Tireless people, no time to lose.

I am realizing how little time I have to mount this production of MILLIE at the New London Barn Playhouse! This is good-old-fashioned summer stock with the kids (known as acting interns) doing sceneshop/tech work in the mornings, rehearsing a new show every day for five hours in the afternoon, then performing whatever show they’re in that night. I haven’t met anyone up there yet, and already I am filled with admiration and awe at what they are doing. I never did receive training like that, and maybe I should have at some point.

As an actor, I was very lucky to get hired for a show almost immediately out of college. I never did work a summer at a theme park, or a summer theatre program, or even a cruise ship. Looking back on it, I think I may have felt somewhat less entitled had I actually worked that hard for a summer. Not that my work ethic is or was ever lacking, but there’s something about the hardened stamina one develops from those kinds of jobs. Everyone I know who was ever a Kid of the Kingdom at Disney World or who did months of a Jean Ann Ryan production on a ship, or came out of the Pittsburgh CLO ensemble or something similar seems to think nothing of knocking out eight shows a week on Broadway or gearing up for any audition.

I think that was something I eventually learned how to do. It wasn’t until I joined the cast of THE FANTASTICKS at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in ’93 that I truly began to appreciate how important developing and maintaining performance stamina was all about. I had done FOREVER PLAID for over three years previously, and while I never missed a show in all that time, I feel like I rarely gave it my full artistic attention. I think I took a lot of that show for granted and coasted with it, until I realized I was getting bored and unfulfilled and wanted out. With THE FANTASTICKS, I was given a chance to really shape a character, and I was blessed with that wonderful material to work on every night. I couldn’t hide behind three other men on stage and if I happened to be tired, let them carry the vocal energy of the show. I had to step up as Matt and deliver. I began taking better care of myself and if I was ever starting to feel stale in the role, forced myself to go back to the script and work on refreshing it for me. I cultivated a stamina and work ethic of my own that, at the risk of sounding sanctimonious, has carried me through to this day. I just now apply that sense of stamina to my directing. I feel that up there it will come easily. I understand that the actors are very excited about doing MILLIE which will only bolster my enthusiasm of working on it with them.

It’s that excitement and enthusiasm that will be the driving force behind getting all that work done in a very short amount of time! Bring it on!!