So its been roughly a year ago and we were closing my first play, Arsenic and Old Lace. I never would have had the courage to do it had it not been for Jared Hamlin & Jenny Brewer Virgin volunteering me. I feel I have come along ways from the first few rehearsals when David Houston continually told me I had to act and not just be myself, I remember the first rehearsal with props, afterwards he told me, Yes! You are acting now!. I meet some wonderful people in that first show at The Masquerade Theatre. I followed that one immediately after with my first actual audition, still not having a clue what I was doing, for A Christmas Carol, I told myself I wanted to do a show with my son, and I continued to learn and watch great actors in another great cast. Again this cast seemed to have more new friends, Mandy Morris Hinson & Brent Hinson, and I got closer to those friends I had made from the prior play who now headlined Brian Johnson, and directed Linda Abbott StClair. After that show I had all but decided I was probably done with theatre, I had fulfilled that bucket list item. A couple months later I decided to go support some of my friends and the theatre at which I had met them. While watching I was jealous, I wasnt jealous that they were on stage but I was jealous of all the fun they had at rehearsals, backstage, and just that sense of being part of something & I missed the fellowship. Next came 9 to 5, a musical, so I told myself that this was one me and the wife could do together, while marking yet another thing from my bucket list. A couple weeks later we found out she was pregnant and she had to drop out. I stuck with it and conquered two fears of singing fairly terrible in public and dancing ever worse than I sang even though I had a great teacher/choreographer in Halley Sharp. I survived yet again. Then it rolled around to a classic, and no excuse needed this time, no bucket list item, just another show. I look back and I feel like I have come so far from that first show when it was such a big deal that I acted for just minutes at a rehearsal to a show that I got to be a despicable villain who people purposely avoided afterwards. More new friends and more chances to see old friends I had not seen for almost a year. 4 shows in a year, more new friends than I can count, the chance to work with different directors and actors, each one etching me something new. Its bittersweet ending this show. None of it would have been possibly without my biggest fan Niccole Alexis Gray who struggled and sacrificed her time for me to be a part of these great productions and make these wonderful friends.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:49:54 +0000