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Busy, So Here’s the Update!

I think the term is; life is good. Plays, screenplays, auditions, movies, TV and radio. This is how I rearranged things to keep what I love most at the top of the deck and it seems to be working.

Currently in the second week of a four week run with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks on a Guest Equity artist contract along with Artistic Director Jen Tober in 2 Gentlemen of Verona. This is my second year back with them and it’s truly a great company having done Henry V with them last year. I’ve been doing my one man show, “Friended by Shakespeare” and we’re getting ready to extend that run and also make a film of the performance. We just completed the screenplay.

Films and TV have come calling and there will be some announcements soon but right now it’s all gotta be kept secret.

Radio continues with my regular Saturday show at KDKA from 2-6 and plenty of coverage during the week, and what a great time to be doing talk radio. Of course I alway look over my shoulder to make sure my friends at Y108 are doing the country thing the way I love it and who knows, it’s just a short walk down the hall.

So, we’re up to date and I’ll try to write more as time allows. There’s a line in a play I did in L.A. by Susan Miller called “Arts and Leisure” that goes, “funny how things work out”. That’s an apt expression for the current time.

Actor’s “Time”

We’ve all heard the term, “time is what you make it”. But to an actor, “time” can be a period that leads to greatness, failure or possibly insanity. As actors, we all have probably too much “time”. Most of us don’t work steadily, going from one job to the next. Yes, all is well when our time is consumed creating a character for a play, waiting on the set for a movie or learning lines for a commercial. But what about the “time” in between. The “time” when seemingly nothing is going on?

That’s when we as actors have to use that “time” to our advantage.

Ben Slack

A friend of mine, a great character actor Ben Slack taught me a valuable lesson when he was alive. We would get together from time to time, usually when he had some down-time which he had much less of than I did. We would come up with projects, acting projects, one act plays, short film scripts, a study of a play. I would usually get all involved with the project saying I would get something together for the next time we met. A short time would pass, I’d call Ben and ask if he wanted to see what I had only to be told that he just got a TV series or he was off to Europe for a months worth of filming and we’d talk when he got back. The next time we’d meet, he’d have a new project he wanted to explore. After a while I learned that these “projects” was how Ben spent his downtime. “Time” to keep his mind off not working and “time” to keep his actor muscles working.

Think about it…but don’t take too much “time”. Get busy.