Theater – Regular Guy

Giving Up My Keys

brian — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 14:30:19 +0000

Nine years ago, Hanover Little Theatre elected me to its Board of Directors. A year later, I took on an officer position. Three years later, I became board President. For the past two years, I have served as Immediate Past President, a non-voting board position.

I have done very little over those two years. First off, I needed a break. Secondly, my successor didn’t need me throwing my two cents in after I willingly stepped down. Lastly, COVID wiped out the past 16ish months.

Today, I drove over to the theater – it’s just a few minutes from my house – and left my keys on the box office counter. The membership will elect a new president on Sunday, meaning I am no longer the Immediate Past President. (I have a conflict and can’t make the meeting – I wish I could be there to see all my friends in person.)

I really enjoyed being all alone in the theater one last time. Who knows if that will happen again? I am sure I will stay involved in some way, but will I want to take on a board position or directing role with all I have going on in my improv world?

I used to love those quiet moments when I had the whole building to myself. It didn’t matter whethere I just needed to drop something off on my way home from work and took a few extra moments to ponder the power that this little building can create or I was there late at night painting the set for the one show I directed.

Theater has a way to change lives. HLT was my first theater home. I had never performed on stage until being talked into doing a show at Hanover High School in 2009. That led me to HLT which led me to those many moments in that building both alone and with some of my favorite people in the world. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do the things I am doing in the improv world without HLT. It truly made me who I am as a performer.

I direct my energies differently these days, but I will always feel safe and secure on Blooming Grove Road. Make sure you go check them out when things open again. And consider getting involved. The memories are priceless.

Free Thoughts on ‘Hamilton’

brian — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 15:35:47 +0000

Here are “free thoughts” on the cast and performance from Hamilton, which I recently saw in NYC:

Michael Luwoye is a great Hamilton, but I wasn’t as blown away as I was led to expect from stuff I had read online. He was reserved in some spots and talk sang the beginnings to a bunch of songs. Maybe it’s his style, maybe it was a slow start for a Saturday matinee. However, I think he was really crying during “It’s Quiet Uptown.” He just didn’t always have the energy Lin can bring.
This may be blasphemy, but Daniel Breaker may be a better Burr than Leslie Odom. He had the snark and bitterness that I imagine Burr actually had from the beginning of the show. He was outstanding.
None of the women can touch the original trio even though I loved their performances. Lexi Lawson is a great Eliza. She worked really well with Elizabeth Judd, who is the standby for Angelica. That role is so hard because Renee Elise Goldsberry is such a powerful figure. Judd is younger and brought great believeability to the two as sisters. She wasn’t as powerful with some of her singing, but you saw the connection between the actresses. Joanna Jones was a great Peggy/Maria. I will never not love Peggy.
Euan Morton may be my favorite King. I think I have seen videos of 3-4 of them. I think his face just is more expressive than Jonathan Groft.
Anthony Lee Medina does a great job with Laurens/Phillip. He has an excitement that is natural, just like Anthony Ramos. He plays Laurens more like a horndog than a guy who may be obsessed with Hamilton, which was fun, but I liked the layered performance Ramos gave a little better.
Bryan Terrell Clark’s Washington just oozes cool. He doesn’t have the gravitas of Chris Jackson, but he makes the role his own. Unflappable.
Not the biggest fan of James Monroe Iglehart as Lafayette/Jefferson. His First Act accent is all over the place. And I am certain they play “Guns and Ships” a little slower so he can pull off the rap. Not horrible, just a curious choice for the role.
Andrew Chappelle played Mulligan/Madison. He was in the Public Theater ensemble and he been understudying on Broadway for a little while. He was good. He is not as imposing so he loses a little in Mulligan, plus it is hilarious watching him (he’s 31, but looks a lot younger) saying “I got ya’ll knuckleheads in loco parentis” to Igelhart, who is 43. I loved his Madison. He played him kind of foppish and effeminate, which I think underscored the weakness the character is supposed to have. He seemed more like Jefferson’s sidekick there so the casting worked well.
The ensemble member who played James Reynolds (Ryan Vasquez) was spectacular. You could tell he knew he had about a minute to be the biggest asshole he could be and loved every second of it.
I think the thing that goes unnoticed when watching the bootlegs is how active the entire cast and ensemble is throughout the show. You don’t see all that activity from a video.
“Battle of Yorktown” is just mindblowing. It was so hard to not stand up and fist pump along with them.

What If

brian — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 12:43:16 +0000

I came to improv late. I didn’t act at all until 2009 and started improv in 2015. But as I delve back into my favorite improv books, I wonder what could have been.

In late 1991 and early 1992, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was laid off from my first newspaper job in the fall of 1991 and didn’t have any luck finding anything else. I spent that fall and winter coaching high school wrestling and working at a friend’s business at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, the same place I worked in high school and on breaks in college.

My parents were really understanding, but at some point I knew I had to do something. I started to consider for the first time that I might need to leave Baltimore. I had a few friends in Chicago and really started to think about moving there as the wrestling season neared an end in March 1992.

That’s about the same time all the influential improvisers coalesced in Chicago. Would I have found an outlet in comedy if I had moved there? I always had an interest, but never knew how to find a start. Would I have met someone who encouraged me to perform?

I’m not saying I would have moved to Chicago, walked into iO and ended up helping to form the UCB. I just wonder if this thing I am so passionate about now could have taken hold if I had made that move.

Instead, I got a call about a job on the next-to-last day of wrestling season in 1992. That got me up to Hanover, Pa., where I met my wife. So I have no regrets. I just wonder sometimes what that other dimension might have looked like.

A Different Dream

brian — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:08:34 +0000

Seventeen years ago, I daydreamed about what my daughter’s life would be like. As we anticipated her birth, I would think about what she would accomplish in life. I generally focused on what sport she would pick and how she would set the world on fire.

After watching her take part in the York County Encore Awards – an annual competition for the high school musicals across the county – I am so glad none of that came true.

I’m not bashing sports. I love sports and probably spend way too much time thinking about them and watching them on TV. I just see how happy the path she has taken makes her.

My wife and I have made some amazing friends along the way, people who I am sure will be part of our lives forever. I have watched their kids accomplish amazing things along with my daughter.

I am a sap so I spend days like the Encore performance pretending Ihave something in my eye as I watch amazing young adults control the emotions of an entire theatre. I never saw that when I daydreamed 17 years ago, but it’s better than anything I could have ever imagined.

Random Thoughts on “Hairspray Live”

brian — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 19:02:12 +0000

Random thoughts on Hairspray Live:

I have never seen the show or the movies – only listened to the music — so it was cool to actually see a production
The interludes and commercials are annoying, but I imagine if they went without them, the complaint would be that the production wasn’t glitzy enough (or that stars wouldn’t do it because the money isn’t there with fewer ads)
I think they only cast Ariana Grande so they could put her in that outfit at the end. She was great, but that was just too on point
Ephraim Sykes is amazing. That’s how deep the Hamilton bench is. He was an ensemble member.
I kinda liked the period “commercials” for the sponsors.
There will always be some sort of in-authenticity from these productions. There’s just too much difference between TV and a live show. And they are doing a one-off of something that is usually done multiple times by a cast. But I personally will trade that for seeing the never-ending smile of Maddie Baillio, who won the role of Tracy in an open casting call she saw on Facebook. She was just absolutely giddy the entire show. That was pretty awesome to watch.

An Arresting Problem

brian — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 18:11:33 +0000

Experts say that everything you do online could potentially haunt you forever. If that’s the case, I have put myself in deep trouble this week.

We are in the middle of rehearsals for the upcoming production of “Sin, Sex & the CIA” at Hanover Little Theatre, and I volunteered to help find an important prop.

We need handcuffs. You’ll have to come to the show to find out why, but we I promise that you will laugh when you see why we needed them.

At first, I thought this was a pretty simple activity. I have helped chase down various props for several other productions. We have loaned items from our house for set decorations. That’s just how it works in community theatre.

But this one carried a risk I had not anticipated when I started searching on Amazon for handcuffs.

First of all, to put it delicately, a lot of people don’t buy handcuffs with a theatrical production or law enforcement in mind. I knew this going in, but those kind of “recreational” uses jump right to the top of the search listings.

That’s not why we needed them for the play. I promise.

So once I stopped giggling over handcuffs covered with fur, I started to take a look at the reviews from people who had bought the ones that looked normal.

Some of the comments came from people who had bought the item as a child’s play toy. But some others came from adults who seemed very eager to share just how and why they needed handcuffs and how this particular item worked.

Now I’m all for consenting adults doing what they want to do, but I really don’t see the need to share that information online, especially when some of the reviews used what seemed like real names.

I moved past that, however, and did a little more research. When I saw a pair of handcuffs that looked OK, but might not have fit our needs, I checked the section below the item where it tells you what things that people who bought this thing also bought.

Once again, I did not need all of that information. But now I am worried that some of the ladies wearing the “lingerie” that some people paired with handcuffs may catch a cold. It really didn’t cover much.

Once I re-gained my composure I went ahead and bought the handcuffs we needed – without any additional items that might shock anyone in the audience.

As they made their way through the shipping process, I started to worry a little. If anyone ever gains access to my browser history, what would they think?

I just needed handcuffs for fun, not for any nefarious purpose. I didn’t mean to click on any links that may have led to something unseemly. I’m a curious guy. You can’t help but wonder what other folks are doing.

I promise I only bought the handcuffs, and we only need them to make you laugh. I guess you’ll have to come out for yourself to make sure I’m telling the truth.

Loud Clothes and Bad Jokes

brian — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:46:10 +0000

I have spent much of the past few weeks on stage at the Hanover Little Theatre. Actually, my participation in “The Fox on the Fairway” took much more time than that, but I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining.

I don’t know why because that’s what I will end up doing anyway.

The whole experience thrilled me. I once again got to work with an incredible group of people while putting on a very funny play and providing lots of people with affordable local entertainment.

But I have a bone to pick with some of those in the audience.

For the first time, I played a real jerk in this play. Sure, some of you probably think that’s not a stretch for me, but it was. Even I wouldn’t want to have a beer with this guy.

I know that because I had some good source material to work with. From my experience as a student at an all-male private high school and 1980s fraternity parties, I encountered a few people who would end up wearing loud, garish clothes and running a country club.

So I felt like I could peer into the soul of this character and make him funny. I had plenty of good lines to work with, so I really looked forward to getting front of an audience.

Then I got nothing. Well, I didn’t totally get nothing, but people enjoyed seeing the others in the play make fun of my character more than they enjoyed the funny lines I had to say.

Where’s the love, folks? I felt like turning to the crowd and saying, “You realize this stuff is funny, right? I know you don’t like this guy, but you can laugh at me, OK?”

I did not do that, of course, because I love the people who come to see our shows more than I love my ego. Really.

I guess I can check off “played universally disliked character” on the checklist of my short theatre career. I can also finally talk about having to hunt far and wide for the right costume pieces.

In my first three shows, I pretty much used my own wardrobe. I did by a used suit and managed to get a few shows out of it, but I never had a real challenge.

This time, I had to find a number of loud and ugly pieces, particularly sweaters. I spent a ton of time combing through thrift stores and clearance racks before I found the right combination. I know this because I got laughs simply for walking on stage in my first get-up.

I will donate some of the clothes right back to the places where I found them. But a funny thing happened each time I pulled on the bright yellow cardigan sweater and red khakis each night.

They grew on me. The sweater seemed less of a garish costume piece and more of a security blanket. The brightness bothered me less and less. I felt comfortable.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t get as many laughs as I expected. Maybe people reconsidered laughing at my clothes and thought, “That guy looks pretty sharp up there.” Maybe they were so mesmerized by my fashion sense that they forgot to laugh.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Worries About Typecasting

brian — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:10:45 +0000

Sometimes I deserve the reputation I get.

I understand why people think I’m loud (I am), lazy (when it doesn’t inconvenience others too much) and obsessed with food and television. I feel happiest while eating on the couch while talking loudly about my favorite sitcoms.

What flummoxes me is how some people develop certain opinions about me. I’m not as cranky as I come off in writing mainly because sarcasm and purposeful exaggeration doesn’t always translate. But that’s not the personality trait I worry most about these days.

I fear people might think I’m homicidal.

Don’t worry – I haven’t really inflicted physical harm on anyone. I just start to wonder after a recent event I attended.

As part of a fundraiser for the Hanover Community Players, I played a role in a murder mystery dinner theatre production. I had an absolutely fantastic time with new and old friends.

The evening required me to stay in character for the entire event, which I found nerve-wracking and exciting. Because of my character’s brash nature, I got to say things I might generally keep under wraps under different circumstances.

At the end of the night, the audience got a chance to vote on who they thought committed the crime. I wasn’t really surprised when a fellow cast member approached me before the big reveal with the agreed-upon signal indicating the crowd had chosen me as the culprit.

The plot had plenty of clues that I had done the deed. I also think I played up the more obnoxious side of my character during the parts of the night where we mingled – without a script – among the crowd. I think some of them may have wanted to see me removed in real handcuffs.

As I exited the hall after my confession, I felt good about putting on a fun show, but part of my mind drifted back to an evening five years or so ago when I took part in a similar event at my previous job.

Friends there recruited me to take part in a murder mystery event. I didn’t have to learn any lines, but had to come up with a twitchy, quirky character. At the end of the night, guess which suspect the audience chose as the murderer?

As I continue to look for more ways to express my newfound desire to perform, I understand I will probably only fit certain kinds of roles. I have no problem getting typecast as the loud guy or the fellow who drinks too much.

But am I setting up a career as a suspected killer? Do I instill fear in people when I perform? Or do I just look like the kind of schlub who couldn’t hide his involvement in a caper if his life depended on it?

I don’t know the real answer. I just know that I hope I don’t accidentally come across a real crime scene because I might elicit suspicion right off the bat. If that happens, I just hope I do a good job at playing dumb. I have lots of experience in that area.

‘Ello Guv’nor, Put the Telly on the Lift

brian — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:32:47 +0000

One night in college, my friend Jeff and I had a little too much to drink. I do not recommend this course of action, but it happens.

We walked to a party at some point and found ourselves a corner where we could hang out. We spent the rest of the night speaking to people – or more accurately, at people – pretty much using nothing but lines from Monty Python skits and movies.

This was the late 1980s. I was young. You can’t make fun of me for this.

So we affected British accents all night long, worrying and confusing friends and strangers alike. I don’t particularly know why we did it. I guess the mood just struck.

I have thought of this night a lot lately because I have decided to take another stab at acting in a play at the Hanover Little Theatre. I have a part in “Murder by the Book,” which runs in the middle of April.

I don’t plan on drinking during the show, although the script does put drinks in people’s hands a lot. These two events are connected because I need to use a British accent in the production.

I knew this from the start, but still have to wonder how I will pull this off. When I parrot the words of Eric Idle or Terry Jones, I have absolutely no problem with an English accent. On my own, I get a little nervous.

So I did what any smart person does these days – I headed to the Internet. Instead of using the many useful resources which exist online for this purpose, I went to Twitter, where I follow Bill Lawrence, the creator of TV shows like “Scrubs” and “Cougar Town.”

Lawrence very gratefully answers fan questions all the time so I prodded him for directorial advice for using a British accent. He had one very simple tip.

“Call everyone ‘guv’nor.’ Always works. ‘ello guv’nor. Gold.”

He has written, produced and directed some of of my favorite television shows. I could not ignore his advice, but I didn’t feel like I could change the script that much without getting myself in trouble.

So I had to think of my other options. I could simply say every line as if it were coming from the mouth of Thurston B. Howell III. He’s not British, but I could probably pull that voice off even though my character doesn’t seem like the sort who would take all his luggage on a three-hour tour.

I racked my brain for all other kinds of characters I could imitate, but then realized that I had to take on the same philosophy which got me into this whole acting thing in the first place 18 months ago – winging it.

To tell the truth, that’s kind of how Jeff and I ended up answering almost every question with Python lines that one night. We didn’t plan for anything like that to happen. The mood just struck us and we realized we could come up with an endless supply of lines so we just went with it.

I guess that’s my plan, sans the drinking. But if a spare “guv’nor “ slips out, don’t blame me. I’m just taking the advice of a pro.

What an Experience

brian — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:58:33 +0000

I can do this.

That’s the thought which went through my head when the spotlight first hit me on opening night for “Miracle on 34^th Street.” I had never really acted before – other than acting like a grownup for the past 20 years or pretending I knew what I was talking about in general conversation – but something felt right.

I could not have predicted this a couple of months ago when I initially agreed to play a small non-speaking role in the production at Hanover High School. As I wrote a few weeks ago, this all evolved into the role of Mr. Macy.

I may not have shown it in rehearsal, but I struggled at first. I knew I could project my voice since I have decades of experience trying to be heard above the crowd at family parties.

But I worried about succeeding beyond the volume. Would I get any laughs? Would I sound authentic? Would I remember my lines?

That last question bothered me the most. I had just around 20 lines, three of them simply being “Yes,” so I shouldn’t have worried. When I practiced my parts alone on my commute to and from work, I found I would stumble over one line or another. That scared me.

Then I got out on that stage, the light hit me, and I looked at the high school students playing opposite me. I knew I could pull it off.

I only messed up once. People may not have noticed, but it burned me up. The feeling went away, however, when one of the students joked about it in my ear as we left the stage.

I certainly enjoyed having an auditorium full of people – and the attendances were fantastic – looking at me and only me, but I especially enjoyed getting to know and working with the high school students on the cast and crew.

We all know stories about the bad things that go on in our town. We read about the court cases and drug problems and concerns about school performance.

I can’t say that every bad thing will go away or that the schools are perfect, but I do know with complete certainty that we have wonderful, caring, smart, talented students in Hanover.

I actually knew that before I started working in the play, but now I know the older ones by name. I can joke with them or maybe offer a piece of advice. That’s the least I can do after they helped a schlub like me realize that he can stand up on stage and entertain people.

They didn’t just help me, though. The students served as wonderful role models for the elementary school students in the play, youngsters who may eventually take the lead in future high school productions. The way they interacted with the children in the cast brightened every day.

Whether we were working on the set or laughing about something that didn’t go quite right, we all stood together as peers. I never felt for a moment like they saw us as intruders on the high school play.

That’s why I drove my friends crazy with incessant talk about the production late last month. Something special happened because people young and old came together with a common goal in mind. I had more fun than I ever imagined I could.