Me, Cameron, America, Karen, Jamie, Chance, Raleigh

“In the end? Nothing ends…nothing ever ends” – Dr. Manhattan; Watchmen

I’ve never been good with endings. It doesn’t matter if it was a good book or just a good time spent with friends, I always hated when it ended. I think it goes back to summers down Cape Cod when I was a little kid.  My grandparents had a motor home in a seasonal campground and my sister and I would spend a large portion of time between June and September there.  There were a group of kids that I would hang out with who also spent most of, if not all of, the summer there as well.  I only got to see them during the summer because they lived in exotic, far off places named Brockton or Milford.  In reality, their homes were only 40 minutes at most from where I lived but when you’re a kid without a driver’s license they might as well have lived on Mars.  We’d all hang out, chase girls, go to the beach or play video games at the “rec hall”.  Every year I looked forward to the summer at the same time I feared it’s ending.  I hated the Jerry Lewis telethon because it signaled the end of the summer for me and having to say goodbye to my friends for another year.

I felt very similar to that on Sunday night when She Wrights wrapped up it’s three week run at the Secret Rose Theater in North Hollywood. I was a part of a four-person ensemble, one act play entitled Let’s Have a Baby.  The play was written by Jamie Lou Moniz and directed by America Young. I’ve been friends with America ever since we shot the Retroland pilot together.  We hit it off and have often talked about doing some projects together.  When she asked me if I’d be interested in this, just the fact that she was involved had me 95% convinced.

What I wasn’t expecting was how awesome the other actors were going to be.  Raleigh Jones plays my wife and Cameron Bender and Karen Forman act as a sort of Greek Chorus, playing multiple parts as well as fantasy sequences of what is happening in Raleigh’s head.  All of this is accompanied by improvised guitar and keyboards by Chance Villegas.  It was truly an ensemble in every sense of the word as removing one person would cause the entire house of cards to crumble.  I think the whole play lasts 20 minutes and in that time there are about 11 scenes, light cues, sound effect cues and a countless number of props.  It was kind of a beast.

The gang with our stage manager Melissa Gilleece

We had about two rehearsals before the dress rehearsal.  The dress rehearsal was the first time we would have the props, light/sound cues, music and be performing in that theater.  To say it was a debacle is an understatement.  Afterwards, the entire cast looked like we had just opened up the big box on Christmas morning to find a complete set of underwear and socks.  This was not going to go well.

But it did.  Dress rehearsal and opening night were light years apart and we all pulled it off.  That began four weeks of some of the most fun I’ve had as an actor, yet.  The shows were great with even the worst of them still getting plenty of laughs.  What really stood out to me, though, were the people.  All seven of us really bonded and I’m thrilled to have all of them as good friends now and to have shared this experience.  It was so much fun being on stage with them, amid all of the hectic changes and cues and just having a blast.  I knew if I screwed up I just had to look at Raleigh, Karen or Cam and we’d be back in the game.  Even when things did go wrong (like a burping baby sound cue resulting in the baby flushing a toilet, playing a song, flushing the toilet again before eventually getting to the burp) it didn’t matter.  We made the most of it and were just having a great time performing.  The audiences seemed to really pick up on that.  I’ve wanted to find a group to create stuff with for quite awhile now and I think this is the beginning of such a group.  We just all worked really well together and lucked into a great chemistry.

I didn’t write this, though, to say how great we all are (even though everyone I mentioned IS great).  I wrote it to more or less to set up one point:

I’m really going to miss them.

I know we’ll keep in touch and I’m pretty confident all of us will be working on various projects together.  But it won’t be this project, in this way.  It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a thing but I wanted to mark it’s passing.  I’m going to miss our Lollipop Guild dance as we got ready to go out.  I’m going to miss the myriad of inside and running gags we had between us.  I’m just going to miss hanging out with them on a weekly basis.

I feel really fortunate to have worked with every one.  They are just good people, simple as that.  One of the reasons I wanted to get into acting is that collaboration and feeling of belonging that you get during a play or on set.  This show was exactly that.  I’m looking forward to beginning many new endings with all of them.

We have a winner!

We open this Friday January 13th and run for three weekends thru January 29th.  Tickets are $15 and you can get them at the door or at www.secretrose.com.  Please see the flyer below for all show information, including times for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday shows.  

I hope to see you there!

In this clip, the Retrolanders work on new content for the site.

I’m a huge Batman fan. Have been ever since I was a little kid when I thought being Batman was a job option (I thought the same thing about being Indiana Jones). I feel that, outside of the excellent Animated Series, the Nolan movies have come the closest to getting Batman right. I like his way of grounding the characters in reality (or as much reality as is possible) and shooting them like a crime movie more than a comic book movie. Needless to say, Summer 2012 can’t come fast enough for me.

On Friday I went to Arclight Hollywood to see JJ Abrams & Steven Speilberg’s SUPER 8.  Having grown up in the Speilberg era of movies, this homage to that style of film making really hit home with me.  I’m not going to talk about the plot because I really think you should go into this movie knowing as little as possible.  It’s certainly not a perfect movie if you analyze it but I also don’t think it’s meant to be viewed that way.  It’s really about an experience and an atmosphere.  It’s about a feel.  All I will say is, the kids in this are fantastic!  If the movie was only about them and had none of the other Sci-Fi/horror trappings, it would still be a great movie.  In fact, I bet some people would think it might even be a better movie.

Oh, I almost forgot! I also saw a woman in front of us drop her ice cream on the ground, debate how long the rule is where you can still eat it…and then eat it anyway!  So this night really was a win-win!

Last night, I made my very first ever trip to the Geffen Playhouse to see Tracy Letts’ play SUPERIOR DONUTS.  The play stars one of my favorite actors, Gary Cole (OFFICE SPACE) as Arthur Przybyszewski (pronounced shoopa-shev-ski), a disillusioned former hippie who owns a donut shop in Uptown, Chicago.  He dodged the draft during the Vietnam War and now is dealing with the weight of his decisions.   His world is turned upside down when Franco Wicks (played by Edi Gathegi, who is truly hysterical and steals the show) walks in the front door looking for a job.   Emmy Award Winner Kathryn Joosten is also in this.

The play deals with the themes of the above mentioned disillusionment, guilt, regret and feelings of hope and hopelessness while somehow making it all very funny.  I’ve read some reviews stating that it plays out like a 1970′s sitcom and I can definitely see that comparison.  I’m about 20 years younger than Arthur but the age is insignificant. The feelings are universal.  I look forward to the day when I can play Arthur in a presentation of this.

I absolutely loved the show and, like SUPER 8, even if it wasn’t a perfect show, it was the perfect show for me to see.  I can’t recommend either highly enough.

SUPERIOR DONUTS runs at the Geffen Playhouse through July 10.

Also, if you haven’t ever read BONE (and I’m about 20 years behind everyone else on this) it really is tremendous and I highly recommend it! Enjoy!

You can catch the episode “hecks on a plane” THIS Wednesday 2/23 @ 8pm on ABC!

Next up, I’m going to design a menu bar with the same font as the Breaking the Ice title.

To install, simply click the link of the resolution you use for your desk top.  When the image appears, right click on it and select “Set as Desktop Background…”  It’s best to use “center” as opposed to “stretch” as the images can get a little funky when stretched.

If you don’t see the resolution you use for your desktop here, just email me and I can create one for you.

1024 x 768

1280 x 768

1280 x 1024

1440 x 900