Joseph

Have you heard of the ORCHextra? It's a computer that will play the orchestration for your musical. The way it works is that each instrument is programed into the computer and you tap the tempo on a mini-piano keyboard and it plays the show. You can vamp, repeat, make cuts, all the things a real orchestra can do. There are two big differences.....first, you only have to pay one person to tap, as opposed to a roomful of musicians. Secondly, the ORCHextra sounds like what it is....a computer, but who besides musicians and music theater types are really gonna notice. It's also a little unforgiving. If a performer misses an entrance or gets off a beat or two, it's a little tricky to catch up.

I hate the freakin' thing!!!

So with that bit of background, I will tell you that I played Joseph at Archbishop Curley High this past weekend and it was all about the damn computer! It crashed, it wouldn't remember cuts, and was generally user un-friendly. In addition to the ORCHextra there was myself, a drummer, and a dude on piano. We did our best to keep the show moving and the kids on stage did a great job battling thru it all.

13

'Tis the season for school shows and said season began this week with 13 at Jemicy School. If you're not familiar with 13, it's the newest show by Jason Robert Brown who also wrote Songs For A New World and The Last Five Years and is notorious for writing really difficult music. When 13 was on Broadway the cast AND band were all kids which is maybe why this show wasn't so hard.
The kids were awesome and did a great job!!

Go O's

So, remember that story I wrote like a month ago about going to an audition and getting stuck in the snow afterwards. Well, I got the gig, so I think it was worth it. It was a commercial for MASN and The Orioles. The day started with me waking up to find a huge zit on the side of my face!! WHY!?! Thank God for make-up. Anyway, we shot five different ads which will be put into the mix with five additional spots that they shot yesterday and will starting airing at the end of this month. I hope I make the final cut. Either way, it was a really fun day!

Everything Is Rent....Again

Rent at Keegan Theater closed this weekend. Yup, another production of Rent and probably not the last.

This show ended up blowing up huge!! Most of the performances were sold out. We extended for two more weeks which also sold out. Five Helen Hayes Nominations (that's like the Tony Awards for DC theaters). Most importantly, a really great group of people.The thing I really appreciated was being appreciated!!!! With a few exceptions, often in professional theaters, I find that there is an attitude that the performers should bow down and be eternally thankful for the work and just suck up whatever un-happiness they may have about the work situation. I do believe in being professional and doing the job that you are hired to do. I also believe in choosing your battles and that you have a responsibility to do a little bit of research about where you're going to work so that you don't find yourself in a bad spot, but that doesn't mean that a theater can just throw anything at you that they want and then just say, "you should just be thankful for the opportunity I'm giving you." The folks at Keegan really went out of their way to make sure that we all knew how much they appreciated our efforts to perform well every night. When the show started to take off and do well and eventually get nominated, again, they went out of their way to show thanks and appreciation to everyone.

It meant a lot to me.


Rent is still not one of my favorite shows but this run was fun. Having just played the show with my friends at Winters Lane, I didn't need the learning period and was able to jump right in which was good because the band was amazing! I was glad I already knew the show because it helped me hold my own with them. And I finally figured out "Santa Fe".....it's still hard but I got it.

The New Year's Eve party was just disgustingly awesome! 'Nuff said!

February is kinda chill as far as gigs go, which is fine because March is already crazy and I think the rest of the spring will be as well.

Stay warm!

Goodbye Love.

Busy Friday

Three gigs are in one day! Kinda crazy!

The hardest thing about a day like this is leaving the house in the morning and trying to make sure that I have everything I need for the day since I won't have time to come home if I forget something.

First up was recording my vocals for The Saints recording with the Dizzy Miss Lizzie gang. Singing at 10am is never fun. Couple that with the last remnants of a cold and it took me a couple of attempts to get a good take. I got it done though.

Next I drove to Gaithersburg to shoot an industrial for The Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services. What's an industrial? It's usually a not-for-broadcast corporate type video, such as a training video, which is what this was. It was called "Common Issues Facing The Elderly" and in it I played a doctor discussing a patient with another doctor. Yeah, it's about as exciting as it sounds, but then again it is a training video so no one's gonna be judging it on it's level of excitement. It was actually a really fun shoot. Everyone was really nice and the whole process was painless.

After that, I had some time to kill before heading into DC to play Rent, but not enuff to come all that way home so I found the nearest movie theater and hoped that something good would be starting soon. Lucky for me, The Lovely Bones was starting five minutes after I got there. Sweet! I'm still not sure if this movie is supposed to be sad or a feel-good thing or what, because it kinda pulls at several emotions at once. Peter Jackson is a brilliant director that way! Definitely go see it.

Then it was time for Rent. Not my best performance of the run but I was really tired after a long day. With the snow today I hope it wasn't the last show! I doubt it. The show closes this weekend and I'll write all about this experience then.

After the show I was really tired and had to fight sleep all the way home. I got into bed and, thanks to my DVR, turned on Rachel Maddow (LOVE HER!) and got toally wrapped up in watching her and Keith Olbermann's coverage of Obama mopping the floor with the Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore. It was awesome to watch him tear down their talking points one by one to their face. Afterwards the Repubs admitted that they shouldn't have agreed to have the cameras present. Oh well. Sucks to be you.

Rockin' The Bass!

Ya gotta love waking up and having offers for three gigs in your email!!!!!!! Even better was only having to turn down one...I'm only available for half of their dates. It's also nice to be hearing from some new folks. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends, but it's good to know that people are recommending my low notes.

The show in DC is winding down....more on that later this weekend. Looks like February is gonna be chill but then I'm slammed for the spring, starting in March!!!!

In other news, you may remember that I did a show with the Dizzy Miss Lizzie folks last summer called The Saints. They're recording the music from the show this week, so I had to get up early Tuesday morning and re-learn the stuff...it's been a few months since we played....and then head into the studio later that day. Tarek, our drummer, and I laid down our tracks later that morning and it went really well! It's been a while since I was in the studio, but nailing a song on the first take always feels awesome. I go back later this week to do my vocals.

Looking Back at '09

THE WORK
I made a conscious decision a little while back to try to focus more on playing my bass and a little less on the acting. I love doing the acting thing but I'm a better bass player and, frankly, it earns me more money. So there were lots of bass gigs this year. The theater stuff was....

Sophisticated Ladies
Chess
High School Musical
Into The Woods
Partial Eclipse
Sideshow
Aida
Rent
Rocky Horror
Meet Me In St. Louis
Rent...again

I did manage to squeeze in a few acting gigs....

Hunting The Anthrax Killer on National Geographic
Playing a biker in a Carmax commercial
Diamond Dead in DC and NY
Walmartopia

Dizzy Miss Lizzie presents The Saints


THE BIG FUN

Obama!!!
My first time skiing...ouch
Seal from the Front Row
Spinal Tap
My Vacation in Vegas and LA

Yeah, there was lots of cool stuff this and very little bad, but i already know that 2010 is gonna be crazeeeee! :)

Stay tuned!