EVEN SEA SLUGS CAN BE INTERESTING (though a bit slippery to hold…)

While doing laps around the Beverly Hills High School track one afternoon I spied an older gentleman dressed in sweats with a towel tucked around his neck and donning an English driving cap. I felt his energy from the moment I arrived and though focused on my own training I was drawn to him. He appeared to be mumbling to himself and oblivious to the outside world. By the second mile I was acutely aware of his incredible focus. He appeared to be concentrating, working from within on some problem perhaps, but doing so with laser precision. It didn’t hit me till a few laps later that this man was an actor learning dialogue and developing his character on that track.

Somewhere between my second and third mile and this was some years ago, I realized it was Burt Lancaster. To this day that afternoon has made an indelible impression on me. I learned that even after all the success a screen legend enjoys, he still must work hard at his craft and still give 150% in doing so.

My journey thus far has been on both sides of the camera. I’ve tasted success and failure, hard times and good but one constant throughout the journey has always been that the people I meet and places I’ve visited make life interesting…

A chance meeting in an elevator or at a gas station with someone far from the world of entertainment is often a valuable source for character development as an actor as well as a rich addition to the fabric of my journey.

And life is full of “stuff”. My life is no different. The typical acting coach will tell an actor that if they’ve had a bad day or some misfortune or are depressed they should use all that “stuff” in their performance. That same acting coach will also tell you if you’re angry use it or if you’re sad use it and so on. They’ll explain that adding your “stuff” to a performance will make that performance rich. If you’re that actor going through the “stuff”, that turmoil you feel inside may not be so easy to use in an audition or performance. The advice to use your “stuff” may be sound advice. However, we’re not always comfortable wearing all the armor needed to do so. It does get heavy.

So tonight I’m gonna take off my armor,set my stuff aside and relax a little bit before tomorrow's challenges present themselves...Of course all that happens sometime after a long night of rehearsal giving 150%. It's hard work being a murdering adulterer. Oh yeah,that's my character Tony Abbott in "Heaven Can Wait". We open April 23rd at the Conejo Players Theater in Thousand Oaks.