Lindsay Christians’ review of tick, tick… BOOM! appeared today in 77 Square. Most of the fault is found with the show itself, which I think would have benefited from further workshopping before being published. I was mentioned by name (a first for me):

Jordan Peterson, playing primarily Jon’s best friend Michael, [...lends] his pleasant baritone to songs like “Real Life” and “Johnny Can’t Decide.” Peterson is animated in the entertaining “No More,” a song about his new apartment and the bohemian life he left behind, and believable as a successful executive who travels to escape his loneliness.

Props are given to the excellent band: Chris (keyboard & director), Mark (bass), Rocky (guitar), and Sean (drums), as well as Paul’s excellent lighting design and Meghan’s staging and costume design. It was a good opening weekend, and it’ll be over in a flash…only two more performances: Friday and Saturday. Our first rehearsal was just over 3 weeks ago; I’d say it’s going pretty well.

Jay Rath of The Isthmus gave our Into the Woods a very positive review after our closing weekend:

Talk about “happily ever after”! Following a difficult year rebuilding its business side, Madison Theatre Guild closed the 2007-08 season with a giddy, charming, near-professional production of “Into the Woods.”
[...]
It’s hard to know who to praise most in Guild’s wickedly funny production, and there are too many fine performances to name. The cast is huge and absolutely solid, right across the board.
[...]
If “Into the Woods” is any indication, the reborn Theater Guild is a powerhouse that is going to significantly raise the standard for community theater in Madison.

I had a great time doing this show with a cast and crew without equal in my theatre experience so far.

It’s over.

What an experience…my first lead role in a musical, Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls. It was definitely the greatest challenge I’ve faced as an actor to date, but it was a lot of fun stretching to portray this character. The last two months certainly haven’t been easy. The social component of this show has been both the most rewarding and the most difficult I’ve ever had… new friends, stronger friendships, some friendships left on uncertain ground.

My resolve is now even stronger to keep acting. It’s not just that performing is fun. During each show I learn a bit more about myself and people in general by focusing on a character with which I can’t always immediately identify. There’s always something to be found to latch onto; we’re all human… any good character needs to include that humanity and it’s up to the actor to bring that out. We’re not caricatures up on stage; we’re people, and without the audience being able to see that, we’re not providing the emotional catharsis that attracts audiences in the first place. The most thrilling part of acting for me is when I can get into a completely different head space and explore what it’s like to be someone else, if only for a few minutes at a time over the course of a couple months.

I’m going to miss this show: the music, the cast and crew, the whole process. I already do, and we just struck yesterday. Time to start preparing for the next audition…

This is the first review of a show I’ve been in that I’ve seen.

When I stepped on the scale this Monday, I was at 166 lbs and 22.4% body fat. Because it uses biolelectric impedance, the scale’s body fat assessment probably isn’t accurate, but I’m using it only for relative comparisons over time.

Ever since I started the pushup program in May I’ve been taking these measurements once per week. Today I finally put them into a spreadsheet and confirmed what my growing “spare tire” had suggested: my lean (muscle) mass has stayed the same, and over the last 2 months I’ve put on 3 or 4 pounds — all of it fat.

I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve gone months without practicing kung fu, and that’s obviously what had been keeping my body composition in check. I didn’t change my diet and I dropped the exercise, so I’ve just been adding blubber to my gut since then.

I remember when I first got that scale in 2004, when I was going gung-ho with kung fu before any of the theatre-induced hiatuses. I weighed about 150 and was at about 16% body fat. Since then I’ve put on about 3 pounds of muscle and about 12 pounds of fat. Sheesh.

Since I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing theatre on a regular basis, I need to find a way to keep up my fitness during the 2-month stretches when I don’t have time for kung fu. This slow transition into becoming a tub of goo isn’t going to cut it.

I’m going to continue on with bodyweight exercises at home, which seem to be the only thing to which I can commit. Along with the pushups I’ve been doing bilateral (2-legged) free-standing bodyweight squats at the same count, but I can tell from the relative effort of each exericse that the squats aren’t doing much for me. I’m going to give one-legged squats — “pistols” — a try in order to build some functional strength and hopefully turn my body composition around a bit.

It was less than 3 years ago that I made my first attempt at acting, and that was followed by a hiatus of nearly 2 years until last fall. It was a bit different the second time around.

I started picking apart the process. It’s what I’ve always done with everything…try to take it apart to understand to transmute the mysterious inner workings into something tangible. The productions I’ve been in haven’t necessarily been high art, but I’ve tried to approach them with some precision just the same.

Over the last 9 months the craft of acting and dramatic production in general has intrigued me more and more. I had never really looked at movies and theatre as anything more than banal entertainment until I stepped on a stage myself. Witnessing a great production is now a rich and inspiring event.

I just finished watching the special features on the Gosford Park DVD, and I’m taking note of how grateful I am that the DVD media format allows for glances behind the scenes: director’s commentary, The Making Of… special features, and so on — the people that make these things believable speaking frankly about their craft.

I’ve been out of the movie “loop” for a few years now, so my Netflix queue is packed with all of the best stuff that I never got around to seeing when people were still buzzing about it. It’s really pretty exciting to have the opportunity to see so much great material with what amounts to new eyes. And as for theatre…the more I do, the more I want to do. Casting directors willing, I have a feeling that I’ll be doing it and enjoying it for a long time.

…have been incredible so far. Both Saturday performances are already sold out, and the first Friday is pretty close to being sold out as well. There are still tickets available for the first Sunday, the Thursday show, and the last Friday show, but they’re going fast…

Brother.

Last night’s despair may have been premature.

They called me this morning and asked me to come back for a callback for the role of Joseph. That surprised the hell out of me. When I arrived right after work, there were two other guys there for the same purpose — both excellent singers.

I’m really pleased that
a) I got a chance to redeem myself, and
b) I think that’s what I did.

I can at least walk away from this audition process knowing that I finally gave the performance that I wanted to give. And now, the wait…at most until the end of the day Friday, when the cast will be finalized.

I got there right on time at 6:30 and was ushered to a frigid room where the other hopeful cast members-to-be talked among themselves about the shows they had done together, how so few female roles are in Joseph, and how cold the room is.

7:00 passed.  So did 8:00.  I waited patiently, knowing that I was number 33 on the list.  Jesus’ age — lucky, right?  Except for the crucifixion thing, I guess.  Rotten luck, that.

Finally the other 4 in my group and I were called to the gym for the singing audition.  The gym was even colder.  I was the third to perform.  I watched as two women each sang their tunes to 4 people.  Without sheet music.  Check.  With some acting.  Check.  Apparently that’s how these things are done.

No problem, I thought.  I’ve sung this a hundred times in my car.  I know this tune.  I walked over to the pianist and pointed out the 32 bars I had chosen.  I walked to the free throw line and faced the table.

“Find…”

“Sorry, can I start that again?”  (that was in key, but the wrong note)  Hmm, starting at the second verse is proving tougher than I thought.  I jumped back over to the piano.  He gave me the cue note, and I hurried back to the hotseat.  Floor.  Whatever.

“Find glory in a song that rings true, truth like a blazing fire.  An eternal flame.”
“Find one song, a song about love…”

“…”

Ok, no big deal.  I’ll just jump back in.  Hearing piano accompaniment instead of guitar is proving to be more distracting than I had anticipated.

“a young man.  Find one song before the virus takes hold.  Glory before the sun sets.”

Ok, those are the wrong words.  By this time I was doing my absolute finest deer-in-headlights look.  Something tells me that’s not the way Roger is blocked in that show.

“One song to redeem this empty life…”

He stopped me.  I didn’t even get to do the money line.  The high note, the grit, the passion.  Denied.

Instead, he asked me to grab a score for Joseph and quickly learn the first few lines of One More Angel In Heaven.  This request came amid a flourish of apologies.  I noticed that no one else in my group was asked to sight read, something I do with the skill of a drunken ape.

I made it through, but there it was, written right in the score…”BROTHERS.”  By this point I figured my destiny was assured.  Brother.  One of 11.  Otherwise known as a chorus.

And why not?  I choked.  I would have been better off singing the climax of Close Every Door, although I thought that might have seemed a bit pretentious.  The truth of the matter is that I wasn’t prepared to sing anything from memory.  Actually, I could have used C’est Moi.  But Lancelot is a baritone.  Joseph is a tenor.  I’m trying to capitalize on the new notes I’ve found in my range over the last year or so.  I was totally going to do the Donny Osmond thing.  Uh huh.  What was I thinking?

I could have prepared a bit more carefully, but I was trying to go into it with a relatively carefree attitude.  It would have been nice if I had been honest with myself about what I was hoping for.  I felt something after that performance, for sure, but it definitely wasn’t carefree.

Callbacks are tomorrow.  Everyone will hear about the casting, yea or nay, by the end of the week.  I really wish I would have represented myself better.  I needed my A game.  I pinched off a C-.

And now I’m starving.  Maybe I can at least find some comfort in the pieces of Mediterranean Cylinder Beast that will be playing the lead role in My Big Fat Greek Sandwich.  That is, if I can hack my way through all this self pity to reach the door of my apartment.