Up Next! Aida at the Ritz Theatre July 9th-August 8th

Aida is a rock musical in two acts based on Giuseppe Verdi's Italian-language opera by the same name, the scenario of which was written by Auguste Mariette. The musical was produced by Disney Theatrical, with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang. The musical originated from a children's storybook version of Verdi's opera written by the soprano Leontyne Price. The book featured illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon. The rights were acquired by Disney studios for a proposed animated feature film. Development on the film was shelved, but the source material evolved into the stage version. Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida had its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia with the production running from September 16 to November 8, 1998. A new, revised production opened on November 12, 1999 at the Cadillac Palace in Chicago. The Broadway production, titled Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, ran at the Palace Theatre from March 23, 2000 to September 4, 2004 for a total of 1,852 performances (and 30 previews). There was also produced a national tour and several international productions. I will be playing Mareb and triple theatre Ms. Gnomia Gre who was in Ain't Misbehain' with me five years ago will be Aida. Come check it out!

Born Yesterday at Walnut Street Theatre: Winter 2009

2008-2009 was a slow theatre season for me. For one my financial services business was really taking off. My client base was growing and was quite busy. So I stayed away from most auditions. I almost did The Music Man in NJ but decided against it. Then in January The Ritz Theatre called me about a play they were doing called A Few Good Men. They did a movie on this play in 1992 with Jack Nicolson and Tom Cruise. The director called me and told me that she remembered my auditions from the TAGP's and shows I did at The Ritz and was a fan of my work and talent. The call was out the blue and was really flattering. She said she wanted me to do it and didn't need me to audition but wanted me to come to the call backs and read with other actors she was considering. She emailed me after the reading and told me she wanted to go in another direction. That was cool. I had one audition for New Candle Light for Forum and got called back three times but didn't get it. I was just about to accept that I would miss the whole theatre season with out doing a show. I am different actor at 28 going on 29 than I was when I was 18. When I was 18 this would have crushed me. At 28 I am more focused on what projects I want to do. I don't want to be in a show just to be in a show. I wasn't auditioning as much by design. I was focusing more on my spiritual goals and my family. I also wanted to expand my financial services business to the point where I could hire a small staff and step away and produce my theatre company. I was keeping my eyes on the prize. So when Kate Galvin with the Walnut Street theatre called me and offered me a small part in Born Yesterday and said I didn't need to audition I was pleasantly surprised! After all they are the largest and most sucessfull theatre company in the world! I did Man of La Mancha there i the fall of 2007. I was offered a very small role as a boot black and waiter and I understudied the hotel manger. The cast was amazing! Truly the most professional and nicest cast I have ever been apart of. Marco Verna who is an actor from Conneticut and was new to the Walnut and the Philadelphia theatre scene played Harry Brock the lead. He was the coolest actor I ever met! He owned a commercial real estate company in Conneticutt so we had alot in common right away. The cast included Philly favorite Greg Wood who has also done a few M. Night Shyamalan movies. He was the mourning dad in at the end of the movie the Sitxh Sense. Fran Prisco was Eddie and was very funny. Kate Farhner play Billie Dawn the not so dim witted blonde. The cast was very good in the show. I never got to go on as the hotel manager but I was off book by the first understudy rehearsal. Working at the Walnut Street Theatre is like staying at a five star hotel! I loved working there again and felt honered they thought enough of me to ask me back! A month before the show closed I got a call from The Ritz Theatre offering me the part of Mareb in Aida their summer production. I was excited like a little kid before the first day of school!

Philadelphia Young Playwrights 2008: Birney MS

Wow! It's been almost a year since my last post on my blog. Life has been an emotional roller coaster! While I was doing my show at the Media Theatre I was teaching a playwrighting/theatre workshop at Birney MS through Philadelphia Young Play Wrights. Philadelphia Young Playwrights is an intensive arts-education program that pairs a professional teaching artist with a classroom teacher. The two work together as an Artistic Team, guiding and supporting students in the process of writing a play. The program fosters student learning, exploring and succeeding. Up to 1500 students are served directly at as many as 50 program sites each year. More than 60 prominent playwrights and many other professional theatre artists have served as teaching artists over the years. This was my first year with the program and I was assigned to Birney MS in the Logan section of the city. Ever since I quit teaching drama full time three years ago I would get moments of really missing teaching. I loved working with inner city students in the arts. I was teaching drama with Congreso for four years and I really miss those students and that program. So young playwrights was an avenue for me to get back into it but I was only commited to teach one 90 minute workshop a week. So it was perfect for my schedule. I first saw a PYPW performance in 2003 when I got of tour with The Top of the Mountain. My friends Nakia and Kamal were in a PYPW show and asked to come. At first I was skeptical. I mean I really didn't want to see a play written by middle schoolers! However, when I saw the show I was very suprised how talented these kids were! Their writing was very raw and honest. Ever since I saw that show I wanted to be apart of that program but I was teaching full-time and was never able to until five years later when I was working for myself. When I was assigned to Birney MS in January of 2008 I was little nervous. I hadn't taught in two years and I never taught playwrighting. As the weeks went by I got more comfortable. My students really loved the workshop and really put alot into their plays. My co-teacher Kelly Compton was great and we had good chemistry working with the students. We had our mini-playwrighting festival at Birney MS on June 6th 2008. Professional actors came and did readings of my students plays in front of their parents and the school. My students were so nervous! It went really well. In fact I found out one of my students Nasheeta Tucker came in 3rd place in all of Philadelphia! Amy Hodgdon who runs the program would ask me over the summer to come back to Birney in 2009 and I agreed. I was really looking forward to coming back to Birney in 2009!