My First National Tour: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

It was the end of January and the Aesop's tour was coming to an end. This saddened me because I didn't want it to end. There was talk of of an extension to the tour but it never materialized. So that January I enrolled back in Commuity College. My mother was relieved I was back in school. But I remember feeling out of place back in school. I was very arrogant at the time and felt that college was useless to me. I wish I took school more seriously. It would have me a stronger and more disciplined person. Also at that time I had moved out of my parents house. I moved in with my friend Kirk Wendell Brown. He was twice my age and one of the finest African-American actors in the city. He was classically trained in Shakspeare and made me want to to be classically trained as well. We met in 1998 at the Walnut Street Theatre when he was the Assistant Theatre School Director. So when he told me he had a room to rent in his South Philly home I jumped at the chance. Anyway, I was at school in Febuary of 1999 when I got a phone call from a woman I was in an acting class with at the Walnut Street Theatre. She worked for American Family Theatre. She had paged me and left me a message saying that the actor playing Jim on in their national tour of Tom Sawyer was leaving the tour because of an illness in his family. (I later heard that was a lie and he was actually leaving to do the Smokey Joe's Cafe tour which paid more money.) They were having a hard time finding the right actor to replace him. It was a six month national tour and they were in week three! They asked me to audition. I was very excited when I got off the phone with them. I knew I was going to get it! I was very confident! So I left school and walked over to the offices for AFT. When I got in I met the director and writer of the show Don Kersey. He asked me to sing a song and I sang Why Do Fools Fall In Love he asked to read for the part of Jim and then ran me through some dance routines. After the audition he told they were seeing some other people and he would be in touch very soon. That was Thursday. They called me Friday morning and offered me the role! I signed my contract that afternoon. They told me they already had my plane ticket to Springfield, MO and I was leaving Sunday night! The actor I was replacing, Kwame Reme, was leaving the tour Wednesday! So I would be in the show Thursday!!! Now that is crazy! Quite big challenge for my second professional gig! I had to learn my lines, music, lyrics, harmonies and choreography in three days!! First of all I wasn't a dancer! Period. I loved to sing but I never had lessons. I never even thoguht about being in a musical! But here I was! I was supremly confident I could do it and do it very well. That Friday I stoped by my mom's house to tell her and my family about the tour. My mom was suprisingly cool about it. She said you better get back to school when you get back. On Sunday I took a train to Baltimore and caught a flight to St. Louis then on to Springfield. I learned all my lines on the plane ride! They gave me a tape of the music and I learned most of my lyrics as well. Before the plane landed I remember thinking that I couldn't wait to meet my new cast mates. When I landed I was picked up at the airport by the road manager Bill Girard. I later learned that this guy was a jerk and he was fired two weeks after I got there and replaced by Charlton Barton. I met the cast that night. They were: Ben Naaz, 25 (Tom Sayer), Aaron Moreland, 24, (Hucklebery Finn), Christopher Yustin, 22, (Captain, Injun Joe), Kerry Ann Lambert, 23, (Becky Thatcher) and Tracee Feree, 23 (Aunt Polly). I was the youngest at 18 and they never let me forget it. That Monday morning we starting rehearsing the show and teaching me the blocking and chorography. They stared teaching the songs too that day. The first four shows I watched Kwame. I sat in the audience and I was very impressed with show. The show played these huge old theatres in front of 2000 to 3000 peaple twice a day! That gave me a rush! When the show started the audience was very amped. I couldn't wait to get in the show! Thursday came very quickly. Kwame had left the day before. I was going on stage. I was going to be in the show. Now I should have been nervous. I only had one rehearsal! Only a week ago I was siting in class at college! But I was ready. I was extremly confident that I could pull it off without a hitch. If I did mess up I felt I could cover up somehow without the audience ever knowing. Right before going out on stage our road manager was over the mike geting the audience ready. "Are you guys ready to see the show?!" he shouted. The audience screamed YES at the top of their voices! I was ready. We were at the Futlon Theatre in Fulton, Mo. The show went of without a hitch. Well, they were some glitches on my part. I droped a line here or there and at one point in the dance I forgot my steps and improvised a line for Huck and Tom to teach me the dance too. The audience thought it was part of the show and laughed. Mistakes will happen on stage just make sure you cover your butt and your cast mates! There was alot of drama on that tour. I don't have the time to go though it all. But there alot of good times too. They gave me the nick name Pokey and to this day if talk to any of them they still call me that. That tour went to Florida, New Orleans, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seatle to name a few. To this day only me and Chris remain friends. We are actually business partners too in real estate projects. That tour ended in May of 1999. My family though me a party when I got back. I remember Kirk saying to me before I left for that tour " So, you want to be an actor?" That tour proved to me that I was a lifer.