Coming Attractions: "Measure for Measure"

Next up for Richmond Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, directed by James Alexander Bond, featuring Liz Blake, me, John Moss, Julie Phillips, and Dave White, costumes by Rebecca Cairns, and stage managed by Heather Johnson.

I wrote the "professional" blurb over at the RS Blog, but this is where I get to be a little more honest and self-serving.

This is my second time acting under the direction of Mr. Bond, and both times I have come out of the process feeling like I've grown as an actor far beyond where I thought I could go. This particular process has me simultaneously thrilled at the leap I feel I've taken forward and more than a little frustrated at the little places where I still feel myself holding back with only a week to go. I feel like a huge breakthrough is just one rehearsal away, but I've felt that way for two weeks.

I have to say here that every truly huge advance I've taken as an actor has been every bit as dependent on acting partners as on directors or teachers. senior Year, it was Mark Joy's and Yvonne Graetzer's Acting for the Camera Class, but it was also the huge brown eyes of actor Summer Bashaw, just listening to me talk about my brother. In David Leong's and Aaron Anderson's Physical Acting class first year of grad school, it was Matt Ellis, who is not only just about the best actor I know but who became my best friend while we rehearsed that first scene. (Our feedback from David: the unforgettable "Good work. No notes.")

Two years later, the actor-writers of Project Evil shepherded me through a process I was ostensibly supposed to have been "teaching." Piper Blouin, Jeff Cole, Elaine Deichmeister, Julia Rigby, and Caitlin Stafford: hats off to you all. Don't think I've forgotten.

The whole cast of Measure is great. Dave is one of my best friends, John is consistently hilarious, and Julie Phillips is simply one of my favorite theatre artists to work with in the world ever. But here I have to single out Liz Blake, Fievel Pockets, my official unofficial little sister.

This is three years now I've been working with Liz on and off, and the first time I've gotten to play with her extensively. And it has been one of the joys of my professional life to see her grow into each role she plays. She's our Isabella, all passion and pleading, the nun's novice whose virtue steals my Angelo's heart (among other things), and in the moment when she kneels at the side of my throne to ask if I've ever had fault like her brother's, I gaze into those prismatic brown eyes and fall completely in love with her. Every. Night. The rest is, as Mal Reynolds would say, easy-peasy. (Except the "little sister" part; that's pretty much gone forever.)

So I hope you'll come see Measure for Measure, not to witness The Greatest Advance in the History of American Acting but just because I'm happy about it and I think you'd like to see it.