An Epic Experience

So this weekend saw the end of another play, and I have a few things that I want to say and a couple of pictures to share.

First off Epic Proportions is the stage equivalent to movies such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. It is a stupid, predictable, laugh out loud riot of a show that I was both fortunate and unlucky enough to be a part of. This show gave me the chance to do something that I never get to do, be the funny man.

Usually in comedies I play the straight man. This is a combination of both my acting style, which tends to be understated and subtle, and my natural sense of humor. Those who know me can testify that I am nothing if not a smart-ass. But I was given the wonderful gift by our director and my good friend Peter Clapsis, to step outside myself and truly be wacky, zany, and funny. Looking back it was something that I will always cherish because I got the chance to really stretch myself as both and actor and a person. So to Peter I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

To my fellow cast mates, I took something away from each and everyone of you that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. Chris, in you I found a kindred spirit who I both respect as an actor and was awed in watching. Jess, I have seen you blossom a lot from the young actress that I met during Veronica's Room. Your sense of urgency and professionalism were an inspiration to me, and your legs ain't half-bad either :p. Juan you are one of the few people whom I have met who not only has a passion for theater equal to mine but also a love of life and questioning of the status-quo. Michael, I have known you for a few years now and I must say that if I did not my life would be less interesting than it is. Lezlee, not only are you extremely talented in dance and acting, but you have a love for life that is inspiring to see. Dalton I have marvelled at your talent for several years and feel as though I was blessed with a glimpse at a true master at work. Mitch, in you I have found a brother. I have only known you for a very short while but feel as though we have lived a lifetime of friendship. Cheryl and Jeanine, you both raise me up to a higher level of consciousness. Barbara, Linda, Carol, and Lauren, I feel truly blessed by God to know you and look forward to being friends for many years to come.

That's pretty much all I have left to say. So I will let the pictures say the rest.

'Til we meet again

Paul

The Crazy Uncle. Every Family Has One.

I was going to make this post a recap of the day my niece was born, but I don't think I could say it any better than my brother already has. Maybe write it better but not say it better. Check out this link if you are interested.

http://www.dutchgirl-irishguy.com/

Then go to the link Grand Rapids has a Skyline.

Much Ado about Awesome!

This weekend marked another milestone in my dramatic endeavours. It was my first time doing a legitimate version of one of Shakespeare's works. Before now the closest I ever got to the "Bard of Stratford on Avon" was in "Kiss Me Kate" which is a musical retelling of "The Taming of the Shrew".



It was an experience that I will never forget. But to truly understand what this weekend meant to me it must be put into perspective. First, if you have ever read Shakespeare then you know how difficult it is. Now imagine sitting down for your first read through with a group of actors you have never met before aside from the director, and reading lines like these.



"Then is courtesy a turncoat, but it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted, and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart for truly I love none."



Or...



"Sir I will meet your wit in the career, and you charge it against me, I pray you choose another subject."



or my personal favorite...



"Against my will I am sent to bid you come to dinner. There's double meaning in that. I took no more pain for those thanks than you took pains to thank me. That's as good as saying any pain you take for me is as good as thanks, if I don't take pity on the lady I am a villain."

Yes it was enough to make my head spin. How in the hell was I going to be able to successfully pull this off. It was very daunting doubly because I was picked to portray Benedick, the male lead. It was most interesting because for weeks I couldn't get through the majority of my lines without tripping over my tongue every third word.

Slowly but surely however, and with the help of some very good friends and talented castmates, I finally was able to get a grip on the meaning of the lines and by extension how they should be said. We put in alot of time and were able to put on a very compelling and entertaining show that will be remembered by all who were apart of it for many years to come. To my castmates I extend my everlasting thanks and congratulations for a job well done and for making me look good on stage as Benedick. There is no way I could have done it without you all.

'Till we meet again,

Paul

Melancholy Baby.

I would like to start this blog post with a thank you to a very special friend of mine who has a true gift for listening. A couple of weeks ago I fell into one of my bouts of melancholy over the fact that I am a 28 year old single man who lives in a town with no apparent romantic options because the average age of the members of the opposite sex is dead. But seriously, those of you who know me can vouch for the fact that for the most part I am a person who enjoys life and is always there to give an encouraging word, laugh with a well told joke, or generally be a good friend. And though I am a confessed realist, I would say that I lean to the side of optimism instead of pessimism.

However, every now and then I look around me and see my friends with their spouses, or girlfriends and wonder to myself, why not me? It depresses me to think that I am a person with a lot of love to give and no one to give it to. Now I love my friends and I am very liberal with the love I have for them but that is a different kind of love. I want to know the kind of love that exists between two people who have become one. The kind that I see when my parents or grandparents look at each other.

The platitudes of it will happen when it happens sound more hollow to me the older that I get and it gets extremely frustrating because for all my bluster and realistic philosophy the truth of the matter is, I am a hopeless romantic at heart. I know that I am probably making more out of this than there actually is but this is how I feel sometimes, and I am not one who usually verbalizes feelings like this because of my masculine conditioning of internalizing such feelings.

Anyway I really just needed to vent. To my good friend again I say thank you for being able to listen to me when I do externalize these feelings and to all my other friends who read this blog, I am sorry I have not trusted you enough to tell you these things before. Hopefully you won't think less of me.

'Til we meet again.

Paul

An evening with the King.

This past weekend I went to see Roger's and Hammerstein's classic musical "The King and I", which was playing at my local community theater. Now some of you may be asking yourselves why, because some of you know that I have an unbiased hatred for that show. The answer to that question is that I have a very good friend who was playing the King, who stepped in on short notice and needed the support of his friends. That being said I now know why I do not like this show.

I first developed a dislike for this show as a little (yes I was little at one time) boy when my sister would watch the movie starring Yul Brenner with some regularity. I really think it was the song "Getting to Know You" that did it for me, to this day I cannot hear that song and not cringe. But after a few years I began to reevaluate my dislike for the show and try to give it a fair shake. After all there have been many movies that I could not stand as a child that I have grown to love in my adult life, The Wizard of Oz is one that immediately springs to mind. However no matter how many times I watched it with an objective eye there was always something that grated on me about it and I never could figure it out.

This weekend however I think I know. The show is very uneven. You have arguably one of the most dynamic characters in theater in The King, surrounded by a group of under defined characters that no matter how good of actors you have to play them are always coming up short. Now before you get angry at me and misconstrue my words, I am not saying that the only person I saw that did a fantastic job on Friday was my friend the King. I have many friends in that show and I was astounded by how good some of them were. I never before realized just how good a singing voice Lady Thiang or Lun Tha had until I saw them this weekend.

What I am saying is that no matter how good they are, the characters they are playing are so underdeveloped it is painful. There is a whole story in and of itself for the Lun Tha/Tuptim relationship. Now I know that the show is about the relationship between Anna and the King, and all others are support, but it just seems to me that with a little bit of tweaking in other areas of the show it could be so much more than it is.

Anyway I have probably made no end of enemies by this post but I felt that these were things I needed to say.

'Til we meet again

Paul

P.S. A word of advice. Never play Clue with lawyers.

Well Deserved but tainted.

So the Oscar's were last night and big surprise Heath Ledger won posthumously for his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime from Last year's The Dark Knight. I would like to take this time to convey my congratulations to Mr. Ledger's family and friends and say that it is an award well deserved.

However I would be remiss in this post if I did not point out the obvious hypocrisy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. What hypocrisy you ask? Well I am a firm believer that the voting of the Academy members was based less on the actual performance of Mr. Ledger and more on the fact that he died tragically a couple of months before the film hit the theaters.

Now before you get all upset and start yelling at me, I am not saying that Heath Ledger does not deserve this award. What I am saying is that if he had not died, there is no way in hell he would have won. And that is the hypocrisy I am speaking of. I saw a good deal of movies last year and I can say without a doubt in my mind that Ledger had the best acted, most fully realized, and most dynamic character of any movie last year. His performance is doubly impressive when you consider what he was up against. The Joker is by far the most recognized villain in comic book history. He has had the good fortune to be portrayed by some of the most distinguished live and voice actors our generation has ever known. As such everyone who knows the character has there own interpretation of how he should be played. From Cesar Romero's campy clown, to Nicholson's dark gangster, to Hamill's zany Daffy Duck-esque voice work, it seems almost impossible to bring something new and fresh to this character. Not only did he do it, but he put this icon of evil into a new realistic light that has never been seen before.

This and this alone should have been the basis for the voting this year. However, it never would have happened if he were still alive. This has nothing to do with Ledger and everything to do with Hollywood. It hates Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Comic Book movies. This is best illustrated by the 1978 awards in which Star Wars, the movie which had the biggest impact, was snubbed in all major categories for other winners. It, like it's predecessors and successor's was relegated to the technical categories like visual effects and such.

In the last 50 years only one film has ever won any Oscar's for any of the main categories, that being The Lord of the Rings: Return of The King, but this is the exception that proves the rule. I suppose I should not be surprised, seeing as how the whole thing is really a popularity contest and not one of validity. It just makes me mad that it takes something like a tragic death to bring a modicum of respectability to a genre of storytelling that just about everyone enjoys.

Anyway that's enough for this rant.

Til' we meet again.

Paul

28 things about me.

Hello all. For those of you who know me you know that today is my birthday. So I thought I would let everyone get to know me a little bit better by answering a few questions.

1. Dream Car- Aston Martin DBS

2. Favorite Book- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

3. Dream Vacation- Worldwide Theme Park tour followed by a tour of all Major League Baseball Stadiums

4. Favorite Obscure Movie- Life as a House.

5. Favorite Movie Quote- "Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; that love, true love, never dies... No matter if they're true or not, a man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in." -Secondhand Lions

6. Aside from my acting, my greatest catharsis comes from my writing.

7. Contrary to popular belief, theater is not my first love. That place belongs to Baseball. Every spring I miss being able to play more than anything.

8. My brother and I used to get mistaken for each other all the time. Once, while we were working at the same grocery store, we both dressed up as gangsters for Halloween. I got called up to the front to bag, but my brother told me he would do it because he wanted to see how long it would take them to realize it was him and not me. The answer.......45 minutes.

9. Probably the greatest irony of my life to date is the fact that between my brother and me, I was always the inferior athlete, but I was on a State Champion Wrestling team, a two time conference winning football team and the first Baseball team to win any trophy of any kind for our school in like 25 years. He on the other hand was always on teams that were inferior to his own abilities.

10. I was born with a collapsed lung.

11. I am not a sports nut. For the most part I follow sports with passing interest. I know enough to be able to hold conversations and to know what is going on. I follow the big sporting events of the year, i.e. The Masters, The Superbowl, Daytona etc..... However when UGA football is on I become a raving lunatic. It is actually quite funny.

12. My perfect year in sports would consist of. Georgia winning the BCS championship, Atlanta winning the Super Bowl, Tiger completing the Grand Slam, Dale Jr winning the Nextel Cup, and Atlanta winning the World Series.

13. If I could only watch 5 movies for the rest of my life they would be. Star Wars (OT), Casablanca, The Godfather, Lonesome Dove, and The LOTR.

14. Favorite Dog- UGA

15. The people I most admire- My Parents and my Grandaddy.

16. My dream job- Paid Rollercoaster rider.

17. Favorite historical figure- Jesus Christ. Even if you don't believe in him as the son of God you have to admit he had a wonderful philosophy on life.

18. Favorite Quote- "Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." -G.K. Chesterton

19. Favorite Chuck Norris Fact- While urinating, Chuck Norris is easily capable of welding titanium.

20. My inner circle- J9, love ya babe, Pete, he's da man, The Dwyer, although have not heard from him in a while.

21. I often feel as though I was born in the wrong period in time. I feel more at home dressed as a Medieval Knight, or a 1930's newspaper reporter than in my normal street clothes.

22. My biggest fear- Snakes. Hate them.

23. My birthday wish- That my parents can get away for a few days and escape the financial state that we are in right now. They are both so weary of penny pinching, I wish that I could send them on a weekend retreat or something.

24. Places I would most like to visit- Scotland, Ireland, Australia, The Grand Canyon, Montana

25. I am expecting the birth of my very first niece. I can't wait to be the crazy uncle.

26. I am a fan of music. I love harmony, dissonance, and the magic of hearing it all come together. That's probably why I don't listen to much Pop music.

27. I still have many movies from my childhood that I will watch again and again.

28. I am beginning to regret the fact that I got an XBOX for Christmas. This not getting to sleep until midnight is killing me.

Well that's it. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did in creating it. If not, then I really don't care.

'Til we meet again

Paul