Main Streamed: Amaryillis Theatre fall 2004

Every year in Philadelphia the theatre communtity has annual audition called the TAGP auditions. That stands for Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. They have this big audition where representaves from 60 or more theatre companies gather together in one location and hold auditions for Philadelphia actors. I did the auditions every year and would allways get alot of calls from theatre companies. This year was no different. After my audition I got a call from Amaryillis Theatre company to audition for their touring production of Main Streamed. It was a musical about the deaf community and the "hearing world" and how difficult it is for the two worlds to co-exist. The story took place in a highschool where two students, James and Allyssa, become friends but first have to get over the obstacle of Allysa being deaf and James hearing. I auditioned in August of 2004. A week later I was offer the role of James from the late Veronica Griego (she was killed in a car accident in November of 2006) the production manager of Amaryllis Theatre. The show was directed by Stephen Smith. This was a unique production for me because I was working with deaf actors. Half of the cast was deaf. The deaf actors were Tracy Webber ( Allysa) and Robert DeMayo (Tony). David Stanger (Allysa's father), Sara Doherty (Denise) and I played James. My charecter in the show was learning sign language so I had to learn it too. That was hard! Fortunately because my charecter was supposed to be learning sign language in the show I didn't have to be perfect but it was still hard. I still had to learn my lines and music! The show was going to tour highschools in the Philadelphia area in September and this was August so we had alot of work to do. We had sign language rehearsals seperate from the regular rehearsals. This show was one of the most unique experiences in my career. I learned alot about acting with deaf actors and the deaf world in general. Once we had a show in Manahtten and after the show we had a radio interview and Tracy said she loved being deaf! She went on say that if she could change being deaf she wouldn't do it! That was also a topic in the show. This show will allways special place in my heart.