Moving On

The 2007 season of the Redlands Shakespeare Festival ended Sunday with the last performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor. We had an excellent crowd – looked like maybe 1,500 out there – and they were quite responsive. Got a nice standing O at the end. I was gratified to hear my friends and family tell me how good the other actors were instead of just me. I mean, they’re obligated to tell me I’m good! That they complimented the other actors tells me we had a good show.

As always when a show comes to an end I am most ready to move on. No nostalgic looking backward for me. Don’t look back – then you can’t see where you’re going.

Next I’ll be auditioning for Cyrano de Bergerac by one of my favorite playwrights, Edmond Rostand. I’m eyeing the part of Ragueneau, the fat cook who is also a poet. As a romantic playwright I am very much looking forward to studying Cyrano during the rehearsal and performance process to see how Rostand does what he does. This summer will be an excellent learning opportunity. I’ll be watching each scene, examining my emotional responses and asking myself, “Okay, how did he achieve that effect?”

I’m currently taking a verse speaking class for professional actors in LA. I’m also looking forward to having more time to write my play in the next few months. Also I need to move forward on my songwriting/recording project. The only problems with acting are that it takes so much time and it dominates my creative life so that I get little else done. Every day it becomes clearer to me that I can’t do everything I want to do. I must prioritize.