I have said of recent that I feel I'm building momentum in my career. With 2002, I have had a rebirth in my acting career, and my hard work and setting it as a priority are really starting to pay off.

1. Recent Triumphs

Yesterday I got a call from Brian Olsen of Gorilla Rep (not to be confused with Brian Olsen, who directed me in the student film Children at Play), offering me the role of Peter Simple in William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Gorilla Rep is a New York Times-reviewed Shakespeare company that puts on its productions outdoors in New York City parks. This production--for which I'll begin rehearsals on April 6th--will take place in Riverside Park on NYC's Upper West Side, running Thursdays-Sundays, May 9th-June 2nd, 2002.

In addition to being cast, I have had some other really cool audition experiences of late:

The Tempest @ Pulse

This month I had two callbacks for The Tempest at Pulse Ensemble Theatre on 42nd Street in NYC. I was up for the role of Ferdinand. While I did not land the role, I believe my conflicts with assistant-directing the Shakespeare play The Winter's Tale with Stomping Ground Productions proved too burdensome to consider casting me.

King John with Doppelgäng Productions

Also, I was cast as a clown in Shakespeare's King John, the first production by the new company Doppelgäng Productions. While ultimately I had to turn down the role because of the pending callback for The Tempest, I would have played a highly improvised character as well as some smaller roles in this company's commedia-style adaptation of the drama.

UPDATE! (4/12/02) I was just offered the lead role as King John! They offered it to me after their original King left the production for other work. Again, I had to turn down the offer, this time because of the Gorilla Rep show. But King John certainly would have been an exciting character to play.

Mike Nichols for Angels in America

Perhaps most eye-opening of my recent audition experiences was being seen by the famed improviser and director Mike Nichols for the film version of Tony Kushner's Pultizer Prize-winning play, Angels in America. I was called in by Sylvia Fay Casting to serve as stand-in for Justin Kirk, an actor in the film. The three of us called in stood next to Justin on camera, but none of us had Justin's prominent nose, as Mike commented. Emma Thompson was also lurking; she plays several characters in the film, and she was looking very not-herself in a wig, big glasses, and a frumpy dress. If I had booked the gig, it would have been six months of steady work on a film set, plus only a 12-minute walk from my home!

2. The Onion

On February 28th, I was photographed with Curtis Gwynn for a March 7th article in the national spoof newspaper, The Onion. While no longer accessible online, the article--entitled "Denver Optometrist Not Sure Why He Has Gay Cult Following"--may show up eventually in a Crown Books anthology of this year's Onion articles.

The article was a funny mock-up on how a quiet, unassuming optometrist doesn't understand the phenomenon of his diva status in the gay community. Much as Madonna worshippers copy her provocative look, the people from The Onion had us wear lab coats and shirt-and-ties to ape the eye doctor's conservative fashion--only to have us pose really flamboyantly in the costumes.

It was a short, fun shoot at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and Curtis and I did all these great photos, of which one was used for the article.

Click here to see the photo and read the article

3. Hugh Grant Stand-In Interview

In February, I was up for another stand-in gig ... that I eventually lost because I looked too young!

On the Untitled Marc Lawrence Project (now called Two Weeks Notice) shooting in NYC, I was called in by Kee Casting to interview to be Hugh Grant's stand-in. I had sent a postcard to Kee Casting when I learned they were handling the movie, saying that I get a lot of comments on how I look like Hugh Grant.

Of the three actors called in for the interview, people said I looked the most like Hugh. However, I wasn't 40 years old. I later learned from a friend who worked as a featured extra on the film, they went with an actor there with me named Greg, who also resembled Hugh and got to stand next to him during the screen test.

Kee Casting fortunately called to say I didn't get it because of my age, so I wasn't pining for the potential for several weeks of steady work. You don't usually get calls saying you didn't get something.

4. Called Back for Off-Broadway Play

In January, from the Equity Principal Auditions (EPAs) I attend, luck was on my side for one and I got a callback for an Off-Broadway play. I was so thrilled!

The play was The Golem at Manhattan Ensemble Theater in Soho. I knew things were going well when the EPA monitor strongly reinforced the request that actors only do one monologue, and then I went in and they unabashedly asked for a second!

At the callback I got to read sides for two characters, one who essentially was a young Messiah. I thought the callback went really well, but I did not book the gig. I got to meet and audition for Vince Liebhart of Liebhart/Alberg Casting though, among other important people associated with the production.

5. What I've Been Doing

Essentially, I've been killing myself slowly.

We are coming out of a busy LORT EPA season--LORTs are the big regional theaters that are required by the union to hold auditions. As I explained in my last entry (see the archived entries below), I get up really early for these EPAs; for one, I got up at 3:40am, and if you got in line for that audition at 6:15am, you were put on the alternate list!

After my audition, on many of these pre-5am days I would then head to work. If I was lucky and not working that day, I would head home to catch up on sleep (but do little else). But usually it was to work, and then immediately after I would head to rehearsal by night, finally getting home around 11pm. Over the last two weeks, with four EPAs each week plus work plus the show opening (for which I was running the board, all three hours of it!), I was really running on empty. I would not get to bed until after 1am most nights, rising well before dawn after about two or three winks.

It has been an exciting roller-coaster ride and I'm exhausted, but disciplined and dedicated and determined. I felt I have auditioned very well and exhibited myself as a strong, young actor, in spite of the gloom that most of these theaters aren't technically casting from these EPAs. I am confident I'm making a good impression, and I can only hope that my audition legacy pays off in the very near future.

How about tomorrow??