On Thursday we revived Shakespeare Orange County’s summer production of Much Ado About Nothing for two performances at the La Mirada Performing Arts Center. This is the theater owned by Cathy “Peter Pan” Rigby – one of the ropes in the fly system is permanently-labeled “Cathy Legs 1”. It seats over a thousand, which easily makes it the largest audience to ever watch me act.
Being in another production of Much Ado simultaneously is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I didn’t need much studying up on the Borachio lines despite not playing him for 10 weeks; our Borachio is always around to listen to. However, since the North Hollywood production is such a shorter version of the script, it has changed my whole perception of the pace and flow of the show. And playing Dogberry and The Friar all this time meant I was biting my tongue during any scenes shared by Dogberry and Borachio – trying not to blurt out the wrong character’s lines.
The morning show was exclusively for middle and high school students, which was a rejuvenating experience. The whole house was full and energetic; they went absolutely bananas any time there was kissing or a dick joke or a beautiful dress – which there is a lot of in Shakespeare comedy and we ought to never be shy about that. We went out in costume after to sign autographs – we signed programs, scrap paper, arms, backpacks. My surpassing hope is that we reached at least a couple of people in the audience and ruined them for life by convincing them that they should do this too. I think there’s something sacred about convincing people to run away with the circus.
But it’s done, which means I can put Borachio back in the trunk. And there are only three performances left as Dogberry/Friar – Sundays only, which stretches out to December 2nd.
Beyond that – well, here’s where it gets strange. Almost immediately after last New Year’s, my friend Bob – who was the Oscar to my Felix last year – asked if I’d be willing to play in a stage reading he was directing. I accepted, and during the rehearsal process for that, got cast in Picasso. During the rehearsal process for that, I got cast both in Unrelenting Relaxation and Shakespeare O.C.’s Richard III. While rehearsing Richard they invited me to come aboard their Much Ado as well.
The upshot of this is that dating back to those first days of January, for all of 2012 I have had an acting role in rehearsal, in performance, or booked for the future. It amounts to 5 full-length plays, that staged reading, two 24-hour Theatre Projects, and 3 day-player roles in a webseries (I’ll explain later). That’s 68 performances of 13 different characters in one year; and let’s reiterate here – although I made a little money along the way, this is not my job.
If 2011 was the year that I welcomed acting back into my life and accepted that it’s something I want to have in my life on a regular basis, then 2012 is the year when it consumed more of my life than I had previously ever imagined. It’s the year of the most success and also the most failure, as my more ambitious pursuit of auditions meant more times than ever in my life where I went for a show and…didn’t get it. You can’t be an actor if you can’t handle that.
But on December 2nd – that stops. I’ve got nothing booked after Much Ado. I might even shave off this beard I’ve maintained for the last five months (directors kept asking for it). If I even want to go to another audition, I’ll have to get more headshot prints. The work I’m doing in L.A. asks for a lot of my time, and it will be a lot more difficult to fit theatre into that time, though not impossible. Opportunities have arisen that are tempting, and I have talked with some friends about making a short film that will give me some more camera acting experience.
If I got to choose the ideal number of hours in a year acting would consume, I think I would opt for more than 2011 (3 plays and a one-off corporate gig) but less than 2012. Balance is important, and I want to be able to write and travel and – well, sometimes I just have to put all other things aside and Make The Money.
But this upcoming gap on December 2nd is intriguing. What ever will I do with myself?