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10/26 So The Perch is officially defunct, but out of its ashes has risen the dick-joke-wielding beast known as Robot Johnson! We began rehearsals last week, and our first show is December 7th. More time, pricing and venue info as we move our little hind ends along.
10/8 Okay, so it's been a while, but I have this weird feeling no one's checking anyway. But big news! I'll be teaching at Winthrop again for spring semester 2008. Two acting classes this time! So I'm excited about that, and excited to meet my new students.
3/9 Another update on the Festival. Apparently due to a scheduling problem, Radio Free Planet will not see its debut in Columbia, SC. This is a bit disappointing to me, as I was very excited about seeing this play produced for the first time. However, I am enthralled with Stephanie Walker, my director for Going On this time around. Should be an interesting production. Right now I'm looking for a place to put me up for two nights in Columbia. Adventures never cease!
2/16 Update on the SC Playwrights Festival. The Festival has been rescheduled to the weekend of March 30 - April 1, 2007. Same place and time, however! I begin attending rehearsals next week...exciting stuff!
12/21 More news on the production front! Going On and Radio Free Planet have been selected to be part of the South Carolina Playwrights Festival, sponsored by Puppet Regime and to be held March 2-4, 2007 at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
8/8 I have been published again. EZineArticles has published my article "Event Jealousy" and listed me as an "Expert Author." Quite an upgrade from my previous rank, "Novice Hack." You can read the article - and download it for reprint if you like - here.
7/28 Starting August 22, I will be teaching in Winthrop University's Department of Theatre & Dance in an adjunct capacity. I'm teaching THRA 120H - an introductory acting class for non-majors - and THRT 298 - Theatre Appreciation. I'm excited to be at Winthrop, even if it is only for a semester. Plus, this gives me a chance to teach Tim McDonough's book, which he was developing during the time I was his student at Emory. Tim's methodology for acting narrative speeches is quite simply the best and most useful I've ever seen or come across. At any rate, I'm finally teaching. Go Eagles!
4/20 I know there were some problems seeing/hearing/understanding the last Perch clip I put up. Here are three new ones: "Mummy Friend," where I don't speak, "Talk Show," where I'm the stagehand, also without lines, and the full version of "Romantic," with Rodney singing and myself playing guitar. They seem to be pretty smart; I don't speak at all!
2/15 I am now officially a member of the Legally Dead Parrots! This comedy troupe performs at The Perch here in Charlotte, NC on Friday and Saturday nights. A few sketches of mine have already made it into this week's show. You can see one of them by clicking here!
2/6 An article of mine, "Exposure and Visibility: How to Heighten Your Public Image on a Shoestring Budget," was published in this month's edition of Pros Communications. You can check out their website here, but you'll have to subscribe to read the article.
9/9 I will be playing instrumental acoustic guitar at Hart Witzen Gallery on October 7th for the gallery's opening of Seven Deadly Sins. This is pretty exciting, as I haven't played live guitar in quite a while. And since I won't be the center of attention -- the art will be -- there's no real pressure to be on top of my game. A little over a week before First Friday, Hart Witzen will be holding a Hurricane Katrina benefit, so check that out if you're in the Charlotte area. They even put me on the website announcement, check it out!
7/12 I have been offered and have accepted a position as Account Executive at My Team Of Experts, Inc., a public relations group which caters to independently owned small businesses in the Southeastern USA. Among other things I'll be writing press releases and organizing presentations and seminars for small business owners, helping them to promote themselves in a competitive environment. I'll also be moving back to Charlotte, NC, getting back into their blossoming arts and theatre scene, and hoping various theatre groups around the Queen City need a PR push. And, for the first time since 2002 I'll no longer be associated with the University of Georgia. So if anyone has season tickets they're willing to unload...
In other news, a reading I've been helping to organize is coming up. While my play Bath Water had to abandon its reading due to lack of actors, I'm very excited to announce that James S. Simmons's newest play Waxing Romantic will be read in the Cellar Theatre of the University of Georgia Fine Arts Building Thursday, July 21 at 8:00 pm! Waxing Romantic was workshopped at the Horizon Theatre New South Young Playwrights Short Play Festival this year in Atlanta, GA. James is a great budding young playwright at UGA who deserves your attention, as he will probably be receiving a lot of it in the very near future.
5/19 Well, it's official. I am now a graduate of the University of Georgia, like so many members of my family. On Saturday, May 14, 2005 I received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Drama, with a focus in Dramatic Writing. But I'm not done with the University yet! I'll be teaching beginning playwriting at UGA this summer session. All hail Professor Pollack! Well, technically Temporary Instructor Pollack...
3/28 Cures For Everything had its world premiere this week. I have no words. Look, they built a set for me, designed lights and sound and costumes for me, cast and directed actors for me, gave great performances for me. This is beyond gratitude, beyond flattery. See the Athens Banner-Herald preview here. See the Red and Black review here.
2/21 The Importance of Being Earnest opened last week, and to great crowds and good reviews. The cast is having a great time, which is all that I could ask. I attended the show Sunday afternoon, and even a low-energy matinee crowd was getting into the action, laughing often and clapping hard. I'm very proud of the product and am sure that the crowds will get bigger and the show better in its second week.
2/6 Just got back from KCACTF. While The Unburied Dead didn't place in the Short Play Competition, I feel that I got some good feedback and, more importantly, some good performances. Steven Hunt, the Region IV Playwriting chair, and Tony Tassa, the head of the Palm Beach Community College theatre program, put together a cast of volunteers for me that was really quite talented and nothing but enthusiastic. I am eternally grateful to Steve and Tony; this type of thing just reminds one of how we in this business can really help each other out.
12/16 Some new news on the KCACTF front! The Unburied Dead has been selected as one of the six finalists for the Region IV Short Play Competition in February! This is really exciting both for me -- two years in a row! -- and for the University of Georgia, since Dan won the competition last year. Also on the topic of said festival, Blake Bowen and Cheryl Binnie have been nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Award for their performances in The Homecoming.
The Importance of Being Earnest is completely cast and all of our preliminary production meetings have been held. I'm very excited about the show's potential. In a similar vein, I attended the first production meeting for Cures for Everything last night. I always love hearing what other people want to do with my work. They always have better ideas than I ever could.
I have also been formally approved to write and perform a stage adaptation of Samuel Beckett's modern novel Molloy next semester. This should prove a very rewarding, if daunting task.
10/13 The University Theatre production of The Homecoming, featuring yours truly as Max, opens tonight. We're all really excited, it looks to be a very good show. You can read about it here. The role of Lenny serves as the MFA Thesis role for Blake Bowen, who played Vladimir in the prodution of Waiting For Godot that I directed. Also, the news is that Cures For Everything will be directed by Heidi Cline, co-founder and artistic director of the now-defunct Soul-stice Repertory Theatre in Atlanta, GA. Heidi currently directs around town while teaching theatre at a private school in Atlanta. Looking forward to her insight and vision of the play.
7/12 The Unburied Dead was a big success, at least among the campers and their parents. We had two shows Saturday night, July 10, with a stellar cast and a packed house both shows. The Buck's Rock Video Shop has produced a DVD of the show, including a behind-the-scenes documentary, that should prove to be very entertaining.
6/02 The play I will be directing this summer at Buck's Rock is to be one of my own. The Unburied Dead will be produced and performed by the Buck's Rock campers as the camp's annual Eight-Day Play, a play rehearsed and performed (you guessed it!) in eight days. Should be a lot of fun! Maybe I'll even get a videotape of it. You never know...
5/08 I performed my solo piece Buck Knife on the evening of May fifth as part of the 2x1 Festival of Solo Performance Pieces. The festival took place over two nights and was the culmination of four months' worth of work for all of those involved. The festival began on the fourth of May and, along with my own piece, featured the work of Blake Bowen, Daniel Guyton, Kara Cantrell, Aaron Beelner, Joelle Arp-Dunham, Henry Bazemore, Jr., Maggie Surovell, and David Limbach. Both nights were huge successes and raised money for the UGA Graduate Acting Company fund as well as the Andrea Yates Mental Health Education Fund.
4/18 This summer I'll be working at Buck's Rock Performing Arts Camp in New Milford, CT during the months of July and August. One of the elite arts camps in the country, Buck's Rock boasts workshops with people like Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Bacon. I'll be directing a show or two, as well as working set construction under UGA professor Rich Dunham.
4/07 It's official! I will be directing Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest for the University Theatre in the Spring of 2005! Performing their MFA thesis roles in this production will be David Limbach as Jack, Henry Bazemore, Jr. as Algernon and Maggie Surovell as Gwendolyn.
3/26 Cures for Everything, my MFA thesis play, has been selected for the March slot in the University Theatre's 2004-2005 season! The play will run March 23 thru April 2, and the director has yet to be determined.
2/09 Just got back from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Great responses all around and very enriching experiences had. A Trick of the Light -- featuring Quincy Evans as John, Kristin Wright as Maria and Matt Suber as Angelo -- had a semi-staged reading as part of the Short Play Competition. Going On -- featuring Sergio Soltera as Jody, Samantha Church as Whitney and Christopher Basso as The Fat Kid and directed by Noel Solomon -- was performed to wild laughter and applause at the first half of the Ten-Minute Play Competition. Some wonderful performances, including UAB's stellar mounting of The Metamorphoses, possibly one of the best productions I've ever seen. (side note: Daniel Guyton, fellow MFA candidate at UGA, won the Short Play Competition with his one-act Attic and received a medal! Go Dan!)