Fall Break

The first half of my semester’s been pretty busy, but I finally made it to fall break. It’s been great to have a couple days to relax at the house, but I am definitely looking forward to my trip to Seattle this weekend. I’m going out to the Washington game, and I’m feeling pretty good about our chances, because so far this season, the Irish have only lost games that I didn’t attend. I think it will also be nice to take my girlfriend Jane out west to meet a little bit of the fam.

Spurt of Blood was an enormous success! We sold out every night! We even added extra seats to the house in the middle of the run and sold those out almost instantly. It was a huge surprise, because we went into this project not even thinking that we could successfully put up this “unstageable” script, and expecting to play to an audience of coerced friends and quick-forgiving loved ones. Our packed audience actually loved our performance, with a lot of people saying that it was the most fun that they had ever had in the theater. If you’re interested, there our reviews here and here. Krysta, our translator and the first director I had at Notre Dame, was able to come to one of the shows before moving to France, and was very pleased with the performance. It meant a lot to me to be able to see her again before she left, because I didn’t think I would get that chance.

Right now, there are only a few more weeks before we open Loyal Daughters and Sons, and I’m getting anxious. At this point there isn’t much left for me to do on the creative side. I just have to let the rehearsal process run its course, but I can’t wait until we have a final product to present. I really think this year’s show is going to be very successful, and I’m excited to hear what people think about it. I do still have quite a bit to do on the production side of things now that the script is more or less finalized, meaning I have to make sure we have everything prepared for when the show goes up. Just last Friday, I met with my friend Kristina who designed our posters this year. I can’t really say anything about them because we haven’t finalized anything, but all of the options she gave us we’re really solid, so I’m excited.

Last week I also finished with a student film. I was only acting in it, so it didn’t take a lot of my time. I had to go to three shoots, which we’re each about 3 to 5 hours. My acting professors say that it’s important to be able to put both theatre and camera work on your resume, and I definitely understand why after working on “H2-Oh No!” (Don’t ask about the title). I was surprised by how nervous I was when they were filming me, but it feels like a lot more pressure than when you’re doing a play, because if you make a mistake on film, there’s no way to make up for it or move past it. Also theatre doesn’t have to worry about continuity; keeping track of how my tie looked for five hours was kind of a challenge. I’m curious to see how that actually turns out.

Alright before I sign off on this post, I’d like to leave you with a video I stumbled on the other day. Its a promo that the University did about Macbeth. You can briefly see me in the fight scene at 0:34: