My Long and Illustrious Theatre Career

Who would have guessed that when I opted out of my “mandatory” eighth grade art class and woodshop class by taking two year-long electives instead, that one route would lead me to become an international traveller, and the other would give me a life-long passion for performing? This page commemorates my theatrical experiences over the years. By the way, anyone who has been in plays with me (or been directed by me) who has pictures, please contact me to let me know if I can borrow your photos and/or negatives! I need more photos!

The first productions I was in were all skits. My first full-length show was a piece called Kids when I was in eighth grade; it was a script that had been written perhaps five years earlier by other eighth grade theatre students. In this show, I had the lead role of the psychiatrist, who is counseling a child from pre-birth through her teenage years, and our story is what links all of the other scenes together. In the other scenes, I played such memorable characters as Simon the Loser’s Mother (I based my entire character on Joan Rivers, so Joan, wherever you are, God bless you for the inspiration!) and a lovestruck teenage boy who can’t manage to say the right thing to the girl of his dreams.

I played Vince Fontaine, the radio announcer. No need to go into this one in greater detail... I didn’t get a lead role because I was still afraid of singing onstage, and everyone knows the basic plot of this show (if you don’t, apparently you spent the last twenty years comatose or in a religious cult).

This was my freshman year at Woodbridge High School in Irvine, California. I had a great time doing this because I got to meet a lot of interesting and influential people, like Jenny Adcock and Josslyn Luckett. Unfortunately, as fun as the music is, I still can’t stand the script of this show (it’s just so trite, except when it’s being heavy-handed!).

This was a very melodramatic courtroom mystery/suspense/thriller I was in my sophomore year in high school. I played the hero, “George.” Travis Pack played the bad guy. There was a fight scene near the end of the show and, since we were never given any instruction in stage combat, we would basically beat the crap out of each other every evening and both of us would go home with bruises all over.

Another show that I’ve never been crazy for, but I had a fun time doing it. I got to be a gangster and a cabana boy (some of my favorite role playing fantasies).

I don’t have any photos of this one. It was just a cute like one-act comedy I was in my junior year. I played Igor the assistant. The best part of this show was watching Travis Pack (as the wolf man) do battle against the Invisible Man, a performance that ranks up there with Bruce Campbell’s battle against his own hand in Evil Dead II. My sister Brandi was also in this one and did the artwork for the program’s playbill, pictured here.

This was my big starring role my junior year in high school in 1989, with the Franklin Civic Operetta. I played Danny Hooper, one of the six leads (the show is about three couples in three stages of life, and how having a baby is changing their lives). It was so popular that we got held over for additional performances.

This is the show that gave me back my love of the theatre. I had been involved with Penn State Thespians since spring of 1991 doing backstage work, box office and publicity, etc... but had been very disillusioned with the entire casting and performance processes when I realized just how political everything was (and this was something that I came to realize during Baby). Jason Zanitsch, who was one of my roommates in my first off-campus living experiences, as well as my roommate again seven years later during my last year in State College, was directing this one and convinced me to audition. Even more amazing, he cast me! This is still the pinnacle of my theatre career, even though I was part of an ensemble and not a lead player. This was the most compassionate, loving cast I’ve ever known, and the talent pooled therein was incredible. Opening night, there were nuns in our audience who claimed that they liked our show better than the original Broadway version!

This is “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord,” led by Adam Fitting, who has been my best friend since doing this show in 1993!

Also from Godspell, this is a scene from Hell which is, in fact, a disco inferno. Nuff said.

I did this children’s show right after Godspell. I enjoy doing children’s theatre, because everything about it is so different from regular theatre. This one was written and directed by my friend Amy Alleman, whom you may remember from the slide show on my Geocities site. The Frog was played by my best friend, Adam Fitting, and I played his counterpart as the prince, while my roommate Michael played the king or something regal there with the crown. Amy didn’t want the traditional “blue for boys, pink for girls” gender coloring, so the princess (Amy Crivelli) and I mixed and matched our pinks and blues. The only mistake was that I was told to buy my own pink shirt and I bought a fuscia shirt (I thought “reddish but not red... must be pink”).

I wasn’t crazy about this play; personally, I find the script lousy, and, gee, isn’t Rupert Holmes (the composer) the same guy who wrote the “Pina Colada” song? This shot is of my friend Keith Spencer, who played the villain. Keith and I share a birthday.

This is also from Drood. This is my friend Amy Nason, who has an incredible comic gift. Don’t know where she is now, so if you know her or of her, tell her to contact me.

No photos available for this one, but I thought I’d include it. I’m not crazy about Andrew Lloyd Weber; I find him pretty darn schlocky if you must know. And Tim Rice writes really insipid lyrics. But again, I met some wonderful people during this one, especially my friend Summer Coulter.

No photos available. This was a great show, but unfortunately a big box office flop due to a complete lack of marketing. The entire cast of this was incredible, but I hated working with Matt Kudish as a director -- he was such a condescending prick (and I’m pretty sure the cast will back me up on this one). I played Ralph, who was the very patriotic guy with his life planned out; a surly bag boy (I think his name was James?); and also sang the Mason’s song. This is such an incredible show; the script is wonderful, the music is engaging and moving.

Brigadoon gave me another opportunity to work under Jason’s direction. This was a first-rate show out at the Boal Barn (State College Community Theatre). I played Charles Dalrymple, who marries Bonnie Jean; the part itself was small, but I had two solo numbers, which gave me two opportunities to hog the spotlight, and the rest of the show free from the worries of learning a whole bunch of lines. My favorite kind of role, really.

No photos available. This is a very fun, non-PC show. The sexism in this is really funny, and the songs are catchy. I played a very small role, but I enjoyed the cast and crew. I met some wonderful people during this production, who I later used when I directed...

No photos available. Based on the Jon Sciezska children’s book. I had a great time with this; so much talent, largely undiscovered and/or previously untapped. I co-directed this with my friend Chris Kraus.

While in Greece, I had an opportunity to continue performing. This was a translation by Cornell Professor Fred Ahl, who does work with the Athens Centre in Greece. He also directed us and was our professor of Greek and Roman Tragedy.

No photos available. This was a summer show I did after returning from Greece, directed by my friend Lauren Hamm. The script is just awful, but the music is so fantastic. Who in my generation doesn’t relish his or her childhood memories of Saturday mornings in front of the TV, watching these between cartoons and learning about grammar, math, and history? Lauren worked us like dogs to get the choreography down, and ultimately we had a great show. I got to work with Summer Coulter (from Joseph) and Wendy Mills (from Working) again, as well as make two great new friends, Christina di Angelis and Jason Yeats. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to do any theatre work since.

No photos available. This was my first paid gig as an actor (well, my first REGULAR gig as an actor; I did get paid for an original production in State College presented by The Next Stage; the show was Elma, and the role was a walk-on). The funny thing is that I was referred to the audition by a new friend who had been offered a role but had to turn it down because he had just gone equity. So I called the theatre, mentioned my friend, got an audition, walked in, sang a verse of Sondheim’s “Being Alive” (from Company) and was offered the part on the spot. Talk about fate!

Monky Business made its East Coast debut at Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia and ran for three months in early 1999. Although the show had its moments (there were some very funny lines, and I enjoyed working with most of the cast), it was ruined by one performer who decided that as long as the premise of the play was a radio show and since we all had clipboards, he may as well read his lines straight from his script off the clipboard every night for the entire run of the show. As you can imagine, this hardly instilled confidence in any of the performers, not to mention the loss of pacing and morale as a result of one very, very, very weak link. I enjoyed Philadelphia Inquirer theatre critic Doug Keating’s absolutely scathing review, the likes of which I’d never had directed towards myself: “Two of the cast’s members are adequate actors; the other three are noticeably amateurish. None is an accomplished singer, and a couple can’t sing at all.”

No photos available. You’d wonder why, after a show like Monky Business, I would return to Society Hill Playhouse, let alone the stage in general. Well, Dewey Oriente cast me again, and then I dropped out of rehearsals to pick up extra paying work to help with my credit card debt. Soon, however, they lost my replacement and fired other cast members, and before you knew it I was being begged back to stage. Is there anything an actor likes better than to have someone beg him to perform? I had to say yes. And at first I regretted it. Very, very deeply. I was thrown into the show with basically no rehearsal, which really was apparent during the dance numbers, and there were all sorts of technical mishaps and a seemingly revolving door of cast members. Eventually, however, after I had been in the show for about a month, things were smoothed over and by the New Year&#s Eve performance we had a heck of a good show, and finished out the final month of the run with strong performances and good audiences.