In the past few days, I have found myself embroiled in a bit of a controversy with the production of The Glass Menagerie at the 6th Street Playhouse in which I am playing Tom Wingfield. I have never been one to gossip about people and I make a real effort to encourage everyone in our creative field to be positive and not focus on negativity. It's a pretty simple equation to me. Negativity and gossip are destructive forces and have no place in trying to create. Unfortunately, my influence seems to mean little to some of the people around me who would call themselves my friends.

    When I moved to this area, I fell in love with the amount of support there seemed to be within the local theatre community. A few of my friends and I came up to do a benefit concert for a state park and were greeted with lots of assistance from the likes of Samantha Kimpel, David Templeton at the Glaser Center, Vicki Suemnicht at The Dance Center and Craig Miller at the 6th Street playhouse. After my coworker suddenly lost her husband, the people of this theatre community converged and supported and continue to support her in recovering from such a horrible turn of fate. My group of friends decided to stay in Sonoma County and try to help build up this local theatre scene, which already has a great foundation, into a regional theatre hotspot.

    I was fortunate enough to find a part time artistic home at the 6th Street Playhouse doing good work that I really believe in. It is not always great work, but it is always solid and artistically autonomous. This is not a place with a large budget and I spend more money on a production than I get paid, but I am happy to sacrifice time with my loved ones for the opportunity to bring some real stories to the people of our community. That is the only reason I do this kind of work at this level. I love the process of creating a character and telling a story through my art that has an affect on people. I have loved telling the stories of laid off factory workers in The Full Monty, the misunderstood patients in a mental institution in the 1960's in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and, perhaps what is closest to my heart, the destructive pain of a passionate artist who just can't seem to figure out how to fit in with the world in the way he feels he is expected to, and is tortured by his past decisions, in The Glass Menagerie.

    I think it was May of 2014 when Craig first said something to me about the possibility of playing Tom in this production. I was floored because of how long I have wanted to play it and how I had left that thought to the past because of my age and how it is typically staged. From the moment I picked up the script again, I started to think about all of the things I was taught in school to think about when Creating A Character. I have a very distinct process which includes NOT taking in anything that I should compare myself to. I don't watch the movie of a play I am doing until I am done performing it and I don't research other productions and try to take pointers from what others have done. My character work is mine and my director's and I do not want influences from how anyone may have done it before. It is an organic process which I believe has led me to the place in my career that I am at where I am very proud of the work I put in front of people.

  My facial hair is always a big part of any role I take on. My family will attest to the fact that I change my look all the time and am even willing to look ridiculous in my regular life instead of putting something fake on my face. I am into making the audience believe that this world is as real as it can be while still being on stage. I even went for a couple of weeks with a "Chaplin" or "Hitler" style mustache when I played Herman in Sweet Charity at the University of Vermont. Who does that?! This fool over here! I like wearing a beard usually, so I already had a bit of a beard when I started thinking about the role and continued to let it grow out to be as shaggy as possible to show people just how much my character is focusing on his tragic loss and has given up worrying about his appearance. Even as my wife begged me to shave my cheek and neck hair, I grew it out to look as much the part as I could.

   I bring up the beard, because I am hearing a lot of people talk about the similarities between our show and another one in Chicago and when I look at the pictures online, the main similarity I see is the appearance of me and the Tom in their production. Of course he looks a lot more like a model than I do with my receding hairline and gray in my beard, but we both have similar brown beards. In all honesty, my beard has a lot more gray in it than can be seen in our production photos, because I didn't like the way it looked when we did our video promo months ago and put a little Just for Men in it to balance the color of my chin hair with my jaw hair. But until yesterday, I had never seen a picture of this other production. This choice was made all on my own, with out input from any stylists from the show. I did it in the bathroom of my trailer (where I live, not like a movie star's trailer) and the first time I did the Light/Medium Brown M-30, I left it in waaaaaay too long and it almost turned black. I felt like a Brian Wilson wannabe (the pitcher not the Beach Boy) and finally was able to give it a better balance after a couple of weeks of washing the color out on a regular basis.

   Another similarity is my trench coat. I said in one of the first rehearsals that I imagine that Tom has lots of paper in lots of pockets which are the writings of his memory play which is being performed and he is still working on. When I worked as a guard in prison, I saw guys sewing extra pockets onto their clothing and thought of Tom doing the same thing. I still have no idea if that is even an aspect of the other production, so I definitely did not steal the idea. A trench coat worked better than the usual pea coat which is worn by Tom, because of the size of the sheets of paper that I have in bunches in all of the different pockets. Our costume designer did a great job sewing the pockets on and distressing the coat to make it look well worn in Tom's world. I use these pages throughout the show and I was given the freedom of finding places to use them. The device may not work or it may seem a bit odd at times, but I take full responsibility for it. There was only one time when it was affected by a note which was to get rid of using it in one scene, which I think made the scene cleaner and had no complaints about the direction.

    At no point in the rehearsal process or the pre-production did I ever hear of this other production from Craig or had I seen any pictures from it. There are ideas that we use which they didn't. The director of the other production put the hashtag on his FB page of #thisassholestolemyplaybutnosweatcauseitdidntlookgood, without considering that the productions look completely different because they came from completely different points of view. Except for the look of yours truly, which as I stated is very similar to their Tom. Let's speak about that hashtag for a moment. This guy says "stolemyplay," which seems to me that he has lost all respect for the author of the play, Tennessee Williams. When did The Glass Menagerie become the property of this man? He can't quite figure that out, but it seems to me that he has quite the ego and thinks that everything he does is gold and should be known worldwide.

    I think that leads me to my last point in what has become a much longer post than I intended. To what end would we want to steal an artistic concept? Apparently, the director of the other production has Waiting for Guffman type dreams of "going to BROAD-WAY!" We at the 6th Street Playhouse have no such ambitions. We do this to serve the community in which we live. We want people to think differently about the homeless in our community and create a conversation about mental illness that is sorely lacking in the United States. We do not make money off of producing and performing in these works of art, we just do it for the love of the art itself. I believe that theatre has a certain power that we need to embrace for the good of our society. Let's get people back to thinking critically about issues instead of regurgitating what they hear on Television and taking a side like they are cheering for the A's or the White Sox.

I'll repeat what I posted on Facebook the day we started getting attacked by the Chicago crowd:
'Let's change the narrative of this conversation. This is our daily reality in the West End of Santa Rosa. Homelessness is not only a problem in big cities. There is plenty of inspiration for Craig A. Miller's The Glass Menagerie right outside our theatre walls. There are nearly 10,000 homeless individuals in Sonoma County. Thanks to Waverly and Matthew for talking to me about their lives and allowing me to share their pics with the internet.'

    Like I said before, we in the theatre community should build each other up and not tear each other down. I had a dance teacher in college who said, "Shit never turned a double pirouette." Negativity, gossip and put downs are not good tools for creators to use.  Imagine the beauty of the art we could create if we only encourage others to be the best they can be with the support of the entire theatre community. Theatre is an art form that has existed for thousands of years and I am proud to be a tiny part of the lineage of this art form. I believe in the power of theatre to change lives. I believe this is a superior art form to television and film because it is such a collaborative process which includes the feedback we get from each individual audience and our immediate surroundings. That community feedback is what makes theatre so addictive. I have done film and television, but do not feel the connection to those art forms like I do to performing live in front of my neighbors. I may be feeling shattered by all of the bad feelings coming my way, but I believe that the power of theatre will make me feel better once I get on stage again. I am looking forward to sharing our work with my community, friends and family, a few more times this weekend. I will continue do the good work that I am proud of and encourage others to do the same.

  I always say that the thing I like best about being a stage actor, is going to the bar with cool people afterward! That's only a little bit tongue in cheek. Being able to make deep connections with people over short periods of time is one of the most incredible things about being in the theatre. There is something about going through a super stressful situation together which inevitably fosters bonds between people. Whether those people are the audience or the fellow actors and crew, it's the connections which draw me back to the stage.
  I had taken a big hiatus from the stage to focus on pursuing my childhood dream of acting on screen. I knew that the stage would consume my life if I were to dip my toe in, so I made a commitment to stay away from the boards and focus on acting for the camera. I found the ability to bond with the cast and crew of video productions was a little different. The pressure is not nearly as intense on a film and television set as it is when you have  a live audience coming to the show whether you are ready or not! Life on a Hollywood set is much more relaxed with a lot of sitting around time, which allows us to talk a lot, but there's just something different about it.
  Another thing that I found lacking in my experience as a screen actor was the ability to really craft a performance like I can in the theatrical rehearsal process. The people who decide what an actor's final product looks like on screen are not the actors. Those decisions are made by the director and the editor long after the actors have done their work. I love the permanence of the product once it is done, but there is something about being able to make decisions on the fly about how my character would react in a certain situation that I really miss when I'm working in front of the camera.

  When I moved to Sonoma County in 2012, I was suddenly thrust back into the world of live theatre in a position that was novel to me, but a completely organic outgrowth of my previous experiences. The theatre became my home away from home once again in my professional life. I was spending the majority of my week in the theatre as a teacher and a producer, and decided that it was time for me to get back on the boards as a performer. My first show in front of an audience other than a crew was with The Full Monty in the Spring of 2013. Just a few months shy of a whole decade since I had been in Dames at Sea in Westminster, MD, which was the last full musical I had performed in.
  My friend Lennie Dean came to that performance and was very excited to see my chops and said that it had put me on her "radar." A few months later, she asked me to audition for her upcoming production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Since I can sing and dance as well as act, I generally get stuck with musical or comic roles, so being a part of such an amazing piece of American literature was an exciting prospect for me. Once I was cast as the neurotic Dale Harding, I realized that this challenge could not have come at a better time for me to really sink my teeth into the role and do the type of work I have always dreamed of doing. I really tried to transform myself for the character including losing 20 pounds and adopting his nervous gestures and mannerisms which Ken Kesey detailed in his pivotal novel.
  Luckily, Lennie did an amazing job of casting our little band of misfits, and we were able to craft a beautiful show that had an impact on our audiences. It was a very draining process and left me feeling a bit of an emotional hangover after the shows, and a major need for decompressing at the bar afterward! I made some great, new friends from different parts of the bay area and left the whole experience feeling so much richer for having been a part of something so powerful. I did receive lots of praise for my portrayal, but I often wonder how much of that is people being nice and friendly, so I never let it go to my head, although I am very grateful.

  When I was asked to be a member of the Sonoma County Stage One Theatre Arts (SOTA) Academy, I was thrilled and honored to be included in the local theatre community. I took the task of nominating people for the varied awards, very seriously and tried my best to honor the most deserving people, but was never expecting to be one of the people who would be honored. After only being in the local theatre community for a little over a year, I thought that not enough people would know who I was and therefore, wouldn't think to vote for me. Apparently I was mistaken.
  When I heard my name announced, by my friend Jill Zimmerman, as the recipient of the Best Supporting Actor award for my role in Cuckoo's Nest, I was shocked and humbled by the love that I have been able to receive in the short time that I have been a member of this great community. I have thought for years about the things I would love to say if I ever had the chance to make a speech for something like this, but somehow, none of those things came to my mind. Instead, I felt the need to express my extreme gratitude to the people close to me that make it possible for me to do what I love to do. I was and am honored, but I still approach everything in the same way I did before. I don't know if I'm chasing my future self, like some other actor who received an award recently, or just trying to do the best I can in every situation I'm in by appreciating these moments. After all, that's what life is, right. A series of moments. Why don't you go out and seize yours?! Alright, alright, alright.
  I may never get the chance to do something as powerful as this. After 20 years in this business, that's a reality which I am well aware of and helps me to appreciate all of the incredible opportunities I have. I'll still do the same level of work or better, but I know that the accolades can't always come in the form of awards and good reviews. If we spend our lives worrying about trying to win something for the work we're doing, life will be full of disappointments. I guess that's why I feel like I am winning every time I get to step on stage with the company of other great artists who are blessed to do what we love and share that gift with our community. This award will always be special to me, just as the awards I won in high school still are, but I loved my career on the stage for the 19 years in between those awards just as much as I will love the next project I start working on.

I love making my son's costume every year. He always wants to be something obscure from animation or video games. One year he went as Stinkoman 20X6 (pronounced twenty exty six). I'd love a comment from anyone who knows what that is! I'll even post a pic of the finished product! This year, it's Dr Wily from the Mega Man video game series. Usually he is seen with a white shirt and a red tie, but rarely he is seen with a pink shirt and a green tie. Of course that's what he wanted. We went poppin' tags at the thrift shop and were able to find the whole thing for $7.75 at goodwill. My parents were in town for the opening of Cuckoo's Nest and bought him the lab coat, bald cap, hair color and moustache! Leesa provided an old fishnet stocking to help keep his hair tame for the bald cap. I never thought I would be okay with cutting up fishnets for a child's costume! Gotta love Halloween!

The look for Dale Harding in Cuckoo's nest is coming together. I just got my hairs cut this weekend by the wonderful Pam, my face is bald, and my glasses ROCK!

You can see how impressed Justin is with my new doo!

Working on this show has been quite a challenge emotionally. There have been some bumps in the road, but the final product is going to be riveting. Yesterday, I had a sense of what it will be like with an audience there.

It's funny how naked one can feel letting emotions show on stage. It's much different from working on musicals or comedies! If we do it right, the audience is going to come on quite the emotional roller coaster with us.

Our first rehearsal with an audience is for a group of High School kids on Tuesday of tech week. That will be an exciting challenge. If we can hold their attention, we'll build tons of confidence for opening on Friday!