2010 in Review

Welcome to the third installment of my annual wrap up blog. Bet you thought I wasn’t going to do it since I SUCK at blogging lately! Well, surprise!

Overall, this year will go down as the year that the world screwed me. Life with Lauren was great, but almost every other aspect of my life seemed to fall apart. I’ve been left rethinking my career, rethinking friendships, and regretting way too much.

On the plus side, that means 2011 can ONLY get better, right? That’s how I’m viewing it.

Thank you for your friendship this year. It’s been a really hard one, and I really appreciate it. And if you were the source of any trouble, then when I have some free time in the near future, and I record a cover of a famous song by Cee-Lo Green, consider it dedicated to you!

Favorite Personal Theatrical Experience: Snoopy! the Musical
I taught at Meridian for one year before it suddenly closed the Thursday before the new school year. Out of all the shows and events I worked on there, this one was my favorite. It was with a small class, consisting of ONLY upper school kids who wanted to be there and were willing to work. We threw the whole musical together in roughly 4 weeks, with about 2 hours of rehearsal per school day, and yet the kids really pulled it off. War of the Worlds would have been my favorite, but some fellow cast members who weren’t invested took it down a notch. Same story with Dirty. I loved working with Chris again, but some members of the cast were egotistical and downright rude.

Runners-Up: The War of the Worlds, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Least Favorite Personal Theatrical Experiences: Willy Wonka
I just simply didn’t love doing this show. And I only did it for the money, which makes me a whore. I hated aspects of Fantastic Mr. Fox because of some nasty kids from my middle school class, but in the end, it turned out decent, and there were enough hard-working kids to make me proud.

Runner-Up: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Favorite Local Theatre Productions: 110 in the Shade at Hale Orem
Audra McDonald 4 feet in front of me. Brilliant supporting cast. Enough said.

Runner-Up: I really didn’t see much theatre this year, and NOTHING compared.

Favorite Movies: Inception, Toy Story 3, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
No need to elaborate. I just loved them.

Runners-Up: Paranormal Activity 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Tron: Legacy

Least Favorite Movie: Skyline
I’ve never hated a movie this much. I still can’t believe it exists. And Alice was boring, poorly acted, and the 3D gave me the only 3D-induced headache I’ve ever had.

Runner-Up: Alice in Wonderland

Favorite Movie-Going Experience: None
Nothing really stood out this year. Although, when we went to see Tron: Legacy, Lauren and I were super impressed with the dad who politely shushed his child when he tried to talk. Good for you! Way to start teaching children to not be awful.

Least Favorite Movie-Going Experience: Skyline with Lauren and my sister’s family
The movie itself was bad, but the annoying people who never shut up made it even worse.

Favorite New TV Addiction: Modern Family
I can’t believe I didn’t get into this until after the first season was over. We watched the entire season in three afternoons before season 2 premiered, and the quality has stayed consistent.

Runners-Up: Raising Hope, Ma’s Roadhouse
Honorable Mention: LoneStar

Least Favorite New TV Shows: Hawaii Five-O, No Ordinary Family, Running Wilde, Undercovers
We’ve given up on almost every new show we’ve tried to watch this year. Some of them lasted a month, most lasted a couple episodes. They were just all so lame. Hawaii lasted the longest of these, Family the shortest.

Favorite SNL Sketch: 1920s Party
It was the most quotable, anyway. SNL has really gone downhill this year. I skip through more than I watch anymore.

Favorite Album: Bruno Mars’s “Doo-Wops & Hooligans”
This is the only new album I got this year that I’ve been able to listen to straight-through more than once. It’s not as offensive as a lot of music I’ve heard lately, and it’s just so darn infectious. I will never tire of hearing “Just the Way You Are.”

Least Favorite Album: Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas II You”
She’s ruined her voice. And now she’s ruined “Christmas Time Is Here,” which might be my favorite Christmas song. And she made a sex jam about the Baby Jesus. And her mother has AWFUL teeth.

Favorite Trip: Disneyland with Lauren
Good times. Not too busy. Did everything we wanted to do, including many firsts for me (Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, The Blue Bayou, Innoventions, etc.).

Runners-Up: St. George for theatre teacher’s conference, Disneyland with Lauren’s family

Favorite Class: Upper School Drama
After a first trimester with too many kids who wanted easy A’s, I was able to weed it down to just kids that wanted to be there. And it was GREAT. So much fun to teach.

Least Favorite Class: Middle School Drama
Too many kids, and most of them had bad attitudes. I gave multiple F’s, and no kids or parents even tried to fix them when they knew that’s what was coming. That’s messed up.

Best Concert: Paul McCartney
Dream come true. A Beatle in person. And he performed for almost three hours straight. BRILLIANT. Loved every minute. And sharing it with Lauren, Teri & Bristol was great.

Worst Concert: Stadium of Fire with Carrie Underwood
Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike Carrie Underwood? Well, it’s a whole lot. And when the fireworks show afterward sucked, it made it so it was even less worth sitting through.

Here’s to an amazing 2011!

Back to Blogging

You’d think that when one is unemployed, they’d have lots of time to spend blogging, right? Instead, time is filled with doing as many odd jobs as possible, performing a play, filling your dwelling with Christmas decorations, spending extra time cooking in order to create as many new recipes as possible, watching horror movie marathons on AMC, binging on Candy Cane Kisses, participating in baby blessings, celebrating at least 17 immediate family birthdays, etc.

Here is a brief (in Jeremy’s world, anyway) list of what’s been going on since I last blogged over a month ago:

• War of the Worlds came and went. It was overall a very fun experience. I loved, loved, LOVED working with my friends Dave and Sara. For the first time ever, my BFFF and I got a moment on stage together! Overall, I beat myself up quite a bit over my performance. I felt I could have done much better, but I got a lot of compliments, so I guess it balances. The hardest part of the experience was dealing with fellow cast members who didn’t know their lines well into the run. Part of my criticism of myself was that I never got any semblance of comfort due to the fact that I never knew what was going to come out of my fellow actors – or if they were even going to bother to come onstage sometimes. Blah. Overall, though: good experience.
• Halloween wasn’t celebrated very well due to WotW and the fact that it was on a Sunday. Lauren and I did, however, dress up in Spartan cheerleader costumes to go and help her family decorate their house for Christmas – on Halloween.
• I’ve been recording for other companies, in addition to doing my own tracks lately. It’s nice when I don’t have to worry about the quality of the overall project, and just have to do specific parts. It’s not nice having to adjust to others’ recording settings, though. And not having a Mac sometimes handicaps me.
• We went to a midnight Harry Potter screening. It was probably my least eventful one to date, but Lauren was there, so that’s a plus. We all wore matching shirts that said “I Fake My Horcruxes.” They weren’t as popular as the “Show Me Your Patronus” ones, but we did get lots of glares from zoobies and lots of people staring at our chests trying to A) read what it said and B) get the joke. Nothing is more fun than watching a confused kid (whose parents were #1) dumb enough to take him to the very adult movie and #2) dumb enough to take him to a midnight showing) staring at your wife’s chest for a good minute.
• We also saw the movie Skyline, which was the absolute worst, most horrible, terrible, no good, very bad movie EVER MADE. The Brothers Strause already killed the alien movie genre with Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, and now they’ve spit on its remains. Terrible script, terrible acting, unlikeable cast, bad direction, awful effects, etc. My life’s mission is to keep anybody else from wasting money on this movie. PLEASE, DON’T!

That’s all that I can remember right now, other than what was mentioned at the beginning. My Thanksgiving resolution will be to blog more (like you’ve never heard THAT one before). Happy November!

The Martians Are Coming!!!

I’m in a play that opens this week. It’s the first play in which I’ve performed in almost two years. In the last 10 years or so, my performances have been few and far between, mostly due to the fact that I can’t get paid to perform like I can to music direct, direct, sound design, etc. Also, I’m not the greatest actor, so I don’t audition for anything unless I know that I’ll be cast. Unless it’s a project that I absolutely love (ie, A Christmas Carol in ‘04, ‘05, and ‘08) or I’m required to audition for school (Ah, Wilderness!).

This project happened to come about at an interesting time. I had finished work on Willy Wonka, and nothing else was lined up to music direct or direct. I had been itching to perform to the point where I actually considered auditioning for two different shows that I wanted NOTHING to do with, but knew I could most likely be cast.

I was having a man date with my good friend Dave, and he started telling me about a project he was writing and directing. It was a stage adaptation of the 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. I was immediately intrigued. I remembered learning about it in high school and even listening to part of it. I have a vague recollection of my grandma telling me about it (I wish so much that I could remember what she had told me). I was fascinated by the idea that a work of art had sparked so much panic.

I spent a few weeks debating whether or not to do the show. The biggest con was that it was going to conflict a bit with things at school. As soon as I found out that school was no more, I didn’t really have much of an excuse not to do it.

So, I took part in the first reading of the show, and Dave counted that as my audition. I still debated a bit before finally committing, and Dave offered me the part of John Houseman.

Back in the day, John had been Orson Welles’s producer. They worked together not only on radio, but also stage projects. If you know me well, you know that I’ve always been fascinated with the story of the musical The Cradle Will Rock, which was originally produced and directed by Houseman and Welles. The thought of playing somebody who played an important part in theatrical history was exciting, to say the least.

If I haven’t lost your attention yet, then you’re probably wondering why the producer is part of a stage adaptation of the radio broadcast he produced. In adapting the broadcast, Dave realized that a straight staged reading would be pretty bland. As monumental as the broadcast was, it lagged quite a bit in places. Especially toward the end. In order to keep it interesting, he added a second plot (which actually took over the show) about Orson, John, and the writer, Howard Koch. Then he added more subplot featuring real people’s reactions to the broadcast. He really did his research, and it shows.

There are some interesting arguments put forth in the show about the responsibility of the media and whether or not people can blame the media for their actions. These arguments are just as valid as ever, and while the show isn’t trying to make any political statements, it definitely will open you up to having some great conversations after you see it.

So, please, come and see the show! I’ve been proud to be a part of it, and I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to work with some friends for the first time in years: Dave Hanson, Justin Kennington, Elwon Bakly, and my BFF forever, Sara Preston.

If you’re interested in attending, a link to purchase tickets can be found to the right.

Thanks in advance.