I noticed the other day that this blog hasn’t had anything in it about me for a while. In fact I haven’t written about anything personally significant, save perhaps my rant on the teddy bear thing in the Sudan, since the end of November. While this blog isn’t really a journal, sometimes it’s nice to get what been in your head out on paper and I’ve certainly never shied away from personal topics before.
So here it goes. December 1st to now, by the numbers.
I spent the early part of December auditioning and taking classes at Act One. The auditions led to some good callbacks but nothing came through until right before Christmas when I was cast in The Paringtons, a workshop put on by the Raven Theatre in early February. I had hoped to get cast as Frank the quirky, rapid fire artist who finds good and beauty in everything he sees; despite a good audition and subsequent callback, I ended up getting cast as two peripheral characters instead. It was the third leading role I had been called back to in a row. This is good, and I suppose it means I’m growing as an actor, but there is often a little voice inside my head that says “Really? Well alright then if you’re sure.” Confidence is quick to loose and slow to build in the business of acting; it’s been nice to be on the building side recently.
A couple of weeks later I flew down to North Carolina to visit the family for the holidays. It was a rough holiday season. My grandmother who is now ninety three (or is it ninety four?) was pretty sick and my dad spent most of the holidays taking care of her. We did our best to remain cheerful and festive but having a very ill loved one casts a cloud over everything going on. Every hour I was there I kept wondering how she was doing, and just as importantly, how the rest of my family was doing. Strangely I found I was more worried about them than I was about her. It seems unfair to worry more about those that aren’t in danger of dying than those that are; I guess dying after a full life of ninety three years seems less tragic than loosing your mother.
The trip had one silver lining; I got to hang out with my brother for a few days. I hadn’t seen him in nearly two years, which is far too long between brothers. He seems to be doing well, in fact he seems happier than I’ve seen him in years. I also saw my friend Donnie while I was in NC. For Donnie, life doesn’t seem to change much, but he too seems happy. Some people are made for that life I guess.
The trade off to seeing my brother over the holidays (I had to be there early to catch him before he returned to Phoenix) was that I ended up spending the 25th in Chicago alone. I expected Christmas by myself it to be really weird but it wasn’t. The entire holiday spirit seemed to have already passed by; it was just another snowy winter day in Chicago.
New Years Eve happened with the usual excess followed by a brain bruising headache and oaths of becoming a teetotaler. The party I attended was a bit of a disappointment crowd wise, but we had a good time. The highlight of my evening was a great snowball fight consisting of ten really drunk people dressed to the nines pelting each other up and down the three flights of stairs in the back of the building.
In mid January I found out I had been cast as an understudy in a show at the Silk Road Theatre Project called Durango. I’ve never had an understudy gig where I wasn’t also part of the show so this will be something new for me. I’m really looking forward to working with people who actually do theatre for a living; maybe some day I’ll do it too.
Also in mid January I started rehearsals for The Paringtons. I have to say that it was the strangest show experiences I’ve had in a while. I was only in three scenes and, because we had a very short rehearsal schedule, I only attended four rehearsals before opening night. It felt very surreal and unconnected to be involved so little in the production. Ultimately, I felt that the show worked out pretty well though. The script was very solid and by the last two performances (of our three show run) we were starting to do it justice. I really hope that the Raven considers picking it up as a full production next year.
The final night of our show was Super Tuesday, and boy was it super. I could write a hundred page blog post about this year’s presidential race, but for now suffice it to say that I’m:
A: Pleased as punch to have such strong Democratic candidates
B: Extremely entertained and even a bit inspired by the entire process
C: Supporting Obama
Since The Paringtons closed I’ve been in the gym almost every night trying to get into better shape for Durango. One of the four characters I’m understudying is a super hero and if there is even the remotest possibility that I’ll be on stage in Spandex I want to be ready for it. The current regimen is five miles on the treadmill every day and then weight lifting (flys, curls, crunches and whatever else I can endure) every other day.
It feels good to get back into the gym but I’ve noticed that it doesn’t always feel good. Every time I really throw myself into my workouts like this I start to crave gym time, especially the running. By about 15-20 hours from my last workout I feel jittery and irritable; it feels like nicotine withdrawal. I know from experience that pretty soon it’s going to start effecting my sleeping patterns and make me feel… just not like myself. I’m not sure if there’s anything that can be done about this but wait until my endorphin levels sort themselves out.
And finally, I’ve decided that I need to get away from “media” for a while. Movies, TV, and music are all great but I’ve been over doing it a bit recently. So as an experiment I’m not watching any TV or Movies or engaging in internet time wasting for a week. Instead I’m going to spend my free time reading, writing, and going to the gym. The first draft of this post–which was a complete jumble of stream of consciousness BS I might add–took almost exactly an hour. On any other night that hour would be taken up by The A Daily Show and maybe an episode of M*A*S*H.
Yep this was time better spent.
