Monday, October 4, 2010

DYING CITY

Wow. I am the world's worst blogger. I think my last entry was a year ago...? I suppose that I could just look and see but... bla bla bla...

It is Monday - the theatre's day off. I have just finished the first week of DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn which I am acting in as well as co-producing as an Equity Co-op under the name 'Fire in the Hole Productions'.

The play is centred around a young therapist called Kelly who is dealing with the grief of her husband's mysterious death in Iraq - who is side-swiped by her husband's identical twin brother who arrives at her New York apartment unannounced and with an agenda of his own.

This is my first time producing a show and I am extremely proud of the work that we have done as a team. I am playing Peter and Craig - twin brothers - one of whom is a gay actor, the other a war veteran and a Harvard post-graduate. Heather Morrison is playing Kelly, who is the young therapist and Craig's wife. Jim Guedo is directing, Caitlin Vancoughnett is stage managing, Carla Orosz did our costume design and Jacklyn Green is our dresser (So that I can switch between brothers at a miraculous speed).

The response to the play has been overwhelmingly positive - people are leaving the theatre asking the right questions and appreciating the work that we have put in to making this script come alive. I think that this has to be one of my favourite experiences in the theatre to date - I have received numerous emails from colleagues who were very complimentary.

The play runs for another weekend (October 7th-10th) and we are contemplating adding a matinee on Saturday - since we were fortunate to sell out two of our three performances so far. Go to www.livefive.ca for tickets - if you read this in time, don't miss out!!

I think I mentioned previously a short film that I was working on called 'Sins of the Father'. If you YOUTUBE it (is that a verb yet?) you can see a clip from it - I think that we did the script justice. I have only seen the whole film (20 mins long) once the whole way through. I found it quite uncomfortable to watch - I don't play a very nice person in the film... but again, I think that that was what the script was calling for.

It's looking like I will be having a pretty exciting fall/winter season. DYING CITY- which I've already mentioned as well as THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD at Persephone Theatre - where I will be playing.....Robin Hood! The last time that I was on the main stage at Persephone I played Keno in THE FULL MONTY - which was a ton of fun, but not exactly intellectual gymnastics. I am thrilled to get to play the title role of one of my favourite stories, ever!

2011 is still up in the air, but I am very hopeful about a couple of prospects that I have on the horizon.

Until next time,

Aaron