After weeks of rehearsing it all comes down to one night: Opening Night. Often opening day is spent trying to stay calm and conserving energy. I often pretend to take a nap. I know I’ll never actually get to sleep, but I always lie down and close my eyes anyway. Luckily for this production of A Christmas Carol, we had performances leading up to the actual opening, called previews. At first it’s just a few company members sitting in the house, getting us used to having an audience. It really helps – you get used to the flow of the show, and learn how demanding it will actually be. You also learn where people may laugh. There are always surprises in that department, you recognize jokes and expect laughs in those places, but you never know what an audience will find humorous. By the time we got to the night before opening, the house was completely sold out! And there were reporters and other members of the press seeing the show to review it. It’s great to get some of them there before opening night if at all possible, as it helps take some of the pressure off the opening. A part of you wishes they would wait a couple of weeks until the show is a well oiled machine, but their job is to help get the word out about the show. At the end of the day, you appreciate that they’re there at all.
Finally the big day arrived. We actually didn’t have the day off, we had rehearsal scheduled that afternoon. I was thrilled to do it because this show is a big production. Technically, it’s an extremely complicated. Plus, it has the added benefit of keeping you focused and not jittery at home. And you know what – the opening show was fantastic! We were all in a great mood from being excited and had been focused together all day. It was such a relief not only for it to go off without a hitch, but for it to happen at all! There were so many emotions attached to opening that you felt a huge weight had been lifted by the performance.
Once we got past that, we could finally settle into the run and do our jobs.
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
Click here to go straight to the next installment.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
From Rehearsals [Getting Used to the Space]
Bumping your head. Falling on your face. Tripping over chairs. Running into walls. Making entrances too early. Tripping over people. Making entrances too late. Stumbling around in the dark and somehow ending up outside the theater. This is what it’s learn your way around a set that’s just been built.
All the while, you’re trying to remember your lines and blocking.
Finally being able to use the set is an exciting time in rehearsal. For one, it means that you’ve moved out of the rehearsal hall and into the theater. That in and of itself has it’s own difficulties. The rehearsal hall is a closed space where we can hear each other easily, especially when we’re singing. The theater is designed so that the sound flows out into the audience. Onstage it can often feel like you’re out there all alone. In a great way. Feeling that exposed requires you to listen with your entire being and that makes everything you do onstage much more alive. As does the throbbing pain that results from running into a wall. But hey – anything that makes the show a more visceral experience for the audience is a good thing, right?
In all seriousness, our set is beautiful and fun and is a testament to the talent of our scenic designer, Trefoni Rizzi. The kids are having a blast playing on it, as are (ahem) the adults.
Come see the show and you’ll see what I mean! A Christmas Carol is playing at The Group Rep. Tickets are available now.
Happy Holidays!
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
click HERE to go to the next installment.
All the while, you’re trying to remember your lines and blocking.
Finally being able to use the set is an exciting time in rehearsal. For one, it means that you’ve moved out of the rehearsal hall and into the theater. That in and of itself has it’s own difficulties. The rehearsal hall is a closed space where we can hear each other easily, especially when we’re singing. The theater is designed so that the sound flows out into the audience. Onstage it can often feel like you’re out there all alone. In a great way. Feeling that exposed requires you to listen with your entire being and that makes everything you do onstage much more alive. As does the throbbing pain that results from running into a wall. But hey – anything that makes the show a more visceral experience for the audience is a good thing, right?
In all seriousness, our set is beautiful and fun and is a testament to the talent of our scenic designer, Trefoni Rizzi. The kids are having a blast playing on it, as are (ahem) the adults.
Come see the show and you’ll see what I mean! A Christmas Carol is playing at The Group Rep. Tickets are available now.
Happy Holidays!
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
click HERE to go to the next installment.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
From the Rehearsal Hall [Children of All Ages]
One of the best things about being an actor is you’ll get to work with people of all ages. And the ages of the actors in A Christmas Carol span seven decades! From the smallest tweens to veteran actors, our cast has quite the breadth of experience. The greatest aspect of working with actors of a certain age is not only their wisdom (which we all expect), but their personalities! These artists are not the fuddy-duds of our society – they’re actors! They’ve lived their lives as performers and all bring such a spectacular energy to our lives, onstage and off. Every stereotype is blown out of the door, with constant humor, brilliance and WIT! Just the other day, we heard one of the best jokes about The Simpsons from a completely unexpected source, and it brought the entire cast to our knees! Let me tell you, at a time when you’re getting used to the set and trying to remember your lines, some good humor goes a long way.
But the world of A Christmas Carol is not a world populated only by adults. We all know the adage of showbiz is “never work with kids!” And to be completely honest, whenever I’ve worked with children, that thought has crossed my mind. Multiple times. But not here. The younger actors we are lucky enough to work with in this production blow that idea out of the water. I have never seen more honest and less precocious performances from children than the ones our kids are bringing. It’s more than merely refreshing, it’s exciting. And they’re all pros! I’ll admit, whenever someone gets confused as to where they’re supposed to be – they can just ask one of our kids, because they will know the answer.
Every day in rehearsal I feel truly blessed not only to witness and learn from everyone’s work ethic, but also because I get to spend time with such wonderful people. I have not experienced such warmth in rehearsals in my entire life. It’s a lovely thing to experience at all, much less during the holidays.
Come see the show and you’ll see what I mean! A Christmas Carol is playing at The Group Rep. Tickets are available now.
Happy Holidays!
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
click HERE to go to the next installment.
But the world of A Christmas Carol is not a world populated only by adults. We all know the adage of showbiz is “never work with kids!” And to be completely honest, whenever I’ve worked with children, that thought has crossed my mind. Multiple times. But not here. The younger actors we are lucky enough to work with in this production blow that idea out of the water. I have never seen more honest and less precocious performances from children than the ones our kids are bringing. It’s more than merely refreshing, it’s exciting. And they’re all pros! I’ll admit, whenever someone gets confused as to where they’re supposed to be – they can just ask one of our kids, because they will know the answer.
Every day in rehearsal I feel truly blessed not only to witness and learn from everyone’s work ethic, but also because I get to spend time with such wonderful people. I have not experienced such warmth in rehearsals in my entire life. It’s a lovely thing to experience at all, much less during the holidays.
Come see the show and you’ll see what I mean! A Christmas Carol is playing at The Group Rep. Tickets are available now.
Happy Holidays!
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
click HERE to go to the next installment.
Monday, November 16, 2009
A Christmas Carol!
This is the first entry from the A Christmas Carol Rehearsal Blog. [it's playing at The Group Rep] Here is your first look into what the rehearsal process is actually like. The best part about this show is not only is it a brand new musical adaptation of the famous Dickens’ book, but it’s also the Los Angeles Premiere! All of us at The Group Rep are excited to put on the premiere and look forward to sharing this wonderful piece of theatre with the world.
I haven’t mentioned this before, but I joined rehearsals as an immediate replacement. When I accepted the role, I was performing in another show and scheduling made it so that I couldn’t join rehearsals until they had already been in progress for a couple of weeks. I’ve been an immediate replacement a few times before and it is very… real. Immediately. Everyone else had been working with and getting familiar with the material for weeks so there was quite a lot of catching up to do. I was also dealing with the nerves of being the “new guy” who is introduced to everyone all at once. The best thing to do in these situations is just dive in. Be fearless. Besides, I had a lot of work to do.
The first two days I was there were spent entirely on music – and the first song we worked on was “Fezziwig’s Carol” – my number. Since this is a premiere, I have never heard or even read the music. I kept saying to myself “Just dive in! Just dive in!” It was, to say the least, overwhelming. I was still performing in the other show - there were times when I was sure my head would explode from the alarming rate I was stuffing new information into it. But – the music was wonderful and the arrangements were so lush! How could I not forget how completely exhausted my body was and just let go?
It felt good. It felt right.
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
click HERE to go to the next installment.
I haven’t mentioned this before, but I joined rehearsals as an immediate replacement. When I accepted the role, I was performing in another show and scheduling made it so that I couldn’t join rehearsals until they had already been in progress for a couple of weeks. I’ve been an immediate replacement a few times before and it is very… real. Immediately. Everyone else had been working with and getting familiar with the material for weeks so there was quite a lot of catching up to do. I was also dealing with the nerves of being the “new guy” who is introduced to everyone all at once. The best thing to do in these situations is just dive in. Be fearless. Besides, I had a lot of work to do.
The first two days I was there were spent entirely on music – and the first song we worked on was “Fezziwig’s Carol” – my number. Since this is a premiere, I have never heard or even read the music. I kept saying to myself “Just dive in! Just dive in!” It was, to say the least, overwhelming. I was still performing in the other show - there were times when I was sure my head would explode from the alarming rate I was stuffing new information into it. But – the music was wonderful and the arrangements were so lush! How could I not forget how completely exhausted my body was and just let go?
It felt good. It felt right.
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
click HERE to go to the next installment.
Friday, October 23, 2009
How I Got My Equity Card -or- Pump Your Brakes
Actors' Equity Association. "AEA" or "Equity", founded in 1913, is the labor union that represents more than 48,000 Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, and provides a wide range of benefits; including health and pension plans, for its members.
During my sophomore year at NYU I got a job as an EMC (Equity Membership Candidate) at The Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. Their producer, Roy Miller and their artistic director, Robert Johanson, wanted me to be in the ensemble for their production of Man of La Mancha and also understudy one of the principal roles. It took a long time for me to find out because they had to make a special deal with Equity to allow me to be able to do that job. I appreciated it – not only did it allow me to do that show, but the way the artistic staff believed in me gave me the confidence I needed to perform at such a prestigious venue for the first time.
But I was still just an EMC. While my ego was bruised at first, it ended up being a good thing, because I was able to play some roles while I finished university that I would most likely not have been able to if I had my equity card. I played the Witch in Into the Woods. As a woman. Charles in Pippin. The Senator in Hello Again. Let’s face it, I would not have gotten to play roles like that as a 20 year old if it weren’t for imaginative directors working Off-Broadway. I now think of this as an integral part of my development as an artist. I had been exposed to highly commercial theater and I also got to get down and dirty like any twenty year old artist needs to. I still needed to cut my teeth, as it were.
After La Mancha closed, I went back to school. Begrudgingly. It was a serious reality check going from working in a sold out run at “The State Theater of New Jersey” (and all of the luxury that goes with that) to living in a dorm and getting up early for class five times a week. And I still had two years to go.
During my final semester I got tonsillitis (while I was playing Charles in Pippin, I might add) and had to miss just over two weeks of academic classes. I was struggling to keep up with my work when three weeks before the end of the semester my Art History teacher informed me that there was no way I could pass that class and the best thing for me to do would be to withdraw. Not passing that class meant not graduating early, as I had planned. DRAMA! I was beyond disappointed - I was supposed to graduate in three weeks! I moped around for a week when I saw an ad for an audition for the national tour of Freedom Train: The Harriet Tubman Story. I wasn’t too keen on going on tour at that time, but I just couldn’t imagine going back to school immediately.
I went to the audition and got called straight to the final callbacks. I wasn’t nervous until I opened the door and saw the entire creative team behind the table. There were at least ten auditors - there were so many people that they actually had to push two tables together to fit them all! I sang my song, read the scene and went home thinking that they weren't too impressed and I really should register for the next semester. Within an hour, I got the call to do the show.
Six weeks later I was on the road, freezing my ass off in the snow belt. It was cold. This was the kind of winter weather where the temperature wouldn’t get much warmer than six or seven degrees. Sometimes, it seemed like I would never get warm. I got a cold that lasted three weeks! But I got to see so many cities and perform in some of our country’s most beautiful theaters that have been around since the vaudeville age. You could feel the magic in some of these old and ornate palaces. As difficult as the touring lifestyle is, and it IS difficult, I felt like the luckiest man alive as soon as I made my first entrance onstage every night.
And I got my equity card.
Yes, I do feel fortunate to that I got to join the union while I was still in college. And yes, that is pretty rare. When you're in drama school, everyone is focused on getting their equity card or at least becoming an EMC as soon as possible because you can't even audition for big shows unless you are a member of the union. I had spent some time taking class at NYU while still in high school and I wanted my equity card then! But I was no where near ready for that sort of artistic responsibility. I remember being frustrated that I didn't get my card from working at Papermill. I think the important lesson for me was that I had to keep working hard, growing as an artist and the union status would come at the right time. And boy did it! Instead of having to go back to school when I thought I was finished, I got to take a semester off and go on the road. I finished school the next fall right around the time I got my SAG card...
But that's another story.
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
During my sophomore year at NYU I got a job as an EMC (Equity Membership Candidate) at The Papermill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. Their producer, Roy Miller and their artistic director, Robert Johanson, wanted me to be in the ensemble for their production of Man of La Mancha and also understudy one of the principal roles. It took a long time for me to find out because they had to make a special deal with Equity to allow me to be able to do that job. I appreciated it – not only did it allow me to do that show, but the way the artistic staff believed in me gave me the confidence I needed to perform at such a prestigious venue for the first time.
But I was still just an EMC. While my ego was bruised at first, it ended up being a good thing, because I was able to play some roles while I finished university that I would most likely not have been able to if I had my equity card. I played the Witch in Into the Woods. As a woman. Charles in Pippin. The Senator in Hello Again. Let’s face it, I would not have gotten to play roles like that as a 20 year old if it weren’t for imaginative directors working Off-Broadway. I now think of this as an integral part of my development as an artist. I had been exposed to highly commercial theater and I also got to get down and dirty like any twenty year old artist needs to. I still needed to cut my teeth, as it were.
After La Mancha closed, I went back to school. Begrudgingly. It was a serious reality check going from working in a sold out run at “The State Theater of New Jersey” (and all of the luxury that goes with that) to living in a dorm and getting up early for class five times a week. And I still had two years to go.
During my final semester I got tonsillitis (while I was playing Charles in Pippin, I might add) and had to miss just over two weeks of academic classes. I was struggling to keep up with my work when three weeks before the end of the semester my Art History teacher informed me that there was no way I could pass that class and the best thing for me to do would be to withdraw. Not passing that class meant not graduating early, as I had planned. DRAMA! I was beyond disappointed - I was supposed to graduate in three weeks! I moped around for a week when I saw an ad for an audition for the national tour of Freedom Train: The Harriet Tubman Story. I wasn’t too keen on going on tour at that time, but I just couldn’t imagine going back to school immediately.
I went to the audition and got called straight to the final callbacks. I wasn’t nervous until I opened the door and saw the entire creative team behind the table. There were at least ten auditors - there were so many people that they actually had to push two tables together to fit them all! I sang my song, read the scene and went home thinking that they weren't too impressed and I really should register for the next semester. Within an hour, I got the call to do the show.
Six weeks later I was on the road, freezing my ass off in the snow belt. It was cold. This was the kind of winter weather where the temperature wouldn’t get much warmer than six or seven degrees. Sometimes, it seemed like I would never get warm. I got a cold that lasted three weeks! But I got to see so many cities and perform in some of our country’s most beautiful theaters that have been around since the vaudeville age. You could feel the magic in some of these old and ornate palaces. As difficult as the touring lifestyle is, and it IS difficult, I felt like the luckiest man alive as soon as I made my first entrance onstage every night.
And I got my equity card.
Yes, I do feel fortunate to that I got to join the union while I was still in college. And yes, that is pretty rare. When you're in drama school, everyone is focused on getting their equity card or at least becoming an EMC as soon as possible because you can't even audition for big shows unless you are a member of the union. I had spent some time taking class at NYU while still in high school and I wanted my equity card then! But I was no where near ready for that sort of artistic responsibility. I remember being frustrated that I didn't get my card from working at Papermill. I think the important lesson for me was that I had to keep working hard, growing as an artist and the union status would come at the right time. And boy did it! Instead of having to go back to school when I thought I was finished, I got to take a semester off and go on the road. I finished school the next fall right around the time I got my SAG card...
But that's another story.
[© MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
Rehearsal Hall Surprise!
Look who I ran into the rehearsal hall at the Center Theater Group! CTG runs the Ahmansan, the Mark Taper Forum and the Kirk Douglas Theater. You all know Lea Michele from the TV's GLEE[!]. What you may not realize is that she comes from the Broadway musical Spring Awakening. Jonathan Groff was her costar in that musical, and will be playing her possible love interest on GLEE! WHAAAAAAAAAT?! Sounds like fun. They're doing a workshop of a new musical at CTG, which could end up being exciting. Either way, it was fun to hang with them both during a break, albeit briefly. What resulted is a surprisingly good picture. Note how tired we all look. I would like to add that this pic was taken about 45 seconds after I had finished singing a vigorous ten page song - that's why I look so "awesome."
Jonathan, Soccerboy, Lea. (photo credit: Jonathan Groff)
Jonathan, Soccerboy, Lea. (photo credit: Jonathan Groff)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Box-Office Round Up: October Eleventh, 2009
5. Paranormal Activity $7.07 million [week three]. Well! The folks at Paramount are surely jumping up and down based on these numbers! I know that seven million does not seem like a huge number, but you must consider that it’s only on 160 screens and is getting a $44,000 per screen average. That’s good news, the next highest per screen average is $11,700 and that belongs to the number one movie! PLUS – this picture pretty much succeeded on the basis of viral marketing. This movie has been a trending topic on Twitter for the last ten days – all based on a few well-placed trailers. Well done, Paramount. Well done.
4. Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D [re-release] $7.7 million [week two]. I think everyone knew that these would place in the top five – I mean these are new animation classics! What else is there to say?
3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs $12 million [week four]. Since this the first edition of The Dup in quite some time, I feel I should mention the fact that everyone was surprised at how well this movie is doing. Anyone who tells you differently is lying to your face. Yes, it’s based on a longtime bestselling children’s book, but those fail as movies all the time! [Ahem, The Seeker: the Dark is Rising] The key with children’s movie adaptations is to keep the budget low enough so that home video can save you if need be, because we all know that as much as any kiddie flick makes in it’s theatrical release, it’s always going to at least double that on home video because parents will always need something to occupy their kids without them.
2. Zombieland $15 million [week two]. I had no idea how this movie was tracking before it was released; all I knew was that those ads and trailers seemed to keep getting funnier the more I saw of them. This movie is a bona fide hit – it made its budget back [and more] on its opening weekend. Pundits say that this is an example of the death of star vehicles, but… I don’t agree. Yes, this is a small film without any huge box office actors in it – but Woody Harrelson is a name. Jesse Eisenberg is a name of sorts, he’s still up and coming but people definitely mention that it’s got the dude from Adventureland. Once you factor in its genre roots and the fact that it was the first genre flick of it’s kind to open in October for Halloween’s sake, you had to imagine that it’s be a hit. That being said, I also think that if this movie starred two hugely well known actors everyone involved would have to spend so much time explaining why their stars aren’t actually slumming that it wouldn’t be a hit at all – even un-savvy audiences would think it looked like a payday.
1. Couples Retreat $35.3 million [opening weekend]. Couples retreat is an example of good marketing. There have been outdoor print ads up for a few weeks now and they never seemed to be apologizing for themselves (see Surrogates). In fact it was exactly the way I felt about the print ads for The Hangover. I had not seen a trailer, but somehow these ads just began to look funnier the more I looked at them as the weeks rolled by. Then I finally sat down and watched the trailer – I had no idea that it had Vince Vaughn AND Jon Favreau - that’s like every bachelor’s favorite pairing. And then I learned that they wrote this picture together! As soon as I found that out, I knew that it would be a hit. And in fact, it’s the highest gross for a movie they wrote and starred in. ALREADY! Actually, they broke their previous two movies’ grosses (Swingers and Made) sometime early Friday evening. I’m just saying. Congrats to the boys – for a lot of us, Vince and Jon feel like people we know. They’re there because we put them there.
[ © MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
4. Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D [re-release] $7.7 million [week two]. I think everyone knew that these would place in the top five – I mean these are new animation classics! What else is there to say?
3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs $12 million [week four]. Since this the first edition of The Dup in quite some time, I feel I should mention the fact that everyone was surprised at how well this movie is doing. Anyone who tells you differently is lying to your face. Yes, it’s based on a longtime bestselling children’s book, but those fail as movies all the time! [Ahem, The Seeker: the Dark is Rising] The key with children’s movie adaptations is to keep the budget low enough so that home video can save you if need be, because we all know that as much as any kiddie flick makes in it’s theatrical release, it’s always going to at least double that on home video because parents will always need something to occupy their kids without them.
2. Zombieland $15 million [week two]. I had no idea how this movie was tracking before it was released; all I knew was that those ads and trailers seemed to keep getting funnier the more I saw of them. This movie is a bona fide hit – it made its budget back [and more] on its opening weekend. Pundits say that this is an example of the death of star vehicles, but… I don’t agree. Yes, this is a small film without any huge box office actors in it – but Woody Harrelson is a name. Jesse Eisenberg is a name of sorts, he’s still up and coming but people definitely mention that it’s got the dude from Adventureland. Once you factor in its genre roots and the fact that it was the first genre flick of it’s kind to open in October for Halloween’s sake, you had to imagine that it’s be a hit. That being said, I also think that if this movie starred two hugely well known actors everyone involved would have to spend so much time explaining why their stars aren’t actually slumming that it wouldn’t be a hit at all – even un-savvy audiences would think it looked like a payday.
1. Couples Retreat $35.3 million [opening weekend]. Couples retreat is an example of good marketing. There have been outdoor print ads up for a few weeks now and they never seemed to be apologizing for themselves (see Surrogates). In fact it was exactly the way I felt about the print ads for The Hangover. I had not seen a trailer, but somehow these ads just began to look funnier the more I looked at them as the weeks rolled by. Then I finally sat down and watched the trailer – I had no idea that it had Vince Vaughn AND Jon Favreau - that’s like every bachelor’s favorite pairing. And then I learned that they wrote this picture together! As soon as I found that out, I knew that it would be a hit. And in fact, it’s the highest gross for a movie they wrote and starred in. ALREADY! Actually, they broke their previous two movies’ grosses (Swingers and Made) sometime early Friday evening. I’m just saying. Congrats to the boys – for a lot of us, Vince and Jon feel like people we know. They’re there because we put them there.
[ © MMIX MD TOTAL all rights reserved]
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