And So, As Tiny Tim Observed...

A Christmas Carol is over. I've never been so conflicted in my feelings about a show ending (at least as an actor). The last time I did CC, I was SO excited for it to end, because there was a person in the cast who I got really sick of by the time it was done. I also wasn't really enjoying the show all that much that year to begin with. This time, however, I loved the show.

Tuesday was closing night, and we had THREE shows that day. I was excited going into it. Others in the cast weren't. One person in particular would not shut up the entire day about how much s/he didn't want to be there. It bugged the snot out of me. Why do a show repeatedly if you hate it so much?! (Said person was the one who ruined the show for me in 2005, btw.)

Despite a few Cranky McCrankersons, I had a blast. The first show was at 2 PM. I was excited because Heather and David were there along with a bunch of Heather's family AND Wendy! Also, the famous Chris Clark was there. He's pretty much my acting idol. The show got a standing ovation- before we even got to the curtain call. It was pretty cool. After the show, Heather, David, and Wendy were full of compliments. The girls specifically praised how far my acting has come, and Heather said I commanded the stage every time I was on it. (For all three of my scenes! WOOT!) They made me want to cry. Then- THEN! I was informed that Chris Clark was looking for me to say hello. OMG! THE Chris Clark was looking for me! I went and talked to him, and he was very nice, even if he said that he laughed at Emily and me.

The 5 PM show wasn't anything spectacular, but it was pretty good. My brother, Glenn, brought my niece, Annika, to see the show. I snuck out to talk to her after the show, and she was a giggly mess. She could barely talk to me. It reminded me of how I was when I met Ashley Brown. And Lea Salonga. I kind of felt like a celebrity for a minute.

The 8 PM (and final) show was my personal best show of the entire run. It was incredible. In my first scene, I got applause for my speech about Christmas. I've felt like the audience has been with me before, but NEVER actually got applause at that point. It was a FANTASTIC scene. Chris, Eric, and I were totally together, and I loved every second of it. The party scene was great, too. For the first time since we opened, the ad-libs weren't so out of control that you couldn't understand the lines. That actually happened in all three shows Tuesday. It was great. Solid teamwork from all involved.

The most amazing part for me, though, was the scene where Fred and his wife visit Scrooge to invite him to dinner one last time. When Chris said that he would love to come to dinner if I would let him in, I almost lost it. Suddenly, it was real. The whole run of the show led up to this moment for me. For the last time, Scrooge had repented. He was making an effort to reconnect with the only family he had left in the world. I almost couldn't say "Let you in? I should say!" It was one of the most real, vulnerable acting moments I've ever felt. We went offstage and I told Emily that I had almost lost it. Shortly after that, Diane totally got choked up while she was giving her final narration onstage. It was a perfect show. It made it all feel worth it.

As much as I want some free time right now, that last show made me want to run the show forever. (People would come see A Christmas Carol in July, right?) I formed some great new friendships during this show, strengthened others, and only lost one (That's right, said person. I've downgraded you to an "acquaintance.") I felt Christmas more than I've ever felt it during this show. I was more proud of my own acting accomplishments than I've ever been before. I had SO many friends and family members come to see me in this show. Probably a record number, actually.

I'm so grateful to Jerry, Robert, the Hales, and the Swensons for the opportunity to be in the show. I forgot how much I love doing shows at the Hale. Cody Hale said something to me the other night about how nice it was to have me back there. I hope I can do more there soon. (Use me as an MD, Hales! Please? If not, I'll have to wait until there's another role that I'm actually right for, and there's no telling when that will be. Curse my realistic view of my type!)

To wrap up, here are my favorite and least favorite parts of the show:

Favorites

• Getting to know Jim. What an awesome guy! He was probably the person I got along with best throughout the run of the show.
• The compliments I got.
• Dizzy bat scene changes!!!
• Late nights at Denny's. I never really cared for the food, but the company was fantastic.
• My brilliant cut off on "Lord" at the very end of the show every night. (Consisting of mocking someone else onstage who was going overboard.)
• My costumes. Holy crap! I've never liked ALL of my costumes for this show before. I loved these ones, though.
• Cherubic Charlie threatening to punch me in the face.
• Teasing Janet that she had broken something at the Dabczynskis' house.
• The time I thought Janet called me a bastard in the hallway during "Old Joe." PLASTER!
• The time I was doing mic check with my Christmas speech and I said "It HAS done me good and WILL do me good, and I say...ah, screw it!" It caught a bunch of people off-guard and made me (and some others) laugh.
• The time I was doing mic check with my opening scene and little Marky said Scrooge's lines. When he asked me why I got married, I said "Because my wife's hot. Have you seen her?!" Mark stared at me for a second and then said "You're weird."

Least Favorites

• Bickering with Trash Ball like we were an ACTUAL married couple.
• The person who can't shut up about how much s/he hates the show, and yet does it every bloody year. Also, s/he makes non-stop inappropriate jokes that are so bad they make ME blush. And s/he is just downright rude.
• The day the Dr. Pepper was so syrupy that I almost choked drinking it.
• The little brat in the cast who was always wired from eating candy and would sit and glare at me and growl.
• The time the little brat belched and blew it in my face, and it stunk.
• The creepy, overprotective dad who came to every show (or sent one of his teenaged daughters in his place) to stalk his son. He got in the way of one of my scene changes or entrances EVERY single time he was there.
• The music director who didn't give a crap about the show. I'm sorry, but a half hour to teach three songs with 4 part harmony? Really? REALLY?!
• Having a member of the other cast try to convince me that his cast was more festive, and then having him say "What if I take my shirt off and ask you again?" And then having him actually strip down to nothing but his G bottoms, striking a pose, and asking me again.
• When creepy "festive" man left a cup of Coke in the cubby above my costumes and the Coke ate through the cup and dripped all over my stuff.

I may never be able to do the show again, and that will make me really sad. But at least I went out with a fantastic experience (despite little brats, ornery people, and naked festive men).

And so, as Gary Coleman observed, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Moe?! Whatchoo talkin' 'bout EVERY one!"

Completely Random

I'm sitting in the most boring class of all time. ALL TIME. We're doing group presentations, and there's only so much group presentation "goodness" that you can handle in three hours. So, here are some of the thoughts running through my head today.

I'm excited for the show tonight. The Varneys are all coming, as are the Labrums, the Hutchings, and Laura. Hmm. That makes Laura sound lonely. Poor woman. It's her own fault.

Yesterday, in Acting Styles, Laura and I were doing an exercise by either Stanislavski or Meisner. I can't remember which one. Anyway, you bring up some kind of personal issue, and you talk about it by saying "Yes, that's true" or "No, that's not" and then following it up with another statement. Laura, being the horndog that she is (did I mention she met President Monson last night and shook his hand?), started talking about my fantasies, and I said that the only fantasy I have right now involves whipped cream and Thanksgiving leftovers. Elfi was listening into our exercise, and she got so embarrassed that I thought she was going to choke. Her face was as red as the label on the Dr. Pepper that I'm drinking right now. It stayed that way for a couple minutes while Laura and I laughed.

I'm also using this boring time to search for sound effects for my design of Dancing at Lughnasa. It's for a class, so it's not an actual production, but I'm still having fun. It's a great challenge to design a show you hate and make yourself like it because of your design. I have a fun concept involving the radio of the show. It's similar to what I did with Canyon Suite, but to a further extreme.

I'm really excited for Chess, and even more excited that I'm not going to have any shows to stress about next semester other than Charlie Brown. I'm a little sad, because I wish I had something else, but I know that I'll be needing more time to work on lesson plans and stuff.

Power Points are fun, but let's not put EVERYTHING on them and then read verbatim.

I bound my score for Charlie Brown yesterday, and I like the cover I came up with for it. Even more, I like the fact that I made it in less than 10 minutes.

I'm really annoyed that these presentations are supposed to last about an hour, and the first group today took almost two, so this one is all stressed trying to get their presentation done in time.

*****

Class ended yesterday, and I didn't get to finish this post. But now, I'm in the oh-so-exciting "show and tell" day in Lighting and Sound Design class. We're all sharing sounds that we've found for Dancing at Lughnasa. It's boring. So, here are some more random thoughts.

As egotistical as it seems, I'm keeping track of some of the compliments I'm getting for A Christmas Carol. I justify this for two reasons. 1) Because if you follow my blog, you know how much I've needed it in the past. 2) Because I use the blog as my journal, and you know what? You probably write down nice things that people say about you in your journal. Don't deny it.

Last night, I bumped into Bobby Swenson at the theatre. He is the grandson of the original Hales. He's great. Anyway, I said hi to him and then was going to go and get ready, and then he told me that he really knows the show (he must have seen it every year of his life or something...) and he really likes my rendition of Fred. I told him thank you, and he told me again how much he like what I was doing with the part.

Also, last week, the assistant director/production manager/whatever they call him came up to me and said something to the effect of "You're a great music director, but I hope you don't stop acting." Wow. Suck on THAT, [director/producer who told me I needed to not act and focus on music directing]!!!

The other night, the guy who plays Bob Cratchit in the other cast was performing with us. He basically told me that his wife said she had never liked the opening scene with Fred and Scrooge until she saw me. Woohoo! I want to meet her so I can thank her.

Sometimes, all I need in my life is a good conversation with Julie and Trash Ball for a couple hours. They're fun.

Matt and Melinda are coming to the show tomorrow night. Last time I was in this show, they came to see it and Melinda ate corn beforehand. Melinda is allergic to corn and has major reactions to it. As a result, she was miserable and sick during the show, and they had to leave in the middle. Therefore, she is NOT allowed to eat corn tomorrow. No corn at all.

I had a ton of people at the show last night that came to see me. It was very nice. Happy fun time!

I think I'm going to Twelfth Night tonight. I'd rather have a night to just not do anything and relax. Oh, well. After next week, I can find a few nights here and there, I hope.

I'm SO done with school. D. O. N. E. Next week, I have song to perform in Musical Theatre ("My Freeze Ray" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), a scene to perform in Acting Styles (An Ideal Husband), and a presentation in Content Area Reading and Writing. Then, the next week, I have finals which consist of performing 3 of the scenes I've done in Acting Styles, performing two of the songs I've done in Musical Theatre, and turning in my final sound design. Then, school is over. I'll actually be able to do some Christmas shopping and stuff.

This class is over, but I don't have time to publish this, so I'll come back later...

*****

Last time I edit before publishing, I swear...

Emily and I just got back from Twelfth Night. I wanted to like it so much more. I sure did love Katy and Sara, though.

I'm done with random thoughts for now, I think. I'm going to finish watching The Soup, play Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe for a minute (have I mentioned how much I love that game?!), and then head to bed. I have a crazy day tomorrow full of rehearsals, meetings, and performances.

Goodnight!

(PS to Julie G. - I made a special tag for you. I hope you know that shows just how strong our friendship is. I just might add you to MY blogroll!)

Total Randomness

I've forgotten how much I love Nicole Kidman. I'm so glad Tom Cruise left her. She deserves better. I'm not a huge fan of Keith Urban, but he DID give her an adorable baby, so I guess that's worth something. I think I could probably break them up so I could have her, though. I'm also getting REALLY excited for Australia.

I'm completely over the election. It was a week ago. Can we drop it now? I'm tired of seeing people I care about getting in other people's faces over their beliefs. Especially when it's something like "You're so close-minded and stupid for voting that way, let me show you why my way was THE right way." Seriously? SERIOUSLY! You really think that refusing to see any validity in anyone else's beliefs is defined as open-mindedness?

I just saw Aida at the Hale (Thanks, Em!) and was blown away. If you haven't seen it yet, GO!

I'm putting together playlists for my trip to Disneyland later this week. I'm going with Matt, Melinda, and Lindsay. Each one of us picked one of our favorite songs of all time, and I'm creating playlists around each song through iTunes' Genius feature. We also picked a song for each of the others that reminds us of them. Some of these playlists have turned out AWESOME, and some hysterical. It should be fun to listen to them and first of all have to figure out which song is the significant one in each playlist, and then who chose it and who it represents. Of course I know everything (what's new? HA!) but it'll still be fun to have everyone else guessing.

Did I mention that I'm going to Disneyland this week? Hopefully, it will be a better trip than my last two Disneyland trips. Please bless that Lindsay, Melinda, and Matt will not turn into psychos while we're there. If I suffer through another Disneyland trauma, it might finally ruin the place.

I want to be Baz Luhrmann when I grow up.

I can't focus on school this week. This is bad.

I finally got my student teaching assignment, and it's starting to sink in that I'm FINALLY going to be done with school.

I'm a little stoked for Christmas Carol. Say what you will about it, but I love it. It's not the greatest piece of theatre ever, but it's got such a great spirit to it, and it's so fun to take part in it. Diane (who I respect and love a great deal) told me the other day that she loves how I portray the role of Fred and that I "get it." Shortly after, Jerry, the director, pulled me aside and said pretty much the same thing. Emily says things like that sometimes, too, and probably not just because she has to as my wife. Compared to my last acting experience, this is basically heaven. I'm not questioning my abilities and choices on a regular basis.

Heather and David are coming home for Christmas! They've already contacted me to let me know that they want to come to Christmas Carol. God bless them, every one.

Matt showed me this video the other day, and I about died. I agree with what it's saying, but couldn't there be a better way to show it? Or at least some decent actresses?

A Love Letter

My dearest love,

This time of year always reminds me of you. It has been four years since we first met, and these four years have been the best of my life.

It seems that every year at this time, I am asked why I got married. The answer is simple. "Because I fell in love."

There is only one thing in this world that I love as much as Christmas, and that is you. I remember when we first met. It was at a dance. Fate brought us together, as you were not supposed to be there, but somehow were. Our eyes first met as we engaged in a jig, and I felt ridiculous. I was born with not only two left feet, but two left legs. I feel like a large beast while dancing, and yet you made me feel like I was dancing on air.

Remind me again, why we INSIST on having dancing when we host parties?

Here are some things that I love about you.

I love your cooking. Even though it isn't much in the way of taste, I love that you go to the effort of making it for me.

I love your generosity. Every year we spend so much money on gifts for other people that we never have enough leftover to buy gifts for each other. I wish we could buy fewer things every trip, though. Too often, I break my back carrying everything. I also love how you feel the need to buy something from every poor street vendor that we see, including the old, motherly woman who sells chestnuts or whatever.

I love the way you keep the house clean. Your cleaning skills rival that of any charwoman in all of London, and the best part is, I don't have to pay you!

I love many more things about you, but right now I must be going to visit Uncle Ebeneezer. Time for my annual invitation to dinner. Hopefully, I'll put him in the vein to give his poor clerk a bonus.

With all of my love and hopes for a Merry Christmas,
Fred

I'm Carol!!!

As many of you should know, I auditioned for A Christmas Carol at the Hale Center Theater in Orem last week. I haven't been in a play (that I claim) since the last time I did CC in 2005. That was the year when I played Fred (the role I had always wanted) and my good friend Trash didn't get cast at all. We were really sad because we wanted to play husband and wife. Don't feel bad for Trash, though. She got a Batman trick-or-treat pail out of it. And she's a Trash Ball.

The next two years, I was so busy with school stuff (Nunsense, Tempest, Ha Wilderness, Canyon Suite) that I was unable to do the show again. It was nice the first year to have a Christmas without worrying about a show, but last year, Trash played Mrs. Fred again, and I was a teeny bit jealous.

Months ago, I decided that if there was any chance my schedule would allow it, I would audition this year. Since my work for Nosferatu is pretty much done, and the bulk of my work for Chess will be done soon, I figured it was a good time. So, I auditioned.

And may I just tell you that I ROCKED that audition? I was going to just sing "Unworthy of Your Love" from Assassins, because that's what I had just finished working on in musical theatre class. However, I didn't know who the pianist was going to be, and it is a little tricky to play. At 1 AM the morning of the audition, I changed to "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2, which is sung by a man in On the Record (and much better, I feel). I had a practice track, so I went through it a few times throughout the day.

My audition time was at the same time as my friend Heidi's, so we got there together and went in. The auditions were running an hour behind, so we got to sit in the crowded hallway and wait patiently for a long time. When I finally got in there, I found out it was a good pianist, so I didn't need to worry afterall. I went ahead and did "When She Loved Me" and focused on the words so much that I didn't act it quite as well as I would have liked. However, I felt REALLY good about it. Then I read Fred's monologue about profit from Christmas (which President Monson has quoted before) and it was easy, since I had it memorized 3 years ago.

After a night and morning that crept by, I got a phone call inviting me to callbacks the next night. Trash got called back, too, so we planned to go in together and show them how fun we are and how much chemistry we would have on stage. (I'm convinced that the reason I got the part in 2005 was because Crocky and I had so much fun together when we read.)

The callbacks were done completely randomly, and Trash and I never read together. We were totally bummed. I was also called back for Topper, so I had to read that as well. The women were excused, and those of us who were up for Fred stayed to read the scene where Fred tries to get Scrooge to come to dinner. I freaking rocked it. I know some people have a warped sense of how good they really are, but looking at my scene as a director, I was blown away. I was the ONLY guy there who had any levels and didn't just stay the same the whole scene. That was Friday night.

Saturday morning, some people were already finding out that they had been cast. I was bummed. Trash found out that afternoon that she was cast, but didn't know her part (although, we really suspected it was Mrs. Fred). By Saturday night, I still hadn't heard anything. I was a little bummed, but I still felt pretty good.

Sunday night, I got the call. Trash Ball and I were officially man and wife. So, we did the most natural step. We changed our Facebook status to show that we were hitched. Several people have congratulated me on the wedding, some have been offended that they weren't invited, and some have caught the joke.

In case you were wondering, here is a rundown of the actual wedding festivities.

Friday night, we prepared by going to Smith's and buying Coke and pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies with orange sprinkles. Then, the actual ceremony, or callbacks, happened.

Afterward, we spent a lovely wedding dinner at Mimi's Cafe with our good friend, Matt. Trash was a little cranky to be spending time with another man while we should have been honeymooning, and she snapped at Matt and scared the waitress at one point.

Saturday, we spent our honeymoon seeing a play, Dial 'M' for Murder at BYU. It wasn't very good. Some of the actors were downright great, but a couple were pretty bad. And the director was under the impression that it was a comedy, when in fact, it's a dark drama with a few little jokes here and there. It was supposedly film noir style, but nothing about it said film noir. And the music....EW. There was modern music with synth sounds mixed with old stuff that was accurate. Hated that part the most.

After the play, we were fortunate enough to spend our second night as man and wife at dinner with the Culps and their families. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Culps? Well, I love them a whole lot. They're loads of fun.

Sunday, we went to our respective wards (at least Trash Ball BETTER have) and then I finished Nosferatu. Oh, and then that night we found out were were married.

Overall, it was a good weekend. If you would like to send Trash and me a wedding gift, let me know, and I'll give you my address. Otherwise, just plan to come and see Christmas Carol in a month and a half.

PS - If you get the title of this blog, you win five hundred dollars. And by "five hundred dollars", I mean the privilege of knowing that I think you're cool.