Okay! So it's been six months or so since the last post! I have been lax. Nevertheless, making the effort here to 'get back on the ol horse.' To coin a phrase!
Currently I am mere hours away from opening an exciting project at Hope College in Holland, MI. For those of you who know me well, I KNOW! I KNOW! Hope College AGAIN!?!? But the project was just too good to turn down. Quite frankly, ANY work is too good to turn down.
20 years ago, when I was a student here at Hope, and still 'figuring things out' regarding what major I would focus on, I got cast in a musical in the theatre department called The 1940's Radio Hour. I played the role of Neal Tilden, cab driver by day, radio comedian by night. I loved the production, if for no other reason that the Hope College Jazz Band was going to be live onstage as the Zoot Doubleman orchestra. Singing with a 15 piece Big Band behind you! Pied Pipers-style vocal harmonies! Who can turn that down!
Well ... Hope is once again doing 1940's Radio Hour, and the concept is not only an homage to radio shows of the 1940's, but also to the original production I was in in the 1980's.
I'm taking on a different role this time. Age dictates that I play one of the more mature (read OLD!) characters, so THIS time around, I don the double-breasted suit of Clifton Feddington, radio producer. Less singing, but basically 'The Voice' of the radio show. And Brian Coyle has brought his jazz group from the Hope College music department up to snuff and they sound fantastic.
Some fun happenings connected to this production, loosely I'll admit, are that a few of the original cast members, including Joel Tanis, who was the Sinatra-esque Featured Vocalist Johnny Cantone in the 80's production, and who I have been working with for the past 3 summers on the children's TV show, COME ON OVER, will be attending, as well as 2-3 other members of the original cast, who have moved on to other areas of interest, but still live in the area.
We open tonight, as I mentioned, and play through the weekend. I'll try to get the calender updated, but it is pretty 11-nth hour so anyone interested should go to
http://www.hope.edu/pr/pressreleases/content/view/full/20725
For pertinent information.
More info on my Milwaukee project in the days and weeks ahead!