That's it for rehearsal.  Here we go.  We open this Friday and run through August 30th.  This is an intimate space with only 30 seats.  Get your tickets now at this link to brownpapertickets.com.

Working with Nick Scoggin, Gail Fenton, Taylor Meritt, and Vlad Sayenko has been unspeakably good.  Kudos and thanks to our director Shari Carlson, our costume and makeup designer Issei Liu, and to Tonya Foster and everybody at Imaginative Productions.

You can check out my original blog entry on the play for more info.  Just come see it.  I won't be sorry!

Update on 7/17:  We had our in-house preview last night.  We stumbled a little, saved each other well, had some technical difficulties, found some stuff to tighten up.  All what you want and expect in an in-house preview (or final dress rehearsal, basically).  Tonight is the public preview, Friday the real opening, and then a Saturday show before a glorious four days off to ready for the next wave.

The work has is good.  The relationships are there.  It's funny.  Can't wait to see how it takes off and what more there is to discover in its depths.

You asked for it, people, and you got it.  More theatre!  I’ve been cast in a Studio 300 Theatre production of Fred Smith’s “A Bowl of Rose Leaves,” directed by Tonya Foster and Shari Carlson. 

Family blowouts and reconciliations, evisceration of the art world, delerious hijinks, plenty of drinking, and a heartfelt return to true purposes and desires.  This will be the first professional production of this play, in an intimate space just off Union Square, starring Nick Scoggin with Gail Fenton, Taylor Meritt, myself, and Vlad Sayenko.

The show opens July 17 and runs through August 30.  That’s Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in July, but only Fridays and Saturdays in August.  Tickets and location information are available at brownpapertickets. 

If you care to use a garage, I’ve found the Sutter-Stockton to be economical and conveniently located in relation to the theatre. 

It's a small venue of about 30 seats, so especially if you are scheming to bring a group (scheme away!), get your tickets early and often.  Hope to see you there!

Not a topic, per se, but the title of a short film completed by Monica Savini a few months back.  See the link on my Reel page.  Working opposite the fabulous Jean Naughton.  Let her compel you for a few minutes when I spring into action.  Sort of.  Check it out.

The weird thing is I no longer look anything like the guy in that movie.  The sweater's to Goodwill, even.  This highlights a sort of marketing curve that I am finding a bit dizzying.  After about thirty shoots over the last year and a half, I've amassed some footage.  A large percentage is at least somewhat poorly lit and showcases some dude who weighs fifteen more pounds, has absurdly (in hindsight) short sideburns for his face, and maybe even a goatee.  What good is all this footage to market the new me, I ask you?  Not much.  And then you grow as an actor, and you look at the old stuff (and it can seem to have grown quite old in the interval between shooting and screening) and say, "Ehh, no so much am I liking that one." 

But the deal is, you just keep shooting, changing, updating.  There is nothing very static in this world.

Played a day as a tweed-clad pressman on Gus Van Sant's "Milk" yesterday.  I'm guessing there were about a hundred extras.  Holding was in an elementary school auditorium in SOMA.  Oh, the racks of vintage jeans. 

The background classifications were:  Castro men (vintage Chucks and Vans, Levi's, cords, plaid shirts, t-shirts, cool belts), politicians and press (suits, skirts, jackets), and female activists (various rockin' 70's gear). 

The day's scene was Milk's victory speech (after defeating the anti-gay Proposition 6) in a medium-sized bar, delivered by Sean Penn from the band stage, with balloons released during each take.  We did four takes and three balloon resets.

After at first being issued a vintage 1973 Montgomery Ward Super-8mm handheld movie camera, I was traded over to mid-sixties Nikon F still camera mounted on a bracket alongside a vintage Singer flash.  I was positioned dowstage left with it, lifting it above the crowd to get shots.

Let me tell you, this shoot was all about the sideburns.  Sideburn nation.  Big folios of sideburns, arranged like mounted insects in an entymologist’s traveling display setup, of all sizes and colors. 

Attended an after-screening party for a class of filmmakers completing a program at SFSDF.  Shortly after the party begain, on came the awards show.  I'd missed the screening, but got to see one of the two films I was in on a director's computer.

I'd been really hopeful about Falling Slowly from Once and was stoked those two won, and that Jon Stewart brought her back after a commercial when they'd cut her off with music before she'd had a chance to say anything.  Tilda Swinton rocks.   There were several nominated films I hadn't seen. 

Then we saw the Meat Puppets open up for Built to Spill at the Fillmore.  Epic.

I had heard that Chris Isaak had a show, but didn't realize that he was a local or that the show was shot here.  There were people buzzing about how this meant the show was being resurrected, as it's been out of production.

I'd never seen it and was mainly familiar with him from "Wicked Game," and some of his acting roles.  The shoot was next to the duck pond at the Palace of Fine Arts.  Easy drive.  Ancient Presidio parking wisdom.  Thought I was going to be background but was one of several  person-on-the-street interviews he did, asking what the show should be called and what it should avoid and feature. We were coached by a guy briefly to just be natural, no acting, don't try to be funny or witty.  So the spark began to glow inside me. 

I did manage to avoid coming up with any crazy jokey material before the interview.  I did think of my name for the show, "The Life and Times of Chris Isaak," beforehand, but I made sure to offer it up on camera as a serious suggestion for a real classic kind of show title.  He took it into a red furniture kind of direction, and I was supportive.

Then he asked me what they should not do on the show.  In all honesty, the first thing, not having seen the show, was that I just wanted to make sure there would be no bug or animal parts eating on the show.  Yuck, right?  So, I don't know if they'll have interpreted that as me being actorly or trying to be funny.  I wasn't being goofy.  I really meant it. I think he kind of took it in stride.  When asked what the show should feature, I said lots of dogs.  They had already shot stuff with tons of dogs in it, so he was stoked and said we were definitely covered.  After cut (I shook hands goodbye and walked out of frame), I called out about the animal parts thing, and I was all, you know, Fear Factor and stuff, it just grosses me out, and he was all, yeah, totally, or something to that effect.  But, naturally, the camera had been turned off.  Nice guy.  Tall.  Tastefully proportioned and chosen entourage.  Mellow resonant glow.

Don't know whether, how much, or where the footage might be used.  Teaser?  First new episode?  We'll see.  Kudos to Meghan, Sarah, and Joe for keeping us organized, looking good, comfortable, and paid.  A beautiful three mile commute, free parking nearby, upgrade over background expectations to speaking bit with star, on set for only an hour-and-a-half, paid same day, now that's what I'm talking about. 

Also, there was a spectator dog being walked by her owner.  Gentle Domino was seventeen years old and on her last legs, but still moving with a floating grace, her coat still lustrous and healthy, a beautiful black and white Aussie Shepherd mix.  Good times.