Balls! Balls! I love Balls!

That is the line the King says when he enters the room and we're all dancing. Great line, especially the way he says it. Hilarious! So we danced and danced for 3 straight hours. We only learned 2 dances, but they were pretty complex dances. We spent 2 1/2 hours on one dance that we learned last week, which meant we only had 30 minutes to learn the second one. Thankfully it wasn't as long of a song, but still, it was more technical, and to be honest, I totally sucked at it and was feeling like I really did have two left feet. The scary thing to me was that I consider myself a decent dancer. I'm not Barishnikov by any means, but I can hold my own. I was being proved wrong in this case under a time crunch. The cool thing is that because it was so short, we were able to do it over and over. I think in the 30 minutes we had, we were able to run through the dance about 18 times. By the time we got to the end, it really started to look pretty good. Of course we'll need a little more work on this, but it was really cool that the whole cast was on board with running this over and over. It was to the point that near the end, we would have the Monday Wednesday Friday cast run through the dance with the music, and as soon as it was over, we were all running to get into place for the Tuesday Thursday Saturday cast to run through it. We were all saying, "let's run it again!" It was awesome.

More Rehearsals

The rehearsals are going great. We have all the fight scenes choreographed now and solid. So now all we have to do is nail down the moves and the intent of our characters in the fights. Oh, yeah, and do it with real swords while not injuring or slicing anyone.
It's been scary and fun at the same time. The show is really starting to come together. I'm excited to see it all put together again. We're going to be running the full show next week and then fine tuning it from there. I think next week we'll be able to practice on our stage as well, so we'll be able to incorporate the stairs in all of our fights. Now if they would only get us our hats and scabbard belts. I think that's going to be a big adjustment in our fights once we have those. It's too bad we don't have them already. All we can do is work with what we have for now, and for now it's looking good!

Sword Play

For the first 3 weeks of rehearsal, we've been learning stage combat. Everything from fisticuffs to sword fighting. They gave each of us a wooden dowel the length of our swords and about the same weight to work with in order the strengthen our arms and muscle memory. The fight sequences are pretty technical, and we've finally choreographed all of them. Last night I got to finally go through one of the fight sequences with a real sword. We took it really slow, and I have to say that's a great thing because it was kind of scary knowing that I was wielding a real weapon that could actually kill someone. Here is a video that shows some of the moves from the stage combat training. My neighbor was gracious enough to learn some of the fight with me and played it off beautifully.

The Three Musketeers

Up to about 4 months ago, I was having a struggle. I saw something about this 11 year old boy in England who is already a master painter, like in the ranks of Picasso good. His paintings are incredible. I remember thinking, "Wow, how cool would it be to learn what your passion is at such an early age!" I was jealous. I've coached kids on my soccer teams who are just freaky good at that, and they have continued to play the sport on a highly competitive level all the way through high school and possibly beyond. I see it in their actions. They do something everyday it seems to get better at something that they are already better than 95% of the population. Why, because it's fun to them. That's why it's called a passion.

So during the past 3 years, I've been trying to figure out what my passion is. You know, like really find out what it is that I love to do, that I'm willing to work on nearly every day. I've dabbled with painting, but I don't have the desire to clean up my mess each time I finish, not to mention I've got a nearly 3-year-old boy who would probably make an even bigger mess with it if I were to forget to put things away. I've picked up the harmonica, and have learned quite a few songs, and I really enjoy playing it, but I'm certainly not passionate about it. I was beginning to wonder what I would be willing to do every day of my life - aside from having sex that is.

My wife and I took this course called The Landmark Forum in October. It was absolutely amazing and has really helped me to let go of the past and work with a clean slate from the present and live into a future that I've created for myself. But what future am I living into was the big question.

Shortly after that we took the boys to a local theatre and watched my brother-in-law perform in a play. It's been a long while since I've been to a play, and as I was sitting there, I felt a burning desire to be on stage again. It has been over 4 years since I was in a play, and it was 6 years before that that I've been onstage. Aside from my brother-in-law, the show was abysmal. I began tearing it apart - how sloppy it was, and how unprofessional the whole thing seemed to be, and how some of the actors didn't even take their acting seriously. I had to stop and ask myself why it upset me so much. What did it matter to me? Well, the answer hit me pretty hard. I knew that I would have done a much better job on stage, and was disturbed by such poor acting, because it's something I know I'm good at. So on the drive home I said to myself, 'I'm going to be onstage again!'

I found it! My passion! It's been under my nose the whole time and for some reason I've been dismissing it. Here is the definition of the word passion according to thefreedictionary.com:
pas·sion (pshn)n.

1. A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.

2.

a. Ardent love.

b. Strong sexual desire; lust.

c. The object of such love or desire.

3.

a. Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don't quite match his passion for the game.

b. The object of such enthusiasm: Soccer is her passion.

4. An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He's been known to fly into a passion without warning.

5. Passion

a. The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament.

b. A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus's sufferings.

OK so aside from number 5, acting for me fits into all of these categories. I must admit it, I am a performer through and through. It's almost like it's in my blood. I love to be in front of a crowd performing. My bones almost ache to be on a stage of some kind. I feel in throughout my entire body. It is undeniable.

After dusting off my passion for acting, I decided to take action. I called the theatre that I used to perform improv comedy at, and asked them what it would take to get back into the rotation. The owner recommended that I take his next "performing improv" class. So I signed up. I was once again in my element. It felt right. It felt good, and I had a renewed sense of confidence in my abilities. After a few weeks, I realized that improv may not be the best thing for me, and I really wanted to get into some kind of scenes class or something like that, but the stage was still calling me. I did a google search for "acting auditions Salt Lake City" and came across a site that gave information on local auditions. As I searched through what was out there, I remembered where the passion for the stage really cemented in me...

I was 15 years old and my High School acting class attended a performance of "See How They Run" at the Hale Centre Theatre in Salt Lake. After that show was over, I was a changed man. I knew that was something I wanted to do. I even went as far as being cast as James Keller in "The Miracle Worker" and I performed on that very stage that started it all for me. Of course that was 18 years ago, and they moved into a new building since then.

I didn't see anything that was interesting to me on that web site, so I looked up the Hale Centre Theatre, and their site was pretty easy to navigate, they had a tab that said Auditions. I looked there and they had auditions coming up in 2 weeks for The Three Musketeers. I was floored, this was perfect! It was in the right time frame for me and the characters were perfect for my skill and abilities. I decided to go for it. I called and set up an audition time, printed a copy of the 1 minute audition pieces for Aramis and Porthos, and began to memorize them.

I went to my audition on a Saturday, and I was nervous as can be, but still I felt good about it. I went into the room with all the directors and producers with 5 other people and gave my reading of Porthos. (they only had time to hear one piece from each person) After everyone was done, we walked out to find a hallway filled with other people there waiting for their turn to audition as well. The gal that sent us into the room told us to wait around, and they would tell us if we got a call back to the 2nd round of auditions. So I waited with sweaty palms, and 15 minutes later was relived to know that I made it to the next round! I had to come back in two days!

On Monday, I came back to the theatre to the audition room full of about 60 people who got called back. They took all the men into another room and the choreographer taught us a sequence of a fight scene and we had to perform it two at a time after going through it about 8 or 9 times. I was having a heck of a time remembering all the moves in the correct sequence, but some guy put a dowel in my hand, and I was on. I felt like I did OK. They then took us back into the audition room and we had to read a few scenes. I got to read some of Aramis, Porthos, Rochefort, and Athos. I just tried to be loud and clear every time I read, and then they sent us all home and let us know that they would call us if they wanted us to come back for a final round.

On Tuesday they called me and let me know that I made it to the final round! I was so excited, and had to go back to the theatre on Wednesday night. I was right in following my passion. Even if I didn't get past the final round, I knew that I was good enough and that I belonged in that environment.

I returned to the theatre on Wednesday evening. The room was full of about 20 guys. They must have already decided on who would fill the female roles. I read for Porthos, Athos, and Rochefort. It appeared that they had already cast Aramis and D'Artagnan because they only had the same guys reading his stuff. At Hale they double cast all their shows, so I knew that 4 guys were not going to take one of the roles I was after. I really wanted Porthos, or maybe even Athos, but I was reading for Rochefort an awful lot, and I was a little nervous because although it would be fun, I really didn't want the role of bad guy. I just did the best I could, but everyone there was really, REALLY good.

Thursday at lunch time, I got a phone call from the stage manager. She offered me the part of Porthos! Woo Hoo!!! I was so excited. I really wanted that part, I felt like that was my part right from the beginning, and lo and behold it really was mine!

So we're in the middle of rehearsing now. Lots of sword fighting, fist fighting, and all sorts of running around. I'll continue to post, and hopefully the next one's won't be as long as this one. Stay tuned.