Come See Ghosts July 14-17 in New York City!

Whew!  I haven’t posted in quite a while as I had to do a massive upgrade to my site but having accomplished that today, I’m happy to say that our production of an updated adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic drama Ghosts has opened, and we have one more weekend of performances.  I’m playing Pastor Manders, who must in the course of the play be the Voice of Organized Religion, a love interest, and a complete fool.  It’s been a great challenge creating Manders for 2011, and I’m very pleased with the results.

We’re performing at the historic Merchant’s House Museum, 29 East 4th Street (between Lafayette and Bowery) in NYC.  Remaining performances are as follows:

Thursday 7/14-Saturday 7/16:  7pm  (Saturday is almost sold out)
Sunday  7/18:   6pm

There are only 25 seats per performance, so this is a very intimate production.  If the weather is good, we perform outdoors in the beautiful garden.  If it’s rainy, we perform indoors in the parlor.  Note: It is a historic building, and while there are fans, there is no air conditioning.

We’d love to see you there!  Click the image to be taken to our Facebook page.

PS — This is really cool.  It turns out we’re featured on the home page of the official Norway web site for the U.S.!

I’m Playing Pastor Manders in an Updated Ghosts!

Joe just called from my agent’s office to let me know I’ve been offered the role of Pastor Manders in Emmy Frank’s Showcase production of an updated translation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts.  Manders is a great character; he’s a preacher with the best intentions in the world, and a lot of influence, but his judgment is sadly off.  His attempts to do the righteous thing go sadly awry, and at the end of the day, his reputation seems to matter to him more than anything else.  He also still nurses an old love that he knows can never be consummated.  He’s a contradictory and fascinating character, and I can’t wait to get started finding out what makes him tick.  My thanks to my agent Renée for getting me the audition, to Jamie Schulman for reading so well with me, and to Emmy for casting me!

The production runs only July 7-10, and 14-17, at the Merchant’s House Museum’s Secret Garden, 29 East 4thStreet, NYC.  So it will be a kind of site-specific production, which should be interesting.  The historic house is reputed to be “manhattan’s most haunted”–which is appropriate for a production of Ghosts!  I’ll post more information as I learn of it.

Smurfs 3D Movie Premieres July 29th!

At long last, the premiere of The Smurfs movie is almost here!  The date has been moved up from August to July 29th.  And today, I received a call from a woman checking the spelling of all the names to appear in the credits, and she confirmed that my little 30-second scene made the final cut!  So while I don’t have any lines, I do have a fun scene with Hank Azaria, Tim Gunn, and Sofia Vergara, and it’ll be a hoot to see myself on “the big screen” for the first time.  And in 3D, no less!  My thanks again to my agent Renée Glicker, casting director Richard Hicks, and director Raja Gosnell for the opportunity to be part of the film.  I had such a fantastic time filming, and I can’t wait to see the finished movie!

Minute Maid Ad in May 26th People Magazine

My buddy Katherine (from my old BMI Workshop days) tells me that my Minute Maid ad has now surfaced in the May 23rd issue of People magazine.  So my kiss-covered face is definitely making the rounds.  Thanks for letting me know, Kathryn!  If anyone else spots my ad somewhere new, please do let me know.  It’s becoming something of a party game!

Minute Maid Ad in May 20th Issue of Entertainment Weekly

My buddy Lydia reports that my Minute Maid ad shot by the wonderful Finlay MacKay has resurfaced in the May 20th issue of Entertainment Weekly.  She notes that the issue’s lead story is aptly titled “Bad Boys.”  😉  Thanks, Lydia!  If anyone else sees me out there, give a holler!  My sister is still waiting for the ad to appear on the side of a bus, so bonus points if that ever happens and anyone can snap a photo of it!  😉

Vermont Stage Bids Fond Farewell to Artistic Director Mark Nash

After a decade of serving the Burlington community with an endlessly varied and ambitious array of theatrical productions, Artistic Director Mark Nash has decided it’s time for him to move on and try something new.  Mark has hired me for a number of productions over the last decade, so when he called to invite me back up to Vermont to participate in a one-night-only farewell gala performance in June, Tim and I rearranged a vacation to make sure we can be there.  I first worked with Mark when he asked me to participate in Vermont Young Playwrights Festival (his predecessor, Blake Robison, invited me for my first festival, then Mark hired me for 10 more, making a total of 11 consecutive and wonderful years with that great program).  In 2002, right after 9/11, Mark hired me to play Vladimir in what turned out to be a fantastic (and sold out) production of Waiting for Godot.  Three years later, he invited me back to play Charlie in The Foreigner, which he directed, and which remains one of VSC’s biggest hits.  Over the next couple of years, he asked me to participate in two seasons of their holiday offering Winter Tales, which he also directed.  Then in 2007 he hired me for I Am My Own Wife, directed by the wonderful Sara Lampert Hoover, and later that year asked me back to play Wayne in the production of Inspecting Carol that he was directing.  Most recently, he brought me back to play the Fool in King Lear, VSC’s first full-scale Shakespeare production, and he did a fantastic job yet again directing that challenging show.  So a good part of my career over the last decade has taken place in Burlington, Vermont, and I’ve grown an enormous amount as an actor in an environment that always felt welcoming and full of positive creative energy.  Mark Nash is the man who made it all possible.

I’m sorry to hear that Mark is leaving VSC, but I’m sure wherever he lands, whether it’s in the theatre or another line of work altogether, he will do creative and wonderful things.  I count myself a very lucky person, and an extremely lucky actor, that Mark Nash came into my life.  And I’m deeply honored that VSC is bringing me up to Burlington to help pay tribute to him.  Hail, and Farewell, old friend!  I will have more to say about Mark’s work at VSC in another blog post after the June performance.

Minute Maid Ad in May 16 ESPN Magazine!

Well, that wacky full-page ad of me covered with kisses after drinking Minute Maid orange juice has now surfaced again on page 28 of the May 16th issue of ESPN Magazine.  You can’t miss the issue–the cover has a really graphic illustration of a matador being gored by a bull.  Charming.  Instead of looking at the cover, I suggest you turn directly to page 28 and have a chuckle.  No bull!  The magazine is even larger format than Entertainment Weekly, and includes a related side bar on page 29, which gives the effect of an even larger ad.  Very fun!  Thanks to my buddy Aaron for giving me the heads-up about this one.  And if you see my kiss-covered face popping up in other publications, please do let me know.  Thanks!

Minute Maid Ad in April 1st Entertainment Weekly!

I love this community.  One of my students from last week’s Learning Solutions 2011 conference alerted me via e-mail yesterday that my Minute Maid ad appeared in Entertainment Weekly, and send me a black & white scan so I could see it.  Another friend on Facebook told me the issue date, and armed with that information, another FB friend sent me a color scan, which you see here.  I was able to go out yesterday and pick up a couple of copies on newsstands where the issue hadn’t already been replaced.  It was the April 1st issue of EW, with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon on the cover.  My full-page ad was on page 14 of that issue.  If you see it popping up anywhere else in the media, please do let me know!  My sister would particularly like to see it on the side of a bus or truck, I think.  😉  My thanks to Robin and Charlie and Cheryl for the detective work; I really appreciate it!  When you look at this wacky image, keep in mind that Bertha the makeup artist painted on each of those kisses by hand.  Pretty impressive!  My thanks again to brilliant photographer Finlay Mackay, and all the folks at Minute Maid, the Doner Agency, and Jed Root, Inc. for a great shoot.

My Classes at Learning Solutions 2011 Were a Smash!

I’ve just returned from sunny and warm Orlando, Florida.  I’m glad to be home and back in New York, but I sure did love that Orlando weather!  I was teaching at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions 2011 conference, and had a fantastic time.  I created and taught a full-day pre-conference certificate program on How to Create and Deliver e-Learning Voiceovers Like a Pro.  I had 13 wonderful students from across the U.S. and Canada.  I had designed an extremely hands-on program, which gave everyone lots of opportunity to practice new ideas and tricks as I taught them throughout the day.  We worked on writing and rewriting scripts to turn them into compelling voiceover copy, we worked on basic relaxation exercises and vocal techniques, and we worked on the essentials of recording and editing voiceover files.  Then I held an extended lab in the afternoon where participants worked on creating scripts and audio content while I walked around the room, working one-on-one with each student to answer questions and provide suggestions and guidance.  At the end of the day, each student did a mini-presentation, playing and discussing the difference between audio files they created first thing that day, and then again at the end of the day, using the same script.  The improvements in every case were audible and substantial.  I was proud of all the students for the progress they demonstrated in the space of just one day!  I was also both pleased and humbled when I read all of the anonymous student feedback the following day; it means a lot to me to have made such a positive impact with my teaching.  I salute each and every one of my students for working so hard, and for doing such a great job!  I’ll share some of the written feedback in a future post.

I also led a one-hour Presentation Skills 101 class each of the three days of the conference, helping e-Learning professionals overcome the classic roadblocks to delivering an engaging and inspiring presentation.  Again, the students were great participants, and gave me great reviews afterward.  I like to think that there are a lot more e-Learning professionals out there now who can get up in front of any audience with confidence and really make a difference.

I’m not usually the type to wear a “slogan” T-shirt, but when I arrived in Orlando, I found a Disney store that allowed you to create your own design, and so I created the one shown in the picture here, and proudly wore it for my full-day program: “E-Learning Without Human Voiceovers?  That’s Like a Grin Without a Cat!” 

My thanks to Heidi Fisk of the eLearning Guild for inviting me to teach these courses this year.  It was a fantastic experience, and I’d love to do it again.  If you know of anyone needing coaching, by all means please refer them to the Coaching page on my consulting site.

I Share Some Tips on Discounted Arts Tickets in NYC

Recently, my friend Marge Mendel, a very talented writer, asked me to provide some “insider” tips on obtaining discounted Arts tickets in NYC.  She figured that as a professional actor, I might just have a few of those!  😉  As it turns out, I ended up jotting down a long list of tips and she was able to use all of them!  Marge just sent me the link to the completed article.  My main tips all revolve around leveraging the wonderful and indispensable ticket services offered by Theatre Development Fund, aka TDF.  They run the famous TKTS booth, but a lot of people (including some other actors!) don’t realize TDF also offers an online ticket program for arts professionals and public service sector individuals.  The online prices are steeply discounted (much moreso than at the TKTS booths) and you can buy your eTix in advance of the performance date!  If you don’t already know about TDF’s program, I urge you to read Marge’s article.  Just click on the image to jump to the site.  And if you want to read a truly haunting short story that Marge wrote, click here.