Next week we finally begin rehearsal’s for Ecstasy by Mike Leigh. I’m really excited to do this show, it’s one of those dream-projects that I didn’t think would happen. There’s a long story behind it, but basically three classmates from my classes with Terry Schreiber and I have been conspiring to do this production for over a year now. And now we are finally starting honest-to-goodness real-life rehearsals for our production that goes up in January. I’m playing a character I’m absolutely in love with. He’s sweet, he’s joyful, and he’s damaged. It’s a nice contrast to the “sterner” characters I often play.

I cannot stress enough how solid the cast is. They are very, very good and I hope we capture the same lightning in our production that we did in our “workshops.”

More details to come.

I’ve been talking some stage combat classes at the Vampire Cowboys‘ Battle Ranch. The Vampire Cowboys are a theatre group I’ve admired from afar for some time now, and I’ve been recently thinking I wanted to work the rust off the ole’ stage combat skills. When I noticed they offer classes, I jumped on it.

Qui Nguyen, a very gifted choreographer and stage combat teacher, not only focuses on the “stage” part, but he gives a good deal of attention towards the “combat” part. He works us very hard to make sure our bodies can do the work required, and he puts us through actual martial arts drills. He has many reasons for doing this, but the greatest thing I’m getting as an actor out of it is feeling what a real fight feels like. It’s important to remember what it’s like HIT someone and BE HIT by them. There’s fear and adrenaline that sometimes gets lost when you focus too much on not hitting each other and “dancing” through your fight.

He took some pictures of us working out on the Ranch’s “porch”. Here’s a couple with me and some classmates, all of whom have been really great to work with.

More here: http://beyondabsurdity.blogspot.com/2008/10/shots-from-rabid-vamps-fight-studio.html

I made my second appearance onstage at the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre on Friday as part of their SINTESI/Dogpile “mini-festival”. It was described to me as sort of a “theatrical open-mike”. It was a series of five-minute theatre-pieces where anything goes.

I performed a piece conceived by theatre group, Pug Mike Samantha. It was really interesting to work on, and I was happy with the character I got to create in such a short time.

There were a few photographers there, and I hope to have some pictures soon. UPDATE: Pictures below.

Highlights of other pieces that night: Guy melts ice cream cone with hairdryer, a voice-over offering us cookies onstage (no actors in that piece), some incredible bass-guitar playing that captivated me more because of how the guy was breathing than playing.