Shakespeare Saturdays Sings!

I booked another show, this one is a quicky! (LOL) It's a one performance gig, staged reading, in Inwood.

Shakespeare Saturdays Sings!" - a comedic 40-minute revue which is
returning to The Inwood Library on Sat., May 17 at 1:00 PM. It
features scenes and songs from "Twelfth Night," "As You Like It"
and "Two Gentlemen of Verona."

I will be playing the role of Orlando. And thats about all I know, I will keep you posted, but come see me in my debut with Shakespeare.

Busy Week/ Emperor Updates

So...life has been full of shows, and auditions, and work and many events. Emperor has been going well, this week is our big week with 5 shows in one week, which seems to be the fullest week we have on the tour, ( I know, not bad!)treking myself out to Long Island is sometimes fun, sometimes boring... LOL, the spaces we get to work in are very different, yesterday we have a huge hall, that sat around 1,000, and tomorrow I heard its a library and its very small, so small we aren't getting a set, just our props and furniture. (LOL) If no one knows, (since I haven't put up pictures) the set is a castle thrown room area, then a stone platform area, connecting the two with a footbridge, and an extra door, and things... its small, but it travels well, kinda crapped. But it works! Monday we performed at Bethpage, in a really nice theatre, they had no sound system nor did we bring our own, thinking since it was deep enough to use mics, but it worked, a bit hard to hear the pianist when singing, but it was ok. Friday and Saturday we have back to back performances at Bellmore, and Saturday, I have some good friends and family coming to see the show, I am excited for them to see me perform, so I hope all goes well, as it should and I hope they don't hate it too much! :) Auditions have been well auditions, nothing new, just going and doing my thang! Nothing amazing yet... :( Work is work, ... just something to pay the bills, well sorta! LOL... Happy Birthday to Lance, he is turning 40, congrats on that! :) NYC is warming up, and really lovely as well... had some amazing days where you just wanna go to Central Park and play with the doggies, not gonna lie, I DID! LOL... So I will keep you posted...Emperor is about half way thru so come see it before its gone! :)

Opening Weekend for Emperor

Well, 3 shows done! LOL.... :) Saturday we opened in Bellmore, our "home" theatre, the stage is not my favorite, its small, but do-able, but its raked, and a backwards rake! So its feels as if you are going to fall backwards! LOL... Oh, it was great to see 17 people there, who actually liked the show... LOL! It went well. I was pleased! Sunday, we then took the show to Queens College, and even though Heather and I had a ton of issues finding the theatre, when we did find it, my mouth dropped! It was PERFECT! HUGE HUGE HUGE Stage!, Amazing seating area, and just a great backstage, tons of room to move around, it was a great venue! We had 500 people for that performance.And due to a wedding, most orginal cast members, except Heather, Jack (Emperor) and myself were not there and they had their understudyies or subs, go on, and they did amazing! I really love many of the understudies. And Monday we performed in Douglaston, at the Jewish Community Center there, it was a smaller stage then Bellmore, but the set fit better there, and it worked. Even though its not meant really for a theatre, it worked and the show was great. It seemed like we had a thousand kids there, and they wanted to take us home, I swear we almost didn't get out! LOL... But we have most of this week off, a show in Bellmore on Saturday, then we perform mostly every day next week. Next week is gonna be busy, with my shows, personal events and birthdays, and possibly my family coming next Saturday to see a performance.

Hope you all get a chance to come see the show-

:)
Matthew

Tech Rehearsal

Just a quick update on the show, we finished Tech rehearsal, and tonight we have our first Dress Rehearsal, should be exciting, I'm really excited for my costume and to add the last touches to my character, and I am pretty happy how he is coming along. There were some really strong choices made that I am keeping, and hopefully I will keep adding tons more. The set is very interesting, we made it work to what we had blocked, since we had a different idea about what the set did actually look like. I receieved my Jester's Bauble yesterday, and its something also to add to my character, trying to figure out where and what to do with it. We did two run-thru's last night, one full original cast, and then an understudy cast, (with me and Heather (VERTITY), since we are doing the full run) and I was happy with both of them. I actually had alot of fun with the understudies, they did very well, and found new actions and ideas that my character would have. I love exploring different things with each character I play. And Chester is becoming more and more, Chester every time I run thru the show...So lets hope the clothes make the Jester.

"Engaged" / Tech & Dress Rehearsal

So...Yesterday I did my first filming! I was a featured extra in a film with 31 Caliber Productions, called "Engaged." I played a cook, and I appear a couple times in the film. It was kinda scary, and exciting having that done, scary it being the first time I have ever done anything to that degree, but I did well. I was glad I did it to get that experience. It was certainly interesting preparing ice cold food(LOL), and mainly playing a cook, and not being one... I love acting! :) The whole aspect of filming the sounds, then the different angles...really interesting... :) ! So today we start our Tech & Dress Rehearsals for Emperor!!!! I am getting excited and anxious to get this character ironed out.. tonight I really want to focus on the character and getting him thru all the way! The show is turning out very cute, and it should pull together fine. Lines are memorized, by me and songs learned... I feel the only thing now is to play with it.. so to speak! LOL... I have great cast..they are each funny and talented in their own way, and something really new I have never experienced, multiple understudies. Many of our main actors have performances that they can not make, and they were given 1 or 2 understudies to fill in for them, so it is interesting to work with many people in each role. I however do not have one, since I will be doing every performance. And also I believe my counter part, if that is the right term, Heather who plays Verity, the scullery maid, (who I fall in love with!) does not have an understudy, and we are the only ones. So her and I will have many a cast! LOL... I had my costume fitting last night.. I really love my outfit, its sparkely and Green, and gold. It looks very Princely...and I look GOOD in it! :) So I will keep ya'll posted this week on how the rehearsals go...

Stay tuned!