Sunday, December 10, 2006

The Roundtable Fall of '99: My First Independent Film


I actually started filming this in the middle of my run for Puss in Boots. It was September 1999. Puss In Boots had just opened and Debbie Phelps, my manager, had called me to tell me about this independent film called "The Roundtable". It was produced by Alpha Productions out in New Jersey. I asked her alot of questions about the film because I made it very clear that I wouldn't do any films that had profanity, sex, drugs or violence which basically covered most films. She assured me it didn't. So I trusted her. I went to the audition in New Jersey. When I got there I met the director Paul McDaniel and the assistant director Avril Speaks. They asked me to do a monologue. I did a monologue from "The Amen Corner" where my charecter is telling his mother that he has to leave her and go out in the world to make his own way and pursue music. At the end of the monologue he tells her "you have to let me go!" I loved this monologue because it related to me so well. Anyway, about two days later Debbie called to tell me they wanted to cast me in the lead for the film! I had curbed enthusiasm because I still hadn't read the whole script. I needed to be sure it was not an improper film for me to do. They emailed me the script and it was very clean like Debbie assured me. The film was about my charecter, James "Lucky" Sanderson, who was a star basket player at his highschool. Then there was a robbery and murder of a store owner and my charecter was framed by crooked police. The film's primary message was about coruption in the police department. I liked the message and the charecter and couldn't wait to start filming. The producers were hoping to get the film a theatrical release. That never happened. You can buy it online though I believe. If you go to www.netflix.com and type in the search bar The Round Table you will find the movie and a summary. The actor on the cover is not me but it's supposed to be my charecter Lucky. I was intrigued by the film making process. First of all we shot all the last scenes first. So in one day you could be filming the last scene and then filming the first scene the next day. I thought that would throw me off as an actor. Not being able to carry over the emotion from one scene to another. But it didn't. One day I was on my way to set. We had a night shoot and I was leaving school. I had to take the subway to 8th and Market street. I bought my ticket to get on the PATCO train to Lindenwood NJ where the shoot was going to be. I put my ticket in the machine and it was supposed to come back out so I could get on the train. For some reason it didn't and my train was coming! I paid for my ticket so I jumped the bar and jumped on the train. The next thing I knew I heard the bell on the train ringing and heard a bunch of people running towards the train! It was two police officers! They cuffed me and arrested me and took me to the back office in the subway. I didn't even know they had one of those. I tried explaining to the cops that I paid for my ticket and it wasn't a theft of services. But they weren't buying it. I wasn't officially arrested but I was fined and given a court date. I never paid the fine though. I did show up for the court date a few months later. The irony was when I finally did get to the set we shot the scene when I was falsely arrested for a crime I didn't do! A week before we shot the last scene I went to New York to audition for Theatre Works USA. They are the largest national touring theatre in the USA for young audiences! I was very excited and confident about this audition! I knew I was going to get cast in one of their tours!

Friday, December 08, 2006

Raising the bar: 1999-2000



It's the fall of 99. I had just returned from the Tom Sawyer tour that spring. I worked for Conflict Resolution Theatre that summer with the Department of Recreation. It was run by Judy Nelson who I worked with me at Peace Theatre. They had creative differences and she left them and started her own troupe call Conflict Resolution Theatre funded by the Department of Recreation. So I left Peace Thatre too out of support for her. Peace Theatre actually offered me more money. Anyway, that fall I re-enrolled back in Communtity College. I set a goal for myself for the upcoming theatre season: Top my accomplishments from last year! When I took the year off from college I set very high expectations for myself. I then went out and accomplished more than I even anticipated! I had done two national tours! I never expected that! I felt like I proved my point. That I am a signicant talent who could hold his own and even stand out from my counterparts. So I raised the bar. I had to top it some how. In July of '99 I had an audition for the Rainbow Company. They were the children's theatre outreach program for the acclaimed Prince Music Theatre. One of the largest theatres in town. The Rainbow Company was run by the late Ricardo Martin. I had three call backs! I even passed the dance audition but I wasn't cast. At this point in my career I took audtions hard. I got very excited when I got a call back and was crushed when I didn't land the gig. So I took this one hard too. It was a blow to my self-esteem. You are constantly asking yourself 'am I good enough?' 'why don't they like me?' 'Am I as talented as I thought?'. I now tell people acting is an illness. An illness consisting of easily inflated and deflated egos. Chronic insecurity. Yet we intentionally put ourselves in the line of fire of criticism, subjectivity and ridicule so we can have short lived and often insincere moments of applause and praise. We need to be contantly reafirmed of just how good we are from directors, audiences and fellow thespians only to still doubt ourselves. I was in denial about this when it came to myself. Only now do I acknowllege it. The only time I am genuinely, supremely and fearlessly confident is when I am on stage performing. To me those are the only moments in this business that make sense. Everything else is an absolute contradiction! As a advid believer in logic, in a way, me being an actor is an contradiction. It took me a while to realise this. My next big audition was for the historic Hedgerow Theatre. They were doing a family production of Puss in Boots. The story about the match making cat. I took the R3 out to Media PA. The theatre is hidden in the woods off the side of the road. I read for Puss and then sang "My Corner of the Sky" from Pippin. I thought I had a weak audition and didn't expect to hear anything. A week later Paul Kuhn the director called and offered me the role of Puss! The Hedgerow Theatre was a well respected theatre in the Philadelphia area and I was honored to be offered the title lead role. The cast included: Joshua Browns (the Ogre) he was hillarious! Matthew Daciuk (Pierre), Grey Kelsy (the Quenn), Mike Fallon (the King), Elisabeth Audley ( Gabrielle) and Natalie Gapari (Marie). The director and writer Paul Kuhn liked me alot and even wrote additional songs for me in the show. The show wasn't really a 'musical' but more like a play with music. I had three songs. I enjoyed my run at the Hedgerow. It was a very unique theatre company with it's own distinct culture. I would stay over night sometimes at the Hedgrow House instead of going back home so I could do the Saturday matinee performances. It would have been a drag to take the two hour train and bus ride if I just to come back early the next morning. Toward the end of the run of the show the Hedgrow offered me an acting apprenticeship. A full time acting gig! I turned it down because it only paid thirty bucks a week! Plus you didn't just perform. You had to teach, stage manage, do costumes, lighting, teach the kids theatre programs all for only 30 bucks a week!! I was still flattered they offered me the gig though. A week or so later my manager called me to tell about an audition for an independent film titled "The Roundtable". This season was really starting to shape up!

Friday, December 01, 2006

My First National Tour: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer






It was the end of January and the Aesop's tour was coming to an end. This saddened me because I didn't want it to end. There was talk of of an extension to the tour but it never materialized. So that January I enrolled back in Commuity College. My mother was relieved I was back in school. But I remember feeling out of place back in school. I was very arrogant at the time and felt that college was useless to me. I wish I took school more seriously. It would have me a stronger and more disciplined person. Also at that time I had moved out of my parents house. I moved in with my friend Kirk Wendell Brown. He was twice my age and one of the finest African-American actors in the city. He was classically trained in Shakspeare and made me want to to be classically trained as well. We met in 1998 at the Walnut Street Theatre when he was the Assistant Theatre School Director. So when he told me he had a room to rent in his South Philly home I jumped at the chance. Anyway, I was at school in Febuary of 1999 when I got a phone call from a woman I was in an acting class with at the Walnut Street Theatre. She worked for American Family Theatre. She had paged me and left me a message saying that the actor playing Jim on in their national tour of Tom Sawyer was leaving the tour because of an illness in his family. (I later heard that was a lie and he was actually leaving to do the Smokey Joe's Cafe tour which paid more money.) They were having a hard time finding the right actor to replace him. It was a six month national tour and they were in week three! They asked me to audition. I was very excited when I got off the phone with them. I knew I was going to get it! I was very confident! So I left school and walked over to the offices for AFT. When I got in I met the director and writer of the show Don Kersey. He asked me to sing a song and I sang Why Do Fools Fall In Love he asked to read for the part of Jim and then ran me through some dance routines. After the audition he told they were seeing some other people and he would be in touch very soon. That was Thursday. They called me Friday morning and offered me the role! I signed my contract that afternoon. They told me they already had my plane ticket to Springfield, MO and I was leaving Sunday night! The actor I was replacing, Kwame Reme, was leaving the tour Wednesday! So I would be in the show Thursday!!! Now that is crazy! Quite big challenge for my second professional gig! I had to learn my lines, music, lyrics, harmonies and choreography in three days!! First of all I wasn't a dancer! Period. I loved to sing but I never had lessons. I never even thoguht about being in a musical! But here I was! I was supremly confident I could do it and do it very well. That Friday I stoped by my mom's house to tell her and my family about the tour. My mom was suprisingly cool about it. She said you better get back to school when you get back. On Sunday I took a train to Baltimore and caught a flight to St. Louis then on to Springfield. I learned all my lines on the plane ride! They gave me a tape of the music and I learned most of my lyrics as well. Before the plane landed I remember thinking that I couldn't wait to meet my new cast mates. When I landed I was picked up at the airport by the road manager Bill Girard. I later learned that this guy was a jerk and he was fired two weeks after I got there and replaced by Charlton Barton. I met the cast that night. They were: Ben Naaz, 25 (Tom Sayer), Aaron Moreland, 24, (Hucklebery Finn), Christopher Yustin, 22, (Captain, Injun Joe), Kerry Ann Lambert, 23, (Becky Thatcher) and Tracee Feree, 23 (Aunt Polly). I was the youngest at 18 and they never let me forget it. That Monday morning we starting rehearsing the show and teaching me the blocking and chorography. They stared teaching the songs too that day. The first four shows I watched Kwame. I sat in the audience and I was very impressed with show. The show played these huge old theatres in front of 2000 to 3000 peaple twice a day! That gave me a rush! When the show started the audience was very amped. I couldn't wait to get in the show! Thursday came very quickly. Kwame had left the day before. I was going on stage. I was going to be in the show. Now I should have been nervous. I only had one rehearsal! Only a week ago I was siting in class at college! But I was ready. I was extremly confident that I could pull it off without a hitch. If I did mess up I felt I could cover up somehow without the audience ever knowing. Right before going out on stage our road manager was over the mike geting the audience ready. "Are you guys ready to see the show?!" he shouted. The audience screamed YES at the top of their voices! I was ready. We were at the Futlon Theatre in Fulton, Mo. The show went of without a hitch. Well, they were some glitches on my part. I droped a line here or there and at one point in the dance I forgot my steps and improvised a line for Huck and Tom to teach me the dance too. The audience thought it was part of the show and laughed. Mistakes will happen on stage just make sure you cover your butt and your cast mates! There was alot of drama on that tour. I don't have the time to go though it all. But there alot of good times too. They gave me the nick name Pokey and to this day if talk to any of them they still call me that. That tour went to Florida, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seatle to name a few. To this day only me and Chris remain friends. We are actually business partners too in real estate projects. That tour ended in May of 1999. My family though me a party when I got back. I remember Kirk saying to me before I left for that tour " So, you want to be an actor?" That tour proved to me that I was a lifer.