Friday, June 06, 2008

Starting to take notice; The Full Monty at the Media Theatre














That is how I would define this theatre season for me. The major theatre companies in the Philadelphia area were finally starting to take notice of me after auditioning for them for the past ten years. It was a very gratifying feeling. First the Walnut Street Theatre casts me in Man of La Mancha. The Walnut is by far the largest and most successful regional theatre company in the world! Then the Arden calls me in to audition for Our Town. I got called back three times. I didn't get it but they liked me and Our Town isn't a musical. So they liked me as an actor not a singer which is important to me to establish myself as an actor first then a singer. So it is late March 2008 and I was lining up auditions for shows for the spring slot. I had three auditions and I thought I would get at least one. The first audition was for American Family Theatre and their production of We The People. Usually AFT show tour the country. I did the Tom Sawyer tour with them in '99 but this show wasn't going to tour. It would be at a theatre downtown. Next was for Theatre Horizon and their production of Working and then Media Theatre's The Full Monty. The Media Theatre is one of the top equity regional theatre companies in the tri-state area. I auditioned for the Media Theatre the last week in March before I went to Alaska. I got offered the role a week later. I would play Gary and a few other ensemble roles and understudy the role of Horse. Rehearsals started on the 14th of April and only lasted for two weeks. The show opened on the 30th of April. The show was very good and the audiences loved the show about six guys down on their luck and reduced to make it ends meet by going to drastic measures. Stand outs were Tim Quinlan as Jerry, Jayson Elliot as Dave, Mathew Hultgren as Nathan, Artie Sievers as Malcom, Rick Delancy as Horse and Deborah Jean Templin as Jeanette. I had a blast doing this show. This was by far the coolest cast I ever been cast in. I had alot of fun back stage and made some new friends like Alisa Stamps, Eric Hogan, Leandra Ramm and Lauren Rooney to name a few. I was sad when this show closed. Now lets see how next year's theatre season shapes up. I hope the major theatre companies keep taking notice...

The Seeds of Freedom with Family Stages; November 2007


I got cast in this show right before I closed Man of La Mancha at the Walnut Street Theatre. I had auditioned the first week of October. The artistic director Steve Seyfried was the writer and performed in the play with us. The cast included Angela Pomo (who was the girlfriend of Andy Wertner who was in Man of La Mancha with me) and Nicolas Wilder. This dynamic production follows Kosciuszko's path from his native Poland to America in 1776. His duties as a military engineer brought him into most of the major fields of battle during the American Revolution including: Philadelphia, Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Dan River, Charleston and more. At West Point he designed and built fortifications that stopped the British advances up the Hudson river. He also constructed a rock garden that is still there, tended by cadets of the U.S. Military Academy.His amazing military skill was matched by his unyielding dedication to the cause of freedom, for countries and individuals. Thomas Jefferson called General Kosciuszko "the purest son of liberty I have ever met". I played a variety of charecters which is something I do really well. The show performed at the Independence Center in Olde City and we had a blast doing it.