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In tech week now on Millwood Outpost, a new play at Playwrights Local. We started rehearsals in February and are rapidly approaching the finished product!

The rehearsal process has been fun, but things really got interesting for me when one of the actors had to drop out and I jumped in to replace him. Memorizing a part in your own script is an eye-opening experience, providing a level of insight of which I was completely unaware. It’s been a very long time since I acted, so there’s an element of fear and exhilaration involved in getting on stage again, but I’ve been supported by a great cast, a great director, a great stage manager, and a great artistic director who was completely behind the decision.

As I wrote above, we’re now in tech so it’s great to see the final touches on the set come together alongside the lights and sound, which really deepen and complement the words of the play and enhance its meaning. A big element of the play is sound. I was very intrigued by numbers stations, which I’m not entirely sure how I stumbled on in the first place. Numbers stations, for those who don’t know, appear to be radio stations that broadcast repeatedly with minor variation. Many suspect that they are messaging systems for spies in the field. They have an eerie, loneliness to them, a sense of isolation in space and time. In this particular instance, the Lincolnshire Poacher. Using the wonderful voice of Juliette Regnier, I modified the Lincolnshire Poacher broadcast for the messaging of my play. I had a great deal of fun creating the soundscapes for the various radio interludes. I had a great deal of fun gathering many of the set pieces as well. I wanted a set design that was bare, to emphasize the drama and, of course, to make the play easy to stage.

I’m looking forward to the run and hoping to see many friendly faces in the audience!

Leprechaun

A Leprechaun

Just in time for dear St. Pats I played a Leprechaun in my most recent Manhattan Project performance. I also got to play the role with my dear friend Ron Rothschiller, who, as you can see by his last name, is a fine Irishman. Except that he played Cupid.

Rob Daniels was our playwright, joining a coterie of fine playwrights including Eric Coble, Renee Schilling, and Michael Pullman.

Accent

It took a bit for me to get the accent correct. I spent quite a bit of time learning the keys to Irish speaking, including pronouncing my “i” sounds a “oi” sounds (oil), and “e” sounds as “long a” sounds, dropping the “g” off all “ing” endings, and changing “my” to “me”, etc. “Oi’ll bay havin’ me drink now.”

Quite fun, as the Manhattan Project always is. A fine, long-running experiment by my dear friend Peter Roth, whose balls are getting bigger every day.