I love it when one job leads to another in this business. And I’m grateful that it’s happened a lot for me over my career. Some years back, I performed in a new play for writer Sam Affoumado. In fall of 2021, I got an email from Sam that he was taking part in the inaugural season of the Playground-NY writing program (enterprising founder Jim Kleinmann now has Playground festivals in a number of states!), and had a role he wanted me to play in the Zoom performance of his new short play. I had great fun doing that, and then found myself being asked to come back month after month to perform roles in other plays by other talented new writers. I also recently appeared onstage in another of Sam’s short plays, The Finalist, here in NYC.
This past Monday, I took part in the Playground-NY season finale, playing “H.D.” (aka Humpty Dumpty) in the very witty short comedy A Great Fall by Christian Missonak. As a lifelong Lewis Carroll buff, I was delighted to take on this classic role with Christian’s own clever spin. If you’d like to watch a recording of the six plays (A Great Fall is first in the lineup), you can watch it here until June 30th! The performance was directed by Sylvia Cervantes Blush, and features Michael Barrett Austin as Nathan and Krystal Mosley as Alana.
And in fact, this was not my first go-round as this short-tempered egghead. I played Humpty in an original musical called Looking Glass! back when I was an undergraduate at Harvard.
I love working with writers and helping them develop their new scripts. If you’ve got a role you think I’m right for, don’t be shy about asking me to take part in a reading.