Ho Ho Holy crap!

It’s Christmas time, and clearly I haven’t made an update to this ol’ blog since, well… the end of August.

This has been due to a number of things – getting swept up in post show depression from "Endless Summer Nights", beginning work on Crystal Skillman’s new Saloon Series play “Killer High”, cleaning the ol’ apartment, sketching various blade shapes, spending some LONG overdue time with family, etc, etc.

Yeah, I have to be honest… I let the “assorted trouble” fall by the wayside here, and if it hadn’t been for a timely email from Tim, that one guy who reads this blog, demanding to know what the hell had happened, I probably wouldn’t have gotten off my ass and updated things. SO! Here’s some random musings and thoughts covering my life since the end of August.

As previously mentioned, I had built the exploding apple rig for Boomerang’s "Venus Observed", which ironically is now residing with trusted friend and MFA graduate student Brian Smallwood at Yale University. Word is, the Yale theater folks want to take a look at the thing and consider how best to improve it’s reliability and effectiveness. Yee-ha, my contributions academia know no bounds. Do I expect to even recognize it in subsequent versions? No, I do not. But if it makes for more compelling staging down the road for folks, that’d be cool.

“Venus Observed”, by the way, in a decidedly late and short winded review, was absolutely charming, and I LOVED it. And speaking as very happily attached fella, I have to admit, much like the Duke in the play, I found myself utterly in love with any and all of the women in this show. My god - how could anyone have seen the show and not wanted to run away with any of them? Because I’m straight, I was less enamored of the dudes, but they too were awesome. For me, "Venus Observed" was a peak of Boomerang’s season, barring of course my own turn as Scotto in “Endless Summer Nights”. I was... awesome? Or something. I had a blast, and ultimately on the level of indie theater, if you’re making yourself happy and folks dig the show, that’s a win in my book. And for the reviewers who found some players too “well mannered” – well, I don’t know what show they were watching.

As a side note, performing a scene with one of my favorites - Nora Hummel - was a highlight. Even if I humor-whored her one night when I biffed on a line and took away a classic joke. I still feel bad about that. But getting to work alongside indie titans like Michael Criscuolo (everything you’ve heard about him is true – he really can fly) Synge Maher (a lady who I would have puppy-dog followed in high school) and recent addition to the nytheatre.com definitive list of awesomeness Becky Byers was sweet. And - relative new comer Brett Hoskins will be a name to watch in the coming years both as a performer and writer.

Plus, the theater had an ancient bowling alley hidden away in the basement, which made for closing night hilarity. Less so for our poor ASM, who overindulged a bit on the whiskey front, but thankfully Synge was there to save the day/night/day.

And then – there was Uncle Vanya. Among my least favorite shows ever, Boomerang’s production was actually a lot of fun to do, purely because everyone involved was a fun bunch with level heads, and big hearts. They kept the show from being a morose exercise in Russian death wishes. You don't often get to have that kind of experience doing Vanya. Also, getting to hang with Alex Engquist (of “3 Boys” fame) and powerhouse SM Stephanie B. on headset knocking out crosswords kept me sane. For the record I was gigging in as “Watchman #1” and I had a sound cue for a dog. Yay.

And then I was done. But not for long. By episode 2, I was into Crystal Skillman’s “Killer High” featuring my lady love as a middle school military brat hell bent on rescuing her kid sister from a gang of 3rd graders intent on killing everyone over the age of 10. It’s sort of like Apocalypse Now with kids. Sort of. Just go with it. And, I gained a new Nemesis, Sarah. She cheez-wizzed me onstage. Vengeance will be mine.

Aside from that, November was about settling in to the slightly slower pace of just working my day job and occasionally only working on side projects, while re-vamping our apartment and re-organizing life. Back to back to back to back and simultaneous shows can leave one a little off-kilter, and I’m still wondering how it got to be December already. “The Vigil…” was successfully published, and now people who read that play have to think of my dumb ass forever since I’ve been immortalized as the guy who played Jan. If the fates allow, perhaps “Vigil” won’t be the only published new play I appeared in during 2010. But I’m not saying anything else, since the writer of that play was very “confidential” about that possibility. Yay.

With regards to fight choreography, I did have a meeting with a playwright and director in November about a possible upcoming gig – but I’ve not heard anything back, leaving me to assume they either didn’t like the flavor of violence I brought to the party, or they’re just waiting to get the project more off the ground. No worries though – now that director John Hurley has returned from a months long sojourn abroad, I’m hoping Impetuous will have something in the works soon I can devote some time to. Whether or not I'm on stage, that is. Not being picky after the 2010 I had. Plus some webisode work on a little sci-fi action may be in the air too.

Then of course, there’s the blade design. I’ve got two knife designs I’m working on, one a real practical fixed blade, customizing a variant of Bram Frank’s Abaniko to be a little more stylized for my grip and the particular habits I’ve developed practicing CSSD SC blade combat. A slightly extended blade length, with a wider spine, a little more bell to the edge, and a handle that’s also swelled and curved to fit in the hand more like the folding LLCs. This is all an experiment of course, as I try to teach myself the basics of good knife making. I probably won’t ever do much more than show it to some friends. If it works. Since I have the utmost respect for both Mr. Frank, and the people who manufacture his designs, I’m not trying to mess with what is already a wonderful thing. I have a feeling that those blades are designed and made the way they are for very good reasons, and I’m just going to make major mistakes so that I can learn exactly why.

The other design I’m tinkering with is a real weird one – inspired by some of the wilder looks I’ve seen in the custom blade magazines and has a real “sci-fi’ feel to it. I want to see how out there I can get while still creating a functional camp knife. For the record, I expect to mostly create a lot of junk. On the other hand, getting some decent steel and making it look really sexy but still just be a prop knife is also on the agenda, so every junker I make can still be salvaged to be a safe prop weapon by rendering it duller than the back of a spoon.

And that brings me back to fight choreography. Just when I had put enough cash aside to perhaps spring for the Vampire Cowboys fight school, Qui Nguyen up and moves to Minnesota. Don’t it just figure. I’ll be watching the Rabid Vamps website for updates on how that will effect their training program, but I still want to see about bringing more toys to their table. They do the classic eastern martial arts really well. But modern tactical and firearm deserves it’s place at the fake fight table too! I still believe that, and getting away from the myth of the unarmed combatant is something a lot of theater could stand to try.

So for 2011, I’m going to be pursuing more and more stage fight work with an eye towards modern weapons, and modern techniques. If you know someone or you are someone who is looking for that kind of mayhem, drop me a line here –

knivesgunsntrouble@gmail.com

P.S. - Hi Uncle Pete.

My dad’s brother reads this now – which is cool. The man knows his weapons and his hunting (he hand loads his own ammunition) so I will be picking his brains about firearms between his travels around the world.

So that was a scatter brained and hard to read update. Expect more regular output here though – I mean it. In the meantime, enjoy your holidays, and be sure to watch the Walking Dead on AMC in re-runs until they do season 2. It was awesome.