You are probably wondering just what happened in the waning weeks of our run… fear not, I’m here to bring you up to speed.

As I mentioned in a previous post, our cast was huge on sports. We almost always had ESPN on in the greenroom and during the days even managed to get several practices in for our highly anticipated arrival in Broadway league. A few Mondays ago, our cast even went the Indianapolis Indians game to take notes… of course we had a blast. Highlights included the dollar menu at the concession stand, Jay Elliott dropping a foul ball, and Jamie Jackson nearly getting his head taken off by another. The last week of our run began with an awesome bar-b-que at the farmhouse on Monday, where my good friends Landen and Natalie came up from St. Louis and joined us. Check out the great pic of me smoking Landen in our football game. That’s right, I’m a hoss. Tuesday and Wednesday’s shows were off the chain, and due to an irregular show week, we had no performance on Wednesday night, so JR Stuart organized an amazing cast dinner at Buca di Beppo- an amazing family style restaurant. We sat in the “pope room,” which featured a lifelike miniature pope that rotated with the lazy susan. Very funny. Afterwards we went bowling, and I’m pleased to say I bowled the best game of my life: 126. Check out the evidence on the right – I’m K I D…  hehe… The rest of the week went pretty smoothly, and I was happy to be joined by 12 family members on Saturday night. Afterwards the cast went out to BWWs and celebrated a bit. Such was life during the final week of TI. I left Monday morning for NYC and am now underground on the good ole’ subway.

When running a show for a little while, you tend to get creative ideas to keep yourself occupied and seeing as I didn’t get around to the video blog I wanted to do, I have a huge treat for you. Remember how at the end of the show the company sings “Miracles…” Well I figured this was the perfect place for an awesome falsetto riff section – so one day backstage I did just that. Riffed the end of the show. It’s far from my best attempt, but it’s not like Simon is critiquing my riffs, so enjoy… Miracles Horridly Riffed

On a final note, I really feel like no blog entry can possibly describe how grateful I am for the incredible opportunity I was afforded to perform Jim Hawkins, so I’m not going to get sappy and try to explain it here. Instead I’d like to say a huge thank you to our producers at Beef & Boards, Doug Stark and Eddie Curry, as well as Shred, our sponsor. Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark – I am eternally in debt to you for both the personal and professional opportunities that I have been blessed with as a result of our work together. Additionally, thank you to our magnificent cast, as well as our stellar crew, orchestra, and the entire Beef & Boards staff for making this production the success it was. Lastly, thank you to the readers of my blog and the Indianapolis audiences that make live theatre possible. I hope, if nothing else, that you have gotten a greater insight to what I am all about as a person – and that, if for only a fleeting moment in time, you thought about the miracle that is life. With that I am out. Look for me on an Indianapolis stage this fall… LOVE!

Thanks to Julie Curry for the great shots.

Did anyone see the “Woo Girl” episode of How I Met Your Mother? You know, the one guest starring the amazing(ly hot) Jamie Lynn Sigler… Well for those of you who live under a rock and haven’t caught the craze yet, it’s about…you guessed it, the girls who love to yell “Wooooo!” in public. Check out the actual definition of a woo girl here. Performing TI, one becomes privy to some pertinent bits of knowledge, one of which is the phenomenon known as the “Woooo Audience.” Every actor knows what I’m talking about – the audience that goes “Woooo” when you get done singing that huge number or take your curtain call. As an actor, I pride myself on determining the success or failure of a show entirely on the number of woos we get after big numbers and during curtain call. The woo is a source of pride for me, and woo girls should not be the only audience members allowed to let loose – in fact, studies have shown the woo audience, much like the woo girl, is quite contagious, so if you hear a woo come from the crowd – be sure to chime in yourself and let us actors onstage know how awesome we are, after all, I am judging my performance based solely on your woos .

In other news, I have created a reviews page, highlighting just how awesome I am. Actually, this flies in the face of everything I stand for as a performer; I firmly believe that (as John Herrera – original LJS – taught me) everybody has their own opinion… but Curt Dale Clark (Dr. Livesey & actor extraordinaire) says this will help get me jobs – and when an actor who has had a combined total of negative three months off of work in the last hundred years gives you career advice, you listen. So read away and let the judging begin.

I’m still working on the long awaited video blog, so keep an eye out – it should be up shortly!

That’s all for now – I think the brilliant Eddie Curry may be guest writing the next entry, so stay tuned for that!!!!

Drink up Me Hearties, YO HO!

Rick

(video courtesy of Beef & Boards)

You may wonder what it is like to be a part of a cast of 18 guys… it does have its perks. I never joined a frat in college (not really my scene), but I assume that if there were such thing as musical theatre frat, our cast would be it. We’re not the typical group of theatre guys. We play tons of poker, drink lots of “water”, and play catch in between shows on our two show days. The TV in the green room is continuously tuned to ESPN, and we have already begun to set lineups for the Broadway softball league. That’s right: watch out Mamma Mia, Little Mermaid, and Hair – there’s a new show that is about to own you! (Props must be given to Jay Elliott, here, who is heading up the B’Way softball operation, pending our New York run, of course.)

I share a dressing room with Jamie Jackson and Curt Dale Clark, and I must say they are great. Our room is very laid back; there is no stress about what is going on onstage and we do our best to keep it real. In Eddie’s absence, I have been forced to keep Curt and Jamie entertained (both need constant supervision), so I’m eagerly awaiting Eddie’s return so that I don’t have double duty: entertaining our paid audience on stage and Jamie and Curt off stage.

One of the fun things about our show is the varying audiences we get at B&B. Some houses tend to be full of laughs, others, not so much. I have heard some interesting things said while performing, though. (Yes, audience members, when you talk during the show, the actors can hear you ). Tonight, we had a giggling group of high school girls that seemed to have a thing for both Sam Weber and myself, though of course I will take most of the credit for their constant giggling anytime either of us was onstage. At our Wednesday matinee, when Billy Bones dies, I heard one kid sitting in the front row say to his friend, “I dare you to touch him!” The same kid also said, “Take the black spot,” which at this point has fallen out of Billy Bones’s hand and rests just inches from the audience. On several occasions I have been grabbed by audience members while playing a scene in the house. I think I scarred the crap out of one woman, who put her hand on my leg when she didn’t realize I was hiding behind her. Hehe. I laughed on the inside. Whatever ends up happening onstage, it’s important to remember that we are there to entertain and tell our story. The audience is really the missing character, and if you listen they will tell you just how they want to hear what we have to say.

Hunting for Easter Eggs...

On consequence of being an actor is being away from home over holidays. I actually don’t really see this as a bad thing, because it means we are doing what we love, but I digress. Anyways, Easter was on the 12^th, and since many of us are from out of town, we decided to take matters into our own hands and celebrate Easter as any pirate would: with a massive Easter egg hunt. We all met at the Beef and Boards farmhouse, where several actors live and the theatre has some storage space, and proceeded to have the most awesome day off in the history of days off. Here is how it went down: we partied from about One PM on Sunday until about One AM on Monday. The day consisted of tons of barbeque, food, “water”, poker, touch football, and of course our Easter egg hunt consisting of about 100 eggs. We couldn’t even find all of them, it was that huge – an actor years from now will probably find an egg and think what the @#$% is this egg doing out here!?!

I promised that I would give a personal shout out to one of our wonderful spot-ops, Kayla, in the blog. Kayla is super cool and along with her spot-op partner in crime Sandy (who incidentally seems to kill all of us in poker), does a great job – nothing is more irritating than a shaky spotlight, and these women are great at what they do. Actually as I think about it, I really need to give a shout out to the entire crew for Treasure Island, and more over everyone at Beef and Boards. I’m having an absolute blast here in Indy, and I hope that audiences can come share some joy with all of us!!!

Alrighty, that’s all for now – come see our show, and feel free to ask questions!!!

Peace!

Rick

So this afternoon our wonderful stage manager Liz Stark called a “put-in” rehearsal. While this sort of rehearsal is pretty common on production contracts (Broadway), a put in at a smaller regional theatre is a bigger deal – it means someone is out of the show, and parts are going to get shuffled in order to adequately tell the story, often times (as is our case), there is only the put in rehearsal its self to prepare. So who is out you might ask? Beef and Boards brilliant Eddie Curry, who plays three different parts – Blind Pew, Israel Hands, and Ben Gunn – all pretty important characters. Fortunately for us, Eddie is only out of the show this weekend -  he’ll be back on  Tuesday. While we wait for Mr. Curry to come back, our fearless leader, Marc Robin, was able to get out of his commitments this weekend and will be playing the roles usually played by Eddie.

While we all will miss Eddie this weekend, I can’t help but get a little giddy with excitement over getting to play opposite Marc. Talk about a force onstage! Marc is a seasoned performer who has worked with people like Bob Fosse, and has thrilled audiences while on the First Broadway National Tour of 42nd Street. Not only that, but as you’ll recall Marc also wrote and directed Treasure Island. Marc was a joy to work with this afternoon at his put in, and if I were you I would sprint to the nearest phone and call 317-872-9664 for two sets of tickets: one to the show this weekend, and another to witness the creative genius that is Eddie Curry, who has continuously captivated audiences while on the Beef & Boards stage. To say you are in for a treat is a vast understatement. Both men will thrill you to tears!

It’s about six o’clock right now, and I’m so pumped for our weekend set – everyone is going to be on their toes while adjusting to Marc’s performance, and this is a great test as an actor to see how one  performace can influence the choices made throughout the show.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned, I have an update shortly on week one of our TI run!!

Rick aka Jim

Honestly, I am just happy to have the day off! Our rehearsal schedule had listed a TBA rehearsal from 1-5 today, so to take the entire day for me is VERY welcome. In fact, as I look ahead – I am going to have a boat load of free time over the next few days. With the exception of shows tonight and Saturday, we are off until Tuesday evening. Sweet. You may wonder what it’s like to be a rich and famous actor and have nothing to do all day. It’s kind of awesome is the answer. I get to spend my days doing fun things like blogging, going to the gym (the theatre set us up at this awesome Gold’s), shopping, reading, watching movies, and staying out way to late at night. I can say it’s pretty much the life – just thinking about it makes me wonder why everyone doesn’t become an actor . I am blessed – at least for the next six weeks. That being said, I am one of those people who feels worthless if they are not being productive, so I try to find cool things to do to fill my time. Video blog? It might be in our future.

My parents are coming up from St. Louis to catch our opening on Saturday, and I was considering going back home to celebrate Easter and take Monday off, but I think our cast is planning a massive Easter egg hunt, plus I don’t feel like spending $40000000000 to fly back to Indy, so I’m probably going to pass. I hit the jack pot with parents; they are incredibly supportive of the sporadic lifestyle that comes with acting, and I thank them for not having an agenda for my life. I’m eager to hear their thoughts on how our production has changed since our premiere.

As I promised, I’ll give you guys the low down on the Treasure Island tech. Let me begin by saying that our fearless, amazing, words can’t possibly describe director Marc Robin has the most amazing philosophy on tech: “Tech is FUN!” (Incidentally, he has the same philosophy on life… brilliant man – go figure, right?) Anyways, Marc explains that the idea here is that since so many elements of a show are coming together, there are bound to be sticking points. If we expect for things to snag, we are setting ourselves up for happiness when things operate smoothly. I couldn’t agree more with Marc’s mentality here. We are not curing cancer, and as my wonderful teacher and friend Jen Waldman might say, “We are professional clowns!” The less seriously we take ourselves through this process, the more fun it is, and we all do this to have fun!

With “Tech is fun” in mind, we set out to tech this beast of a show – which went remarkably smoothly. Oh yeah… there was the computer that crashed after our first 10 of 12, resulting in losing our entire act one cue set, but that’s neither here, nor there. Paul Black, our amazing LD, his master electrician Brian (whose last name I have forgotten, sorry Brian), and a ton of others worked tirelessly to get us up and running again, and our show looks incredible. We all could have freaked about having to recue about 10 hours of material, but hey, TECH IS FUN, and we got the opportunity to make it even better the second time around! Way to go everyone!

As life in the theatre goes, our fearless leader Marc leaves Indy today to do The Producers at the Walnut. Words can’t possibly describe the profound impact this man has had on my life, through this show, but mainly through his zest for life! I’ll miss Marc, but I’m looking forward to coming to Lancaster and seeing him and Curt after we close.

Alrighty, that’s all for now, folks. If you are in Indianapolis, come join us at Rock Bottom tonight. It’s off of 86^th close to Trader Joe’s and Beef & Boards. The theatre is having an opening party for us and I’d love to all the TI fans come out in force!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Rick.

Come see us at Beef & Boards – playing nightly through May 17!!!

As you may, or may not know, act one ends with this awesomely huge brawl on board the Hispaniola: the sea shifts from an impending downpour, the wind cracks on the sails, the crew is full of angst from weeks at sea, and to complicate matters, land has just been spotted! What better time to have a fight for the ages? Enter Adam Noble, our killer (no pun intended) fight director. Not only is Adam is great guy, he teaches at the best college in the world, my alma matter, Indiana University. And although we didn’t get to work together at IU (Adam arrived just after I left), we are quickly making up for lost time with this production.

We had fight rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday and to say this guy is great would be an understatement. He rocks. One of the things I really like about Adam’s direction is that he remains focused on telling the story. Those of you who saw our premiere know that the fight (brilliantly staged by John Bellamo, might I add) was a highlight of the show. Adam is working hard with the cast to take the fight to the next level, making sure our fight not only looks authentic, but also communicates the direness of the situation, and in turn, I am discovering the best ways to replace the air in between moves with acting choices that communicate to our audience exactly what is going on. I could go on and on about how awesome our fight is shaping up, but I guess you’ll just have to come see our show for yourself and find out!

I can’t speak for the rest of the cast, but today’s rehearsal was amazing for me. We worked a ton of moment to moment beats, and I was able to discover and hash out several things that make Jim Hawkins tick. As an actor, this work can sometimes be tedious and it’s vital to stay on your game; not judging or expecting anything from your process – after all it is a process… I thought I did a good job of that today (kudos to me), and as a result, I had some great discoveries – discoveries, which I never could have reached without pushing myself; asking difficult questions and applying their answers to my work on Jim. I already love performing Treasure Island, but after our work today, I NEED to perform this show. I so clearly relate to Jim’s arc and his super objective to be viewed as a man.

Tomorrow is our designer run. Basically this is when all of the creative team sits in on a full run through and decides if the show will be good or not. Just kidding. But truth be told, I can’t wait for our run tomorrow – so much of our work thus far has been ironing out moment to moment stuff, so we have yet to feel out the ebb and flow of our particular show. This run is going be an amazing tool to figure out exactly what we need to spend time on. Additionally, the cast of Cats (currently playing B&B) is going to sit in, so I’m very excited to share our show with them. Plus, it’s been awhile since I got the rush of a full run of TI, and selfishly, I’m ready to bring it. This show is the most important project I have ever worked on, and I am aching to deliver the goods onstage.

Off to look over some material! Till next time…

Rick

Oh, one more thing – I looooooooove hearing your thoughts, so please, comment away!