I can't believe that our show has run two weekends, and is already half over. The crowds haven't been huge, but the last couple of audiences have been amazing, very responsive, and just wonderful to play off of.
Last night I was thinking about my journey that I have had with New Line and even though this is only my 6th show with the group, I feel like I have really grown with this company. I learned a lot about theatre from Characters & Co., learning what goes on behind and being pushed to direct and musically direct, which I am in debt to the Vaughans for pushing me to do. But I have only had a couple of performang experiences that have helped me grow as much as the shows that I have done with New Line. The first show I did with them was in the first season "Attempting the Absurd" and show written by Scott. It was something new, something that has never been done, and just a fun show. How fun was it to create a character, and have a scene rewritten a couple of days before we opened. That was really one of the first shows I had done in theatre and I learned a lot, got to work with some great performers, and I think it helped spark the theatre bug in me.
The next big thing I did with them was a Salute to Sondheim, in which we got to sing some of the great songs from Sondheim. I remember I got a little miffed because I didn't get very many solos, but now that I look back at that, how stupid was that. I had this illusion that I was as good as all these performers that had been performing for a long time, and I thought that I could outsing them. I learned a lot about myself during that show. Made some more great and talented friends, and some wonderful releationships, some that didn't last as long as I wanted them to but I still hold all those relationships close. Looking at how I wanted more stuff to do in the Sondheim review and we jump to High Fidelity in which I think I had the smallest role, but god it was fun. It was the same thing. New material, and when I first got the role it was originally called Mohawk Man. Scott wrote to the people that wrote the show and asked if my character had to actually have a mohawk because there was no reference to that in the script. They said no, and Kleptoboy was born. SOme new people to work with and some old friends that I got to reconnect with. If you missed that show, you missed a great one.
When I joined High Fidelity I hadn't been onstage for years, and it was a great refresher course. Well HiFi was a couple of years ago now and I had heard that Scott put Wild Party on the schedule, and I was pumped. I think a lot of us were. We knew the music, but I don't think ANY of us knew how this story would play out. I conquered another fear. I hadn't auditioned for YEARS. I have lucked out with the past couple of shows before Wild Party to be called into the shows with out auditioning. But since I hadn't done a couple of shows with New Line I had to audition, and I was petrified. For some reason I went into the audition thinking that I could be one of the leads, and then I realized that that probably wouldn't happen. Thank god, I mean I have conquered some other fears doing this show, but the characters that I origially wanted to play are the ones that have the "sex" onstage, and so then I thought that the only part I would be perfect for would be Eddie the boxer. I didn't know if Zac was going to be interested but I thought that if he would he would be perfect for the role, so I prepared something that was on the line of his song in the show. Well then Scott called me up and asked if I would be interested in playing Phil one of the composers, and i pretended to be happy but was sort of bummed that I didn't get Eddie. So I asked who else had accepted roles in the show, and he told me that Zac would be playing Eddie, and I got over the Eddie role right away because Zac is perfect, I knew it then and he is perfect in the show.
Then he told me that Mike Dowdy would be playing my brother. I was excited cause I saw Mike in Spelling Bee, and I thought he was super talented. It is a little of a stretch that we are playing "brothers" I feel like i am his father, or should I say "sugar daddy" rather that his brother, but Mike has an amazing voice, and he was great in Spelling Bee. When we started rehearsals I was a little worried, I didn't know Mike just knew of his performances with New Line. It really wasn't until we had to start tangoing in "Raise the Roof" that I started to feel comfortable with Mike, hell we had to dance very close. I went through all those normal stage relationships worries, "What if my breath stinks" (cause I knew we had to kiss), "What if I sweat like I normally do during a show" (and I sweat a lot during a show). I remember I kept warning him that I sweat a lot, and I apologized all the time. Mike must have thought I was a freak.
It wasn't until we got into the theatre that I totally felt comfortable with all the stuff we do together. Every one else makes out in this show. I think I am the tamest character. I really only kiss Mike, sometimes Aaron, and I don't do as much of the smoking like everyone else does. I feel like I am a pimp. One of our back stories we have going on during the show, is that Oscar (Mike) goes to seduce Sam (troy Turnipseed), and I sort of feel like Phil came up with the idea and pimped out Oscar. So I owe a lot to Mike during this show for helping me feel comfortable onstage during this show.
I can't wait for the next couple of weeks of this show. First of all, a lot of my friends are all in shows the last couple of weekends, so they haven't been able to come see the show, and I can't wait for them to see it. We all have talked up this show so much, and I am so proud of it. THis cast is all so supportive. So if you haven't see the Wild Party you better get your tickets I sense that ticket sales are going to go fast. Yesterday we had 124 in the audience, and that is over half the audience and I can see the word spreading even more these next two weekends.
Here is to the continuation of my growth as an actor in this show, and the next couple of New Line shows to come.
Phil out!
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