WEST SIDE STORY

Date of Run: July 17-August 2, 2015
ROLE: Diesel

If there's one show I've done that I would take back, it's this one. Up to this point in my career, this was the biggest mistake I ever made. For reasons which will become apparent as you read on, the cast and crew will be anonymous, which I do out of kindness, with one exception. To that end they will only be mentioned by character name or job, and this post will contain no photos of the production.

My second and final show of 2015 was the classic musical West Side Story in Santa Rosa. I first heard about this show months before and I wanted to do it very much because I would not always the right age to do this show forever. I steadfastly ignored all other audition notices for shows that were coming up around the same time, though sometimes it was a struggle. The show and the process were...we'll get to all that in time, but to put it shortly, it was not what I hoped it would be. The final product was a mixture of misconceived and disappointment. And, I regret to say, one of the worst shows I've ever done.

The auditions for the show were in early May. The night I went, there were mostly teenagers there auditioning. I should've realized afterward what the show was going to be like. Most of them did not come with sheet music, singing only a capella, and one of them read lyrics from his phone (his phone!), whereas I came with music and had my song memorized. I was several rungs above them in terms of preparation, talent and experience. When the dancing came, it was hard. So hard that I never got it right once. I was offered the role of a Jet, though I was not assigned a particular role. Yet.

I was not at the first read through because I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico for my sister's wedding, but after that I was fully available. Some of the cast on the other hand, were not available right away.

Some cast members were first doing another production, which didn’t close until one week before we opened and as such, they weren’t available until about a month before opening. Even after that production opened, they were not available on some dates. Of course, when some people aren’t around the rest of the company has to work harder to help them catch up. Our Anita and one other girl were definitely working hard on their own things. Anita was in our show as well as a part in another show which ended up extending and overlapping ours, along with the other girl. She told me later that the other girl was brought in to cover for her in the other show so that she (Anita) could do West Side Story. However, she was liked so much, she was cast her as well in her own part (I'm not sure which show this was for though, ours or the other). There was never any problem with them doing that, but I thought they must have been either very brave or very crazy to try to do two shows at once. But they somehow pulled it off and, as far as I know, without getting sick too and that's saying something. I can't tell you how many times I've seen an actor gets sick during a show, or more often, upon a show closing. Kudos to them.


We were not assigned which Jet we were until the second or third rehearsal. Rather than being cast because we were perfect for roles, the director, seemingly assigning the roles at random, said "How about you play so and so." I wanted to be Action because he is the main singer in "Gee Officer Krupke," my favorite song in the show. But I was cast as Diesel. It was not really the most ideal role because Diesel doesn't really say much. There would be one or two scenes where he didn't say anything at all. I did have a solo in "Krupke," but in terms of spoken lines, I only had a dozen. It made it easier to memorize lines, but I really had to think of good acting choices with so little info about the character. In the end I decided that Diesel is the strong silent and occasionally aggressive type who had a bad childhood and home life, but whatever problems plagued him he wouldn't talk about them.

Casting Tony proved to be the most challenging. One friend of mine was spoken to, but he wanted to be paid and he and the director could not reach an agreement. Then we were told that Tony was going to be somebody from L.A. and would not be with us for some time, but he was working on his things. Some people were worried and people outside the show who I told this to were perplexed by it. The actor finally joined us about three weeks before opening. He was not the best in my opinion. It took a very long time for him to get his first song "Something's Coming" right (if he ever did) and he was nowhere near memorized when he did arrive.

The process for developing this show was not very organized. They took nearly twenty minutes to begin after the call time every rehearsal. It didn't help that a rather large number of the cast were not that familiar with the show. We couldn't work on some songs until everyone was present and when they finally showed up, we had to wait for them to get CDs of the music so they could get acquainted. I, knowing most of the songs and the show by heart (not the lines per se, but the scene order), was frustrated at the slow progress. With only two weeks before we opened, I still didn't have costumes and we hadn't even started blocking the second act.

The staging of the show was some of the most disorganized I've ever experienced. Some scenes, in my opinion, were misconceived and others poorly blocked. One example was the song "Tonight," the duet between Tony and Maria. Being their first duet, it is supposed to be passionate, but it came off as chaste. Other than holding one hand together for some of it, they barely touched or even looked at each other at all, singing out to the audience for nearly all of it, and were never on the same physical level (Maria on the balcony, Tony below it). 

Another example, which made no sense at all, was the lack of doors and too many exits. The lack of furniture I could forgive because there really was no space off stage for anything. During Doc's drug store, the Sharks entered from one way upstage, Anybodys exited another, stage left, and some characters entered or exited through the audience. The same thing happened after "I Feel Pretty," when the girls exited stage left, then Chino came on and left stage right and maybe ten seconds later Tony entered from the same spot. Having no doors or windows did not work in my opinion. The last scene missed the mark because people came on after Tony was already dead. Earlier in the show they knew Chino was after Tony and would shoot him so common sense dictated that after hearing a shot fired and knowing what must have happened, people would run on fearing the worst. But most people strolled on, oh so slowly.

The "taunting" scene, toward the end of the show where the Jets all attack Anita, went with the right ideas, but I'm not sure the younger members of the cast realized that the Jets were supposed to be trying to sexually assault her. The scene calls for the Jets to lift Baby John up and start bringing him on top of Anita before they are stopped by Doc. Our Baby John was small and skinny (he was only thirteen), but he was directed to be kind of afraid of what was going on and try to run away, only to be stopped by A-Rab and myself, and as a result, he kept squirming and after a while when we first staged it, his wiggling caused my hand to hurt. But none of the staging and blocking compared to the fight scenes. I shudder to this day thinking of those.


To begin with, there was no fight choreographer for this production (yes, you read that correctly). The fight scenes were atrocious and ridiculously unplanned to say the least.  The beginning scene was only a bit better because the choreographer helped stage part of it, but they made a mistake by having Baby John be the one cornered and beaten by all the Sharks when it's supposed to be A-Rab. That should have been evident by the lines that clearly establish that a few minutes later. The rumble scene was another story entirely. Let's just say it was embarrassing. 

And dangerous! And not realistic. The director wanted us to be in a circle formation, fight one guy for like two seconds and then switch to a new partner. For starters that's not how you fight someone. And they had Tony drag Bernardo back and just kneel or stand there with the two dead guys. That's not a real fight. In a real fight, what would happen is Bernardo falls, the Sharks attack Tony because he killed their leader and then the Jets come and grab a Shark and they fight their partners. Getting to the circle position was difficult because the two gangs were on separate sides of the stage and the two who died were in the middle. Our first partners were scattered, and it made it worse. We muddled through it until finally, Riff spoke up and said there had to be choreography because he did not feel safe. Then, to add insult to injury, the assistant stage manager, Ayrick, had the nerve to say to us, "you cannot be acting like a bunch of monkies up there." We eventually worked it out so that we’d be near our starting partners, but they should have gotten a fight choreographer in the first place rather than have someone think they could just do it. What's more, the two gangs didn't have weapons. While the script does not explicitly say weapons, it's implied in the lyrics for "Tonight (quintet)." Oh "Tonight..."

In terms of the music direction, I was more disappointed than frustrated. I had worked with this particular music director before in Evita and I considered him one of the best I had ever worked with, so I didn't expect trouble there. But that was not the case this time. While staying faithful to most of the music, the "Tonight (quintet)" was the main exception. The song is traditionally done with the Jets, Sharks, Tony, Maria and Anita... in other words, the entire cast. But they just had only Riff, Bernardo, Anita, Tony and Maria sing it. The song is the final one of the first act (not the finale per se, as the rumble scene comes right after it) and as such, it should be big, not to mention it's the only time when the Sharks get to do any singing at all. But with only five people it felt weak and not at all thrilling, not to mention they just stood there on stage doing nothing, like they were in a concert. I've no idea if this was his idea or the director's, but either way, it felt anticlimactic. Also, when the orchestra played the music, they were not always right with the tempos or the sounds. I think the music director may have been tired and burned out because immediately before this he was the music director for another show, and he was dividing time between the two productions. A shame really, because West Side Story has one of the best scores in musical theatre and it didn’t shine in all its glory.

The saving grace in this show for me was the dance choreography. I think, up to this posting, this was one of my favorite shows to dance in. Part of this was because the choreographer incorporated some moves that are used traditionally with West Side Story, like the pose on the left in the poster at the top. In other words, she used some of Jerome Robbins' steps. The Dance at the Gym section was certainly fun. It also helped that my partner was a professional dancer. That alone made the partner bits in the show a lot better for me. "Cool" was the worst. It was easy until we got to the main dance part. It was what we were taught at the auditions, but I didn't even get it right then and I didn't remember any of it. It took a long time, but I got the hang of it and it was such fun when I did.

I began to think the show was going to be bad about two weeks before opening. Whenever someone asked me how things were going, I would pull up the painting of the Titanic, half-way sunk just before it splits in two, much to the amusement of whomever I was speaking to. At that point we had been rehearsing for about a month and we were not even half-way done. There were a number of factors which could have been easily avoided.  We went at a very slow pace which might not have happened had we had a cast and music director that were fully available with few to no conflicts. It was also frustrating because the director kept stopping us too frequently: if someone forgot a line and paused, if like someone didn't push everyone a certain way or if people took too many steps forward, etc. Even for the smallest thing and if you forgot a line or paused too long, he'd jump right in. I longed for one rehearsal where we could just muddle through it uninterrupted.

The stage itself made it tough to do this show. It was not very large, there was little wing space on either side and only the stage left side had a clear exit door. The stage right side was a dead end and we had to slip behind the curtain when we had to leave, in clear view of the audience. The worst was on the matinee days when it was broad daylight outside because whenever someone opened the door on stage left, sunlight would pour in.

At least one positive thing came of it- the anger and frustration I felt over the lack of focus and progress fed my character and helped me feel like an angry hoodlum gang member.

When we moved to tech week, I was not there at all on Saturday and then on Sunday I was only there in the evening. On Monday we only made it through the first act, the second night we were there until a quarter past 11, the third night we finished on schedule before eleven. The third night went badly only because my dance partner pulled a calf muscle that popped that night. The last night of tech went only until 9 no dress or make up, which in my opinion was not a good idea. We had never had a full run through with all the elements, like the lights, until opening and we needed it; I don't care how tired anyone was, we needed it.

Opening night was what it was. I held my nose and went on. It wasn't a disaster like I was expecting, but it wasn't a perfect show, mostly due to the staging and the small space offstage, but that was beyond anyone's control. With my partner out of action for the night, the choreographer stepped in to dance with me in the Dance at the Gym. She was substituting for someone else during "Cool," though I didn't know this, so when it came time for partner dancing there, both A-Rab and I reached out and she took his hand. I played it off like he stole my girl. For whatever problems there were, the audience seemed to like the show. Half of them stood at the end and I could have sworn I heard someone crying softly when Tony died. For a brief glimmer, I felt maybe the show would be fine, give or take a couple more performances, but I learned quickly I was wrong there.

The second night was terrible. Bernardo flubbed a few lines before the Rumble and I could see him breaking character a little when he did so. Then he and Riff died in the rumble scene too quickly and were not in time with the music. "Gee, Officer Krupke" went badly. A-Rab messed up as he always did because I don't think he ever listened to the song outside rehearsals and I'm not sure he had an ear for music. When he did that it caused Action to miss his cue and we got out of time with the music. The following day we had to work with the music director on it. Fortunately, after this when A-Rab messed up, Action made sure to listen to the music and wait until the right moment to start singing.

The third day was bad for different reasons. For starters, since our dressing room was in a different room a long way from the theatre, we had to go outside in over 90-degree weather and walk the long hike to the stage. The coolest place was onstage but, unfortunately, the doors caused sunlight to come in, especially during blackouts. Ayrick yelled at us for that at intermission saying we knew the show well enough to know when to come in. Excuse me? We certainly did not know that. 

I can't speak for everyone, but while I knew the order of scenes, I did not know which transitions had blackouts in between because for starters not every scene had one after it and we never had a run through with all the technical elements including lights. To make matters worse, three mics, and nearly a fourth, broke during the show. People were being too careless about those as well as their surroundings. It was a frustrating day because before doing the show, I had a fantastic audition somewhere else before going to the theater, so I was feeling great and then that feeling was shattered.

Ayrick, the assistant stage manager, was also the assistant stage manager when I did Evita and he was the same this time as last time I worked with him: a drill sergeant (and yet not, a real drill sergeant get results) and a monster. He often lashed out at the actors, blaming them for things that were not their fault and making the show a miserable experience without offering a solution to try to fix it. What he did try to fix were things like telling us how to act our parts and how to sing our parts and I thought "That's not your job. I don't take those kinds of orders from you, only the directors." To make matters worse, the director just let him have his way and never reprimanded him for anything. 

Part of it was his fault, part of it was the fault of the cast and part of it was those who worked with him. It was tough on him because anyone assisting him offstage didn't have adequate experience and didn't understand what working offstage entailed. He was essentially running around trying to do everything himself. I admit that I've done that at my day jobs, but it has backfired on me at times and watching him reminded me of what my boss said to me: "Don't be a hero." It was also tough because he was trying to keep the cast of teenagers under control because the director couldn't or wouldn't do it himself. As a result of Ayrick's behavior, none of the cast liked him; in fact, at one point, one person told me that she agreed to do the show thinking he wasn't going to be involved and if she had known he was, she would've declined to participate.

The second weekend began with a performance that the director described as "sloppy." He felt people were being slow and stepping out of character too much. In the Rumble scene, during the fight between Riff and Bernardo, Bernardo lost his knife when it flew off the stage onto the floor and he crawled off to get it. On the bright side for that, it allowed us to actually be in time with the music (for once). Also, during "Krupke," at one moment my mic pack slipped out of my pants. Fortunately, I was spread on the ground, so there was no large damage, and when I got up, I hid it in my hand and slipped it back in. The audience was not really responsive and there was a sizable patch of empty seats.

The fifth performance was better and nearly full except for a few empty seats, though it was definitely not as noticeable as the night before. The same thing with my mic happened in "Krupke," though in a different place. This time it dangled down and I had to reach behind me and pull it up, but without turning around. Awkward.

The sixth show was one of the worst ones by then. It was as full as Friday, and it was going fine like the night before until we got to the scene before the Rumble. The five singers finished the "Tonight" quintet and left the stage. At this point Riff and Bernardo had to have their mics removed so they wouldn't get damaged during their fight. What was supposed to happen next was the Sharks would come onstage with Bernardo just behind them, then on the other side Riff and I would enter, then Action and Big Deal would come in from the audience, followed by Baby John and A-Rab from the same side as Riff and me, then Snowboy and Anybodys would enter behind the Sharks. What happened was only Bernardo and Chino were the only two Sharls who showed up and A-Rab and Snowboy never showed up for their cue. For about thirty seconds, but what seemed like an eternity we had to wait and improvise. Riff started with "Where's your posse?" I played it like "Oh now things just got more interesting." They finally did enter onstage, and we went on, but I was not happy about the whole thing.

The second Sunday performance sold out and was not as hot as the first, but still hot. It was also a brutal show for me. While in character, Action pushed me during the "Prologue," which was no big deal except I almost hit a rolling wall set piece. Then in the Rumble at one moment, just before the two knives come out, somebody, I didn't see who, accidentally hit me in the face.

The final weekend finally arrived, and each performance was packed full. The eighth show, a Thursday one, went much better than the last one, but I got hurt again, this time by Action, right in the chest. I tried to avoid that, but it still happened. Whether he did that on purpose, I'll never know, since we were told we could do these things and he was in character, but he was a big guy. A big, BIG guy. As the show went on, I began to get scared of going anywhere near him, but I didn’t have it in me to tell him to tone it down a little (he was not a nice person). In my opinion, he would’ve been a better choice for Diesel, rather than me due to his size.

For the ninth show we lost a Shark. At first, I thought it was a health problem for I knew this particular Shark had an ulcer, but the following night we found out a cousin of his had been killed and he was at her memorial. Sad news, but bad for us because now we were down to only four Sharks, which left a couple moments, like the fight scenes, uneven. For this show during the Gym Dance, my dance partner stepped out to allow someone who had been cut to do it for one night. Twice in this show, Tony did something that made us burst out laughing as soon as we got offstage. First, at the end of the Gym Dance scene he says "Maria" in a dreamy and somewhat goofy sort of way, before going into his song. Only Riff and I were left onstage with him at that moment, but I'm sure others heard him. As soon as Riff and I were off the stage we burst out laughing at that (silently of course). The second moment from Tony was during the Rumble when he enters to stop the fight. He did a leap in the air onstage. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye, but in my mind, I was thinking "What the-" For this show I took any precaution not to let myself get hurt again.

For the final two shows, they reconfigured the room and added about twenty seats. The missing Shark returned the next night and there was also a different conductor brought in for one night. Since he only saw the show once and wasn't fully briefed on the cues, he messed up a couple parts: the first was before "Maria," where he played the music before that a little too late and then after "Krupke," where dialogue happens, he started playing the scene change music. We just kept going until he realized that and stopped. Other than that, it was fairly good. After the show, in honor of the Shark's lost cousin the cast and others in the audience gathered on a hill close by and howled at the moon, since wolves were her favorite animal.

We lost that same Shark again for the final performance, and this time it was for health problems. He was having chest problems and had to go to the hospital. During the Rumble, one Shark I spared with actually did start making contact with me so I threw whatever I could back at him. If he wanted a fight, he got one. The audience, which was sold out, gave a standing ovation. None of that mattered to me because I was completely overjoyed to be done with that show and I got out of there as fast as I could. No goodbyes, no cast party; just grabbed my stuff, threw it in the car and took off.

I regret to say that this was by far the worst cast I ever worked with. The cast was predominantly teenagers, the youngest of which was thirteen, and some of which who hardly took the show seriously. It was like watching The Three Stooges. A lot of times when we were rehearsing a scene, the girl who played Anybodys and a couple younger Jets would be goofing around the background and also during a dance rehearsal one of those same Jets was texting on his phone when we were learning. It wouldn't have been a problem, but there were times when we had to turn around and he was right behind me, so I bumped into him and had to try to catch up on the moves. I was very angry at that behavior; if I was directing and I saw that I would've fired him without hesitation. A-Rab was the worst for me. For starters he had never done a show before; I suppose everyone has to start somewhere, but this was hardly the show to start with. Something lighter like Bye, Bye Birdie or Once Upon a Mattress would've been more ideal. He also proved to be a thorn in my side. It seemed like he was always following me; whenever I went somewhere he was often right behind me, and it was like he couldn't stand still. I wished for the cast and crew of Reefer Madness, Forum, Cuckoo's Nest or Alice to arrive and save me.


This show ended up doing nothing for me, except make me angry and proved to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, disappointments of my theatrical life. I knew afterward what I needed from whatever show I did next. I didn't need the show to be sold out. I didn't need it to be popular with audiences or critics. What I needed was for my next show to be a stimulating and rewarding experience. I needed to have a sense of accomplishment, like it the show was something I could be proud of.

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND

Date of Run: April 10-26, 2015

ROLE: Armand

Production Photos by Jeff Thomas

This musical has a special place for me. It was the one that inspired me to go into theatre. I saw it about ten years earlier and when I did this, it came full circle. See my post entitled "The Beginning" for further details.

My first show of 2015 was the show that inspired me to start theatre in the first place: Once on this Island. If you'll look back to my post entitled "The Beginning," I state that this show was the spark that started my love of theatre and inspired me to start it. And now a decade later I would get to act in the show and complete the circle. The show would be staged by the Napa Valley Conservatory Theatre, directed by Jennifer Ruygt, musical direction by Eve-Anne Wilkes and choreography by Pam Rogers.

I first heard about this show one night at a Dracula performance from fellow cast member Michael Miller (who also auditioned but opted not do the show after all). He didn't know too many details except it would be in Napa. At first, I thought I would make the trip to see it because, even though it would be a long distance away from my home and I would probably know no one in it, this show would always be an exception for instances like this. Then after I did some checking, I found out that auditions hadn't happened yet. I knew then and there that I had to audition for this show and get in it.

The auditions were November 6 and 7 at the Napa Valley College. I attended the second night. I was one of only two men to show up, the other being Michael Miller. It did not look as though many men showed up the previous night. Nearly a month would pass before they contacted me about the callbacks. They said they would try to get the casting to us before Christmas and New Year's, but I didn't hear anything for what seemed like ages. I was cast as Armand and a storyteller. On Broadway this show was done by eleven people, but in this case, we were going to have a cast of over twenty. This was the first time since my first show, Growing Up in Neverland, where I didn't previously know at least one person in the cast.

The cast included Jenny Veilleux, Alexander Belmont, Pamela Drummer-Williams, Travis Purvis, Lauren Mitchell, Debra Harvey, Christopher Arriola, Fiorella Garcia, Kevin Rebultan, Ashley Hall, Martina Sanchez, Kevin Barney, Ellen Beller, Wesley Brown, Angela Devlin, Norma Campos, David Foushee, Deanna Maher, Alissa Meyer, Karenna Meyer, Liana Meyer, Christina Reyes, Adrianna Soria, Dorothy Unsicker, Aisley Wallace-Harper and Lesa Ward.

Rehearsals began in the middle of January, starting with the singing. Two weeks later we started learning the dancing. In the beginning rehearsals were about four days a week, and when the dancing started, I began to have more rehearsals doing that rather than singing because as it turned out, I was not going to be in every scene. However, I decided to sing offstage anyway to get my voice back into shape.

Three of the four rehearsal dates were days when I had to work, and I always had to go straight there as soon as I got off. Luckily, I worked at the halfway point, so I had just enough time to grab dinner before rehearsal, evenly though just barely on Thursdays and Fridays. For the entirety of the rehearsal process and the run of the show I had to have dinner at a fast food restaurant in Napa, except on Wednesdays when I was off work. 

We began with the singing, which was difficult to say the least because most of the show was mostly all sung with only a few scenes with no music at all. Not only that but the music itself was very tricky. It took some time for me because I was singing the right notes, but the wrong words on each note. I guess I jumped ahead on some of the words. A few weeks later we began the dancing, with the opening number and as it turned out that was the only dancing, I would be doing. For most of it I was in the front in plain sight. I was also one of the taller ones in the group so that helped keep me in sight.

Some of the cast during "We Dance"

We did not begin the staging until early March. It was here that I found that I was not in as many scenes as I previously thought I might be. By this time though I began to worry about some elements of the show. For starters, we were told the first day that there would be no microphones. They wanted to keep the show "as natural as possible." Having experienced this previously doing musicals at Sonoma State University, I couldn't get on board with that. 

I also began to doubt Travis, who play Tonton Julian. At first, I thought he was tone deaf because whenever he sang, he usually did it an octave down, or the wrong notes and it messed me up whenever I was next to him in rehearsals. Whenever he messed up, he would groan in his frustration. I found out later from Eve Anne that it was his first time doing a show. That's usually forgivable if a person has a good ear and able to learn fast, but this guy was not in some places. He had no ear at all and mispronounced a word in the same line over and over no matter how often he would be told the proper way to say it. Eventually they gave the line to someone else. However, as time went on, he did get better and by the end, though he was far from perfect, you could really tell that he had grown a lot since the beginning.

It was difficult to get off book for this one due to the fact that most of the show was music and for some of the songs we did not spend as much time as we did on others. The same could be said of my experience with Evita, but the time on the songs was more even and less obsessive there. This time around though, I had trouble with not only because of that, but because some of the other actors and myself did not always stay in time with the music as it was written, but we were not pressured to do that. Not that they gave any opportunity to record the music because they never stopped and played so we could do that.

The music direction, I regret to say was not the most stable I've ever had. During rehearsals we had to work with three different pianists. Also, as I said, I felt the music director was not spending enough equal time on the songs. She would teach some of them, but she would skip over anything where we were missing people on rehearsal nights. Unfortunately, I was in some of those sections. Then she would want us to perfect certain lines in the songs, but we spent too much time on that and not enough learning other parts. Then they told us we probably wouldn't have the orchestra until opening night. We ended up having them through all of the rehearsals of tech week, but without a proper sitzprobe. While we managed to muddle through it, there were still problems: During the last Saturday performance, for some reason, they sped up the tempo on nearly all the songs. I don't know why that happened, but it made us sing too fast and it caused the choreography to look off. Also, as I said, with this show they did not use microphones. When my mother attended a performance, she told me afterward that there were parts where the music drowned out some people.

The problems with my memorization and learning the music were nothing compared to the inner struggle I was having. With each passing day I felt that the spark I used to have from doing theatre was not there. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I felt as though my interest was waning. This line of thought was not new to me. I had thoughts of quitting theatre for some time before doing Dracula, but at that time it was because I felt that way because I felt I was in a place where I was not good enough. Now I just wasn't feeling interested anymore. Come to think of it, I did not seem to be interested in a lot of things in that time.

Tech rehearsals for this show lasted only three days and it was not until after the college spring break when we started, a first for me in that experience. Two days of running light cues and one of a full run through of the show with the lights. Then we had nine days off. Since this was a college, they had Spring Break about a week before we opened. I felt it inconvenient, and I worried about it because I felt that we would lose some of what we worked on, but luckily, we didn't. Even those who hadn't been doing so well were doing a bit better, though one not quite as much.

One drawback to this show was having to do shows at 10AM for younger students. There would be one on Wednesday April 15 and Thursday 16 and then Monday April 20 and Tuesday April 21. That meant having to get up at 7 those mornings, be on the road by 7:30 and at the theatre for 8:30 call. Two of those days were also workdays so I had to come in sometime after noon. It also meant seven straight shows. Then a few days before opening we received an email saying the Wednesday and Tuesday shows were cancelled. That was good for me because those were days off work and I could sleep in, but I would rather it have been the other two day off so I wouldn't lose money from work.



As Armand

The first and second shows had at least 50 and both were very responsive. The third had at least 70 and not as responsive as the first two, but they still loved it. The Sunday shows for the entire run were always the fullest.

On the first night, I apparently missed my curtain call. As per the norm of theatre it had been staged right before we opened (two days before to be exact), but after that it was changed so Lauren and I would be in the last group to bow. I had no idea about it until Lauren told me right after. When I checked the notes, I saw why I missed it; apparently the note listed my character's name and I completely missed it because I was looking for my own name. But since no one I knew was in the audience that night it didn't really matter to me. Also, during the scene between me and Travis where I was the guard the orchestra suddenly stopped playing before I was to start. I'm guessing they made a mistake and just stopped. I waited a brief moment before deciding to just go and they started up again with me.

The second night there were a few mistakes and in one of my scenes something weird happened. In the scene I pretend to slap Travis while someone behind me makes a slap sound. That night I did that, and I didn't really notice it at the time, but there were two slapping sounds. It wasn't until in the dressing room at intermission when someone asked if that happened, when we realized. I quipped to Travis "I just slapped you. I didn't bitch slap you." The same thing happened the next night and that time I distinctly heard two sounds. I don't know whose fault it was, but something got lost in translation. It never happened again.

The second weekend included the two school performances. For the first one the kids were pretty well-behaved for children. The second school performance was filled with middle schoolers and, though they were quiet, we could tell that many of them did not want to be there at all. It seemed as though they were being held there against their will. I don't know why because when I was a kid we looked forward to field trips because it didn't mean we had to be in the classroom.

For the first two regular shows of the second weekend nothing usual happened and there were at least sixty both nights. The second Sunday had a large audience again.

At the second Saturday show at the end when the main character, Ti Moune, dies a boy in the audience, of about ten I'm guessing, broke down in tears and began sobbing and, even after the show concluded, could not be consoled. We could hear it over the speakers in the dressing rooms.

For the final weekend on the first and second nights the audiences had at least fifty people, but they both seemed to be smaller than the previous audiences. The final audience was by far the largest and the best. It was the most responsive and though not everyone stood up at the end, quite a few did, and more so than any of the previous performances.

I do wish that had been a community production, rather than a school. After nearly four years of doing community theatre, I consider myself spoiled. Before every show we had to do different kinds of warmups that I don't recall doing for other musicals I've done. I preferred the community theatre way where they expect you to bring your skills and trust that you will retain what you've learned. Personally, I like to sit at my dressing room and meditate for a few minutes before going on. I will say this for the Napa Valley College Theatre, they did have two private showers rather than a shower in the bathroom. I used it on the last day after the strike was over before joining my mother and her friend for dinner and was very grateful to get cleaned up quickly. I wish I had used it more than once, but I was unsure whether I was allowed to.

In spite of whatever problems I faced during the process, I was grateful to have the chance to do the show that had been my inspiration to start performing in theatre.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Date of Run: December 19-23, 2014
ROLE: Bob Cratchit

My final show of 2014 was a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol. After Dracula closed, I assumed I was done doing shows for the year. But then, the day before Thanksgiving, I received an email from the director of the show, Aiden O'Reilly. He stated that they had lost the actor playing Bob Cratchit and they were in need of a replacement. As I found out later, the reason they considered me was because Nellie Cravens, my director from Dracula, and Richard Thomas, who helped to build the set of Dracula and was cast in this show, spoke very highly of me and suggested they ask me for the part.

Admittedly, I was excited by the opportunity to play such a well-known character, but my excitement quickly died because there were a few things to consider before taking the role. First there was the fact that there were five dates between then and the show opening where I would not be available, I there would be rehearsal because I made plans to either see a show or go to an audition. I had made these plans weeks in advance since I thought I would be done with shows for the year after Dracula. So, I sent an email saying I would be interested, but there was that. To my surprise they messaged me saying it was not a problem.

Even with that out of the way I was not relieved because there was one other obstacle: work. In order for me to do this show I had to get the Sunday show off. I was worried because it would be the weekend before Christmas and also, only one person could have that Sunday off. I knew that because some weeks earlier two workers asked for the same Saturday off, but the boss said she could not do that. However, it all worked out, with one person agreeing to work in exchange for a homemade cheesecake from me.

Upon accepting the role, I was told that the show would only be one hour long and to top that, I would also be paid. It would be my first paid acting job in almost a year. It would be fairly relaxing process for me: Only four rehearsals, then tech week and six shows. However, there was a price to doing this show. I had intended to go home for Christmas that Monday after work, but since the show ended on Tuesday I would have to wait until after the show to go home and I would have only two days at home instead of three.

The cast included Bob Smith, Aiden O'Reilly, Richard Thomas, Moises Chavez, Morgan Harrington, Jocelyn Joy Murphy, Daniel Jimenez, Lori Bailey, Julia and Rich Holsworth, Ava Castro, Gianna Sanfilippo, Dominic Sanfilippo, and Danny Banales.

During the four rehearsals we decided that the other actors would just go along with whatever I did during the scene. Aiden kept telling me he liked what I was doing in the scene, and he felt my choices and instincts were very good. We had a few conversations about the character, and I found this character to be fairly easy to navigate through. It's hardly surprising because I've seen many adaptations of A Christmas Carol and I'm more than familiar with the characters.

In the beginning scene

During the four rehearsals where I was called, we only rehearsed the scenes I was in (of which there were only four) along with anyone else who was in the scene. I could tell that the casting was going to be a little strange from the beginning. Then when we moved to tech week, we never had everyone in the cast in the same room at once until the night before we opened. For this show, Nellie Cravens donated part of the set from Dracula to be used in this show. It was nice to be around familiar surroundings.

I admit now that the casting was a little odd, at least for the Cratchit family. I knew from the beginning that my four children would be teenagers, but three of them were as tall as I was and they were also portly, while I was thin. And Lori, who played my wife was middle-aged. To help with this, I designed my makeup to make me look older and put a few streaks of gray in my hair. I also grew (or tried to grow) sideburns because I always think of that when I think of Bob Cratchit. They didn't grow long enough by the time the show began so I had to color them in.



With Mrs. Cratchit (Lori Bailey)





The Cratchit Family (I know it's blurry, but this was taken on a cellphone and there isn't better one)

In this show I had four scenes: the beginning, the Ghost of Christmas Present and Future scenes and the very last scene. I also had no costume changes. After my first scene I had a decent break before going on again. It was one of my more relaxing roles, though this was the first time in nearly a year when I had two shows in one day (in this case, Sunday). And the audiences were always a decent size, and it was never less than half full.

The first audience on Friday had about fifty or so and the one on Saturday was 3/4 full. The first Sunday show almost had the house full, and it was a very responsive audience for a Sunday matinee. In between shows it was tough since I didn't want to go all the way home afterward, so I grabbed dinner and spent some time in the bookstore just down the street. The second show on Sunday was probably the smallest with about 40-50 people. For the Monday show we had a full house and on Tuesday we were nearly full. A very successful run, I think.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened even once during the run, except once, but no one knew about it until afterward. On Monday after the show was over, I was backstage getting out of my costume when I noticed that my pants were missing. I must've looked everywhere in that dressing room about fifty times, but I couldn't find them. My pants were black and many other things in there were black, such as covers and the changing screens, so that didn't help matters. I thought maybe the costumer took them by mistake. As it turned out Bob had picked them up thinking they were his and wore them in the show. He didn't ruin them or stretch them or anything and we all had a good laugh about it afterward.



Prior to this show I never thought I would get a major supporting part like this for some time. Looking back, I was at least 20 years too young for the role, but whatever. I made it work the best I could. 

DRACULA

Date of Run: October 16-November 2, 2014

ROLE: Renfield

Production Photos by Adrian Hyman

"Michael Hunter goes from being a cracked egg in Alice: The Rebellion in Wonderland to just plain cracked as William Renfield, resident Sanatorium fly-eater and Dracula’s minion. Hunter has fun with the bi/tri/quadri-polar character and when he’s not forcefully expressing deep psychological anguish, he is actually able to provide some necessary comic relief..."
Harry Duke, http://forallevents.info/reviews/dracula-sonoma/

 October 27, 2014 

"Michael Hunter is Renfield, a deliciously creepy fly-eating madman patient of Dr. Seward with his own dark secret."

"The youthful Michael Hunter (who plays Renfield) is equally as intense and a bit disturbing as the fly eating servant to Dracula."
Guest reviewers, forallevents.info/reviews, October 25, 2014

"Renfield, with his own dark secret, is played to creepy perfection by Michael Hunter."
Various reviews from Patch.com, October 29, 2014

My fall show of 2014 as the play Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John Balderston. It was presented by Silver Moon Theatre in association with the Sonoma Theatre Alliance, the same organization that helped produce my previous two shows. The director was Nellie Cravens. How I got my role in this show is quite possibly one of my more interesting audition stories up to this posting. It begins very early in 2014 at the Sonoma Theatre Alliance general auditions, which were held in March. 

I was actually proud of myself with this audition because I felt I did very well in both my song and my monologue, which made all the directors laugh. It must have been good because I was called back or cast in four of the seven shows eligible, though I had to turn down a couple of them for personal reasons. However, I did not mark down that I wanted to be considered for Dracula, because I thought I would not have time since by then I'd be working and taking culinary classes (which wasn't that case later). Nevertheless, Nellie contacted me and asked to come in and I decided to see how it would go. Callbacks were held in May in Sonoma. For some reason, which I cannot remember, I thought this was the musical adaptation of the story, but it wasn't. The only role I was called for was for Jonathan Harker. However, I did not get the role. It was a matter of chemistry between the actors onstage and I was not the right fit, but Nellie was pleased with my work.

Two months later, while I was in rehearsals for Alice: The Rebellion of Wonderland, word got to me that they were short a person for the role of Renfield, a crazy, asylum patient who eats flies and other living things and is controlled by Dracula. Nick Christenson, the director for Alice, encouraged me to go for it. At first, I shrugged it off thinking "Come off it, Nellie's already rejected me once, she's never gonna take me." However, Nick kept pushing me to go for it, and Matt Witthaus (who was also in Alice and had been cast as Van Helsing in Dracula) also nudged me in that direction. I decided "Why not?" and messaged Nellie saying that if was willing to have another look at me, I was interested. We agreed to meet at her home in Sonoma one afternoon.

The callback went very well. First, we did a table reading and then we got up and did some moving. Nellie was very pleased with what I did and how I could do what she asked of me. About two hours after I arrived home, I got the call from Nellie offering me the part. I was thrilled. I found out later that five other men were being looked at as well. I felt vindicated by this because around this time I'll admit that I began to question why I was doing theatre because I was frustrated by how I didn't get better roles and never had my moment in the spotlight, and I felt like it was just another place for people to tell me I wasn't good enough. The low point for me was after an audition of Romeo and Juliet. The role of Mercutio is a bucket list role for me and one I won't be able to play forever. I wasn't cast in that role, nor was I even cast in the show at all. My heart was broken over this. I even started thinking that I didn't want to act anymore. But after this I thought "Maybe just a little longer."

The rest of the cast, in addition to Matt Witthaus, consisted of Len Handeland, Dan Monez, Michael Miller, Susan Lee, Courtney Bristow, and George Bereschik.

Cast and Crew

I was able to attend the first read through of the production. At the intermission break, Matt and I walked across the parking lot to the Sonoma Community Center to check in at Alice because that happened to be the first night when that show moved into the theatre. Nick wanted us to come over and just have a look at the set when we had a minute. After that night Matt and I had to go through tech rehearsals and begin performances for Alice, so we were not able to fully commit to Dracula for some time.

I started preparing for my role by reading the original novel, which had many differences from the play. The play had been written in 1924 and then updated in 1927. Some things were changed in the transition, though for some of them I have no idea why, nor do I see the reason for it. In particular I wasn't happy that my character lived in the end of the play when he dies in the novel and in the original play adaptation. I've always wanted to have an onstage death. Instead, in that scene, I was tortured by Dracula and then I would crawl down the stairs and act like the pain from the torture caused me to pass out. Good enough, maybe, but still, a death scene...

(Top: Being tortured by Dracula, bottom: The moment after)

 

 

I finally returned to rehearsals after the second weekend of performances for Alice. I found that in this show I would be on the ground a lot whether it would be on my knees or fully on the ground. Quite a few were worried about my physical well-being, but it was nothing really. I had to do this show in an English accent, which came a bit easier this time, but even so I felt that it was hindering my performance because I spent a lot of time trying not to lose it and, in the beginning, I did not feel like I was going fully into it as I could have. In time I overcame that obstacle, however, but I still wonder how I would've done with my natural voice.

In this show I also got to do some good fight choreography. I had to attack Matt in the first act, then Courtney (who played Lucy) in the second act. Then in the third act I was attacked by Dracula. We were supposed to stage all that during the last week of August, but then two days before that was to happen the area was struck by a 6.0 earthquake that affected the Napa and Sonoma area. The fight choreographer was affected by it, and I thought we would reschedule, but he never came. We eventually blocked something, but in all honesty, it was not as good as I had been hoping for.

One of my attack scenes

First, we worked on the basic staging. This show would be unlike the previous two I had done in that space. This one would have a staircase and use the floor of the building as a playing space. While Alice also had a staircase we would go down into the audience through the aisle and back up very quickly. Three of my four entrances were the same with me being pulled in from behind the curtains. As time went on, we polished and reworked some of the staging, especially mine. My staging seemed to get reworked every other rehearsal. Some actors would not like that and get confused (admittedly it took a little time for me to remember everything), but it didn't matter because I felt that Nellie was always giving me something better.

We moved into the theater about three weeks before opening. We had the staircase that would lead from the stage to the floor right away. It was in this building that I was a hero. One night when Nellie was walking down the stairs, she lost her balance, stumbled and would have fallen had I not caught her. I was sorely tempted to jump the stairs at one scene where I run down them, just to amaze the audience, but I decided against it because I did not want to risk hurting myself in case it didn't work. That's something I miss about being a child: jumping from a high spot with no fear whatsoever, know what I mean?

I had only two costumes for this show, one for the first half of the show, one for the second. For this show I designed my own hair and make-up. I gave myself dark circles under my eyes and shadow under my cheekbones to give myself a gaunter appearance and I applied gel to my hair and made it look unkempt.

To date of this posting, this was also the show that had my favorite curtain call. I had always wanted a bow that was all to myself. I had gotten that in Little Shop of Horrors, but I was in the ensemble and the first one out and nobody claps hard or cheers for the ensemble. This time I not only got my own bow, but I was the third to last to come out. I had honestly expected to be earlier than that.

The first night of full tech went very late. I didn't get home until nearly midnight. There were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed. The second night went better, though still not perfect. On that night we had two photographers around for publicity photos and production photos. It required us to work with them walking around close by us on the set taking the photos. Call me a narcissist, but I loved it. The night before we opened, we had a free invited preview. I sent invites to people I felt were not very likely to attend whether by the cost or the drive. Five people I knew were there, which was wonderful. There was just one problem really. In one scene there is supposed to be a bat that flies over the stage and this night it was stubborn and wouldn't move as fast.

Opening night was spectacular. We had a couple of technical issues here and there, but that's kind of the norm for opening, I guess. Other than that, the audience loved it, and in one aspect, regardless of the problem. The problem was the bat, but for a different reason. When the bat flew, I heard people laugh over the intercom, which is what many of us feared. The bat was not realistic looking, and it looked too comical. When the laughing started, I thought "Not good, not good, not good, not good." Then I distinctly heard someone say, "That is so cool," and when the bat stopped, the audience applauded and my mind switched to "No, I take it back! Good, good, good, good!" They were amazed at some of the tricks like when Dracula changes into a bat and disappears. They were all audibly amazed at that.

In Dracula's final scene, he "disappears." The script says he changes into a bat. We had a way to make Len disappear offstage in a way that amazed the audiences. How it worked went like this. He would wear a floor-length, hooded cape that was held together by Velcro. The hood was supported by a skeleton so that when he left the cape the hood would stay standing. Then as Dan and Michael held the cape, Len would quickly slip out the side door and at the right moment Dan and Michael would drop the cape and a puff of smoke would pop on the stage. Some audiences were amazed by the trick, but others (mostly theatre people) were not always so easily fooled.

The second night was a smaller audience, and it was not a perfect performance. Some things were better, but the final set change unfortunately took too long. It is changed while recorded dialogue is played and one crew member was still onstage when it ended, and it came time for the actors to enter and the scene to continue. It was a good night for me, however. When I took my bow, I saw people stand and cheer for me. It felt so wonderful to finally bask in the spotlight. Little did I know that they were a group of people from work who came to see the show. Then better than that, after the show, Michael Miller's mother, who was a psych nurse, came up to me and told me that I was "spot on." (Yes!) The third night had an audience that was probably bigger than the first and again the final set change took too long. Other than that, nothing major happened. The first matinee had a large, nearly sold-out audience and nothing bad happened, though when the bat flew over it was a mixture of both laughter and awe. Both times, I was met with cheering when I took my bow.

I've captured a fly

For the second weekend, the first show started with an audience that only filled one-third of the theatre. But then the rest of the run had audiences that were much larger. The Friday and Sunday shows nearly sold out. I believe the Sunday show was only seven seats away from completely selling out. 

The only thing that was a downer about this weekend was a couple of problems. Friday was the worst. First the bat got stuck midway on the line and made several people laugh. Then later on in a scene between Dracula and Van Helsing, Dracula is supposed to break a mirror with a vase, but that night when he threw the vase it missed and went under the mirror. Then at the end of the scene, when Dracula leaves there's supposed to be a gunshot, but it never happened. Then on Saturday, a performance where there was a critic no less, the bat got stuck again.

For the final weekend, the audience was nearly sold out each night. We even started selling a few seats in the balcony, though just the front row. We were told that Saturday night sold out, but I don't think some people showed up, but never mind. Friday was Halloween and we had a costume contest. A couple who dressed as Dr. Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein won. For the last performance we had the show taped. And, of course, something bad had to happen. In this case it was someone in the audience near the camera had a coughing fit and it didn't sound like they tried to cover their mouth. Annoying. We had the cast party at Len's house. It was a large and incredible home in the hills east of Sonoma. Very stylish if I say so.

For this show I took some of the set with me. In the show we had five bookcases filled with books that were donated. When the donor was called, he said we could take what we wanted because he was going to donate them anyway and, after looking through every book on the shelves, I took five with me.

I was glad that I got to do this show because it gave me the role of a lifetime. It gave me a chance to really act and become a different character, similar to Cuckoo's Nest, but this time I got to move around, and I had lines. With this show I got cheers when I bowed. With this show I finally got something I always wanted- a moment in the spotlight. A brief one, but it was for me.