« My very first podcast! | My 2nd Geneon podcast... »
March 17, 2007Happy birthday to me...
NOTE: I wrote this last night, but couldn't post it due to server issues. I'm too lazy to tweak it, so just pretend you're reading this about 20 hours ago...
Hey, all. I've been working on some exciting titles lately--nothing I can mention yet (ain't that always the way of it?), but stuff I'll chatter to the high heavens once it's kosher to do so.
I've been cast in a local production of "Assassins," Stephen Sondheim's wonderful, darkly quirky musical about the folks throughout American history who've been compelled to try and off their respective president. It's my first time on stage in some four or five years, and a welcome end to my nine-year musical theater drought. In addition to some general ensemble roles, I'm playing the Proprietor, who starts the show off by calling the sundry assassins to the shooting gallery with a chipper, twisted take on the American Dream in the number "Everybody's Got the Right".
I'll be posting more info, show promo postcards, etc. as we get closer to opening night. For now, suffice it to say that we open April 20th and run through May 20th in Santa Monica--and that I've never been happier to brave the Los Angeles freeway system.
Now that I'm actually in a show, I can't quite fathom how I let myself go this long without one. Sure, I was busy with grad school, and doing a show would have been tough during that 18 months where I was leaving the studio at 6:30 p.m. more often than not--tough, but not impossible. And to have not done a musical since I was 20? Seriously, seriously remiss.
Having said all that, I might have to cool my proverbial theater jets for about half a year after this one; I'm slated to hit anime cons to the tune of one or two a month this calendar year, starting with Anime Punch in Columbus, OH in a few weeks. I might have to attend fewer cons in the future if I mean to get my stage fix--but hopefully not too few; I dig 'em!
It's my birthday tomorrow. I'm trying not to freak out about being one step closer to 30; as I told myself the other day, if I lived in a culture that preferred to count things on a 12-point scale instead of one so in love with the decimal system, I wouldn't have to drive into my own private Bat Country until 36.
So, yeah. Twenty-nine. I never really had a concretized image of what I wanted to have accomplished by this age. If nothing else, I'm in a musical, working more, and weigh less than I did a year ago; those might be bare-bones, superficial L.A. milestones, but I'll take 'em.
And how did I spend my last day of twenty-eightitude, you ask? Drove to an audition. Laid out by the pool in the shade (and, ever so briefly, in the sun) and read a chunk of Stephen King's "Danse Macabre". Had a really nice phone conversation with a good friend. Watched part of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" (who knew Charles Bronson could play the harmonica without blowing, right?). Took a nap. Walked to Starbucks.
Yes, I certainly ended this stage of my life in a blaze of glory! Excitement Seitz, they call me...
Posted by patrick at March 17, 2007 07:29 PM
CommentsDude -- happy farkin' birthday, and I hope you got my email earlier.
And... "Assassins" is one of my favorite Sondheim shows. If you don't keep me posted on when and where it's happening, I'm going to have to tell my dogs to bite your knees off.
But, anyway, again: Happy Birthday, You Old Fart. What's that? Your age still starts with "twenty"?
Bite my ancient ass... ;P
Posted by: Jon Bastian at March 18, 2007 05:05 AM
And if you need a designer for the "Assassins" PR, you know where to look.
Ahemn.
Twenty-Nine? Jeebus, you're still a fetus.
Posted by: Jon Bastian at March 18, 2007 05:08 AM
Days like that are my definition of fun :).
Posted by: Alison at March 22, 2007 04:27 PM
Post a comment