Dreams Come True... at least professionally.

When I was six years old I saw the film of Oklahoma! for the very first time. Since that day I have dreamt of playing the role of "Will Parker" and have held this role as that which is desired above all others. I have auditioned for this show on a number of occasions never to any amount of success.... until recently.

On Sunday, I auditioned for the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York. After a long day of dance calls, readings and singing "Kansas City", I returned home hopeful but realistic. Realizing that the director would most likely want to go with an Equity actor I assumed I had heard the last of the subject. Untrue... (can you feel the suspense building?).

Yesterday afternoon as I was sitting around the table eating lunch with John and Lauren I received a phone call from an unknown area code..... Ithaca, New York. It was the associate artistic director calling to offer me the role I have been preparing for for the past twenty years. When she asked if I would like some time to think it over, I immediately shouted, 'No!". Desperation is my middle name.

So I go into rehearsals June 2 and we open the sixteenth, running until the fifth of July. I am so excited I've felt poop crampy for the past twenty-four hours. Where as I am always excited and grateful for a job offer, this exceeds all else in my book. In fact I may retire after this.

Another exciting and rather daunting aspect of this is the director, Dan Knechtges. When I went in to the room, I kept thinking to myself, "Where have I seen this dude before?" When I returned home I realized the answer.... In Broadway.com opening night videos. He is the choreographer of the Broadway productions of Xanadu, Putnam County Spelling Bee, and 110 In The Shade.... if I had known this on Sunday, I think I would have thrown up on him (I don't handle things like that very well... ask me about my audition for Martin Charnin some day). I am overwhelmed at the prospect of working with him. And even moreso at the realization that someone who has directed Audra MacDonald has cast me in one of his shows. I don't think I am going to cease feeling nauseous until July 6th.

I am finally playing, "Will Parker". I think I may die from this.

The Next Chapter?

Okay, so here it is..... I'm back in New York after a year and a half of wanting nothing but to be back in New York. But now I have another possible road opening up to me....

John, whom I have been seeing for just over two months, has decided to go back to school in Ithaca, New York (about five to six hours from the city) and he has asked me to come with him.... now, I know you may be thinking, "Joe, you followed Chris to the Berkshires and were miserable." But here's the difference.... I adamently did not want to go to the Berkshires and I said so repeatedly, I don't have negative feelings about Ithaca. In fact, I've been doing some research and Ithaca seems like a really great place. And it has three professional regional theatres which all cast locally, so I would still be able to work. Besides, I'm sort of going through a quarter life crisis at the moment, rather unsure what I want of my fututre. However, one thing I know I DO want in my future is John. So here's my chance to start building that.

I've been back in the city for a few weeks now and it hasn't been the same. I feel like something is missing and it is.... him. So here I am at yet another cross roads..... and I think I know the road I'm going to take.

Happiness is...... turning the page.

You're A Good Man Charlie Brown closes on Saturday, and though I have had a lot of fun with this show I'm ready for a break and ready to get back to the city. I've been going practically non-stop since May. I went from A Chorus Line to Johnny Guitar and then right from that into Violet and then after a wonderful two week break (in which an amazing relationship began to blossom) I began rehearsing for Charlie Brown. And as unbelievable as it sounds.... I'm ready to step back and relax and move forward into the next chapter of my life.

After Chris and I ended our eight year relationship (amidst my first foray into summer stock) I was rather up in the air about everything. Thank God I had a show to focus on or else I think I would have gone insane. But lo and behold a gift in the form of an equally poor actor was given to me. John and I have somehow managed to build a seemingly workable relationship despite the constraints of not presently being in the same locale. He makes me happy and I feel relaxed..... a new feeling for a compulsive neurotic like myself.

But back to YAGMCB, our final performance is a Saturday Matinee after which we have to attend the annual Berkshire South Gala (suit and a tie, open bar, and free $100 a plate dinner- not bad) in which we the cast are the entertainment. And then the next morning John's driving me back to the city.... of which I have been dreaming of for months.

Playing "Linus" has been a great experience and the audiences, especially the kids, have been amazing. Every night when I start waltzing with my blanket I hear the laughter that reminds me why I could never truly get away from the theatre. Apparently I'm an attention whore. And this show has not been without it's challenges for me. The week before we opened I came down with a case of Bells Palsy (a nerve condition in which one half of your face ceases to work and you look like you've suffered a stroke). For a while it wasn't definite as to whether or not I would be able to continue with the show, but the Producer said she wanted me so that was that. It's gotten continually better as the run as gone on and at this point my smile is just slightly off-center. But for a while, every time I stepped on stage I was terrified of what the audience would think.

But apparently I didn't have anything to worry about. The show has done wonderfully and my number has consistently been well received. In fact the review said..... "In addition to being a smart actor with good instincts, Breen is a smooth, poised, stylish dancer. His moves in "My Blanket and Me" are sublimely reminiscent of the late Ray Bolger.".... There is no higher praise in the world than being compared to the man who played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. None. Saturday will indeed be bittersweet.

Deborah Kerr... R.I.P.

I'm very sad......


Deborah Kerr, the British-born actress who starred in the film version of The King and I and the original productions of the Broadway plays Tea and Sympathy and Seascape, died Oct. 18 in Suffolk, eastern England, AP reported. She was 86 and suffered from Parkinson's Disease.
Ms. Kerr was a major Hollywood star throughout the 1950s. Blessed with pale skin, lovely, placid features and blonde hair, which she typically wore short and back, she played a series of emotionally cool, well-bred, but kind women. On screen, no one was more ladylike than Deborah Kerr. "I came over here [Hollywood] to act," she said, "but it turned out all I had to do was to be high-minded, long-suffering, white-gloved and decorative."
She was the English governess who tamed the boorish Siamese king in the screen version of The King and I, playing opposite Yul Brynner. Her singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon. She was Terry MacKay, the lady who is too dignified and selfless to tell her lover Cary Grant that she had lost the use of her legs in the romantic weeper "An Affair to Remember." Other films included "Edward My Son," "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison," "Separate Tables" and "The Sundowners." She was nominated for Academy Awards six times. She won an honorary Oscar in 1994.
Ironically, the role she is best known for was her most torrid, in "From Here to Eternity," in which she has a clandestine affair with soldier Burt Lancaster. The passionate kiss they share on the beach, while the waves role over them, is one of the most memorable love scenes in film history. The two actors were, in fact, romantically involved during the filming of the movie.
Ms. Kerr was born in Helensburgh, Scotland on Sept. 30, 1921. She was given a strict upbringing, with an emphasis on posture and good manners. She trained as a dancer at her aunt's drama school in Bristol, and soon began making appearances in plays. Her first appearance on the West End stage was as Ellie Dunn in Heartbreak House at the Cambridge Theatre in 1943. She began acting in British films in 1941 and was brought to Hollywood in 1947 after making an impression in the film "Black Narcissus."
She made her Broadway debut in 1953 in Robert Anderson's drama Tea and Sympathy, playing a bullying headmaster's understanding wife, who takes pity on a nonconformist student who is accused of homosexuality. It was Ms. Kerr who, when her character decides to alleviate the boy's doubts by taking him to bed, uttered the famous line, "Years from now when you talk about this — and you will — be kind." Harold Clurman wrote that she was "beautiful to behold as well as gratifyingly warm and simple." Ms. Kerr repeated her performance on film.
In 1975, she returned to Broadway in Edward Albee's beachside allegory Seascape, playing one half of a middle-aged couple who encounter two talking lizards on the beach. The play had a short run, but won the Pulitzer Prize.
She was married to Anthony Bartley from 1945 to 1959. They had two children. She married Peter Viertel in 1960. Ms. Kerr retired from films in 1968.

Another Openin'.....

Quick update: You're A Good Man Charlie Brown opens tomorrow night. I'm exhausted, as I always am at this point, and am suffering from a case of Bell's Palsy. If you don't know what it is... look it up and then try to imagine singing, dancing and smiling with it. However, my prayers seem to have begun to be answered as it is gettting increasingly better with each passing day. Linus just has a crooked smile now.

Oh well, the show is cute and I think we are more than ready to open... knock on wood. We're sold out for opening night, which is always a good thing. Three more weeks to go.

The Summer's Over.....

Last time I blogged was the morning of my first rehearsal.... now I am a week after my final performance. My first experience with summer stock went rather successfully, I feel. I did two great shows, played some very interesting and diverse parts, met a bunch of rather fabulous people and was able to buy myself a new computer.... yay! So all in all, a satisfying summer.

Although, I must also admit the summer brought a cornucopia of challenges and changes into my life, some positive, some negative; but all rather important in scope. I'm not going to go into it at the moment, but suffice it to say: if my life were a teen novel about a life altering summer, I'd fit right in in the "angsty-young-adult" section of your local Borders or Barnes and Noble.

Now, moving away from that lot, I will discuss my new job. I am playing "Linus" in You're A Good Man Charlie Brown in a production directed by Joan Ackerman. Fairly impressive, I would say. Though I have already played "Linus" ad nauseum, I'm quite excited about this job. I began music rehearsals yesterday and we begin blocking tomorrow. I hope this experience will be as satisfying as working at the Theater Barn this summer, but even if it's not.... I get to dance around with a blanket. What more is there in life?

Summer Stock: Day One

Well I start rehearsing for my first stock production today. Johnny Guitar is a musical comedy based on a dramatic western film staring Joan Crawford. I agree, it is an odd subject. But after reading the script I realize that it has potential to be a fun and enjoyable show. I play three roles, though at the moment I'm not definite as to what they are..... Originally I was contracted to play a specific three (it's a small cast show with most of the actors tripeling) but last night at a party with the company I was told I was given the wrong three parts. So I came home, re-read the script, and re-highlighted it with my new roles. Now unfortunately, I have a sinking feeling I've highlighted the wrong roles. So, truth be told, I won't be positive of my parts until 10am today. Not a good way to start a new job, but there you have it.

On another note, I met the company last night and I have to say they all seemed to be a great group of people; actor, tech and admin alike. And I find myself looking forward to today. I've never done summer stock so this is all a new experience. Learning and staging a full show in less than two weeks while performing another at night seems a tad daunting but I realize that I'll either pass this with flying colors or come crashing and burning to the ground. What will my future be? We shall see..... We shall see......