whether i like it or not, my final year of school is fast approaching. i’ve had a hell of a summer to preface it. these past few months have been the most fun of my life, and i leave them with an excitement and confidence to get out into the real world and just be great. my saying that is not indicative of any pretension, i just feel absolutely wonderful and privileged to be living this crazy life that theatre brings.
my summer got off to a kick start in late may. i took a trip with members of philadelphia’s ego po productions to pittsburgh for a pennpat conference. we performed a scene from spring awakening (yeah, that show again) for a collective of producers and other members of the pennsylvania theatre community. the time that we weren’t spending rehearsing or performing was spent exploring the city and drinking. it was a fun little excursion that i was happy to be a part of. my final thought on pittsburgh: very clean.
near the end of that trip i got a phone call from john bellomo, a director in philly that i love working with. he was directing a tour william shakespeare’s taming of the shrew for the maryland shakespeare festival and offered me the part of hortensio. the initial thought of essentially stranding myself in maryland with a bunch of people i didn’t know was admittedly kind of frightening to me. i decided that the experience would be worth it nonetheless, and in mid-june i trekked down to frederick, md to begin rehearsals.
the tour was a #$%@ing blast. i woke up, went to rehearsal, got dinner and a few drinks at the bar on my breaks, went back to rehearsal, and got back to the housing at around midnight every night. to me, this was everything theatre should be. the ensemble was wonderful to work with, and i made a few really good friends. i traveled all over the state with the same group of people for a month, which really tightened our bond. it’s not an experience that i’ll easily forget. in addition to the acting side, i wrote a handful of songs for the ensemble to sing and got my first professional composition credit! the whole experience was invaluable and i took a great deal from it. here’s a couple photos taken during the tour:
now i’m working on a commedia dell’arte show for the philadelphia fringe. it’s called the power of magic (or la forza della magia), and it’s being produced by ombelico mask ensemble. i’m working with three european actors who will be speaking their native tongue during performances (french, italian, and english). i’ll talk a little bit more about it when we’ve gotten into the meat of things.
anything you’d like to say? feel free to comment. i’d love to hear from you. until next time, friends. i leave you with random photos of my summer life.
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