rich and rollicking world of Elizabethan England.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fennyman takes stage as "The Apothecary"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Shakespeare in Love," adapted by Lee Hall from the Oscar-winning film, is perhaps the most produced play in regional theatre this season. Will Shakespeare, longing for love and inspiration, meets Viola DeLesseps, a lady who dreams of being an actor--at a time when women are banned from the stage. It's a comedy with a huge heart; a love letter to the theatre and to Shakespeare. I play Hugh Fennyman, a moneylender (and, in my interpretation, a piratical thug with a dueling scar across his face) who secretly adores the theatre! It's a delicious cameo to perform amidst this talented and multifaceted cast, directed by Richard Garner. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the final curtain of "Shakespeare in Love," Will is hard at work creating "Twelfth Night," so it was a rather brilliant stroke by Artistic Director Jim Helsinger to pair the two plays in rep. But our "Twelfth Night" is a rare and special production. Performed entirely with Elizabethan stage practices in a replica indoor playhouse of the 17th century, all the roles are played--as they would have been in 1602--by men. And the language is spoken in original Elizabethan pronunciation. Ours is the <i>first ever</i> professional American production of Shakespeare performed in this way and I am so proud to be a part of it, playing Feste--one of the great clowns. He's a true jester of wit and wordplay, and I get to sing several Elizabethan songs, accompanied by a live consort. Our cast was blessed to be directed by the sublime Carolyn Howarth.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Feste, with company of "Twelfth Night"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why do Shakespeare in this odd dialect? I think, because it teaches us so much about the language. Original Pronunciation (Elizabethan dialect) expert <a href="http://www.davidcrystal.com/" target="_blank">David Crystal </a>(who phonetically transcribed and audio recorded the entire play for us) teaching us that people of the period spelled things the way they sounded. This helps us, as well as the odd rhymes of words like "love" and "move" which sounded like "luv" and "muv"--O.P. helps us fulfill the clever wordplay Shakespeare intended. As an actor, I find the dialect brings an earthiness, a vitality and speed which make the words come alive. We were all blessed to have the expertise of dialectician <a href="https://www.paulmeier.com/" target="_blank">Paul Meier </a>to keep us sounding just right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Orlando Shakes is calling this the "Time Machine Twelfth Night" because audiences are transported to an indoor playhouse during Elizabeth I's reign, lit by hundreds of candles, accompanied by live music played on period instruments, and inhabited by an all male cast in sumptuous period costumes. Yet never does it feel like a museum piece. On the contrary, the play comes to rollicking life and the audience is swept into it with us. For a Shakespeare geek like me, this rep season is a dream job-- stepping back into the Elizabethan era with one of Shakespeare's great comedies, as well as a vibrant fantasy play about the great man himself. Oh, and did I mention that it's in the 80s and sunny here in Orlando? That doesn't bother me one bit, either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-4217835064907048322017-11-26T15:25:00.000-05:002017-11-26T15:25:00.179-05:00My End of the Year Letter 2017<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2017: New Realities</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The holidays bring a pause for reflection and a summing up of the accomplishments and challenges of the passing year. I have always found this annual meditation much more powerful than setting resolutions. As I get older--and in these times of greater and greater uncertainty--planning or setting myself tasks seem less valuable to me. Standing in the present, poised, aware--a much more grounding exercise. While I fear for our nation, and our world, in a time of such erratic leadership and national cynicism, I am, at heart, an eternal optimist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one is more aware than I of some of the remarkable good fortune I have experienced in recent years as an actor, and the opportunities to work afforded me that many worthy actors wish they had. But some years are leaner than others. 2017 was one such for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the shows I got to do were choice! I started the year reunited with my dear friend, director Inés Braun, performing the role of Pheres in her final Columbia thesis, "Alkestis." I got to play a real SOB, and how often does one get to work on a Greek tragedy?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As Pheres, with Alex Marz in "Alkestis"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Spring brought me to Fayetteville, NC and Cape Fear Regional Theatre's production of Ken Ludwig's Sherlock Holmes farce, "Baskerville." CFRT epitomizes the "little theatre that could" story of small professional theatre in America, and with our production they gave a talented group of recent Carnegie Mellon graduates, led by our bright director, Sam French, one of their first jobs in the industry. As guest artist, I loved collaborating with these energetic young artists and I had a schizo good time playing fourteen eccentric characters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While in Fayetteville, I taped an audition for one of my dream parts, Nathan in "Guys and Dolls" for Maine State Music Theatre. I didn't raise my hopes. Nathan is one of the great comic leads in musical theatre, and the anchor for the entire show. I didn't expect to be cast from a video--but I was! While the spring was a lean time for me, come June I was rollicking through Runyonland, in a superb production directed by DJ Salisbury in beautiful Brunswick, Maine. My co-star was audience favorite Charis Leos, whose talent and comic genius remind me of another of my favorite co-stars, the great Sally Struthers. Charis made playing Nathan one of the best theatre experiences of my life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what goes up, must come down. Returning to NYC in the full flush of success, I faced an extended drought which stretched my faith, and finances, to breaking point. The protracted and painful three year probate process of the settling of my Dad's estate dragged on, and the small inheritance I anticipated seemed like it would never come. But necessity is the mother of invention, and while audition opportunities were few, I sought out other work opportunities. Matthew Corozine Studio invited me to join a select group of Artists in Residence and I used the chance to create and teach my first four week Shakespeare workshop. I expanded my base of private coaching clients, and participated in readings of new works. I also completed the fifth draft of my screenplay, signed with a production company and sent the script out into the world to, hopefully, become a film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will begin the New Year in sunny Orlando, beginning a 12 week rep season at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Both the warmth and the challenges of the Bard will be most welcome. What the rest of the year will bring? Who knows. I am grateful for my friends, for my work, for surviving the ups and downs of life, for my beloved family, and for a life that allows me the freedom to chart my own course. Wishing you an extraordinary 2018!</span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-49011418436116424412017-11-08T13:00:00.000-05:002017-11-08T13:00:51.168-05:00Writing My Next Chapter<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b>Diversification.</b> </span> It seems to me to be the wave of the future, and the way, in the present, for artists to seek new avenues of creativity and income. It's not enough to just do one thing anymore--we actors are finding ways to express ourselves through music, visual art, education, and other disciplines. For me, writing has become a powerful mode of expression.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMzP3W7yOpBb9khTMevGA8yavrrolQU9Qfu1qIhFIesj-6eczyHtAY3mVK8AvO8R51cmZ20YEZk2MLve79y2U1-ZnHXo3dgAOIDf6cuq_vCPHQwETl8TsgBxloLBRJ-eN6Sl8d7mfX4Tg/s1600/cc0ff85be667ccc2e59f03afcb9cc092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="305" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMzP3W7yOpBb9khTMevGA8yavrrolQU9Qfu1qIhFIesj-6eczyHtAY3mVK8AvO8R51cmZ20YEZk2MLve79y2U1-ZnHXo3dgAOIDf6cuq_vCPHQwETl8TsgBxloLBRJ-eN6Sl8d7mfX4Tg/s320/cc0ff85be667ccc2e59f03afcb9cc092.jpg" width="243" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2003, when New York's Museum of Sex was just opening, a good friend who was setting up the retail area of the museum offered me a job managing the place on the weekends. The inaugural exhibit was a multi-media instillation called "Sex in New York" which told the history of sex and sexuality in the city from the early 19th century through the beginning of the 21st. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The very first piece of history represented in the show was the lurid story of the murder of beautiful prostitute Helen Jewett by her 19 year-old lover, Richard P. Robinson, in 1836. Due to the scandalous nature of the crime, a nascent tabloid press jumped on the story, and the murder-- and Robinson's sensational trial-- became national news. The tale of these two tragic young people evolved into American lore, and over the course of a century and a half, would crop up in novels by such eminent writers as Gore Vidal, and would be the subject of in depth historical studies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Helen and Robinson took hold of my imagination and I began studying everything I could find on the murder, the trial, and the cultural sensation it engendered and I knew it would make a great movie. I am an ardent cinephile and love films and had long wanted to write one. So I began, learning over the course of several years the complex craft of the screenwriter. The first draft of <b>"The Girl in Green"</b> was completed in 2012 and over the past five years I have tussled with the process of rewriting. With the mentorship of script readers, other writers and industry professionals, as well as the feedback from four major screenwriting contests, I forged ahead through four more drafts to arrive at what is now a lean, taut and I feel, well-crafted script.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two of my most supportive friends, <a href="http://www.linnealarsdotter.com/" target="_blank">Linnea Larsdotter</a> and <a href="http://www.johanmatton.com/" target="_blank">Johan Matton</a>--themselves multi-talented artists: actors, writers, producers, and founders of the Nordic International Film Festival--have, after mentoring me through my revisions over the past couple years, come on as producers of the film! <a href="http://changingfilmproductions.com/" target="_blank">Changing Film Productions</a> recently announced they are developing "The Girl in Green" and I couldn't be more excited or more blessed to have these amazing people guiding my vision into what we hope will be the reality of a thrilling and epic motion picture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next steps are in motion: finding producing partners, name stars, a director, and of course the many, many dollars it takes to produce a feature film set in another time. I feel that there is something magic happening with this piece and I am so excited to watch it come to life. Stay tuned!</span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-10848897066356406532017-09-06T10:32:00.000-04:002017-09-06T10:32:26.596-04:00Bridging the Gap<span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The actor's job is finding work. The fringe benefit of our job is getting to act." ~Samuel L. Jackson</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">P</span>hew! It has been months since I've blogged and I have no real excuse except that I had such a darn good time this summer doing "Guys and Dolls"--and since then have been struggling to get to whatever the next thing is. But first things first.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is nothing grander than getting to play one of your dream parts. I've had that opportunity several times in the past few years and no one recognizes my dumb luck more than I do! This summer, in my debut season at Maine State Music Theatre, I got to play probably the greatest comic lead in musical theatre--Nathan Detroit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The production was a joy, a sellout, a rapturous time in a beautiful place with wonderful artists! My biggest advantage was playing opposite MSMT's resident character actress, the superb Charis Leos as Miss Adelaide. Charis and I are kindred spirits: we share a powerful work ethic, and similar (and shameless) comedic instincts. Our partnership on stage was sheer alchemy and I loved working with her. Getting to do Nathan as I always envisioned him--thanks to the freedom offered me by my director, DJ Salisbury--was so rewarding.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><i><a href="https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/James-Beaman/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;">James Beaman</a><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: Montserrat, Arial, sans-serif;"> is a lovable Nathan Detroit - a small time gangster with a big heart, an ironic sense of humor, and a wily knack for survival. Feckless as his character is, Beaman is so engaging that one understands why Adelaide is smitten, and he delivers the vocal goods in his two numbers, especially the duet "Sue Me." ~BroadwayWorld</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">A</span>s is the way of this crazy roller coaster career, I returned in the dead of summer to New York City and the slow time before audition season begins. And it has been slooooowww. As of this writing I've been back almost seven weeks and have had maybe a half dozen auditions. And thus far, the next part has not appeared. So what do you do? You seek out other ways to be creative and generate income.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I was fortunate in having an opportunity come to me this summer, when Matthew Corozine Studio, where I have studied acting, invited me to become an Artist in Residence. MCS has expanded their space on 36th Street into a second studio and I have the opportunity to create workshops and to coach actors in this new space. This fall I will present my first ever four week immersion course in Shakespeare text work, "Decoding Shakespeare." This class will give actors the tools for breaking down Shakespeare's language--learning to work with blank verse, rhetorical forms, and archaic words to create powerful, clear acting choices. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white;">Decoding Shakespeare, Thursdays 6-8PM, October 19 & 26, November 2 & 9</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white;">For information and to enroll, go to the MCS site via <a href="https://www.matthewcorozinestudio.com/copy-of-projects-1" target="_blank">this link</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I am excited to launch this new venture! I have also begun the creative work of directing a debut cabaret act for talented singer and actress, <a href="http://sierrarein.com/" target="_blank">Sierra Rein</a>. Sierra will premiere this show in early 2018. Stay tuned for more on this project!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Directing, coaching, teaching... these are all creative areas that I love to work in and I hope to find more and more balance between these and my acting career, to create more flow and continuity for earning and for advancing my voice as an artist. Next time I blog, I hope to be able share the next great part that awaits me!</span></span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-52008744276122183332017-04-19T15:25:00.000-04:002017-04-19T15:25:52.733-04:00Good Old Reliable<span style="background-color: white; color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 21px;">New York </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 21px;">is</span><span style="font-size: 21px;"> a center, a world's fair, and a den of thieves, and a house o</span><span style="font-size: 21px;">f</span><span style="font-size: 21px;"> miracles. ~Frank Loesser</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have been blessed in my career, especially the past decade, to be granted opportunities to play dream parts. An actor's path is an uncertain one, and while we have aspirations, and obsessions with great roles, we sometimes chase them for years and years, hoping that a producer will give us our shot before we 'age out' of some of these gems. And some of them just pass us by.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oh, how lucky I have been to get to do John Adams in "1776," and Thénardier in "Les Misérables," Max in "The Sound of Music," Lord Evelyn in "Anything Goes" and Albin in "La Cage Aux Folles." The wish list is not exhausted... and this summer--lo and behold!--I get to do another of those dream parts, Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls!"</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No one can doubt that this show is one of the most perfect musical comedies ever written, with a superb book by Abe Burrows based on Damon Runyon stories, and a sparkling score by the great Frank Loesser. Nathan Detroit and his fiancé of 14 years, Adelaide, are one of the most beloved theatre couples of all time. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At left, in green, as Rusty, in NSMT's "Guys and Dolls"</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had the opportunity to do an enormously successful "Guys and Dolls" at my hometown theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, about five years ago, playing Rusty Charlie ('But look at Epitaph, he wins it by a half') and understudying the roles of Benny Southstreet and Nathan. Under the wonderful direction of Mark Martino, with choreography by Michael Lichtefeld, I learned so much about this great piece by rehearsing three roles in it... and I became utterly enamored with the lovable wheeler dealer that is Nathan Detroit.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've doggedly pursued the part every time I've seen the show being produced and at last, my time has come. I will be reunited with director DJ Salisbury, with whom I did "Les Mis" in Orlando and "Buddy" at Gateway and Ogunquit, as well as a reading of the new musical, "Bodice." This will also mark my debut at <a href="https://msmt.org/" target="_blank">Maine State Music Theatre</a> and I am truly blessed to work at this esteemed summer theatre in beautiful Maine.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam Levene and Vivien Blaine in "Guys and Dolls"</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am finishing up a rollicking run of "Baskerville" at Cape Fear Regional Theatre and have not yet started my work on Nathan, but I do know that I will be drawing as much inspiration as I can from the role's originator, Sam Levene. So many great actors have done the role, including the great Nathan Lane (who took his stage name from the part!), but being a purist, I am fascinated by going back to the start, and learning all I can from the guy who was in the studio with the creators as they crafted this truly wonderful character. Levene did a few Hollywood films, and these give a sense of his streetwise, New York persona. I will be studying these, and all the wonderful recordings of "Guys and Dolls," as I steep myself in this role of roles! Stay tuned for more when rehearsals begin in Brunswick in June!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-44859714716776705882017-03-27T15:09:00.000-04:002017-03-27T19:51:32.494-04:00Elementary, My Dear Watson<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In recent years, playwrights have gotten very clever at adapting classic stories to be performed by a small handful of performers on a malleable set, with a minimum of stagecraft—relying on the imaginations of the actors and their director to create the world of the story and the people that inhabit it. This is the essence of storytelling, of course, and the essence of theatre that Shakespeare and his troupe embodied on the bare outdoor stages of Elizabethan England:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8724244611349142139" name="23" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;</span></i></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8724244611349142139" name="24">Into a thousand parts divide one man,</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8724244611349142139" name="25"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8724244611349142139" name="25">And make imaginary puissance...</a></span></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8724244611349142139" name="25"><span style="color: #cc0000;">~Shakespeare, "Henry V"</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIQCVnC8TaTghhCw8_-ngY_wufiP2FyBuryqE2Orv9-9AcVFWQwDVNNVc1iGmEHWD677V9PuhOTrh67R8TDsmb9iTUwyvOUR-gfbUlwasp8x5maqEHiHmbv0hmOm940FJAHVF1n_qRV4/s1600/baskervilles_logo_square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIQCVnC8TaTghhCw8_-ngY_wufiP2FyBuryqE2Orv9-9AcVFWQwDVNNVc1iGmEHWD677V9PuhOTrh67R8TDsmb9iTUwyvOUR-gfbUlwasp8x5maqEHiHmbv0hmOm940FJAHVF1n_qRV4/s1600/baskervilles_logo_square.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pieces like <i>The 39 Steps, Around the World in Eighty Days </i>and the like bring adventure, suspense and tour de force acting challenges to the stage, and Ken Ludwig, one of our masters of comedy, has created his own take on a classic for five actors. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic “The Hound of the Baskervilles” is perhaps the best known of the beloved Sherlock Holmes mysteries—a bizarre tale of ghoulish legends, spooky moors, and a shape shifting villain who keeps the great detective and his sidekick Dr. Watson ever guessing as they seek to solve the case of the spectral hound. It’s a story that has been adapted dozens of times on film and television with great actors like Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett and Peter Cushing playing the eccentric sleuth Holmes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Ludwig’s <i>Baskerville,</i> three actors portray all the colorful characters that flit in and out of Holmes’ and Watson’s orbit, from familiar constants like Mrs. Hudson and Inspector Lestrade, to the cockney urchins, train conductors, cab drivers, and merchants of Victorian London, to the sinister rogue’s gallery of vivid personalities that inhabit the moors of Devonshire. As Actor One, I have 14 of these folks to create, using all the vocal and physical tools in my arsenal to transform, sometimes before the audience’s eyes, and what a treat for an actor!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9QulIDjW0yO1c-3Yomq9wsP0qTF3gkxfo-Mip_SmHGuOBSV_IskwAOd6-QKXdIuA6W_IMPmZarBiwWcwTH3don-tnR4YlXtXkNN_DKTZSB8-9AMFdbXix4H2G5XQqK4_mbQ_yOBv3qc/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As always, I turn to the great character actors, and even cartoon characters, of the past for inspiration in crafting my roles. With so many distinct personas to create--sometimes with lightning fast speed--finding a voice and a physical shape, and walk, and gestures is the challenge and stealing from the best is fair game in my book!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maggie Smith</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gabby Hayes</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For example, among my list of characters is the bookish and erudite Dr. Mortimer, who consults Holmes and Watson and introduces the central mystery in <i>Baskerville. </i>For him, I've used that professorial cartoon dog, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owB6zFSZbng" target="_blank">Mr. Peabody</a>, as my model. For Stapleton, the story's villain, who is masquerading as a harmless butterfly collector, I'm doing a straight up impression of the great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJbi2fKa5Sg" target="_blank">Terry-Thomas</a>, best known for such films as "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." His exaggerated British accent and gangly 'hail-fellow-well-met' eccentricity work well for Stapleton and I think will get laughs. Other cameos I have to perform are the randy Lucy, the wife of message office proprietor Mr. Wilson--for her I am stealing the wry affectation of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lztaWz_hwOY" target="_blank">Maggie Smith</a> (particularly in "Evil Under the Sun"); for the old country farmer who offers a warning on the moors, I am borrowing from Old West character man <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7koigiUq7GE" target="_blank">Gabby Hayes</a>, who was famous for whistling out lines like, "There's gold in them thar hills!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Obviously, <i>Baskerville</i> is a feast of fun for a ham character actor, and I am so enjoying being part of this ensemble and working with our ingenious director, Sam French. The show explodes onto the splendid <a href="http://www.cfrt.org/" target="_blank">Cape Fear Regional Theatre</a> stage April 6 and runs through the 23rd! Shakespeare's birthday, in fact. Seems significant, my dear Watson!</span></div>
Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-20527151606511773152017-01-22T22:59:00.000-05:002017-01-22T22:59:10.250-05:00Euripidean Winter<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxNgtNSPHSnHX8mCV7YFvGjkkFkNHIYcnkJhZpS8Zp7IjEJVgRSPTuAq6q5aoSgYZPnZDg7lIaE1g6bKOM__sXaiUnTn97VvTYX0vgGxVsVPFJmw5Wn-t2tL0N27ajj5NGS4sSslFCCGY/s1600/Ivanov53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxNgtNSPHSnHX8mCV7YFvGjkkFkNHIYcnkJhZpS8Zp7IjEJVgRSPTuAq6q5aoSgYZPnZDg7lIaE1g6bKOM__sXaiUnTn97VvTYX0vgGxVsVPFJmw5Wn-t2tL0N27ajj5NGS4sSslFCCGY/s400/Ivanov53.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Company of <i>Ivano</i>v and director Inés Braun (back row, second from left)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last fall, I had the good fortune to be recommended to a Master's Thesis Director at Columbia. I went in and read for Argentinian director Inés Braun for her project of Chekhov's <i>Ivanov. </i>Not only did Inés and I recognize kindred spirits in each other, but we have become good friends. That's why it's such a gift for me to be free as the new year begins to work on her final project at Columbia.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Hercules Fighting Death to Save Alcestis," Frederick Leighton</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Euripides' </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alkestis</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> was controversial and innovative in its time, neither a tragedy nor a comedy, a story of myth and moral conflict. Admetos, King of Pherae, after a scuffle with the Gods, is doomed to die unless someone else dies for him. Denied by his father Pheres, whom I play, and his mother, Admetos' wife, Alkestis, makes the supreme sacrifice. Enter Herakles, who, out of friendship to Admetos, enters the Underworld, defeating Death and bringing back Alkestis from the other side.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">n a powerful translation by poet Ann Carson, our production will incorporate live music and</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> the vision of an international design and producing team. We run at the Connelly Theatre from February 15-18. For more information and tickets <a href="http://arts.columbia.edu/events/spring-2017/alkestis" target="_blank">click here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My training is in classical theatre and its my first love. Fortunate as I am in a thriving musical theatre career, I still hanker after chances to do Shakespeare and other classic texts. I am honored to work with Inés again and to be part of her artistic vision. For more on the lady and her work at Columbia, </span><a href="http://arts.columbia.edu/theatre/news/2015/In%C3%A9s_Braun_directs_Trial_by_Fire%20" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">give this profile a read.</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-72549027355244025582016-12-02T08:56:00.001-05:002016-12-02T08:56:57.216-05:002016: High Highs and Low Lows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3pHjkyw1A9lWjx3ScPWzViMCke6D9Hfv8A0ZU25k4eDrG6b6Zo4HdxutzqUanm3C4tdp-1WO8WV_RkDMoYdBYfiLeGSN7gTcVr2Emdex90P9KyRGItv7EpqJMjm7TRfOvqUiSXFqKMzo/s1600/508237304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3pHjkyw1A9lWjx3ScPWzViMCke6D9Hfv8A0ZU25k4eDrG6b6Zo4HdxutzqUanm3C4tdp-1WO8WV_RkDMoYdBYfiLeGSN7gTcVr2Emdex90P9KyRGItv7EpqJMjm7TRfOvqUiSXFqKMzo/s400/508237304.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t's hard to believe,</b> but another year is coming to a close--and it's been a very challenging one for all of us. The pressures of a tense and acrimonious election, and the seismic effect of its outcome, have left many of us feeling drained, stressed and worried about the future. The highs and lows of life in New York and the vagaries of a career in theatre have made it a bit of a roller coaster ride for me on these fronts as well. But, at the risk of sounding trite, in my profession, and in life itself, <i>the show must go on.</i> We have to pull our shoulders back, lift our eyes to the horizon and stride forward with as much positivity and optimism as we can muster.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a great lyric in <b>"Me and My Girl"</b> that seems apropos to the current climate:</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julie Kleiner and Matt Loehr in "Me and My Girl"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>So if we're alive</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Doing this bubble of a show at this time is both a welcome distraction from the cares of the world and a challenge. Sometimes I've had to ask myself, what's the point of tap dancing and silly songs and this old fashioned little farce? The answer of course is that people need to laugh right now. They need to come together and have some fun. And boy, are we providing that here at <a href="http://www.jupitertheatre.org/" target="_blank">Maltz Jupiter Theatre</a>! "Me and My Girl" has been great fun to do; I have a treat of a cameo role and have been enjoying being a part of this truly elegant production. Our leading man, Matt Loehr, is so multi-faceted and so skilled that he has really inspired us all. And his leading lady, Julie Kleiner, brings the heart. Together, they are unbeatable! The run is selling like hotcakes and it's a great way to launch the holiday season.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Giselle Wolf and Brad Fryman in "A Wilder Christmas"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his time of year,</b> I always take a look back at the year past, and the work I have been lucky enough to do. 2016 began with an extension week of <b>"A Wilder Christmas,"</b> the evening of Thornton Wilder one-acts that made a real hit Off Broadway at Peccadillo Theatre Company. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I then escaped the winter chill and returned to wonderful Riverside Theatre to play Rudolph, the headwaiter, in <b>"Hello, Dolly!"</b></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>.</b> </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Brilliant director James Brennan invited me to be in my fourth production with him ("Me and My Girl" makes five!). </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Karen L. Robu in "Nice Work"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The spring brought a difficult dry spell and I weathered the New York grind as best I could. The light on the horizon was getting to do Cookie McGee in <b>"Nice Work If You Can Get It"</b> again with director Larry Raben and choreographer Peggy Hickey at Music Theatre Wichita. I was thrilled to win the 2016 IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for the show at Ogunquit Playhouse and what a treat to do the part again. MTW artistic director Wayne Bryan invited me also to play Cogsworth in <b>"Beauty and the Beast"</b> for him, so this was a very exciting debut season for me in Wichita. For it, I was honored with the Mary Jane Teall Theatre Award as Guest Artist. Cookie's been a lucky guy for me!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Talbot, "Henry VI, Part 1"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Late summer brought me my shot of Shakespeare for the year, when I joined my friends at Taffety Punk Theatre Company as we exploded onto the Folger Theatre stage in DC with <b>"Henry VI, Part One." </b> This was my sixth of these all-in-one-day theatrical feats with these amazing artists, and a chance to revisit the role of Talbot, which I played almost a decade ago at Alabama Shakespeare Festival.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With King Arthur and the Knights, "Spamalot" at NSMT</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With the coming of autumn I got to watch the leaves change in my hometown of Beverly, MA in my very first <b>"Spamalot" </b>since the first national tour closed in 2009. Playing Sir Robin again and in the town where it all began for me was a truly special experience. Great production, great people, and great time with my Mom and other friends and family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And a few weeks later, it was off to Florida to do 'The Lambeth Walk!' I have been enormously fortunate this season and am grateful for the collaborations with artists familiar and new, and to do wonderful new parts and revisit some of my favorites. In the middle of all of this, I wrote the third draft of a full length screenplay, had a reading in New York of it, and thanks to generous contributors to a GoFundMe campaign, was able to send the script to LA for analysis by amazing script readers at Coverage, Ink. Their encouragement and insight, and a new connection with a literary agent, have spurred me on to the fourth, and I hope, last rewrite, and perhaps my 'baby' will soon go out into the movie world and find a way of coming to fruition as a feature film! To begin a new creative path as a writer while pursuing my acting work would be a great adventure I would welcome happily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What 2017 will bring remains to be seen, for us all. To you and yours, my best wishes for a healthy and happy holiday season and a New Year that will hopefully bring to us all new purpose, greater understanding and good will between all people. And many new and fulfilling creative journeys! </span></div>
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8724244611349142139.post-52595371413014139332016-10-27T16:28:00.000-04:002016-10-30T18:17:47.163-04:00True Brit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC58L5nkdDajgAyfjhKmHRE__vnK3hyphenhyphenC_963NLMhp-Ci1w8rZZB6bL2Fe_D8QQTzuLbcbFxNNXKL9oAKFbZUVuCh_eNUIlkyxasIyr1gxmYr5LZgqw1-soihNWwg_dEbeq2c3baUBTZC4/s1600/14591869_10210679582891215_7451370490255904345_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC58L5nkdDajgAyfjhKmHRE__vnK3hyphenhyphenC_963NLMhp-Ci1w8rZZB6bL2Fe_D8QQTzuLbcbFxNNXKL9oAKFbZUVuCh_eNUIlkyxasIyr1gxmYr5LZgqw1-soihNWwg_dEbeq2c3baUBTZC4/s400/14591869_10210679582891215_7451370490255904345_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Me and My Girl</span></b> </i>is a show that isn't too familiar to me, but the more I study it the more I become infatuated with it. A jaunty British musical from the 30s, it's the tale of a self assured Cockney who finds out he's the heir to an earldom- and until he proves himself a gentleman the stuffy aristocrats he's sudden kin to will not legitimize his claim. The music by Noel Gay is inspired by English Music Hall traditions, the comedy is screwball-meets-Downton Abbey, and I am delighted to be a part of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre production which goes into rehearsal soon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It truly is awesome to be making another regional theatre debut this season, but many of the artists I will be working with are colleagues from numerous shows--particularly director James Brennan! This will be my fifth production with him, and my second this year. As with <i>Crazy For You, </i>Jimmy starred in <i>Me and My Girl </i>on Broadway, and brings with him all the essence of the original along with his trademark finesse; it's always a pleasure to be directed by someone who knows a show inside and out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is also going to be my third British character this season, after Cogsworth in <i>Disney's Beauty and the Beast</i> and Sir Robin in <i>Spamalot.</i> Herbert Parchester is the trusted family solicitor at the country estate of Hareford, and except when he is carried away by song, he is the very model of a buttoned up English gentleman. When he finds himself taking a shine to Cockney Earl, Bill Snibson, he also starts peppering his speech with Cockney slang and doing the Lambeth Walk.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3j8qiFEXepvIjPuUwUvqo_EYeB8SE590SwVKhyo6YFBCKAqU_ARmeYplsGdxZXplEB3EuYDYBrnY6Yu_yvKwR9SdyVkL_x3pde017CtTQSkLInb7h4iQ8fp_Pm7hsY252Pluod8qETE/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3j8qiFEXepvIjPuUwUvqo_EYeB8SE590SwVKhyo6YFBCKAqU_ARmeYplsGdxZXplEB3EuYDYBrnY6Yu_yvKwR9SdyVkL_x3pde017CtTQSkLInb7h4iQ8fp_Pm7hsY252Pluod8qETE/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Williams</td></tr>
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It's such a fun part, and I am looking forward to crafting a lovable character in Parchester. As always, when tossing ideas around, I am reminded of great character men of the past, and the elegant Hollywood actor John Williams immediately sprang to mind. You'll remember him as the wily detective in "Dial M For Murder" and Audrey Hepburn's chauffeur father in "Sabrina." Understated, bemused, Williams's performances always feel authentic because he was authentic-- always with a smart mustache and a neat suit, he's a great model for my family solicitor.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-50kgsRvJV_YGqimebqFs2v1AAY54FwKjFzyZ_ef48GBfRG6yoyxErq7e8ln_09DTHd_5HezFjsH8qhcgFT-AZEbvDKJTIGcYl_-9PI-mb1hsIAmCnqADt4szbXReR5jayMvF9o0QCE/s1600/WilderChristmas0004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-50kgsRvJV_YGqimebqFs2v1AAY54FwKjFzyZ_ef48GBfRG6yoyxErq7e8ln_09DTHd_5HezFjsH8qhcgFT-AZEbvDKJTIGcYl_-9PI-mb1hsIAmCnqADt4szbXReR5jayMvF9o0QCE/s320/WilderChristmas0004.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Giselle Wolf in "The Long Christmas Dinner"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And in my own efforts toward authenticity in this English of English shows, I went to my dear friend Giselle for some coaching on my accent. Giselle is a British trained actress who performed on the BBC and in the West End, a Londoner, and who has the highest standards--she lent her very critical ear, and has kept me sounding 'true Brit' as I learn my text! Giselle and I performed <i>A Wilder Christmas</i> together last season and became fast friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Me and My Girl </i>opens at Maltz Jupiter Theatre on December 1 and runs until December 18. For more information and tickets <a href="http://www.jupitertheatre.org/" target="_blank">visit the website</a>.</span><br />
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Jamiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12047137648409634110noreply@blogger.com1