Monday, January 15, 2007

Historic Philadelphia: Summer of 2001 and 2002



It was right before The Secret Garden closed. I had auditioned for Historic Philadelphia in Feburary. HPI is an outdoor theatre company based on Olde City Philadelphia. They hired actors to perform in short "playlets" for tourists about life in 18th century Philadelphia. They also hired actors to be "personas". They were given charecters from the 18th century and would interact with tourists. It was a great summer gig for actors in the Philadelphia theatre community. It paid well and you were under contract from April to Labor Day. We had to dress in colonial costumes and performed outside at historical sites like Signers Garden, Hamilton Green and The African-American Museum to name a few. It was during the summer so it was hot! But I loved it. I did it for two summers, 2001 and 2002. The fall of 2001 was coming up and proved to be very challenging. I was getting married to Shavonne in December and things weren't coming together like we had planned...

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Purlie Opening at the Ritz Theatre Tonight!


It's finally here! Opening night! Well technically it's preview night. It's officially opening night on Friday. I have allways considered the first preview opening night. It's a paying audience. They deserve a great show just the same! Opening night is always exciting. Purlie is a very entertaining show with dynamite talent. Miguel Osburne is the title lead and he is incredible in the role. Jillian Pirtle is Luttabelle and she gives a very honest reading of the role. Chanta Layton is Missy and she has a commanding stage presence. Dwight Bazemore is Gitlow and he is hillarious! Adam Altman is Charlie and very well might steal the show! The ensemble is very strong and round out the cast. So come check it out! You will love it!

Purlie
January 11th-Febuary 10th
The Ritz Theatre Co.
856-858-5230

Saturday, January 06, 2007

The Secret Garden Spring 2001: The Dry Spell



That summer after I got back from tour Shavonne and I had just started dating that May. I stayed with her family in Virgina for two weeks. I still was holding the apartment in New York City. I decided to stay in New York. I went back to New York that August to start auditioning and looking for a survival job. I also started taking musical theatre acting classes at the HB Studio in Manhatten. I was going to start a new chapter in my life in a new city! However, it proved to be a very short chapter. First of all I had a difficult time finding a "survival job." Thats what actors call their day job. Most NY actors temped during the day doing clerical work. This was convienent because it was flexible and allowed actors to go on auditions during the day. Alot of actors also waited tables. I had a hard time landing a temp gig because I had no experience doing clerical work. I also couldn't land a restaurant gig because I lacked experience. In NY there are so many experienced waiters why hire somebody with absolutely no experience. So I was unemployed and watching my bank account dwindle by the day. I worked so hard to save money while on tour and now it was evaporating. I quickly realized that I hadn't thought this out. I didn't have a job, an agent, work experience and I barely had an apartment because I wasn't on the lease at the apartment where Chris and his roomates stayed at in Queens. So one day in August of 2000 while on the subway to Manhatten to go on an audition, I decided to end this brief chapter in my life and go back home to Philly. So I did. I moved in my parents house and re-enrolled at Community College. I still needed a day job. So I called up my old friend Judy Nelson from my Peace Theare days. She was working for the Department of Recreation and started her conflict resolution theatre program that toured after-school programs. We performed for the students and we also taught theatre, improvisation and conflict resolution. The teacing thing was new to me. I loved performing for kids but teaching was different. You had to be good cop and bad cop at the same time. I at first started teaching drama just because I needed a job. But I grew to love it. I became very passionate about teaching. At this time I also started working at the Germantown Friends after-school program with my brother Omorro and my future sister in law Wendy. So I was back at home, back in school studying theatre and communications and a teaching artist. Now all I had to do was land a an acting gig and this would have been a great year that was shaping up. However, I was an Equity actor now so there weren't nearly as many auditions I could go on. That September I had an audition for the Arden Theatre. They were doing a production of Jungle book. I went to the audtion and it went well. I had a call back but I didn't land the gig. I auditioned for Freedom Theatre, The Prince Music Theatre, ArtsPower Theatre based in New York and even auditioned for Theatre Works again. Even though most of the those theatre companies called me back for different roles, I wasn't cast. It was not January 2001 and I hadn't been on stage for six months. I was antsy. I loved being on stage. I was missing it. I felt like I was in a slump and the Equity status wasn't helping. So I made a career choice. I decided to give up my Equity card. I called Actor's Equity Association in New York and told them I didn't want my card. They told me to mail in my card with a letter stating I was leaving the union. I wouldn't be reimbursed the Equity dues I paid and if I wanted to return to the union I would hve to be offered an Equity contract and pay my entrance dues all over again. That was fine by me. What was the point of being the union if it prevented me from working! Don't get me wrong. There are alot of advantages to being Equity.
It just wasn't the right time for me at that point in my career. So I was starting to get down because I wasn't on stage. This was my first dry spell. A slump. All actors go through it. After working two years staright as an actor I had cooled off. In March of 2001 I auditioned for The Center Theatre in Norristown PA and their production of The Secret Garden. I wasn't going to go at first because I didn't think there were any roles in it for me. So I called the director Fran Doyle and she told me they were looking for minority actors. So I went and auditioned. A couple of days later Fran called me and offered me the rols of Lt. Peter Wright. It was a small ensemble role at a smal theatre in Norristown. It was a good show and good learning experience for me. One lesson I had to learn was humility. I had just done three national tours with leading roles in all the shows. I performed in front of thousands of people in some of the oldest respected venues in the country! Now I was being offered a small role in a small theatre in a small town at a fraction of the pay I made on tour ! My friend Kirk Wendell Brown used to tell me there are no small roles only small actors. He used to tell me how he relished smaller supporting roles because he had less lines to memorize. And when you choose to do the smaller but more juicier roles you couuld have a bigger impact on a show than a leading role. He was right. I remember watching a production of "Tin Pan Alley Rag" at the Wilma Theatre. My friend Gary Giles was in that show and he had a small role. He had this scene where his daughter was dating this guy he disapproved of. He walked in on them while on their date. He just simply walked across the stage without saying a word but you feel his contempt for this guy. The audience erupted in laughter! He got the biggest laugh and had one of the smallest roles! So I was going to let my talent shine through no matter what the size of the role was. So I swallowed my ego. I enjoyed the run of this show. One of the actors in the show was Jason Stockdale. He was our road manager on my Aesop's Fable tour. I went into this show open minded and ready to learn new things. I learned alot about singing with an ensemble. The music director Fred Crumbrine taught me alot about harmonies and learning your parts. The Secret Garden closed in June of 2001. Shavonne and I were engaged by this point. 2001 proved to be one of the most challenging years in my life...

Monday, January 01, 2007

On the road again! Charlotte's Webb Tour, Spring of 2000




It was November 8th 1999. I took the day off from class to go New York for an audition for Theatre Works USA. They were the largest national touring theatre for young audiences in the country! I was pumped! I also knew they were Equity. Equity is the union for actors and stagemanagers. So if they cast you in one of their shows you automatically became equity! Which meant you usually were paid more than non-equity actors and recieved health benifits! Sounds great huh? There is a catch to it though. If you were in the union you couldn't audition for and be cast in non-union productions. If you did you were kicked out the union and black balled if they found out. Now seeing as though most theatre companies are non-equity you were potientally losing alot of work. Also, most equity theatre companies don't usually cast a show entirely with equity actors. It depends on their contract with Actor's Equity Associations (AEA). If the theatre company was LORT A (League of Residentional Theatres) they are required to cast a show with the majority of the cast being equity actors. However, in Philadelphia the largest equity theatre company was the Walnut St Theatre and they are LORT B. The rest of the equity theatre companies were LORT D or lower. For instance, SPT (Small Professionall Theatre) they could usually get away with hiring a couple of equity actors. So simply put, once you join the union you are up aginst stiff competion with equity actors who are more established and well known. So theatre companies looked at young actors with equity cards as a high priced unknown commodities. Now they might consider you for an ensemble role but they usually weren't willing to pay an equity salary for an ensemble actor. The last stat I heard was that at any given time 90% of union actors are unemployed! Crazy huh?! But here I was on the train to New York and I knew all of this. I was arrogant enough to think I would be different. I thought I was so uniquely talented that I would have a different fate. I realized later that it is almost never about talent entirely. But so many outside factors. Anyway, when I arrived at Chelsea Studios in Manhatten, NY it was pretty croweded. This was an open call audition which meant that you didn't have to have an appoinment. I signed my name and waited for my time slot to audition. They wanted us to sing first. When it was my turn I sang "My Corner of the Sky" from Pipin. If they like it they would call you back and have you read from sides from the shows they are looking to cast. I got called back to read for the narrator for Charlotte's Webb the same day. During the reading I had the director cracking up. The narrattor also plays all the small roles so I had the oppurnity to show the director my comedic versitility on the fly. He called me back for next week. So that meant another NYC trip and a day off from school (no wonder my grades sucked!) Well on December 4th of 1999 Theatre Works called me to offer me the role of the narrator on the Charlotte's Webb national tour. When Charles Hull the Managing Director of TW called me to offer me the role he ended the phone call by saying welcome to Equity! It was quite a feat at 19 years old to be equity already! It takes alot of actors years after they graduate college to land their first equity contract! The first rehearsal was January 3rd, 2000 at the Chelsea Studios in Manhatten. TW didn't put you up so if you weren't from NY you were on your own to find somewhere to stay during rehearsals. I stayed with my friend Chris Yustin from my Tom Sawyer the year before. He lived in Kew Gardens, Queens. It was an hour subway ride to Manhatten! I learned all my lines by the first day of rehearsal. This impressed the director Rob Barron. The cast was Sara Kathyryn Bakker (Charlotte), Lizz Maccie (Fern), Paul Casali (Homer), John Ferry (Templeton), Jason Russell (Wilbur) and me the narrator. Bill Linne was our Road manager. We couldn't stand this guy! This tour was pretty crazy. First Lizz's mother was diagnosed with brain cancer right before the end of rehearsal and she told TW she would be leaving the tour a week after the show hit the road to be with her mom. But she said she would return in April. She was replaced by a crazy actress named Jane Mendez who drove everybody crazy. She did the role the year before. When her mom's condition didn't improve and Jane's contract was up they replaced her with 19 year old actress Meg Smith. Then Paul's father became very ill with an heart ailment in April he left the tour and was replaced with Dave McMullin who also did the role the yaer before. We couldn't stand Paul so we were happy to see him go and Dave was great. We missed Lizz though. We all loved her. Then my only friend on the tour Sara Bakker was leaving the tour at the end of March to do an off-broadway play. This saddened me. We were room mates and good friends on the tour and relied on each other when all the negativity of the other castmates just wanted to bring you down. We would exercise together and pretty much kept to ourselves. Sara's last show was in Jacksonville FL. After the show Sara hugged me and told me " I will miss you most of all scare crow." She was like a big sister to me on that tour. We keep in touch to this day. She just did a film called "The End of the Spear." It was released in theatres across the country! She had a supporting role! I was so proud of her! When she left the tour she was replaced by Tonya Cornilesse. She was a crazy red head who was very cool which was a relief. One of the highlights of the tour was performing at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville Tn.! This was the first of the three times I would perform there in my career. Imagine performing for 4000 people in two sold out shows! A venue with so much history! Also at the end of the tour when we were performing on Long Island, TW chose our tour to featured on The Early Show on CBS! The reporter and her camera crew followed us around for a day and she even was given a small part in one of our performances! It was funny because she was sooo nervous! It aired on national television a week later! I still have a tape of it. It was relief when that our ended! It was six months long! I saved alot of money and Shavonne and I started dating. I decided to stay in NYC with Chris and his roomates. I was about to turn 20 and I was looking for my next challenge. NYC was that challenge! My goal for the 99-00 theatre season was to top 98-99. I did that! But instead of feeling more confident I was more insecure. I didn't want to admit I was losing confidence but I was. How could I be!? I did exactly what I set out to do and more! I proved to myself I belonged. Show business will way on you emotionally. It started waying on me. I was at another crossroad. Stay in NY and do the show biz thing or go back home. I had decisions to make.