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.

So I started a reading group...

We've been reading "Think And Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill. We read out loud, a chapter a week, and then we discuss what it means to us, and how we can benefit from it. We just read Chapter 2 last week, and were about to read Chapter 3 tonight.

Chapter 2 is about getting specific with your goal. I know I definitely have mine, but I have more than just one. I've got a few I've realized, and I thought that it would be good to post them on here in an effort to "Burn my bridge" or "Throw my hat over the fence" or whatever you wanna call it. To me, it's my commitment, I'm in this all the way, and there's no going back, it's as they say in Chapter 2 time to "win or perish." So here I go.

1. Get my web based business off the ground. I've been thinking about this business for the past 3 years. I've done quite a bit of the formatting and design work for it (on paper) and I've written a bunch of the wording for the website so far. I really need to get in touch with a good programmer who does MySQL and builds websites. I need someone who knows about text messaging, and I need a good business lawyer to make sure I do this all right legally. But I am bound and determined to get this thing off the ground. I'm shooting for July 20th of this year to have a working website.

2. Learn how to play the piano. I grew up in a house that had a piano most of my life, and I've never had one piano lesson. I was even in Madrigals and Jazz Choir in high school, and I couldn't tell you if I was singing an F or and F#. I had no clue, I just knew that when the note was higher on the scale, I needed to sing higher, and I knew rhythm from playing drums in 9th grade. I've always wanted be able to play the piano. We have my step-son in piano lessons, and we bought him the beginner books to learn. He practices every day for 30 minutes, and I figure that if that's the way it's supposed to be done, then why not do it at the same time? I should be able to learn how to play the piano at least as quickly as him, right? I think I'm doing pretty well. I learned how to play a small part of Beethoven's 5th already. I don't know why, but I've always had the ridiculous idea that playing the piano should come instantly to me. In the ripe age of 36 I've realized that some things just take time and action by you to become a reality. It's perfect that I'm going for two pretty big goals at the same time. I'm going to be able to judge my progress in both and be able to see if I'm falling behind.

3. Get into the best shape of my life. I love to mountain bike. I went 3 times last year, and all three times I felt like I had my ass handed to me on a platter. I was getting smoked by my fellow riders, and I used to do pretty well on uphill, but not last year. This year, I'm devoted to get back to the fitness level I was at 7 years ago. I started swimming at the local rec center. I swam 2-3 times a week for the month of February, and I was increasing the number of laps I could swim in 30 minutes every time I went. I need to get another pass this month, but I should still be able to do some stuff at home. If any of you have a Bowflex that you haven't been using, let me know. I'm the kind of person who would exercise more often if the stuff was right in my own home rather than go to the gym. I'm going to start doing push-ups and sit-ups daily as well, that can't hurt.

4. Simplify my house. Alright, what that hell are you talking about, simplify your house? Well this is what that means. My garage is full of crap that I don't need. In fact, there is a lot of stuff in my home that I haven't used or even looked at in over a year. My house is full of clutter, and I used to believe that a clean room or desk or what have you, was the sign of a sick mind. In truth, I'm sure it helps keep your mind clear. I've been thinking that the clutter of the house is like a metaphor for the clutter in my brain. With reading this book, I'm getting focused on what I truly want, and I'm going for it. In order to do that, I have to eliminate outside distractions that prevent me from putting in the effort and taking the necessary actions. So I should also clear out any unnecessary clutter from my eyesight as well. I recently visited a friends house, and they took us on a tour of their huge house. The one thing I noticed throughout the tour was how clean the house was. There was virtually no clutter! Their bedroom looked like it was about to have a picture taken of it for some magazine insert. All of the kids rooms were impeccably clean. I'm sure it's a team effort in their house, but really it starts from the top down. I wouldn't want to bring anyone into my room except family at this point. We're not slobs, we just have a lot of clutter. I know a good portion of it is me, and I'm working on that. Spring cleaning is going to have a whole new meaning for me this year though. It's starting to warm up now, and my garage is calling me in my sleep to clean it out. Can you say yard sale? Target date for completion: garage 3/29/09; upstairs 4/30/09; downstairs 5/17/09; basement 5/31/09.

5. Start getting to bed at 11:00PM. I have realized that I am not getting enough sleep for the past few years. My excuse for this has been that I'm used to it now. My body is telling me otherwise. I'm not going to hold myself to this bedtime every night, but if I can manage to be in bed by eleven 4 nights a week my body will thank me for it. Eight hours of sleep has got to be better than the 5 1/2-6 1/2 I've been managing lately.

So there it is. My 5 commitments. I know it's pretty ambitious, but it's also very doable. I'll be sure to write updates on how it all goes. Any encouragement would be much appreciated.

I'll finish with this quote by Les Brown:
"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." Well, here are my first 5 steps to greatness, and now I can't say that I don't know what it is that I need to do either.

The cross country road trip

So I flew to Baltimore, MD last Saturday to drive my mother-in-law back from the Washington D.C. area. It was quite the adventure, and quite the drive. We journeyed 2130 miles, most of it on I-70.
The drive started in Takoma, Maryland. The night before we went to Virginia, and right into the downtown D.C. area where we ate at Ben's Chili Bowl. It was really cool. There was great music blaring inside, and a line that snaked around the counter to where we were finally able to order the Chili Half-Smoke. This is apparently the same thing Barak Obama orders when he goes there. Many famous people have eaten there in fact, and there is a sign behind the counter that says, "Allowed to eat free here, Bill Cosby, and the Obama Family." Bill Cosby went to Howard University which is not far from Ben's, and he visits often. There are pictures all over the wall of famous people who have eaten there. This picture was taken outside of Ben's. There is this statue of a bear that is painted all over.

From there we went to see the Capitol Building. I've always wanted to see the Smithsonian, but we didn't have time to even get out of the car. As a matter of fact, we passed all sorts of buildings, and I didn't take any pictures of them, because I was more concerned with Michele's driving. She was freaking me out. I did manage to get this one picture though. This is where it all happens for this country. I was able to see the Washington Monument, and get a quick glimps of the Lincoln Memorial from about 400 yards away, but like I said, I was busy being worried about my life. So We packed up all the boxes from Michele's apartment into the Penske truck and loaded her car on the towing trailer, and hit the road. So far we traveled through Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland. We drove out on Sunday afternoon. On the way we passed through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and stopped in Richmond, Indiana. It was a smooth drive, and a new record for me to drive in 5 states in 8 hours.
The next morning we hit the road and drove through the rest of Indiana, Illinois and almost all the way through Missouri. We stopped at a little town called Blue Springs, Mo. while we were shooting to get to Salina, KS. We were way off on how much distance we could cover in a day in that huge yellow beast.
Plus when we reached St. Louis, we stopped to check out the arch. I'd watched an episode of 'Modern Marvels' about the Gateway Arch. It was pretty cool to see it, but it was even cooler to go up inside of it. If you never get the chance, then enjoy what I have here, and maybe one day you'll have an opportunity to post about your national monument experience, and return the favor. Here are just a few of the photos from the excursion. I've got a video from going up inside it. Those carts were tiny. So here are some pictures from the little window looking west towards downtown St. Louis. Wanna go up? Check this out? So I took these from left to right. There is where the St. Louis Cardinals play. Home of the great slugger Albert Pujols. In the middle there is the courthouse. On the right is the Edward Jones dome. Home of the St. Louis Rams. Rumor has it that the Larry H. Miller family is going to try to buy the team and bring them to Salt Lake City. Only time will tell on that one.




Here are some other great shots looking down from the top. Here are a few more images from the arch. Me from the peak of the arch at 630 feet up. Here is a barge pushing three loads down the Mississippi.
It was quite the adventure. I'm glad that we stopped.
So we take off the next day and enter Kansas. This has got to be the flattest piece of earth on the planet. So flat in fact, that you can see the curvature of the earth. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but this will have to do. This is one huge country we live in! What was really cool about the whole trip was that each state had it's own terrain. I mean, if you were to show me a picture of Wyoming, or Kansas, or Indiana, I would be able to tell the difference just from the terrain. Here is the path we took.
After Kansas we drove into Colorado, and then headed north and just into Cheyenne, Wyoming. From there we were going to make it to Salt Lake City the next day around 5PM. The only problem was, while parking that night in Cheyenne, I had to back up the truck to park, and in the process I ended up jack-knifing the trailer and bent the tongue of the trailer. I was so pissed at myself, because we had managed to be incident free throughout the drive. I got some help from another trucker and straightened it out somewhat and then we hit the road again.
The next day we drove through The Cowboy State and finally into Utah. I am so happy to be home with my family again. I am also extremely grateful that we made it alive and nothing really bad happened. Driving through 12 states and one district in 5 days was more than I ever want to do again, but if I had to pick a sponsor for our trip it would have to be "5 Hour Energy" I never would have made it without that tiny little bottle. It truly kept me awake and alert behind the wheel, and I didn't have the sugar crash when it wore off either. That stuff really works. I was so motivated to get home to my wife and boys, I had to use what ever would work. I'm so thankful for technology today. That trip would have been tons worse had it not been for cell phones and hotels that have internet access. And screw ONSTAR and Qualcomm we had an even better navigation system. We had RACHEL. Not only did she have a sexy voice, and I knew she equaled that voice in looks, but she would look for Motels that we were approaching and make sure there was availability and what the parking lot situation was like for our truck and trailer, and then would call back and give complete directions including the exit to take, and how far it was. Then she would plot out our course for the next days travel. It was pretty awesome let me tell you! I love that woman. If you want to hire her, it'll be $1200 a day.

Anthony tells all! Exclusive interview.

So I read my wife's blog and saw a meme, that I commented on and lo and behold, here we are. Five questions that she wants the answers to.

1. What one film do you think everyone should see?
Well that's really a toss up. It boils down to two films:
Shawshank Redemption is probably one of my all time favorites, and it's always been in my top 10 list. I just looked it up on IMDB in the top 250 movies, and it's there at numero uno.
Schindler's List is the second film, and I would have to go with this film as the one that I think everyone should see. Spielberg did an amazing job with this one. This is a moment in history that we should never forget, and it gives a pretty good idea what those times must have been like.

2. Name the best TV series of all time & why?
This is a tough one, but the first series that I was ever hooked on, and that I watched every night and saw every episode of was Moonlighting. I loved David and Maddie's conversations where they would both talk at the same time, and how they seemed to be able to say what they were saying and still hear what the other one was saying. This series had everything though, mystery, comedy, romance, drama. I thought it was very entertaining. Bruce Willis at his best.

3. What would you do if your spouse asked you to unplug their life support machine?
Wow, really? This is a question that comes from my spouse and I'm not sure what I'd do. It really depends on how coherent she was. I'd want to spend as much time with her as possible if she could communicate with me still. But if she told me in advance that she didn't want to be plugged in anymore if she was a vegetable, then I'd pull the plug, but that would be really hard for me to do.

4. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?
Well everything that I've ever done that seemed hard, turned out to be not too difficult when all was said and done. The hardest thing for me to do now, is to get some kind of business off the ground. So the answer to that in a nutshell is, not following the path to what I want to be when I grow up.

5. You have been named personal adviser to Barack Obama. What is your first piece of advice to him?
To throw some kind of mandate at credit card companies that they need to lower their interest rates if they are getting part of that bailout money. They are just as bad as cigarette companies I swear. They are killing people. If they would take the time to do some kind of education on how to use credit wisely, that would be a good start towards correcting their image, but when they charge interest rates that are as high as the Mafia would charge, there is something messed up with that. Then the next thing to follow would be to do something about those Payday Loan centers. They're worse than the Mafia when it comes to rates.

****
Here are the meme details:
If you'd like to play along, just follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." (And realize I might
take a while to get back to you.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the
questions. (Eventually!)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be
sure you link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone
else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them
five questions.