The Phone Call that changed my life.
Have you ever had a experience that you felt nervous and excited at the same time? Well I had one; it all started Thursday, May 29, 2003 at the biggest audition of my life. The auditions were for the musical Les Miserables and Jesus Christ Superstar at a Summer Stock Theatre Program in Jonesboro, Georgia. The name of the Company is Clayton Alliance for Summer Theatre, a twenty year old theatre company that only does shows in the summer.
Going back to the night of the auditions, I traveled to Jonesboro with a good friend. We were both students of the same voice teacher. We thought it was going to be a small turnout, but when we pulled up at the Clayton County Performance Arts Center, we had trouble trying to find a parking space. It was the largest audition I have ever been to especially since there was over seven hundred teens and adults. The Les Miserables auditions were only open for ages 14 to 21 year olds and Jesus Christ Superstar was open to everyone. As we signed in and got our call numbers. We waited about two hours for our time to go in the room with the directors. This was the longest two hours in my life! If you have never been to a huge audition, the first you need to sign in and get your number and get in line in order of your number. After every ten people that go in and audition, they post a call back list. The call back is for people the directors liked and asked to come back the next night for more auditions. Well we finally reached the door, and it was my friends time to go in. Now she was only in there five minutes but I was so nervous it seemed like eternity; my hands were sweaty and I all of a sudden I forgot my words. “What is wrong me with me?” I thought to myself; “I’ve been in tons of Auditions before now!”. The moment she came out my nerves were starting to settle. She told me it was a “breeze and don’t be nervous”.
So I finally went into the room with two women and a older gentlemen sitting on the front row in the small recital hall. They asked me my name so they can find my audition form that I filled out. They told me to start singing and the song I prepared was “Master of the House” from the show. I really had fun with it and at the end of the song they gave me a standing ovation. They also told me that I have a excellent resume and they will be seeing more of me. When I came out I wasn’t nervous or scared anymore, just a little impatient for the eight people to go so I can find out if I made it the call back. Well another twenty minutes later they finally posted the list and I couldn’t make myself look at it, but I finally got up and looked with my friend and we both got called back. I was so excited that I pulled out my cell phone and called the first person that came to my mind, my voice teacher. We traveled the next night to the call backs, and we could see a huge difference in the number of empty parking spaces. We went in and got our new numbers with about seventy other people there that night. As we gathered into groups, my Group was all males. We were told to sing a song from the show from our first audition. The rest of the night went by in a blur. I remember at the end of the night, they called us all in the room and the director gave us some good news. She told us that we were all in the show, but they didn’t know who was who yet. She also told us that we are

going to be receiving phone calls over the weekend to be told our parts. Well I waited by the Phone all weekend, then it finally came sometime late Saturday afternoon. I was given the part that I wanted, Thenardier , the innkeeper. I was so excited! That was the night that started the greatest summer of my life. These experiences involve many rehearsals five days a week for three hours periods and an hour dive back and forth from Griffin to Jonesboro through I-75 traffic. But the experience was worth it in the long run. I made many friends I still keep in touch with now and I learnt many new acting techniques that I brought into my professional life as an actor.

When the rehearsal process was over and the already sold-out performances for the public started the cast and myself was so excited. Now the Clayton County Performing Arts Center is an 1800 seat theatre and the audience wasn’t just from Jonesboro, people came down from Atlanta and North Georgia. Our Production of Les Miserables was the first amateur performance in the Southeast. The Performances were breathtakingly great and not one flaw, but it was over in a flash. In the last performance in the second act finale, we were all in tears and it was so hard to sing but we finish the finale. That summer will hold a special place in my heart forever and I when I think of the Les Miserables cast of 2003; I think of a quote from the novel and musical, “To Love another person is to see the face of God.” I truly saw the face of God being with that great cast.

The Diviners

I am currently in The Diviners, by Jim Leonard Jr. We open October 11th-15th at the Gordon College Fine Arts Auditorium. I play a very complex character in the show. His name is Ferris Layman, a widowed father of a daughter and a disillusioned son. Ferris is just a normal man, who is still coping with being a widowed father, and trying to take of his son who has the IQ of a six year old. One minute you laugh with him,then you cry for him and finally sometimes scared of him because of his temper. This is a play about love, friendship, family and community, and a time in our nation's history when these things were hard to find, and even harder to hold onto. In a true community, the joys and pains of the individual are shared and shouldered by all, and it is this sense of community that binds these people together, allowing them to persevere with determination, hope and good humor. Possessed of a great respect for the land and those they share it with, the people of Zion still believe in common courtesy, and the value of a handshake.
Stylistically, the play has a hymn-like quality. It is spare, haunting, and yet ultimately human, and filled with warmth. There is a respect for life in the play, even in its depiction of death. There is also a tremendous faith in the human capacity for goodness. The Diviners is a ballad folk tale, told and retold among friends.

I am what you call an Broadway nerd. For example a normal person goes and buys a new rock album , but when I go out I buy any album that has the words "original Broadway cast recording" or anything that was in a showtunes section. My favorite Broadway albums are The Last Five Years, Wicked, Les Miserables, 25th annual Puntnum County Spelling Bee, The Color Purple, Footloose, Grease, Tintypes, Into the Woods, Chicago, West Side Story and many, many more. As you can see I really like musicals and I plan on making my career being in them. Over the last seven years I have been in over 26 shows with Community theatres, professional theatre, and a summer stock theatre. I am currently in The Diviners on October 11 thru the 15 here at Gordon College.