Most people who know me and even the ones who just read my blogs each week know that I have had quite a bit of involvement in the world of community theater through the years. When I was about ten or so, my mom made her own community theater debut at the Muncie Civic Theater in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. When I saw this, I became pretty hooked and decided that I wanted to do it myself so with the support of my mother we were both in A CHRISTMAS CAROL and then I would go onto do a couple kid's shows there. However, after about mid-middle school I took quite a hiatus off the stage. I admit a lot of it was social reasons. It just did not seem socially acceptable to do this and we all remember those times when we were kids when we were trying to be popular which I never really succeeded with that. Many years later when I was going to college they were having auditions for their 2004-2005 season and decided it was time for me to get back into this world so coincidentally enough I made my stage return in another version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL once again with my mom. Since this time, this has become my addiction in life. I have been blessed with this wonderful life where I perform in theater, write movie recommendations and have gotten to be a ring announcer in the world of independent wrestling. I have met lots of great people through the years so I thank god, my mom, Marty, Darrin, Lisa and all the people who have supported me through the years. I have been in a little of 20 shows in my life so I am putting here my favorite parts. I always enjoy myself in a show but I am looking at my 10 favorite characters and the first couple on this list had multiple characters. As far as the top 10, this is something I just put together so just depending on my mood this could change. That is why I never call my movie blogs the top 10 movies.
10. A Time For Christmas (2008): I was in this show in late November of that year at the Muncie Civic Theater. This was not one of their season shows but a fundraiser. Muncie Civic Theater was suffering from a lot of financial trouble so a married couple named Mike and Laura asked the theater director Marty if they could do this as a fundraiser. They had done it a couple times at their church and are very passionate about this show. It is kind of a variation on A CHRISTMAS CAROL where an over-dedicated business man is visited by an angel named Bartholomew who shows him the ups and downs of Christmas through the year hoping to give him the meaning of Christmas. When I auditioned, to this day I still feel this is the best audition I have ever had. I was very on and felt great. I had some pretty notable chorus roles. I first played the shepherd Jacob who was sees the image of some beautiful angels. Then I played a guard in the Puritan scene where I help break up an illegal church service on Christmas which is the role I enjoyed the most since I like to play villainous characters on stage. I know many people who played puritans were very uncomfortable since I got into the part quite a bit. The other notable scene I had was when I was part of a 60s Doo-Wop quartet.
9. Annie (2008): This was a show done at the Anderson Mainstage Theatre and was my second and so far the last which we'll see what is going on next year. We all know the story here, a red-headed orphan gets to spend time with Daddy Warbucks and he then begins to like her and wants to adopt her. I auditioned wanting the part of con-artist Rooster but the director Bill still gave me a couple really good chorus parts. The first notable part was as a homeless man in the scene of HOOVERVILLE where Annie comes across many homeless bums when she runs away from the orphanage. I was given one of the lead bums and started playing around with a rather gruff voice when I first started looking at the lines and put it to test in the scene and saw it worked quite well where I even sang with the voice. Many thought it was funny, some thought creepy, and some I'm sure both. That was my popular character where my friend Bill who had not seen much I was in since I had known him for a limited time said that was the best thing he had seen me do which was comparing a couple performances at Lee's Theatrical Productions. That statement really meant a lot to me. I also played Franklin Roosevelt's's Secretary of State Cordell Hull where I had some dialogue so I decided to see if I could find footage of him. I found a couple videos of him on Youtube and did my best to imitate his southern voice so people who same me in the show and have seen footage of him can be the judge on how it sounded.
8. Honk! (2005): I consider this my breakthrough performance at the Muncie Civic Theater. I did this months after I made my stage return in A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This is a musical variation on THE UGLY DUCKLING. I was originally slated to be in the chorus but then Kevin, who was originally the Turkey, had to drop out because of his friend's wedding. Marty was then nice enough to move me into that part and I do not believe I made him regret that. This was a great supporting part where I then decided to use a very high-pitched voice and even used it to sing a few solo lines. I recall recently Civic Theater veteran Jan said that was still his favorite of everything he has seen me do. I also loved my outrageous costume that I wore.
7. MASH (2007): This was my second and last performance at the now defunct Lee's Theatrical Productions and met many people I still remain good friends with. This is based on both the movie and the tv series where it takes a humorous look at life during the Korean War. It is almost a situational comedy. It does not really have any plot or even anti or pro-war messages but just making the most of the difficult life. I had the pleasure of playing Walt "Painless Pole" Waldowski. Many people did not know that character unless they remember the movie as that character was never in the tv series. I played the dentist who was big on poker games but also threatened suicide a lot. The movie and this play were very different as to how this was handled and in the play, everyone gets together in a parody of FRANKENSTEIN where I was the creature so they painted my face green and when I woke up I had been drugged quite a bit and went screaming through the audience at people which was probably my favorite scene I had ever done.
6. The Nutcracker (2006): This was in Muncie at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts where each December, my mom's best friend Lisa runs the Children's Ballet Studio and puts on a performance for this show. This is the only ballet I have ever done and when I tell people I was in this show they just look at me in absolute confusion as people don't really see me as the ballet type. Well, they are right but I played the character of Drosselmeyer who is a magician and uncle I believe to Clara. I had more of a character role so I did not really have any ballet but many people seemed surprised by my characterization which was probably one of my hardest characters to have played. Usually, I know how my character moves through dialogue and singing but here I did not do those things so I had to tell a story through the instrumental music. Even the crowd of children spoke very highly to me after the show which ranged from late pre-school to about middle school and it is their compliments that mean the most since they may lie about a lot of things but that is not one of them. Lisa and my mom both seemed pretty surprised as well as the people in the show who seemed to respect my serious work ethic. I hope to get to do that again someday as that was a great experience.
5. D.K. Molar: The Devious Dentist (2007): This was my first show I did at Lee's Theatrical Productions in Anderson which was kind of an experimental show. I had actually gone there to see HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL because I just wanted to check the place out, see what the hype was all about, and see a couple friends. While HSM is not exactly my favorite show, I did look into the rest of their season and saw what I thought sounded quite interesting. It was about a crooked dentist who stole gold tooths from people and replaced them with pyrite. I went and auditioned for the show and the director Chad had me read for both male parts which were the evil D.K. Molar and the noble dentist Phil De Tooth. He ended up casting me as Phil in this show and Doug, who would become one of my best friends, as Dr. Molar. This was a six person cast which is something I always wanted to do so this was my first chance and my first leading man role as both male were equally as big and the female parts. I even got to have a love interest in Flossy Dailey which was also a first for me. It was an hour long comedy that went on for a weekend and I will always be grateful to Chad for casting this guy he had never met and then casting me in MASH in a good supporting part. I am very grateful to my brief experience in Lee's where while I was typecast as a dentist, I would get to play good parts and meet many lifelong friends which is the biggest reason in my #3 show which I will explain later.
4. 12 Bar Blues (2006): This was a show produced by the local Heartland Stage company in Muncie and we did this one-weekend show at the Muncie Civic Studio Theater which is actually the only time I have performed there but I hope to again sometime. This was a kind of situational show that took place in a bar and I played the role of Titus. I went to the bar and ordered a drink which took a long time to be made so I had a few scenes of dialogue and was otherwise sitting at my table observing the other situations and just making the most of my boredom. Each scene I came up with different things to do at my table including making a paper airplane out of a napkin and just came up with many things from my napkin and a couple drink coasters. The way I got a part in this one was that my mom was already cast in this show after being asked by Bonnie and I was just on quite a slump so my mom asked her if she had any parts for me and sure enough this great part was open. This is the only show where I met the writer of the play as he and his girlfriend were there all three shows and it meant a lot when they both spoke very highly to my limited dialogue but always came up with something to do.
3. A Few Good Men (2009): This is a show that I did because of my friends I met during MASH. This is so far the only show I have done for the Ricks-Weil Theater Group in Greenfield but hope to do more. I was at Bill's house during the Miller Family's weekly playing of cards where he got a message from our other MASH alum Thom informing us that there were auditions for this show in Greenfield. Bill then recommended I go out there and audition. I was a bit reluctant at first with the drive out there but when weighing out the pros and cons, I just had to give it a shot. I had been to Greenfield many times for wrestling shows and I go through there to get to my dad's house so I knew it was not a real bad drive since I work in Daleville right and am very close to I-69. I also sometimes went to Bill's house which is right outside of Anderson and caught a ride with all my friends that were in the show. The director Beth ended up getting the role of Corporal Jeffrey Howard which ER alum Noah Wyle played in the movie. It was not a big part but very notable and had three very good scenes as a marine. Being a Marine, I knew I could not keep my long hair and that I also needed to shave my facial hair so the week before I surprised everyone with how different I looked and the shortest hair I had in years but it was fine since it was for a show. I had seen the movie a couple years before this when I was at Rhonda's house for movie night but did not really remember how my character was portrayed so I made it a point to not watch the movie until the show was over and was surprised by how different my portrayal was to Noah Wyle's. He portrayed the character as humorous and care-free while I played the part as a hardcore Marine. It was nice to have a dramatic role that had limited comedy and was not really a villain.
2. Beauty and the Beast (2005): This was another show at Muncie Civic Theater where Marty seemed to have me heavily in mind for Lefou which was probably due to my performance in HONK! as the Turkey. This is based on the Disney movie which has a few additional musical numbers where I actually had my longest solo song in GASTON. Lefou is the buffoonish henchman of Gaston and is some of the comic relief of the show. I think this is the show that I got beat up the most and even hurt at times but I did not care. I received lots of compliments for this show and some even surprised by my singing abilities though it was a more humorous singing. I remember also thinking I had it pretty easy in a principle role where the chorus had lots of choreography to remember. This was another show with my mom who joined the cast at the last minute as the wardrobe and chased me off stage at the end of the show.
1. Frankenstein (2007): This was the perfect October show to do and was my first straight play I did on the Muncie Civic Theater stage though I did other non-musicals other places. The director Darrin cast me pretty quickly as Peter Schmidt, one of two gravediggers hired by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Joe played the other gravedigger Hans Metz. This is definitely the meanest character I ever played where I had pretty limited dialogue but I was determined to make the dialogue I had mean something and really convey how villainous that character was. I have had many comedic roles but I did not want this to be one of them as I did not want any gray areas with this character's villainy. I spoke my lines pretty slowly, made my eyes pretty wide, and even worked some with make-up which I don't usually use unless I feel my character calls for it. In a scene where I worked with Ryan, he told me that he was naturally creeped out by me so I set out to do what I wanted and then it was really great to hear Darrin say it was the best thing he has seen me do. It was a very good Halloween play where each actor held their own.
I hope to keep doing shows whether I just stay here or pursue a career in paid acting. I am proud of all the variety of shows I have done and the many places that I have done shows. This is kind of my drug in life and this is the place I fit into the most. I tagged many Facebook friends who I have worked with through the years and I am sorry if I missed anyone as I am limited in my tags. Again, thanks to all the great people I have worked with and the respect you have all shown me. I know I have said some pretty limited names since I don't want this to be too long but you all know who you are if you were not mentioned or tagged. If my mom had not started when I was a kid, who knows what I would be doing right now?
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